Four Days Off Christmas Edition Complete 1/13/11 - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
More great photos Heather. Loved the "Small World" pics. Well done. I'm not much of a fan of CS burgers in the parks, although they can be quite good at CS in the resorts, such as Sassagoula Floatworks in the FQ.
Heather, I love the work your doing with your camera. I am in the market for a new camera and will hopefully have one before my March 5 WDW trip. Instead of going back many pages to find this out, I'd appreciate it if you could supply the make and model of your camera and if possible (but not necessary) a link for good info on the camera. Thanks!
The one thing I have to say is--its not an inexpensive point and shoot. It was designed for DSLR users who don't always want to lug around their camera. So its a teeny tiny camera with lots of features--including full manual settings for SLR users. It runs about $400. However, its probably the best small point and shoot on the market. Canon offers a few other high end options, but 4 out of 5 are much larger--not really pocket size, the final has a high mp number but lacks lots of the features of the s95. You can still buy the s90, which was the precursor to the s95, but it has a few more bugs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sc507
Great pics! Did you use a vibrant setting for all the good-byes in SW?? It looks extra bright - I love it!
The vibrant setting was what I used for the goodbyes in SW!
After my ride on Space Mountain it was almost time for my ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern.
I checked in early and went . . . "Uh Oh" at the number of people who were waiting in the lobby area. I looked around the room and some space on a bench opened up so I had just sat down when I was called, just a few minutes later and way before my actual ADR time. I guess the people waiting were walkins or bigger parties. I actually felt bad as I was being led to my table because some of those kiddos looked miserable. It was 8pmish and that's a little late to keep young ones waiting for dinner if they are used to eating earlier.
I was still chilly--it had gotten cold outside so I ordered both an earl gray hot tea and a diet coke.
The chef came out and confirmed what my lovely waitress had said--they don't use nuts in anything at LTT because its such a common allergy and due to the family style nature of the meal they don't want to have to have to worry about cross contamination in the kitchen or at the table. Yea! I can even eat apple crumble--which usually has nuts!
Rolls with honey butter arrived--yum! And a huge bowl of salad. My waitress apologized and said that the salad bowls are sort of one size fits all. No problem I served myself a big plate because I knew I hadn't been eating enough veggies anyway! I thought the dressing was nice, but I could have used a bit more. I added pepper and away we go!
My entree arrived and thankfully it was all on one big plate instead of large portions of everything. The turkey was perfectly cooked. I don't know how they do that on such a large scale every day, but it was great. The ham and mustard sauce were awesome as well. The beef was flavorful, but I like my steak cooked much more on the rare side. I ate about 1/2 of it, but demolished the turkey and ham. The green beans were crisp and perfectly seasoned. I had truly been expecting the mostly brown overcooked stuff we find in our employee cafeteria on a regular basis. You know cooking for the masses and all. Potatoes were good, especially with the gravy--that comes in a boat on the side!
I hate stouffer's mac and cheese. I should have asked them to leave it off the plate. I did try a bite and some got mixed in with my green beans but the verdict is the same. I don't like it, not one bit, not even a little.
At about the half way point through my entree I really needed to use the restroom, so I asked my waitress--who was wonderful throughout the whole meal, where it was. She pointed me in the right direction--then grabbed a piece of her order pad and left and instruction on the table not to bus it. Apparently even with all of my things sitting there it wasn't safe for my food! The bus staff is a little overzealous.
I really should have skipped dessert because I was already stuffed. I was thankful when a tiny little portion of apple cobbler showed up. Of course if I had purposely saved room for dessert I might have been disappointed, but it was just the right amount of warm apple goodness and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I happily settled the bill and left a little extra in the tip category. This was actually one of the more expensive meals I ate this week, but I felt like it was really worth it. I loved it so much I talked Brandon into adding it into the line up for June for dinner and I may have to think about trying lunch in April. It looks like you can get the turkey and fixins at lunch! The only thing missing from this meal was a big glass of (red) zin, which is my favorite turkey/wine paring. I understand not having bars at the MK, but wine at dinner is important to me--its why I've never been to Tony's Town Square. (Big pasta dinner with no wine? Unthinkable) This was the perfect Christmas dinner. I knew I'd be at work for Christmas and Christmas Eve and not get much of anything that looked like Christmas dinner.
