How to Meet Friends and Alienate Children - *Updated 8/10* - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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OMG Tasteykakes. I ate em in Catholic School in the middle 1960's, and ate them through my first pregnancy in 1990. Butterscotch krimpets, Peanut Butter Tandykakes (3 to a sleeve), Jelly Krimpets, Koffee Kakes, The Three Chocolate Cupcakes. The moistness of the cake. The richness of the frosting. Hostess can't compete. I can air scent them like a drug sniffing dog. Protect them in your suitcase like the valuables that they are!
There's a TastyKake retailer/general store just 1/4 of a mile from my house. All I have to say is - TastyKake Chocolate Eclair Pies. There is no yummy goodness to match the awesome yummy goodness of the Chocolate Eclair Pie. We have friends who moved down to North Carolina several years ago. DH often sends them both pictures via email of TastyKakes and Yuengling beer.
You're a very good friend to bring along the TastyKakes without eating them on the way.
If I can figure out where the USB drive is on my work computer (???) I'll be able to upload the start of the TR that I did while waiting in the SFO airport yesterday....
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Day T-Minus Two and T-Minus One – February 22nd & 23rd
I don’t panic about packing anymore ‘cause I really have it down to a science for a Disney trip. Add to that the fact that I was traveling solo and didn’t need to worry about packing all the mechanical crud of a 40 year old man or the mechanical crud of a 10 year old boy…so, I thought I was “aces” in my pre-trip preparation -- my laundry was almost done and I had thrown a few things into the guest bedroom over the past two weeks. Even my suitcase was already sitting there, waiting.
Well, imagine my surprise when, on Thursday night the phone rings while I’m casually watching the last few minutes of Grey’s Anatomy. Bob picks up and I hear “Great… that sounds terrific! I’m really looking forward to it.” When he hung up, I asked for the details. “Oh, my brother and his family are coming down for the weekend.”
If one were watching me closely, they would’ve seen my eyebrow twitch, but not much else. Since my nieces always have ballet on Saturday mornings, they never arrive from NYC until after lunch – Bob could make excuses for the dog hair rhinos on the living room floor while giving the bathrooms a quick wipe down. (If I’m not there to be embarrassed, I could care less what the house looks like!) I smiled serenely. “That’s a shame – I’ll have to miss their visit… seeing as how my flight leaves PHL at 8AM Saturday morning.” A big smile split Bob’s face – “That’s the beauty of it… you WILL get to see them. They’re coming tomorrow night around dinner time!”
Okay, this time… people from space could see my reaction!
Are you kidding me?! I wasn’t packed and Bob had been working until 9PM every night for two weeks! How was I supposed to get myself and the house ready for guests with that short notice? Plus, the guest bedroom was currently Mission Control for the trip and the dining room had been overrun by our after-school program teaching Lego Robotics.
Grrrr….
Before going to bed, I finished up my laundry and randomly threw everything (including stuff I wasn’t planning on taking to CA) into the one suitcase and yanked it out of the guest bedroom. I climbed into bed and started thinking about all the things that I hadn’t yet done for the trip. After a frustrating hour of lying there, I gave up and tromped down the hallway to the office to print out boarding passes and Mousekeeping envelopes, t-shirt transfers and the million other things I had scheduled for the next evening. Finally, at 2:30AM, I got through my list of To Do’s and was able to successfully close my eyes.
On Friday, Calder had early morning band practice, so I got to work extra early. Great!! I would get all my projects done and could be out early enough to run the last of my errands. My boss had other ideas. Suddenly, I was researching 42 months of phone bills for some stupid telephone excise tax credit, which had me so busy that I didn’t even get lunch and I only made it out of the office at the absolute drop-dead time for picking Calder up at school. We dashed home and I assigned him to wiping down the bathrooms while I tried to consolidate all the robotics kits so that our dining table could be returned to its original purpose. Then I basically raced around like the proverbial headless chicken while I got the house ready for extended-family habitation.
My perennially late BIL called with the news that they were making great time on the NJ turnpike and had decided not to grab dinner on the way -- they’d arrive even sooner than I expected!
Which, if you’re paying close attention, meant that I would be responsible for putting dinner together now… Herrmmmm… this wasn’t looking good for me!
I called Bob and told him that the timetable had been moved up and that he needed to pick up something for dinner on his way home. That’s when he dropped the bomb that the ride he was prepping for training wasn’t cooperating… he’d be home late that night.
I’m sure you can guess how well THAT went over with me.
