"Hey, Mom, Dad, get on plane and go to Disney" Trip report - "Finding shelter from the fireworks" - **Updated 11/13** - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Glad you enjoyed the safari....I love that ride and it rained when we were on it too...not only was the storm oving in over the savannah beautiful but those animals were out in droves....glad she got to see her animals....
So a couple of extra pins I am sure made the day quite complete...this vacation is just sounding so magical....can't wait to hear more......
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We made it back to the Poly without much of a wait and headed straight for Captain Cook’s. Kiara was being a bit of a pistol and as Grumpy was attempting to place our order, kept pushing the touch screen and messing up it up. She also wouldn’t make a selection and argued with every option we offered. We finally, after holding up the line now forming behind us, got her to agree on the stir-fried noodles with chicken. I was thrilled with this choice not only because we could now move away from the about to get angry mob swelling behind us, but also because it was something I wanted to try. I so wanted to order it, but like a bee to honey, I had to have another Aloha pork sandwich. Kiara’s selection would give me the chance to have just a tiny taste of something else on the menu.
We collected our lunch and decided to head to our room to eat it. Grumpy was in heaven as he sat in the middle of one of the beds and devoured his sandwich. I was also enjoying mine but couldn’t keep my eyes off the stir-fried noodle bowl that Kiara was picking at. I decided to dive in and take a bite and she became quite territorial about it and soon I realized it was time for a trade negotiation. The one bite I managed to get of this was so good, that I was willing to barter half my sandwich for a few more bites. Like the Aloha pork sandwich, the stir-fried noodle bowl was delish. While Kiara was munching on the sandwich, I devoured as much of the noodle bowl that I could before she reclaimed it. I avoided the chicken, as I knew it was really the only part of it she liked and ate all the vegetables I knew she wouldn’t touch. Between the two of us, we managed to polish off both the sandwich and the noodle bowl. But, most of the chips were saved, as per Kiara’s request, for the ducks.
While I never thought that any resort counter service could rival the Mara at the AKL, Captain Cook’s had easily taken it over. This was a place that no matter where we stayed on property, we would gladly make a trip to visit. The food was outstanding and somewhere I can’t wait to visit again, regardless of the effort it would take to get there.
With lunch done, some time to kill, and the weather seeming to hold off a bit, we decided to take Kiara to the pool. We were happy to find an empty table and chalked up the lack of mid day crowd to the sky that still looked threatening. There was no lightening or thunder, just heavy clouds and an occasional spit of rain. Kiara and Grumpy played in the pool while I enjoyed sitting on the sideline watching them. After a bit of time in the pool, the rain began to come down in a more steady fashion. It was still light, but enough to inspire Grumpy to pull Kiara out of the pool. As we sat under the cover of our table umbrella, Kiara embraced the falling rain.
She was having a blast attempting to catch rain drops in her mouth and as she did, I couldn’t refrain myself from asking Grumpy if this was how turkeys drown and if it was safe for our daughter to be doing this. The rain picked up enough to drive Kiara under the shelter of the umbrella and we decided it was time to make a mad dash back to the room before it got any heavier. While Grumpy and Kiara changed clothes, I stepped outside to take a walk around the resort. I headed over to the quiet pool and found a bench under the cover of the roof of a building just in time before the rain really picked up. It didn’t show any sign of letting up so I decided to make a mad dash to the Hawaii building.
I elected for the entrance that was the shortest distance from where I was, that of the one by the concierge desk, inserted my key and stepped inside just seconds before a mother of a storm let loose. The doors had no sooner closed behind me and as I turned to look outside, I saw a wall of horizontal rain blowing by as well as plastic bags, cups and anything else anyone had left out on their patio or balcony that had been caught in a horrifically, powerful wind that had come up out of nowhere. I was in awe of the power of this storm and how quickly it had gone from a light rain to what looked like a hurricane or a monsoon. I headed down the long hall and made my way to our room where I found Grumpy and Kiara watching the storm at the sliding glass door. Kiara had changed into what she was going to wear to the luau and since Grumpy needed a shower, I took her to the lounge to watch the storm move by.
