You can take the girl out of Disney, BUT……… - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice update. Happy Anniversary. Is that a black wedding dress?
It was red and sparkly. It was my 2nd marriage and I wanted something very small. We just went to the courthouse. Then in Nov we had a very relaxed reception..a jeans kind of event.
I arrived at Splash Mountain, but I still had about 15 minutes or so before I could pick up my next fast pass (I believe we had gotten one for Space Mountain earlier, so our window hadn’t opened yet), so I continued to just go around taking pictures while I waited.
I kept putting my ticket in and it said I had to wait. It was becoming annoying, till I realized I was about 5 minutes off on the time I could get the next one, so I waited and then got them.
The time to return was really close to the same time our Space Mountain return was. I figured we would do one for sure, possibly giving the others away or try for both. Claire still was saying she didn’t want to try Space out, and leery on Splash, but I knew this would be the one she would ride if given a choice.
I headed back and the family still wasn’t out of the Country Bears, so I waited around and soon found them. We decided it was probably time to get a bite to eat. I wanted Columbia Harbor House and at first we started that way, but I got complaints from Claire about it. She wasn’t hungry and they only had gross food there, etc. We had seen a corn dog stand back towards Pecos Bill and she said that sounded good, so Skip took her there and I went into Pecos Bill to order something for Skip and I. I don’t know if I have ever eaten here, but if I had, it was 12 -15 years ago, when the older 2 were little. I got in line and saw they offered taco salad. Skip is a freak over taco salad, so I called him and he said, yes, get that for him. I really wasn’t in the mood for much on the menu, so I just went with a burger. They made it in there before I even had a chance to order. We placed our order then and waited for the food to arrive.
After our food arrived, we made our way over to the toppings bar. I was really impressed with this. Skip was in heaven. I think he had started conversations with people while filling his salad bowl.
We went to find a table and this place was packed. I actually thought we might not find a table at all. It had filled up completely since I had walked in to order. Finally we found a table way in the back in a corner. There was some sort of little door up against the one seat, and Claire refused to sit by it for fear something would come out at her, so I got that lucky seat.
Our food.
This was by far the best burger I have had on Disney property thus far. I loved all the extra toppings and the burger itself wasn’t dry. Claire finished off her corn dog fast and shared my fries too.
We left very full and happy. I will have to make it back here again in the future.
Now we had time to kill before fastpasses were due. I wanted to try the new/old Tikki Room. We arrived and they told us the wait, it wasn’t long, but Claire had to go to the bathroom, so she and I ran off to do that and missed that show by the time we got back. So we waited for the next one.
We had missed the pre-show the one and only other time we did it and I am not sure if that was changed or not.
Soon we were let in and found a seat. There were not many people in here at all. I was NOT a fan of the old show, but Claire had liked it…..I can say I am not a fan of this version either, but again, Claire loved it.
We left the show with Skip wondering why in the world I had ever wanted to see this show. I told him I wanted to see the update, now I have…..never need to again. Basically we talked about the part of our life we had just lost while in there, and Claire at the same time was talking about how wonderful it was.
Not really impressed with the old TIKI show. Form your post not so sure the new one will be on our schedule in September. We have mostly used it as a way to get out of the heat. Your pix are most enjoyable as usual.
Great pics of the Tiki room. I think I may have see it in the 80's, but not since then. I'd like to see it next year. I know it's not the best show, but it's air conditioned and out of the sun for awhile. If I were there just for a little while, I'd skip it too.
Thanks....It's really hard to get anything in there because it is so dark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Not really impressed with the old TIKI show. Form your post not so sure the new one will be on our schedule in September. We have mostly used it as a way to get out of the heat. Your pix are most enjoyable as usual.
It is a nice rest spot when needed though
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
I missed the new-old Tiki room in October but will have to check it out next time. I hated the revised one but thought the original was cute.
They say this is closer to the original.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Great pics of the Tiki room. I think I may have see it in the 80's, but not since then. I'd like to see it next year. I know it's not the best show, but it's air conditioned and out of the sun for awhile. If I were there just for a little while, I'd skip it too.
After the Tiki show, Skip had to use the restroom, so Claire and I said we would go have a seat in the smoking area nearby and wait for him.
We passed Aloha Isle and there was basically NO wait at all! So I got right in line and made our order. I had my first dole whip last summer at the Poly. It was just OK. I thought it was too much pineapple flavoring for me. This time I was getting the orange. I decided for the orange float.
We sat down and Claire was asking questions about why I got this, etc. I told her it was something I wanted to try and since it was so big, we could share. She held it out for a picture.
We started eating and it was pure heaven. Claire asked why I have never gotten one of these before, but I had to remind her that I had tried to a couple of times last year and she looked at the line and said no way.
Soon it became clear that I wasn’t going to get much.
I actually had to fight to get my spoon in there…that little bugger.
Skip found us and asked what we had. We told him and he took a bite…”Where did you get that?”….”right over there”. He left us and soon returned with a regular pineapple dolewhip float.
I tasted it and it was darn good too. Much better than the plain dolewhip. I might have to have one of these in Nov…as well as the orange one too. Claire has already said there will be NO sharing.
Claire gave Skip’s a try after she finished off ours and soon he was fighting her for the rest of his as well.
Skip did mention that his feet were so much better today with the inserts. He wishes he would’ve done that the first day.