The Lloyds of NY arrived and I enjoyed talking to them and getting caught up with my nieces. Dinner was retrieved from the local pizza parlor and Bob arrived just as they were ready to settle into a long chat.
At 10:30, I had to excuse myself to start packing. After trying to focus my brain to arrange my bag for the San Francisco portion and the DLR portion, I gave up and decided to add my smaller suitcase into the mix and completely overpacked.
By midnight, I set my alarm for 5:30 and tried to fall asleep. When Bob came up from playing video games with his brother until 2AM, I woke up fully and lay there, desperately afraid that I’d oversleep and miss my 6AM pick-up time.
After getting a grand total of 7 hours of sleep over the past 48 hours, I figured I’d be able to snooze well in my fancy schmancy First Class non-stop seat.
Nina picked me up right on time and I got to the airport without a hassle. After standing in the security line for 10 minutes, I finally realized that there was a special line for First Class passengers. Woo hooo! I zoomed through security like the star that I am!! (**FAB-u-lous!!**)
At the gate, I started watching CNN, only to see a piece about how the FAA was concerned about maintenance procedures on older airlines. Zoiks, I decided to ignore what they were saying and started reading the text crawl instead. “USAirways buying older jets from defunct airlines – passengers getting concerned.”
I shut my eyes hard and decided the news was not conducive to peaceful sleep. (Although, I have to admit that this flight was the first time that I paid close attention to the safety procedure warnings!)
I boarded the plane and settled into my window seat, forgetting that an essential part of my promise to Joan was still in my laptop bag up in the bin. (My dear, silly friend had determined that I simply MUST wear my tiara in first class and get my picture taken for all my PassPorter friends!) Before I could hop up to get it, my row mate sat down – a very haughty metrosexual guy with perfectly polished nails and perfectly distressed designer jeans. I suddenly felt very frumpy in my comfy travel clothes. It's also when I realized that, in my sleep deprived state, I'd forgotten to change out of my Birkenstock garden shoes. Oh, well, I’d get the tiara and my camera at some point during the 6 hour flight – he had to go to the bathroom EVENTUALLY!
Five minutes before we were to pull back from the gate, the pilot came aboard and revealed that USAirways and AmericaWest were having trouble with the merge of their computer systems and they didn’t have the documents required for take-off. We’d be there at least an hour while the computers came back up.
My body gave up the ghost and I fell asleep in three seconds flat.
So, when I woke with a big snort 40 minutes later and wiped away the drool as the metro guy gave me a hard stare for my crassness, I knew that I would not be able to pull off that tiara – it’d have to wait for the return flight.
Due to the turbulence, we were given the go-ahead to fly at a higher altitude and our pilot was able to make up all but 15 minutes of our initial delay.
My sister and her kids were waiting for me at baggage claim and I had a fabu time with them through Sunday afternoon. Their new puppy was sweet as peach pie and, despite piddling down my nightgown at 5AM when I took her outside, Addie the labrador had me wrapped around her finger in an instant. My hopes for taking advantage of San Fran’s awesome ethnic foods were crushed when we ended up at Chinese and Mexican places – both of which I can get at home.
The “drug deal” switch was set-up for Sausalito and it was a bittersweet moment for me – saying goodbye to my sister was sad, but seeing Karen again was completely joyous! (And she looked very dashing in her green scarf – tied in the Euro style – with her Starbucks coffee cup.) We made room in her car (around the bags and bags of al-kee-hol) for my luggage and she took me on a scenic route through the Golden Gate Park to her house. I completely freaked out when I saw the herd of buffalo munching away in a field!
Zack greeted us at the door and I was shocked to find myself looking up a half inch to his eyes. He had grown at least three inches since June! I love that stage when boys look like they’ve been in a taffy-pulling machine. I met Karen’s sister Alice (of “Alice in Wonderland Elizabeth Weiss” fame!) and we bonded while mocking Meryl Streep for rearranging her bra strap during the red carpet interview pre-Oscars.
Karen made burritos for dinner (Mexican again!!) and then she set to packing, while Zack and I mocked each other and admired his Legos. Then, after a quick trip to Stanford to earn Brownie points with her boss, Karen and I were ready for our travels and were able to crash.
Eileen - back! Glad to see the TR has started. I get really crabby when my well thought out plans get thrown to the wind right before a major event (like a girl's trip to DL! ). I think you handled it with much more class than I would of! Hope you got some rest on the plane.
