A Festival, Flowers, Friends, & The Fab Four - Adventures both old & new - UPDATED 4/25 - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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The Hefeweizen is what we love to get in Germany. The Spaten was more a darker beer. I tasted it... it was okay but I'd rather have my hefe.
Is it Sam Adams, Hefeweizen, just wondering because I just bought some(never seen it before) and it is really good(but now I will be getting their summerale because it is out now). I had to ask since we will be there in Sept. Now back to reading...
Is it Sam Adams, Hefeweizen, just wondering because I just bought some(never seen it before) and it is really good(but now I will be getting their summerale because it is out now). I had to ask since we will be there in Sept. Now back to reading...
Hefeweizen is just a type of beer, like lager, stout, etc. Different companies make a hefe. I'm not sure the brand of hefe they have in Germany but I do believe it's Germany specific. We buy Pyramid here at home. Not sure if that's what you're talking about... It's early for my brain...
Great TR! I know what you mean, I have a at home daycare and I have had a few parents that don't set any bedtime(or any other) rules for their children. Some can't even make it to lunch because they are so tired and cranky.
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Wow! You got a lot done on your first day! We haven't been to Coral Reef since April of 2005 and we might have to make a trip back sometime soon! the basket Andy got you!! Looking forward to hearing about your morning at MK.
I have Canon Digital Rebel XT. I used to use a Canon Powershot A95 (point and shoot) but I got to the point where I was having to work too hard to manually make it do the things I wanted it to do. I love my Rebel b/c I can set my own settings. I'm still learning with it but I can tell it's getting easier for me to use each time I use it. The only bad thing is when I hand it to Andy to take a picture for me....he hasn't quite gotten used to using it yet (No offense Andy...)
The colors in your pictures come out so rich and beautiful! My dad recently got a Canon, similar to the Rebel (in look), but I feel like it was a different model because Rebel XT doesn't sound exactly right as to what he got. I wish I could afford a nice Canon or Pentax. We have a Sony (point and shoot) right now and it is probably the best digital I have ever used but I like that extra dose of reality that only the manual can give you!
Great first day! I know what you mean about that preshow music...it's like it magnetically pulls you to the lagoon! I would have been very upset if the Epcot entrance music wasn't playing, it's my favorite As for the POFQ busses, we had the same thing happen on our last trip, and it was rectified very quickly then too! More more more
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Ok, I just wrote a crapload and was almost finished with the first part of our morning and I LOST IT ALL!!! UGH, all the witty comments, all the fab details…GONE GONE GONE
So now you get the brief version of what I can remember…. Morning, early, got ready, even had time to wash and dry my hair… (I’m not nasty…I take baths at night before bed b/c I just don’t have enough time to shower in the morning…I savor every last second in bed)… But this morning we were both up and ready to leave before 8am, which is early for me. For breakfast we enjoyed a nice hearty refillable mug of sprite zero and the mickey ear rice krispy treats from the basket. I eating at WDW.
We called over to see if the crew was ready to go….surprise surprise they weren’t. Lori couldn’t get Audrey to get dressed….but she hadn’t even told her she was going to get to wear her Cinderella dress. I’m pretty sure that would have been the motivation she needed. So we told Lori we were going to the main building and would meet them there. On the way we ran into Kevin, yep you guessed it, smoking. Andy and he chatted about what I don’t know…
Ummm do you two need a minute?? Weirdos…
Kevin headed back to finish getting ready with Lori and Audrey. We meandered the main building while we waited…
Can you see Andy’s blistered forehead?? b/c it was so chilly yesterday we didn’t think to utilize our handy dandy spray can of sunscreen…. But we remembered today, despite the fact it was cooooold. Well not all that coooold, but when you’re expecting 80’s most of the week and you’re getting 40’s in the morning and 60’s during the day it was cooold (and that will be important later)… but the forecast showed the glorious 80’s would be back later in the week which was good.
