A Few of My Favorite Things & a Race, too! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I think of all the rides in MK my favorite (or at least 1 of the top 3) has to be the HM. I was so looking forward to seeing it all lighted for MNSSHP. We ended up riding HM 5 times that night and even got to laugh along with Madame Leota as she flirted with a group of boys! The magic shots ended up being such a pain to get...with the lines and parades...
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For months I had been reading everything I could find to make Wednesday afternoon a successful adventure...okay, really I had been salivating over a chance to release my inner foodie and with Discovery Passports in hand we made our way past the Epcot fountain and cranberry bog to the World Showcase now filled with booths from around the world with some of the most alluring aromas and flavors. First stop, Terra...
Chili Colorado with House-made chips & Cashew Cheese Chocolate Cake with Coconut Mousse & Passion Fruit Sauce. I think I should have done a little bit more reading of the fine print...but all I saw was Chili Colorado and thought yummy spicy Mexican food...from my first bite of the Chili Colorado I knew something was off...it was good but the meat as off, it was then Cammy asked if I liked it. I told her the meat was strange and she busted out laughing and showed me the find print...featuring Gardein BeefLESS Tips. Apparently, in all my excitement I had failed to see that Terra happened to be the vegan booth of Food & Wine. While the Chili Colorado was good, the vegan chocolate cake made up for it! With my first vegan experience of my life behind me, we decided that a stop at Brazil was in order for the exact opposite...
Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans, Onions, Avocado & Cilantro Carnival Moscato Sparkling White Wine. I have to say, I wanted to lick the plate clean, the beans were so yummy and I loved the Moscato! We skipped by Argentina and opted for dessert in Australia...
Pavlova (Crispy Meringue Shell with fresh Driscoll's Berries and Vanilla Custard). We found the berries and custard yummy, but the meringue shell massacred our forks and ended up in the trash is was so hard and tasteless. In Mexico...
we decided to head in for a little shopping, a boat ride and a couple of premium margaritas...
I ended up with the blood orange and Cammy the mango. I had really wanted to try the rice pudding, but the booth line in Mexico was crazy long so we passed and headed for Norway's Kringla Bakery where we shared...
a Viking helmet of chocolate mousse (washed down with our margaritas of course). It was very yummy...I passed on the school bread which has been such a disappointment lately. Afterwards it was another boat ride (walking through the movie much to the dismay of the CM) and some more shopping.
Even though we were splitting everything, we still were already finding ourselves full and so we did a little more shopping in China and yes, skipping that movie too...can you tell Cammy does not like to stand around too long?
before stopping at the Singapore Booth were we selected...
Lemongrass Chicken Curry with Coconut & Jasmine Rice. The aroma coming from Singapore was so inviting, but the chicken curry was such a disappointment that it did not have the flavor I was expecting or the little spicy punch...it was pretty blah. The rice was very well cooked though! We had planned to stop in China for some Silk Ice Cream Ribbon but the only flavor they had was mango (I am not an mango fan and Cammy was mango-ed out after the margarita). So it was on to South Korea, where we selected...
Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork & Kimchi Slaw...one of our favorites of the day! I love Kimchi and this was very good! Cammy was excited and took a picture to send to her little brother who was adopted from Korea. I think we would have had several more lettuce wraps had we not been so full and the lines growing so long. We did not find anything in Africa so we stopped in Germany to look around...
before parting for 2 different booths. I had planned to get a glass of my favorite ice wine but the line coming out of the wine store was so long that I opted to skip it. Cammy headed to the Cheese booth while I went to the Germany stand. My line was way longer but I ended up beating Cammy back to a table. Apparently a guest was not very happy with a CM who refused to use a snack credit for a glass a wine (even though there was a sign at that clearly stated this right in front of the guest). This guest demanded a manager to speak to and would not leave the line until they got their glass of wine. This was the only area that we saw people that should have been clearly cut off and it was only late afternoon. Finally, security arrived to escort this guest away...Cammy meet me at the table where we shared....
the Artisan Cheese Selection, glass of Once Upon a Vines Big Bad Read Blend, and some Apple Strudel with Werther's Original Karamel & Vanilla sauce. Loved all of our selections...but Cammy is so lucky that I saved her half of the apple strudel it was so yummy! While touring and shopping in Italy,
I heard something and looked at my watch. Oh my how did I let time slip away and dragged Cammy away from her glass of wine...