It was really nice just sitting there. I just had the magical feeling going on, and I mentioned how just sitting in MK was such a happy thing for me….my happy spot. Skip didn’t even make fun of me either.
While sitting there we heard others say that the MK was now going to be open an hour later that night…meaning it was closing at midnight instead of 11. I don’t know when they extended the hours, but I hadn’t heard anything about it earlier that day. Our plan was to watch the 2nd parade, which started at 11, so it really didn’t change our plans much.
We decided to head back over to Splash to use our FP’s. BUT MSEP was going on. The sidewalks were busy, but we pushed through. Once we got to where we would cross it was blocked off. I had never thought about that, but of course they wouldn’t let you through while the parade was going on….or so I thought.
We stood and waited.
We heard a CM telling everyone who wanted to cross to come to a certain area and at a break in the parade we could quickly cross. Soon there was a break and we all went through. It was kind of cool.
We made our way to Splash and got in line.
There was virtually no line….even in standby. Wow, the crowds must all be watching the parade now.
I didn’t get a lot of good shots this trip. It was too dark and I didn’t have a good lens.
We laughed at our picture after the ride. You can’t see me at all….because I am totally ducked down to avoid getting too wet. Claire did enjoy the ride and was happy she did it.
When we got off I decided to make the dash over to Space to use our Fast passes, but Skip and Claire weren’t going to, so I said I would call them when I got off.
I was NOT thinking…The fireworks were going off and I had to make my way through the hub to get there. UGH!
It was soooo crowded, but I pushed on. It’s so funny how so many people totally ignore the CM’s when they say please keep the walk ways clear. I just keep pushing my way through though. I found a family who appeared to be going the same way as I and I stuck to them like glue.
I also found a few things to take pictures of believe it or not.
Once we got to the other side of the hub we all really picked up speed and soon I lost them as they went somewhere else.
As I approached SM I saw a couple walking towards the entrance. I asked them if they were going to ride and they said yes. I told them I had 2 extra fast passes that were good right now if they went right in, and they said thanks, and took them….and then walked in the standby entrance. I kept moving, but hollered back…”those are good for right now”. I never saw them again. Well at least I tried.
I think I took this inside.
The ride was great. And once again it made me think that this is probably too wild for Claire’s liking.
As I walked back towards the castle I saw the Magic and Memories show going on. I love this show, so I stopped off to the side to get a few pictures. I swear it was slightly different than last Aug. I just loved it.
I contacted Skip and Claire and they were on the other side of the castle in the smoking section. I was hoping Claire was able to at least see part of the show. Skip said yes they could see it..
I started making my way there…snapping along the way.
I reached Claire and Skip on the other side of the castle and got to see their view of the Castle show. Not quite as nice…but it was close up.
Claire had to tell me all about how some lady asked Dad for a cigarette because she didn’t have any of her own…then the lady kept talking to Dad. Yep neither of us could ever do anything behind each other’s back with Claire around…she announces it to the world. LOL
At this point Skip just wanted to find a spot to sit and wait for the parade. That actually sounded fine to all of us.
As we left I passed this…the new Sorcerer Mickey interactive game. I had seen people lined up all over the park in certain areas today and it took me a while to figure out what they were doing. I did figure it out though…and it looks very popular, but there was no way we would be waiting in those lines to do it. This was the first time I could get a somewhat clear shot of it.
We then headed to Liberty Square to our favorite spot to watch the parade. ….usually right near the Christmas shop. It usually is not very busy there……in fact for the 2nd parade it’s often very empty. We arrived and no one was around. We found a spot and I did double check with a CM that the 2nd parade would be coming through and she said yes. There weren’t even ropes up yet and it was 10:45. Skip sat down and Claire and I decided to wander into the Christmas shop to browse.
The CM in there followed us around. I can’t stand that. It feels like she doesn’t trust us and we are going to steal, or high pressure to buy something. And I don’t think she was too thrilled I was taking pictures…oh well.
We left empty handed and this was the sight I saw as we walked out so I had to quick snap a picture.
Claire wanted to get in the sleigh for a few pictures, so we did several of those as well.
Love the pics of the castle. And the desserts. And the Christmas shop. All my favorite things! We watched the parade from the Christmas shop too. It was perfect. We also went on Splash (well my boys did) while MSEP was going on. It was the perfect time.
Love the pics of the castle. And the desserts. And the Christmas shop. All my favorite things! We watched the parade from the Christmas shop too. It was perfect. We also went on Splash (well my boys did) while MSEP was going on. It was the perfect time.
We have done it during the fireworks before too and it's really neat to see them from the outside part!
Claire had to tell me all about how some lady asked Dad for a cigarette because she didn’t have any of her own…then the lady kept talking to Dad. Yep neither of us could ever do anything behind each other’s back with Claire around…she announces it to the world. LOL
Reminds me of the Bill Cosby stand-up routine when he talks about his 7 or 8 year old daughter "The Informer".
Reminds me of the Bill Cosby stand-up routine when he talks about his 7 or 8 year old daughter "The Informer".
I love to watch the parade from LS too.
So true...And don't ever tell her "Don't tell Dad" because first off she will immediately tell him, and 2nd she wants to know why you wouldn't tell him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great night-time shots. I could go for a Dole Whip right now!