Anyway, we waited and waited and waited…. We waited so long that we almost called them to tell them we’d meet them there. This was ridiculous. We had waited 30 minutes for them to come down. We’d have left them if it weren’t for the fact they acted so lost yesterday at times that I was afraid they’d get lost today…and plus this was a trip together…. Finally they came down. And as soon as they did Kevin disappeared. We stood there for a few minutes wondering where he was, figuring he was filling up their mug. So we got fed up and went to look for him in the foodcourt and where do I spot him??? YEP..outside SMOKING! I told Andy to tell him “LET’S GO!” and finally we were waiting for a bus to the MK…… Coming up: since I lost all this earlier and had already written part of the next part I’m gonna stop here and pick up in a bit. I’ve got some work to do believe it or not But coming up – look how much we did compared to them….were they even trying?
Well, this is exactly what I am worried about when we go with the fam in August. Especially now since DSIL is preggo and will be 7 months when we go. The only difference is I won't feel bad about leaving them behind. . . . They have been before and I'm sure they can find their own way. That's what cell phones are for, after all . . . . Loving the updates - keep it up!!
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Funny you made the cellphone comment Amanda....read on my dear
We made it on to a MK bus fairly quickly. Audrey was all dressed up in her Cindy best but she didn’t want to wear her tiara…so Andy did… Royalty?
On the way to the MK we talked to Kevin and Lori about our plan of attack. The MK had been open since 7 b/c of am emh EVERY MORNING this week. We had wanted to be by there by at the latest 8:30 but now we would be getting there around 9….Andy told them to give us their tickets once they got through the gates so we could go grab FPs for Splash so they could head straight to Fantasyland since all they had talked about Audrey wanting to do was ride Dumbo. I knew they should go ahead and hit it up now before it got even crazier later in the morning. We agreed to meet back at the carousel at 10:45. Why didn’t we just say we’d call them after we finished? b/c Kevin LEFT his CELL at the resort. CAPITAL WTF? How do you plan on keeping in touch in the parks?? So we set that time b/c it gave us time to try and ride something ourselves. It’s tradition for us to ride Splash and BTMRR first thing in the MK. So we headed over into Frontierland and got FP’s for Splash. There was NOBODY over there! The return time for our FPs was so close that we knew we could ride BTMRR and then get FPs for it as well. We waited maybe 20 min. in line for BTMRR. I that ride! I snapped some crazy not looking through the lens shots on the ride…
I snapped a pic of the ram b/c I always have to “baaahhh” at him as we speed past
After the ride we got FPs for everyone for BTMRR and walked past Splash and saw it was a 10 min. wait. I had commented earlier when we got our FPs that there wasn’t a wait b/c it was soo chilly that smart people were waiting till it got warmer in the day. Well evidently my DH isn’t smart and I must be like a lemming b/c I followed right along. Mostly b/c I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a wait. We walked RIGHT onto a log. While I LOVE this ride with all my heart… it was not my best friend this trip. Andy put me on the side that catches all the overflow from the falling logs…and buddy did we catch it. I put up my hood on my hoodie which protected my head, but my back and my seat, and my legs were SOAKED. And I was wearing jeans and it was like 50 degrees outside. I was miserable when we got off. One thing I cannot stand is walking around in wet jeans. They just aren’t comfy and they don’t dry very fast, especially when it’s cold outside. So we walked around debating what I should do. I hated myself but I got all ill and moody. I tried to see if maybe the bathrooms had a dryer for hands but no luck. So we ended up scouting all the stores on Main Street for a new pair of pants and some dry underwear (never thought I’d type underwear in my TR)…. No luck on Main Street. They had some cute little sweat pants but they were all XL! And they had some cute khaki capris but they were also XL. I thought I might just keep sucking it up but when we made it to the castle I thought we’d try those shops and lucky luck luck! We found a pair of those cute khaki capris in a small! And some small underwear!! I snatched those puppies up and we headed to meet Kevin and Lori and Audrey. Andy met up with them while I went to the closest bathroom to change. I had to fight the mob in Fantasyland to get to a bathroom. I despise Fantasyland on crowded days. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Once I was refreshed and changed we talked Kevin and Lori into doing Philharmagic b/c there was no wait and the next show started soon. Apparently in all that time we were apart they had only ridden Dumbo. Now I know that Fantasyland was busy but seriously, in a two hour time frame you coulda done something else. Oh wait I’m sure you did, you probably took fifty smoke breaks While we waited for Philharmagic Andy just had to take a picture of the fact I came into the MK in one set of pants and would be leaving in another.
