Holy Great Movie Ride (April 5 - 10)! TR Begins - COMPLETE!! 6/8 - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Picking up quickly where we left off....
We made the trek over to the Beach Club and were pleasantly surprised to see Beaches and Cream almost empty ! We were seated immediately even though the Bakers hadn't arrived yet. It was about 11:40 or so and we were both starving since we hadn't had anything yet today. We started with the chocolate shake and the onion rings to split. We debated splitting the shake but we were both greedy little kids and wanted our own... We forgot that they come out in that fabulous glass, plus the leftovers which is enough to fill that fabulous glass again...
The onion rings were very tasty, as was the shake of course. We were there for only about 15 minutes before finally, our best pals in the world showed up I think everyone was hungry so we got straight to business. Burgers!
Andy and I split a cheeseburger with fruit. I finished off my shake much to Andy's amazement The Bakers ordered some shakes to go and the waitress said she had to bring them the shake out in the glass and then paper cups for them transfer them in to??? WTF? Isn't that like middle man work? Dirtying that glass for no reason? SO anyway, by the time it was all said and done, you had the following on our teenie tiny table:
My shake glass
My extra shake metal cup
Andy's shake glass
Andy's extra shake metal cup
Tom's shake glass
Tom's extra shake metal cup
Tom's paper to go cup (x2 because it took 2 to hold all the shake)
Brandi's shake glass
Brandi's extra shake metal cup
Brandi's paper to go cup (x2) Can you picture it??? If not, here you go And now that I really look at that picture I'm reminded of the two cherry coke glasses the Bakers had as well as my water glass Geez. Who had to pee afterwards?
After lunch we walked with the Bakers back to Epcot. My AP didn't work on the way in the first time and it gave me a fit at the Soarin' FP machine so I decided (even though it expired yesterday) that I was going to get a new one b/c I was NOT dealing with that all week ! And lo and behold.... I got DONALD
Super excited about that I'm saving it, even if it is expired
We made a plan with the Bakers... since we had our Soarin' FP still to use, we went to ride that while they went to the Frenchy movie. Then we agreed to meet back up at the POP check in area.
Soarin' was fabulous as usual. This ride is my new emotional ride. I just the music and it's the music that makes me ride.. I put my fear of heights aside, close my eyes while we ascend, and then enjoy the show
In line
We got the front row. Pro: No shoebirds... Con: Whoa, waaaaaay high. But still....it was all good
After Soarin' we headed out to the car and made our way over to Pop. We had done online check in so the process was very painless. We got exactly what we requested. A room in the 70's section.. Building 6, floor 2. Nice quiet spot, with a a view of one of the 60's buildings and the lake. I'll have a pic to show later
I unpacked our crap while the Bakers and Andy rested. Then it was time to get ready for the Animal Kingdom. Tom wasn't very happy we were doing the AK our first night b/c that meant we weren't hanging out but I explained to him that's why I made him come to lunch... duh And there would be LOTS of Tom time during the week
Soon we were refreshed and ready to head out again. The Baker Bus took us to the AK and we said bye for the evening.
Great Start!! We ate at Beaches and Cream on Wednesday and they told us the same thing about to go milkshakes seems wasteful and dumb to me too! Ready for more!
Great start Melissa! When you posted the pic from B&C on FB I orginally thought you & the Bakers had made some new friends at lunch...that's a LOT of cups! the F&GF pics. I have to remember to check the photo blog while I am waiting in line for Soarin, sipping FAB's with Sheri & Ria, or saving the world with Matt & his girls while in EPCOT this weekend.
After being dropped off by the Baker Bus at the AK we made our way back towards Asia to check in at the Yak and Yeti for our ADR. We were a bit early, but it didn’t matter. They sat us almost immediately. I snapped a few photos before being seated.
Andy testing out a Y&Y chair. Apparently he liked it.
We were seated in the little “outside” room with windows looking out into Asia which was nice We both started with some adult beverages of choice (me the Shanghai Express – I decided to try something new, and Andy the Kingfisher). We ordered some potstickers to start and boy oh boy are they good!
