A Few of My Favorite Things & a Race, too! - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You did a fantastic time partying with the villains!! Love your pages of the race. I think I think them best too as they mean alot to you and what you had to go through to complete the race!!
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All caught up... what a finish!
It is a huge mix of emotions when you're alone at the finish line. Been there done that, and will do it again. But the first time is the hardest. And especially for you with the mess of the last year. Where to go, what to feel, smile? Talk to strangers? Just keep walking? Wha....???? I completely understand.
Soooo glad Cammy wasn't too far behind you so you could complete that with a friend after all.
So proud of everything you accomplished! It's a great feeling - that first race. You'll never forget it. And the rest of your future races will forever be compared to this one. Some will be better, some won't even come close to that happy feeling. You're right, it's amazing what you can learn about yourself from simply running - and finishing - a race alone. It's not always a bad thing. After all, running is more of a solo sport anyway. I think it makes you a stronger person, no matter what. Because there you are, out there running/training, alone. Just you and your thoughts. You just learn more about yourself and become more confident about yourself. And I think you've done both quite well.
Just hope that decision to skip the ice bath doesn't come back to haunt you, but I think I know how that will end. I skipped one after Wine and Dine. Yeeaahhh........
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
After getting to bed around 5 am, I was still up pretty early; actually I don’t think I slept at all. Once I stopped my whole body went into rebellion mode telling me it did NOT like the 10 miles and the Villain party. Really if I could have just cut off my feet at my ankles I would have been okay. My feet were throbbing like I have never felt before…deep sharp throbs. Tossing and turning for 3 hours I finally gave up and begin trying to be quiet rummaging in my suitcase trying to find my Biofreeze, with no success on finding it or being quiet. Waking Cammy up we decided to get back and savor what few hours we have left in WDW.
After the comment about Michael Jackson from Cammy, I knew I had to drown my sorrows by finishing up a few stops that we had missed Wednesday during F&W. Our first stop was at Hawaii, where we shared a Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney & Spicy Mayonnaise.
It was so yummy. Next it was on to Canada. I was really looking forward to trying the offerings here, just because I have never seemed to get and ADR for Le Cellier and here I could get the things I had been wanting to try off the menu without have an ADR….Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup and “Le Cellier” Wild Mushrooms Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce.
Neither of us were very impressed with either dish. The filet was good, but I certainly have had better and the soup was really salty. We did a little looking around Canada, but honestly we were so wiped out that nothing was holding our attention very long. Our next food stop was at the refreshment port, were I HAD to try the special dole whip for the Food & Wine, Orange Dole Whip with Crème de Cacao White.
I was not impressed, not a huge fan of orange and chocolate, plus the liquor was really overpowering the dole whip soft serve. Just give me a dole whip float any day (now had this been flower and garden…the spice rum would have been much better). We slowly made our way towards the UK, but stopped first to savor the griddled cheese at Greece.
WOW, this was awesome! I could have had several more servings of this! I loved the sweetness of the honey and the saltiness of the cheese and pistachios nuts! After looking around in the UK we decided we were done snacking and wanted more of a meal. I decided that I needed some fish and chips from Yorkshire.
The fish and chips are one of my favorite foods when eating around the world…and with a little malt vinegar they are amazing, a real comfort food for me, but not so much Cammy. She headed to Mexico for some comfort food...
A taco hamburger and some churros! We sat in Mexico for awhile soaking in the last few minutes of our trip, before heading back towards the entrance. But just was we were about to exit we realized we had forgotten something…YIKES the knee scooter that we had left in stroller parking in front of TT. So back we went with rebelling legs. Knee stroller in possession Cammy happy made her way out of Epcot with me dragging behind.
When we boarded the bus, I got a text from Betsy telling us that she would meet us at CBR to say goodbye. We arrived back at the Customs House to wait for ME with plenty of time to spare and being as exhausted as we were we just kind of sat there in a zombie like stance. The trip and the race was quickly catching up with us. Betsy arrived just as the ME was pulling up to take us to the airport.
I gave her a little present that I had made for her, hugged, and reminded each other that it would be February 2015 before we knew it! We boarded and waved to Betsy as ME pulled away, making it once again the saddest ride in all of WDW.
I don’t remember a lot of the plane trip back home, other than making a mess with biofreeze all over the place as I tried to find some relief for my aching legs! We arrived in Denver to make our connection home right on time, and then landed 45 minutes later, gathered our bags and headed home, then back at school the next morning.
What a shame to see this come to an end. I loved the page you did - so much went into that, I studied it for quite some time, just taking in all the details. And how on earth did I miss that Dole Whip? I think I even knew that it was there, but never got one!
See, that's why I don't like night races (says the girl who just signed up for ToT). The whole sleeping afterwards at 3 or 5 am thing simply doesn't work!! Your legs get soooo sore from lack of... well, I dont know. All I know is my body was more sore after the night race W&D 13.1 miles than after the Goofy 39.3 miles. And you still managed to get up in the morning and head out to Epcot. Hats off to you and Cammy. Wow!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Great last few hours at Disney! I had the Dole Whip at F&G last year, it was the same thing Dole Whip and Alcohol - no real combination and just a puddle of rum at the bottom
Can't believe this trip is over, but I'm excited to hear the announcement! All your F&WF pics have made me ready to head back in for some delicious foods.
Great last day. Not sure how you girls were able to even walk much go as far as you did. Nice catch on the scooter. You are so right about that being the WORST ride at WDW.