The lounge was almost empty and we were able to get a front row seat by the floor to ceiling windows (and yes, it did cross my mind that during a storm like this, in front of a twenty foot tall window was not be best place to be). The bamboo that stood tall and proud in calm weather, was bending in mercy to the wrath of the storm. The palm trees beyond the bamboo were doing the same. And the rain was coming down so hard that we couldn’t even see the beach, let alone across the lake. Kiara and I watched the storm rage on and when it began to lift, we saw a boat on the lake. It was a resort launch and I could only assume it was full of guests trying to make their way from a park to a resort or vise versa. I couldn’t help but think about what a miserable ride that had to have been and how horrible it would have been to be caught outside in this storm. Little did I know at that time, a few fellow Passporters had that misfortune!
As fierce and violent as this storm was, true to a Florida rain storm, it was short lived. Just as the storm died out, Grumpy joined us in the lounge and we decided to nibble on the offerings of the night as it was still hours before we would have our luau feast. While we were sure the early luau had been cancelled due to the storm, (since the storm hit just as the early luau started) we were hopeful that the later luau would go on. We relaxed in the lounge for a bit and when the storm seemed to have finally made its way out of the area, stepped outside to explore the grounds of this beautiful resort. We noticed puddles of water standing on every walkway we went down and that confirmed that the amount of rain that we thought was coming down really did come down. But as we walked around the puddles, we took notice of the sky, and while it wasn’t clear by any means, it wasn’t raining. And the horizon showed no signs of another band of torrential rain moving in. We were confident that the much anticipated luau would go on..
With about an hour to kill before we made the walk down the path to the Luau Cove, we decided to head to the Grand Ceremonial House and do some browsing in the shops on the main floor. Before we stepped inside, I took some pictures as dusk was beginning to fall and I needed some practice with the new camera.
Off we headed to the Grand Ceremonial House and I was the first to step in, followed closely by Kiara and then Grumpy and when I turned to the right, I saw something that caught my eye. As I looked at it, I couldn’t help but let out a long, pitiful wail of “Noooooooooooooooo:’
Oh my gosh, we had the same safari experience that you guys did - - except the rain came down even heavier while we were on safari and left us drenched! It was still fun though!
And we are going to have to try Captain Cook's the next time we stay at the Poly - - that sandwich and the noodle bowl both sound delicious!
What a relaxing, although wet, afternoon. I don't feel good about the prospects for the luau though!
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Pixie Dust
Glad you got to ride the safari 
and got to see Bryon again 
Good thing I am not at work reading this,I can't stop giggling. Can't wait for more!
She also wouldn’t make a selection and argued with every option we offered. We finally, after holding up the line now forming behind us, got her to agree on the stir-fried noodles with chicken. I was thrilled with this choice not only because we could now move away from the about to get angry mob swelling behind us, but also because it was something I wanted to try. I so wanted to order it, but like a bee to honey, I had to have another Aloha pork sandwich. Kiara’s selection would give me the chance to have just a tiny taste of something else on the menu. 
While Kiara was munching on the sandwich, I devoured as much of the noodle bowl that I could before she reclaimed it. I avoided the chicken, as I knew it was really the only part of it she liked and ate all the vegetables I knew she wouldn’t touch. Between the two of us, we managed to polish off both the sandwich and the noodle bowl. But, most of the chips were saved, as per Kiara’s request, for the ducks. 
I headed down the long hall and made my way to our room where I found Grumpy and Kiara watching the storm at the sliding glass door. Kiara had changed into what she was going to wear to the luau and since Grumpy needed a shower, I took her to the lounge to watch the storm move by. 
Unfortunately, it doesn't sound too good for the next update 
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