I have this weird picture of Andy before the food came for some reason…
I took a few shots with my iPhone to put on FB:
My drink
Our potstickers
We took our time and enjoyed our drinks and appetizer. While looking over the menu I noticed this on the back….. Just part of the little details I love about Disney
For our main meal I had the sweet and sour pork, which I love from the Local Café outside. It did not disappoint inside either The thing I love about their pork is that it is very lightly battered. You can’t order sweet and sour pork/shrimp/chicken/anything from the little Chinese places without it coming in a big huge BALL of breading and I just think that’s gross. I love how the Y&Y’s also comes with the red and yellow peppers and pineapple Andy had the Bourbon Chicken which I am pretty positive he devoured. That boy loves him some Asian food. I also enjoyed another Shanghai Express We took our time and enjoyed our meal. I think folks like us catch waiters off guard at WDW. Most people are rushrushrush-get in/eat/get out. We prefer to enjoy our meal and the time. So yet again, another fantastic meal at the Y&Y
Afterwards, we meandered around outside, taking some photos and just relaxing.
I took a few down by the water here… you may see some of them on the photoblog at some point.
The Tea Company – one day I will get tea from here… I always forget.
We stopped to watch the monkeys play… I got out my super duper new lens and got all up in those monkeys’ business.
Next up it was time to ride some Everest! I was surprised that the line wasn’t all that long. It was probably around 7 or so. We waited maybe 15 minutes to ride. Oh how I love that ride. And after 2 Shanghai Expresses, potstickers, and sweet and sour pork, I was curious how going backwards would feel….but it was fantastic as usual. Nothing beats that moment going backwards where are just pushed down and feel your insides going up!
We made our way over into Dinoland next and took a trip back in time to try and bring back that Iguanodon. Again, maybe a 10 minute wait, not too bad. The park wasn’t officially in EMH time yet.
When we came off of Dinosaur it had started to get dark so we took time to start playing with my new awesome tripod that Andy got me. I set up outside of Dinoland and took some night shots.
This one sucks b/c the lights shining on the sign get blown out.
I got one of Primeval Whirl that I’m saving for the photoblog. It’s Primeval Whirl in action. I also took some at the games… I love this one…. But I have an even better one that will probably be on the blog either this Thursday or next…. So be sure to check it out
Andy and I decided to grab a couple tickets and play that water shooting game. We were being very competitive…. until the game started and my stupid water gun didn’t shoot any water! Andy was super proud of himself b/c he won, beating out some little kid on the other side I’m sure We let the lady know that mine hadn’t worked and Andy was going to buy himself another ticket to truly settle the score but the CM was super nice and let him play again for free so we could have a proper duel. And guess who won? That’d be THIS GUY!
Having properly kicked Andy’s butt we headed back into Asia to get some night shots of Everest.
We ended up going all the way around to the Flame Tree seating area by the water and I got this one that I liked..
It was getting close to 10 by this point so we decided to end our night with some ITTBAB since we were right there. We were the only people there at first so we grabbed a spot by the very back door because after last spring’s freak out in the front row, no way were we sitting anywhere near the front !
A few more folks showed up and then it was showtime. I’m telling you, being in the back and being able to see all the smoke was crazy. I mean, even in the back we were without visibility for a good minute or two. But when it lifted off us you could still see that all those suckers in the front were still in a cloud of it. Craziness!
We decided to head out and grab a bus back to Pop after this. We had to get up early in the morning for our first Chef Mickey’s experience!
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! We were seated immediately even though the Bakers hadn't arrived yet. It was about 11:40 or so and we were both starving since we hadn't had anything yet today. We started with the chocolate shake and the onion rings to split. We debated splitting the shake but we were both greedy little kids and wanted our own... We forgot that they come out in that fabulous glass, plus the leftovers which is enough to fill that fabulous glass again...
I think everyone was hungry so we got straight to business. Burgers! 
The Bakers ordered some shakes to go and the waitress said she had to bring them the shake out in the glass and then paper cups for them transfer them in to??? WTF? Isn't that like middle man work? Dirtying that glass for no reason? SO anyway, by the time it was all said and done, you had the following on our teenie tiny table:
Can you picture it??? If not, here you go 
! And lo and behold.... I got DONALD 
the music and it's the music that makes me ride.. I put my fear of heights aside, close my eyes while we ascend, and then enjoy the show 
Pro: No shoebirds... Con: Whoa, waaaaaay high. But still....it was all good 
) Can't wait to read more!!! 
Susan
Back!!! Great start to your trip! I can't believe all the glasses on that table. Where did you put the food?? More please!!
!
We took our time and enjoyed our meal. I think folks like us catch waiters off guard at WDW. Most people are rushrushrush-get in/eat/get out. We prefer to enjoy our meal and the time. So yet again, another fantastic meal at the Y&Y 
We let the lady know that mine hadn’t worked and Andy was going to buy himself another ticket to truly settle the score but the CM was super nice and let him play again for free so we could have a proper duel. And guess who won? 
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