I snapped a shot of Audrey in her cute cute dress with her new best friend Dopey Apparently she got her princess and their pals mixed up….shouldn’t she be hanging out with some rats??
Once we got our opera glasses I couldn’t pass up this shot.
And one of Andy being a dork with all his glasses… I know what you’re going to say…. Check out his blue eyes… he gets that all time…let’s not blow his head up any more than that it already is. He’s gotta get through the front door this evening.
Everyone loved Philharmagic. It’s all I can do to not start blubbering during it b/c it’s just so Disney and magical and the fact that Andy talks about it being his favorite attraction just adds to it. Audrey even enjoyed it, except for the shooting corks, which I told her I can’t look at those either…. After the show we were starving for a snack so we took everyone over to the Lunching Pad for a cream cheese filled pretzel. Kevin opted for the spicy cheese pretzel. We our cream cheese pretzel and it was as tasty as ever. I also had a hot chocolate since my lower half was still a little chilly. We left them on a smoke break to go see if Stitch was out. And he was!! Without a long line !!! The progression of Stitch pictures seems to always be the same. First you have the “Stitch checking out my pins, kinda looks like he’s looking at something else” shot Then you have the “We’re conversing about the pins and for some reason I talk with my hands” shot And finally you have the “laughing and posing” shot Remember that sequence for later shots with Stitch
We met back up with Kevin and Lori and debated on using our FP for BTMRR before their lunch. But as we moo’d and herded our way through Fantasyland we realized there wasn’t enough time. So we told them we were going to Epcot for lunch and some festival goodies and some quality BI time. They were going to stick around Fantasyland until their ADR at CRT.
Before we left I wanted to stop and pick up a cute tshirt I had seen earlier that morning at the gift shop and seen again in one of the shops on Main Street. I didn’t like the current shirt I was wearing with my new khaki’s so I wanted to change. Andy took a picture of me coming out of the dressing room where they let me change. Talk about catching somebody off guard… I can’t believe I’m evening posting this.. But there I am, leaving the MK in COMPLETELY different clothes except my shoes and my bra
PP pics from the morning…
I how Stitch is giving Andy bunny ears!!!
Coming up: Eating and drinking around the WS…no better way to spend the day!
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great update, I have to laugh everytime you write KEVINS smoking breaks!! lol
maybe he was 30 mins late from smoking??
cant wait to see the next update
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Great updates Melissa!! Sounds like a great meal at Coral Reef!! Love the Easter basket!!! The smoke breaks are driving me crazy and I'm only reading about them so I can imagine how you felt!!
Loved the wardrobe changes I dont blame you...i wouldve done the same thing! I was thinking about you having to wait on them to leave for MK. I hate when you go with someone and expect them to be courteous and be on time....i guess its always too high of an expectation*LOL*......loved the stitch pics too!! Cant wait to hear about eating and drinking around WS!
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Our 3 princesses LOVE the RED SOX!!!!
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Pixie Dust
It's early for my brain...
the basket Andy got you!! Looking forward to hearing about your morning at MK.
(No offense Andy...) 
Suzie
do you two need a minute?? Weirdos…
But coming up – look how much we did compared to them….were they even trying?
They have been before and I'm sure they can find their own way. That's what cell phones are for, after all . . . . Loving the updates - keep it up!! 
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Sammi
Without a long line 
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