January in Arizona – Two Floridians trying not to Freeze - COMPLETE - 5-8 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi Terri! I can't wait to hear all about your trip, especially since DH & I just did a Sedona/Grand Canyon/Jerome trip in November! Hope you had fun & were able to stay warm!
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First trip DW--Nov. 1975; Senior Class Trip DW--Oct. 1979; First trip w/kids--Oct. 1995; Halloween at DW--Oct. 2002; Spring Break at DW--April 2004; Christmas/Pop Warner Nationals-POR--Dec. 2005;Cruisin'--April 2008; Mom/Son trip-POP--March 2010;Taggin' along w/DD on DH's conference-BWI--Oct. 2011; 50th birthday with the Gartner Geeks--Adults only!--BWI--Oct. 2012; The Trip That Almost Wasn't--BWI--Oct. 2013; We climbed The Summit (National Cheer Competition)--ASMovies--May 2014
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Day 1 - Travel to Phoenix from Jacksonville
The day started out well enough - two suitcases and four carry on bags in the Sonata, and both of us in the car - all within 15 minutes of the originally planned departure time. Although we were flying on free tickets (SW reward tickets) - I opted to purchase the “Early Bird check in” option since I knew that on Friday - when it came time for check in - we could be in the middle of the desert, out of cell phone range - and since it was a 4.5 hour flight - I didn’t want to do it crammed between two strangers.... so - as a result - Chris and I both had A boarding passes for all our flights - first our flight from JAX - Tampa; then we changed to a non-stop from Tampa to Phoenix. I have to admit that neither of us touched our cameras until long after we arrived in Phoenix. I did take a couple of photos with my cell phone though - including my breakfast choice in Tampa (I really wanted lunch and since it was before 1030 Chili’s wasn’t serving lunch) - so Chris bought me a Nathan’s hot dog.
Our first flight we got to sit next to each other in the exit row that only has two seats - however on the long flight to Phoenix - we couldn’t get those seats - and ended in a row of three - Chris wanted the window - I wanted the aisle - so some poor guy got to sit between us for 4.5 hours.... we were basically behaved - and even traded seats about 1/2 through when I decided I wanted to put my head against the bulkhead, listen to my Ipod and sleep. I should day that the plane was FULL of Auburn fans (and one family of Duck fans - withe cutest little baby - I called him a duckling). We did have to listen to one War Eagle cheer (why War Eagle??? Aren’t they the Tigers?) after we landed.
We landed in Phoenix right about 3:00pm and by the time we got our bags, went to the rental car center (which is off airport) and got the rental car - a 4x4 Toyota Rav 4 - which Chris kept raving about the whole trip.... it was close to 430pm. We found the hotel (Homewood Suites Biltmore - Phoenix) and decided after checking in - that we were hungry - after all a bag of cookies, pretzels and a bottle of water (that I bought in JAX) was hardly going to hold me over. We turned on the Droid and hit up Urban Spoon for a listing of the most popular, non-chain restaurants in the area. I don’t like to eat at the same places I can eat when I am at home - so I try to eat where the locals eat -- and we decided on Baby Kay’s Cajun Kitchen. Cajun - in Phoenix??? Ok go with me here. The lady is from NOLA - as is her family before her - and it was really good.... HOT good. Chris started with the hush puppies, I had the shrimp remolaude... later I found out it had atomic horse radish... OMG - I wanted to cry it was SO strong. Then he had the red beans and rice, and I had the fried fish. My coleslaw was a green olive slaw - I wish I would have gotten the recipe - it was really good!! It was all very good - I would highly recommend Kay’s if anyone is in the Biltmore section of Phoenix.
Chris waiting for dinner
My turn for picture taking
Hush puppies with horseradish and ketchup
Shrimp remolaude with garlic bread - yummy - but has ATOMIC horseradish in it?
Can you tell how HOT it was???
Chris' red beans, rice and andoille sausage
My fried fish and home made potato chips.
Both of us had the green olive cole slaw - unique and really good.
After dinner - we headed back to the hotel - and were asleep not too long afterward.
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Great start! Glad the airline seats worked out for you guys. I still have to hold my DH's hand because he's still not a big fan of flying, so we wouldn't have been able to sit apart like you guys! Yummy looking food too!
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Yummy looking food too!
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