Once I was finished with dinner I did a little shopping in the Emporium and ended up not buying much except a long sleeve t shirt for Brandon and a Main St magnet, but racing back to Fantasyland to pick up the small world Magic Kingdom magnet I had seen earlier. I figured they would have it at the Emporium--I was wrong!
Then it was time to hunt up the perfect place to watch Holiday Wishes. MSEP was already reaching the end near the hub--so I knew that finding a spot was going to be a challenge. I scooted down the path through the rose garden I was going to try for the big space below the plaza, but I found another spot first. . . guess what no one there on the railing in the rose garden in several spots. There was a fairly large space between one family and a single man. I asked if there was room for me. The gentleman asked me how many more were coming. When I told him none, he looked at me funny and told me to join right in--he was just waiting for his two kids. We struck up a conversation and chatted until right before the show, when his children arrived--one tween and one teen. I turned around and looked at the landing for the plaza and it looked like it was packed--I did pretty well I think!
The best part about my new favorite spot is that if you are standing against the rail there are no heads in your photos because the garden is in front of you!
I took some castle photos.
Just for comparison sake here's one taken with my old camera two years ago
And then I noticed that the battery light was blinking on my camera . . . my phone had already called it quits. Oopps. Just discovered that the reviewers were right and the battery life on my new camera is so - so. Then I thought about how many photos I had taken that day . . . over 200. So really, not so bad, but I do need to invest in a second battery and they aren't inexpensive either. I think about $60 or $70 on top of an already expensive camera. Seems like Canon should have worked on that one a little. Total invested into the camera, once I also buy one of those gorilla tripods will be well over $500.
I did manage some Holiday Wishes photos before the camera completely gave it up for the day. (And yes, I was completely charging the battery every night)
I really wanted to try and play with the settings some more, but alas, it was not to be!
I scooted right out of the park after Holiday Wishes. Sorry folks no MSEP pics, but if you really must have one:
here's one taken in July
I waited a very short time for a bus as two pulled up for Sports at the same time.
I headed home, very tired.
Oh I forgot, when I got back to the resort the previous night I had walked over to the Concierge to see if there were any tour openings for Thursday morning, as I had really enjoyed Keys to the Kingdom. I booked a tour at AK! So that's on tap for the morning!
Luv the Pics!!! Thanks for your kind words! Did you know we have the same birthday!!! We have to meet now at WDW and have FAB someday. Still trying to go Dec.2011.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Sounds like you had a great meal. We have not been back there since the characters left but the girls have been asking for it so I am hoping we can catch an ADR before our MNSSHP in October. Love the pictures from Holiday Wishes, the castle shots are great and it seems like you found the perfect spot to watch from.
The one thing I have to say is--its not an inexpensive point and shoot. It was designed for DSLR users who don't always want to lug around their camera. So its a teeny tiny camera with lots of features--including full manual settings for SLR users. It runs about $400. However, its probably the best small point and shoot on the market. Canon offers a few other high end options, but 4 out of 5 are much larger--not really pocket size, the final has a high mp number but lacks lots of the features of the s95. You can still buy the s90, which was the precursor to the s95, but it has a few more bugs.
The vibrant setting was what I used for the goodbyes in SW!
Thanks so much for the camera info. Will have to check into it. Considering an Olympus Stylus 7030 too. Enough on this so this thread doesn't get a bit derailed!
great pictures of the castle and I'm with you regarding wine at dinner....it's a must!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Great evening at MK! I've put LTT back on for June for us as well at Stefanie's request as she loved this meal in November. Great pictures of Holiday Wishes! Your new camera is amazing!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I'm not much of a fan of CS burgers in the parks, although they can be quite good at CS in the resorts, such as Sassagoula Floatworks in the FQ.
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
