Going north, south, east and west - UPDATED 12/18 - Page 27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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First of all, thanks for the updates during all of your computer woes. I am so sorry your computer died. I hope you can figure out what happened soon. Pixies thrown your way!
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Mari here. I'm really enjoying your trip reports. But I must say that I am REALLY looking forward to your report regarding DCA. hhehehehehehehe!
But seriously, we'll be going to NY for my nephew's wedding in June and you have given us some great ideas for a 24hr whirlwind tour of the city before heading out to 'the Hampton's' for the wedding.
Good luck with your computer! Just a couple of suggestions for the old one....Come back soon! We had a blast with the two of you!
California hugs, Mari and Raleigh!
Great to hear from you guys and welcome to the boards!
Having recently purchased a new computer to replace a crashed one, I feel your pain. Good Luck getting it fixed.
Did you have to cancel your ADR in order for it not be charged against your credits.
Love the sunset shots.
I can't remember if we did or not, but it's not one that took a credit card charge and they had no idea that we were on the Dining Plan, so there's no way they could charge those credits - and I don't think they can anyway, even if they know you're on the Plan...
So sorry to hear about your computer problems, Chez. I liked your last updates! So you said you liked the soda from Germany at Club Cool, right? Did Mark recognize it at all? It's what he and I had to drink at the restaurant on top of the Bundestag in Berlin Spezi, remember? Coca Cola calls it MezzoMix but it's the same thing, Coke mixed with Fanta. Hhhmmmm!
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.
what a great day
room service looks delish
glad you were able to get your fastpasses signed for the next day
csi miami rocks
pixies for your computer
hurry back with more please
Thanks for the updates - sounds like a great time at Epcot. I wish they would reopen Wonders of Life. I don't understand why they need a sponsor to run a couple of existing attractions. Upgrade, yes, occasionally operate, no. Your pictures of the inside made me sad, I always loved the open and airy feeling of that building. I thought they had completely gutted the interior, so I was surprised to see the Making of Me theater still intact.
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.
I'm back online, thanks to a new computer. The other one that's died is under warranty, but we thought we'd buy a cheap replacement, as we suspect it's going to take some time to get the other one back up and running - it won't re-install Windows and seems to be very unwell and the prospect of a couple of weeks off didn't inspire us, so we now have a back-up to our main one, when that's hopefully back online.
That's the good news... the bad news is that, at the moment, there won't be any trip report updates. As we don't know what caused the other computer to die, I want to get our memory sticks etc. checked to see if there's any virus on them, as we can't afford for this one to be infected. Until I can work out how to do that (any ideas, please let me know!), then I'm not going to risk loading those files into this machine, so please bear with us for a while, as we try and sort these problems out.
Sorry to read of your computer woes. I am anxious for you to finish up this leg of your trip to see how this year's trip to the Left Coast and especially DLR to compare culinary notes. I can't wait for a blow-by-by course description of Napa Rose in particular as I don't believe you were able to fit Wine Country Trattoria in were you?
Maybe it's about time to investigate Apple and i-Macs and/or MacBooks in particular?
So sorry to hear about your computer problems, Chez. I liked your last updates! So you said you liked the soda from Germany at Club Cool, right? Did Mark recognize it at all? It's what he and I had to drink at the restaurant on top of the Bundestag in Berlin Spezi, remember? Coca Cola calls it MezzoMix but it's the same thing, Coke mixed with Fanta. Hhhmmmm!
Neat. Now you say it, I do remember him saying that it tasted like that.
Tuesday 21 October – part one: would you like a second ride?
We had cancelled our original plans to eat at the Captain Grille’s, as we would be out late last night at Narcoosee’s, but not having done that, we decided to walk round there and see if we could have breakfast there. Unsurprisingly, we got in immediately, as it wasn’t busy. It’s a shame it’s not busy, as it’s a lovely setting and offers some more unusual choices.