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More great pages! Except for the rocky start at Terra sounds like you all were doing quite well with the F&WF. We totally skipped Terra this year as my poor head just didn't like the meatless meat.
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After what sent me running in Italy, (you know I am not going to spill the beans until its time) we were ready to tackle the rest of the F&W booths and countries in the World Showcase in a happy giddy sort of way. We decided to head back to Italy for a little dessert...
a cannoli and Tiramisu (and another glass of moscato). We sat down the stairs overlooking the lagoon and I imagined myself for the moment being in Italy next summer on the Spanish Steps.
Sweet tooth controlled for the moment, it was on to Hops & Barley, Florida, and Japan...all places where we had things picked out to try, but sadly the line was so long that we decided to skip them. In Japan we did a little shopping, had to get my dd some more Origami paper and then it was time for Morocco for a piece of...
Baklava (which was not so good...very dry and tasted stale) and a little more shopping...
and a stop in New Zealand for a glass on Pinot Grigio. Nothing in Belgium caught our attention (all sweets) so we went shopping in France...
and afterwards, it was time to be really adventurous with some...
Escargots. Cammy gave me the look that no way was she trying, but in the end I won out. Really there was not much to taste except for some really strong garlic bread. By the time we got to England we were tired, full, and Cammy's leg was hurting (if you noticed she elected to tape up her foot instead of the boot all day...I told her that was a mistake and rest assured she did not spend another day outside of the run without the boot on)...so we passed on through without stopping and found ourselves a place to view Illuminations at. I left Cammy and headed to Desserts & Champagne to pick up 2 glasses the Ice Imperial for us to celebrate with.
When I finally arrived back to our viewing spot I sat enjoying the moment and had to smile...I was so happy I got to spend the day with another self proclaimed foodie and a not picky eater needing an ADR instead of F&W. I spent the day, just like I wanted (plus spreading a little magic)...enjoying each moment and each taste. Closer to the show lots of people started to crowd in...and wouldn't you know it, 5 minutes before the start a family tries to crowd themselves in front of us...but after already being nice at the Eat to the Beat Concert Cammy and I (and another couple we had made friends with while waiting) stood our ground and held off the invasion of our space. They got quite upset with us, but we just ignored them and continued talking with our new friends, enjoying our champagne, and watching Illuminations.
Afterwards, we decided to call it a night (even though tonight was EMH until 11 pm) and headed to the bus stop and fell into bed exhausted, full and giddy for our date in the morning.
Beautiful pages from the Haunted Mansion and Halloween Party - I love the background papers for those.
The colors worked so perfectly in this kit...I am happy how it turned out!
That is too funny about the Terra booth I have to say I love the look of your Viking helmet dessert. I may have to check that out on our next visit.
The Viking Helmet was new...I had intended to get some school bread but it looked dry...the helmet was quite yummy!
It was pretty funny about Terra...totally clueless! Lets just say that I wont be turning vegan any time soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Sorry some of the food was disappointing but everything looks delish!
I figured there would be things we did not care for, but we were up to the adventure. All of the smells and looks were amazing. I just wish I would have had the full 2 1/2 days I had in the derailed trip to enjoy everything!
Food did look yummy though. Another great photo page!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
More great pages! Except for the rocky start at Terra sounds like you all were doing quite well with the F&WF. We totally skipped Terra this year as my poor head just didn't like the meatless meat.
LOL...I am so glad someone else does not care for the meatless meat...it was really strange in texture but I have to say that the Colorado Chili was very good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Excellent day at Epcot. I really like your new pages.
What a fantastic day you had at Epcot. It's a shame some of those booths had such long lines though. Oh well, you still managed to find some food to eat. I hope Cammy's leg is ok for the run. I know how much more difficult it is to run on tired legs. Been there done that!
I agree, that last photo with Illuminations is awesome!
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I have to say I love the look of your Viking helmet dessert. I may have to check that out on our next visit. 
but everything looks delish!
Deb
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