I woke to the sound of rain at one point, but otherwise managed to get a good night’s sleep. Karen had made peanut butter Mickey waffles and they were delish! Zack started messing with Karen that we were the ones making him late for school – and not that it’d taken him ten minutes to brush his mop of hair!
Now, I’m shameless when it comes to making teenagers laugh and I will go beyond my normally strict politically correct boundaries if it gets a giggle out of Zack. So, despite much head shaking from Karen, Zack and I started in on a whole riff of blaming his tardiness on his “tardy Aunt Eileen” – said in a cringingly bad slurred voice with accompanying facial contortions that are truly a sight to behold. Zack loved it and was totally unable to maintain his teenager cool whenever I pulled the “tardy” voice out of my arsenal.
After the school drop (where many comments were made about Aunt Tardy traveling on the “short bus” to school -- I know, I know… it’s execrable and I’m ashamed to relate it too you, except that it became a theme over the week at DLR), Karen and I got to Stanford so she could put in a last few hours of work. I got to see Olivia again (from the December trip) and I was blessed with an elevator ride up to the top the Hoover Tower for a grand view of the campus and the surrounding hills. It was gorgeous!!
Finally, we were able to set out on our journey down the coast and I think, once we were out of the major metropolitan areas, every other sentence out of my mouth was punctuated by the word “WOW!” I have to say that the California coast is one pretty drive! Orchards, hills, grassland, cliffs, high sea views, cows, sheep, goats, vinyards… it was like a week of travel through Europe all smooshed into one day. Plus, I had one of my favorite travel partners trapped in a little car – the conversation was fast, wordy, intense and hysterical… PERFECTION! When Zack called after school, he tried to get Karen to do “the Tardy voice” and she just handed the phone over to me!
We stopped once at a Starbucks and grabbed coffee (where I showed my complete lack of the coffee lingo and had to ask what a “macchiato” was…) and some delicious sandwiches. We stopped once again at Pismo Beach to stretch our legs by a big eucalyptus grove that smelled delicious – exactly like the section in Soarin’. One last stop was made for gas before we finally got to our hotel in Ventura. It was a Holiday Inn Express that must’ve formerly been something a little higher up in the hotel hierarchy because our room was enormous and very chi-chi poo-poo! Karen and I got the giggles because our soap was marked with the word “cleanse,” the shampoo with “scrub” and the mouthwash with “refresh.” I turned to Karen and told her I was glad they didn’t supply tampons or I’d never be able to keep a straight face.
We took off for a quick dinner at the In & Out burger. Karen commented to our cashier that I was an I&O Burger virgin and poor Evan tried not to laugh. When he asked us if we wanted onions, Karen told him that we weren’t planning on any kissing so, go ahead! I quipped, “We aren’t? Darn!”
So, if you stop in Ventura, CA for a burger, please know that Evan thinks we’re lesbians.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
[Up next: "One or less people in the carpool lane...."]
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I would have thrown the holiest of $#!+fits had my husband sprung the family on me in such short notice. Glad you've made it to Cali safe and sound, I agree, peanut butter pancakes sound divine. I'll keep that in mind if I ever see Evan from In and Out Burger...though I think your secret is safe with me as I'm a vegetarian from New England. Great start, can't wait for more!!!
Oh I hate sitting next to metrosexual men in pressed jeans. They just don't get the point of traveling comfortably. I bet he wouldn't wipe his hands on his pants either.
I just laughed out loud hysterically over the "named" products. Would the TP be labeled "Wipe"????
Oh my after laughing so hard the last week, I wasn't sure I had any more in me. I think I'll just break down and put on the Depends. Ok, I've seen the "tardy" face on many occasions and I laugh just thinking about it.
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Me, either, Karen! 
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All I have to say is - TastyKake Chocolate Eclair Pies. There is no yummy goodness to match the awesome yummy goodness of the Chocolate Eclair Pie. We have friends who moved down to North Carolina several years ago. DH often sends them both pictures via email of TastyKakes and Yuengling beer. 
Herrmmmm… this wasn’t looking good for me!
Oh, well, I’d get the tiara and my camera at some point during the 6 hour flight – he had to go to the bathroom EVENTUALLY!
back! Glad to see the TR has started. I get really crabby when my well thought out plans get thrown to the wind right before a major event (like a girl's trip to DL! 
Glad you've made it to Cali safe and sound, I agree, peanut butter pancakes sound divine. I'll keep that in mind if I ever see Evan from In and Out Burger...though I think your secret is safe with me as I'm a vegetarian from New England. Great start, can't wait for more!!!
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