I went for one of those unusual choices – the crab cakes with hollandaise sauce and it was divine and possibly one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. Mark had the ham and eggs.
It was good to see the place filling up more as we left, as they do deliver really good food here and it’s a shame it’s not more widely used by people.
We walked towards Epcot, getting lots of photos on the way:
As soon as we got into the park, we headed straight to Soarin’. It was just me riding, as Mark had a bit of a thick head this morning, which was a shame. He told me to go ahead and I did. There was a family of three in front of me, who were moving so slowly as we went into the line area. They were really dragging and I’m sorry, but I was not prepared to wait behind them and there was lot of space, so I went past and thought nothing more of it. It turned out they were with the others way ahead of them, who ended up saying I could go ahead of them, which I thanked them for, as I thought that was nice of them. Then I heard a catty comment “well you already cut in front of us”. I’m sorry, but you guys were way slow and you were quite happy to let some of your party get in line up ahead and then catch them up. That bugs me no end and then to be so nasty about it – what small minded horrible people.
When we came to board, I was first in line, so thought I would get row one, but when I told the guy that I was a single rider, he told me to step to one side and he would slot me in. He first put me on row two, which was OK, then he had two couple come up with three on row three, so he asked if I would mind swapping to row three. Well, OK.
As I did, he came up to me and whispered that as I had been so accommodating, would I like to ride again straight after, the second time in two one? Of course I would! He was as good as his word and told me to get up and move forward as soon as I finished the first time and then checked I had done that. It was awesome to be able to ride it twice in a row and the view was very different from both seats. I couldn’t believe how quickly they turned it around as well. As soon as one lot was leaving, the next group were coming in. When I finally came out, I was beaming and Mark was wondering where on earth I had been. I quickly explained and that really set me up for the day.
It was over to Test Track next, where again I rode on my own. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get on this thing, as they had mechanical malfunctions against just before we went into the briefing room. Even when we got in there, we waited ages for the video to start and just before it did, the doors to the waiting area opened again and I thought we would have to leave, but fortunately not and we were soon in our car and off. Despite the earlier problems, we had no such problems on the test track itself and get some good speed up on the race track.
We headed back to the Beach Club to see Art for the first time since we arrived, so I just had to get a photo with him. What I love about him is his overwhelming enthusiasm for the jobs he does. There is another woman who acts as greeter on his days off, but she’s just not the same as him. He’s just so full of love for what he does and genuinely surprised when people recognise him and come up to him. What a gentleman.
We picked up the car, after getting out Halloween party tickets from concierge and then headed over to Animal Kingdom. When we got there, the parking lot looked pretty busy. I guess this is where the crowds are then. So far this trip, we had been really blessed with crowd levels, but it looked like our luck would not hold today.
We got some Photopass pictures as soon as we came in.
Next: can I escape Yak and Yeti in one piece this time?
Great update Cheryl! Sorry about your computer misbehaving--that really stinks.
Your b-fast at the Captain's Grille sounded tasty--I believe I'll have to try crabcakes with "holiday" sauce soon. Was it real crab or that icky-surimi stuff that restaurants sometime try to pass of as crab?
Anyway, nice that you scored two rides in one at Soarin'! (And never mind about the snarky people in line.)
Hope Mark was feeling better by the time you rode EE!
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hhehehehehehehe! 
Just a couple of suggestions for the old one....Come back soon! We had a blast with the two of you!
Spezi, remember? Coca Cola calls it MezzoMix but it's the same thing, Coke mixed with Fanta. Hhhmmmm!
The other one that's died is under warranty, but we thought we'd buy a cheap replacement, as we suspect it's going to take some time to get the other one back up and running - it won't re-install Windows and seems to be very unwell and the prospect of a couple of weeks off didn't inspire us, so we now have a back-up to our main one, when that's hopefully back online. 
Maybe it's about time to investigate Apple and i-Macs and/or MacBooks in particular? 
Now you say it, I do remember him saying that it tasted like that. 
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