Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What an immigration guy!! Looks like you survived all the questions and soon met up with your friends!
The pictures are absolutely beautiful! I love the Broadwalk and someday would love to stay there.
Can't wait for more!
I just finished your whole TR from the beginning. I'm sorry leaving was so emotional and difficult, but I'm guessing your week more than made up for it. Can't wait to hear all the details!
I just got caught up with this TR. I am sorry that Mark was unable to make the trip, but it sounds like you had a great time. I can't wait to read more.
Just got caught up!! Geez, what an emotional beginning! You are very brave to do this on your own. I would have been very weepy leaving DH behind. Love the pics and can't wait to read more!!
I just realized that you had started your TR. Leaving Mark sounded so sad. Sorry you had problems with Immigration. The Boardwalk room looks really nice. Can't wait to read more.
Liz
What a great start...sorry to hear how hard it was for both of you that morning. I could almost picture the both of you from your description, I felt so bad for both of you as it must have been so hard. Glad you had a decent companion on the flight and that befoer you knew it you were heading over the US.
Great pictures of the drive from the airport and the wonderful room at the Boardwalk.
Great chiming in Wendy...boy you are a great mom, you had a whole week worth of meals prepped and ready!!!
Looking forward to hearing all about the Rose and Crown.
Thursday 30 April – part three: “did you have those waiting for us?”
We got to International Gateway and I got my Annual Pass and headed into Epcot with Wendy finding someone from her home. It was so funny to hear them talking, with the guy saying do you know so and so and Wendy saying “yes, they’re my cousins”. I had to say “is this the point where I should burst into a round of It’s A Small World?”
We headed down to the UK and went to check in at the Rose and Crown. While we were waiting, I checked out the hop scotch. I loved the Hidden Mickey they had added it and we also noticed the new phone that had gone in next to the two existing red phone boxes. The flowers here looked beautiful and reminded me of home, as I have exactly those same plants at home in our garden each year.
We were called to our table and we were seated on the patio, although not with a lake view, but that was fine, as we weren’t planning to watch IllumiNations from there. I have to say that the menu was a little limited. All I could have was the fish and chips and, having had a fair few lots of fish and chips before leaving home, that didn’t appeal to me, so that just left the vegetable curry for me. Amy went for the marinated chicken breast and Wendy had the fish and chips.
I figured, as we weren’t having appetisers, that we would have a wait for our food, but it was just a few minutes later. Both Wendy and I said later that we came very close to saying “did you have those waiting for us?”, it was that quick. My curry was nice, but not exactly a traditional British dish. I have eaten a lot of different types of mild curries at home and this wasn’t like any of them. Our server agreed with that, after the meal. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, it just wasn’t authentic. The only down side was the bread that came with it. That was too covered with salt and pepper and that was too much for me.
Amy showing off a hidden Mickey
[b]My vegetable curry [b] Wendy’s fish and chips Amy’s marinated chicken
The bill for the three of us came to $53, which wasn’t too bad. Our server was pretty attentive and made sure that we were looked after.
Rose and Crown:
Main course 8
Service 8½
Atmosphere 8
Value for money 8½
Average score: 8.25
I’m glad I went back there, but I know I won’t race back there in a hurry, as the menu was a disappointment. I would expect more choices than we got there.
By now, we were all yawning, so we headed back out of Epcot and back to the BoardWalk. There was a lovely sunset behind the Yacht Club and the BoardWalk looked beautiful in the early evening.
We said our goodbyes to Amy back at the room and the plan was that we were going to head to bed, as we were both shattered. Give it five minutes though and wouldn’t you know it, Wendy and I were starting to wake up, so I got some twilight photos of the view from our room:
I took the opportunity to upload my photos and, by the time that was done, it was bout 8.45 and we figured that we’d be mad to not go to the concierge lounge to see IllumiNations, so off we went.
The view from the concierge lounge balcony
I was really shocked when we walked in and we were the only ones in there. It was so funny, as we both spotted different things at the same time. Wendy’s was the chocolate covered strawberries, while I found the Baileys. Wendy had never tried Baileys before, so she gave it a go and I think it’s fair to say that it was a big hit. We sat by the window and enjoyed our drinks and a family did come in, but that was it.
I was expecting this place to be packed with people, wanting to see IllumiNations, but not a bit of it. It was really nice to watch it from there and was neat to have the Eiffel Tower in the foreground of the photos.
After that finished, it was back to the room to go to sleep, but I think I was too awake and really struggled to sleep. Then I got really cold and by cold, I mean shivering. I hoped that I would warm up, but I couldn’t and eventually I had to ask Wendy to change the thermostat. After that, I was OK and warmed up and finally got to sleep.
Today I walked 4.22 miles The weather today was cloudy and in the 50s in London and in the 80s and hot in Florida. The best thing today was staying at the BoardWalk. The worst thing today was saying goodbye to Mark. Today I tried staying concierge at the BoardWalk And the result was it’s a great treat, with the concierge lounge offering some great views of IllumiNations. The most magical moment today was arriving in Orlando and seeing Wendy and Amy.
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The pics of Illuminations are wonderful - makes me want to stay at Conceriege at the Boardwalk in the future. Lunch looked good, but I am sorry to hear the menu was so limited.
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Meeting you at the airport was the best thing ever. I just hated that tears were flowing too, gee especially since they were you missing Mark instead of being happy to see me!
Tried to load some photos on Photobucket, but it kept freezing my computer, so I might try again. But honestly, there's only a few that I have that she doesn't!
I was so happy with our room, except it sure was nearly the last one in the building! However, after the third time of walking to or from it, it didn't seem so long.
I still have to smile in shock at the conversation between me and the man who's relative(can't remember his name!) living across the street from our cousins! It really is a small world.
As Chez stated, we were dining at Rose and Crown, something we had both looked forward to. They put us on the patio and a breeze came up, Whatever was blooming, was affecting me, and as the meal wore on, I was getting more of a migraine and the sinuses were stopping up. Very strange! Sadly, the older I get, the more things affect my sinuses!.
It was very odd that as soon as she walked away, I swear she was bringing our food back! But it was so nice to have put that meal on my credit at the Boardwalk.
Stumbling back to the room, I couldn't really enjoy the company I was in and I feel so bad about that, but seemed to let me know how the rest of the week was going to go. Good thing between Chez and I, anything that could happen, we had the meds for! LOL!
After saying our goodbyes, we did stumble down to the lounge and sleepily indulge in the chocolate strawberries and Baileys. Oh wow that stuff is smooth and it's a shame I only had room for 1! Watching Illuminations from the balcony was probably my most favorite way of watching it that trip so far as it gave a different perspective. I didn't need to listen for the music because a certain someone was serenading me.
Back in the room, a quick shower and lights out. Poor Chez just started shivering. I didn't notice though until she started chattering her teeth. When I woke up enough, I hopped up and fixed the thermostat and then threw my part of the comforter on top of her and that seemed to warm her up. I slept with just the sheet as I'm such a warm natured person, you couldn't find her under the blankets! Finally she got quiet enough so I could get some serious sleep.
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as it gave a different perspective. I didn't need to listen for the music because a certain someone was serenading me. 
More please!! 
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