You just lost your job, where are you going next?! DISNEY WORLD - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great pictures! If you want to post a lot of pictures, I suggest that you upload them to an outside source (either Photobucket or Shutterfly), and then just link them to the boards. It's must easier to link than it is to upload pictures if you have a lot of them!
Thanks, Marnie! Do you know if that works with Snapfish? That's where the photos are right now.....
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every single time i read a trip report or a dining report that includes via napoli, i wonder why i've not made reservations there for either of my upcoming trips. you may have tipped the scale--i'm going to check to see if i can change one of my epcot reservations! i think 'ricotta donuts' did it!
great TR so far--can't wait to read more! (as a side note, i can't imbed pics, either!)
Thanks, Marnie! Do you know if that works with Snapfish? That's where the photos are right now.....
That I don't know. I'd go down to the Testing Forum and get a link from one of your pictures, and play around with it to see if you can get it to work. See if they give you an IMG code, which you can just copy and paste into the text box, or if they don't, try putting the URL into the box when you click on the icon of the mountain/sun right above the text box.
every single time i read a trip report or a dining report that includes via napoli, i wonder why i've not made reservations there for either of my upcoming trips. you may have tipped the scale--i'm going to check to see if i can change one of my epcot reservations! i think 'ricotta donuts' did it!
great TR so far--can't wait to read more! (as a side note, i can't imbed pics, either!)
First, glad to hear I could sway you to Via Napoli. Hope you love it as much as I did!
Second, glad this photo thing isn't just me! I so love reading reports that have lots of pictures, and I am a huge photo-person (our 4 day trip to DW had almost 1000 pics!), so would love to share more than the 5 little thumbnails per post I've figured out. Not to mention, I am almost to my limit on how many pics I can have stored on PP!
That I don't know. I'd go down to the Testing Forum and get a link from one of your pictures, and play around with it to see if you can get it to work. See if they give you an IMG code, which you can just copy and paste into the text box, or if they don't, try putting the URL into the box when you click on the icon of the mountain/sun right above the text box.
Thanks, Marnie! I will certainly give that a try!!
Enjoying your report, we arrived on 1/28 for the week - wasn't the weather great. We are going back and you have me convinced to try Via Napoli. I love artichokes.
That I don't know. I'd go down to the Testing Forum and get a link from one of your pictures, and play around with it to see if you can get it to work. See if they give you an IMG code, which you can just copy and paste into the text box, or if they don't, try putting the URL into the box when you click on the icon of the mountain/sun right above the text box.
LOOK OUT WORLD, that worked!!! So be prepared for a photo extravaganza!!
Our room at VWL - a studio (clearly!)
Linguini Frutti di Mare at Via Napoli
The chicken rigatoni pasta, Via Napoli
Pistachio gelato
Loved this photo from Spaceship Earth, showing the kids' future:
Some of the delicious treats at the Karmel Kuche:
OK, you may not be able to tell by the picture, but this woman ends up balancing - on another woman, soley by the mouthpiece thing!! And at the same time, spinning cloths on her hands & feet! WOW!
La Hacienda Platter (for two):
Carmel Apple Empanada w/vanilla bean ice cream:
OK, probably enough photos from day one! I need to work on day 2 now!
Sunday, January 30 The kids in front of the pool at WL - steam rising, as it was still chilly out
Early morning shot of the Wilderness Lodge - so pretty!
Today the plan was to get to the Magic Kingdom in time for the opening ceremony. We were all up in plenty of time, miraculously, and down to the boat dock by 8:10. There was a boat docked there, with 4 people fishing – clearly a “charter” trip. We were hoping that at some point they got to leave the dock, as it didn’t really seem worth the price to pay for a fishing trip and stay at the dock all day! But we did get to see them catch a couple of fairly good size fish.
After a while, we started to wonder where the boat was, as we’d been standing there for quite some time. A boat had already come to head across to the Contemporary, and a number of us were saying we should have hopped that boat, and then taken the monorail to MK. There was a family there with 3 small girls and an ADR at CRT to get to, so they were getting a bit anxious about that. Finally, a SMALL boat showed up, and the CM got off and came over to our now LOOOONNNNGGGG line. (we were the 2nd or 3rd family in line, but the line stretched more than the length of the dock by now) She said “I’m sorry this is the first I’ve been able to get here, but the boats are not running this morning, due to the fog.” WHAT?!?! OK, yes, there was fog, but not 10 minutes ago, a boat had been here for the Contemporary. How could they be running, but the route to MK be down?
You can see how foggy it is in this picture
As a result, the entire line turned and made their way to the buses. And, since we were one of the first in line for the boats, we were one of the last to get to the buses. It was now about 8:35, so we knew there was no way we’d be making it in time for the opening ceremony. I will admit engaging in a bit of a pity party for myself at that point.
So, we finally get on a bus a bit before 8:45, and soon realize that no, this is not a direct to MK bus. I don’t know if WL shares a route with other properties during more peak times of the year, but it certainly seemed to be the case in late January – we never rode a bus from WL that went directly where we wanted to go. It either made a stop at Fort Wilderness, or at the Grand Floridian. And, the bus frequency seemed to be less than we’ve experienced at the same time of the year on other properties. That was definitely something we did not like about WL.
Missed that opening ceremony
We finally got to MK about 9:10 I think, and made our way back toward BTMRR. You see, DS had decided he was going to try all the roller coasters, after his Test Track success the day before! DD was over the moon about this! While there was a good-sized crowd on Main Street, once we got back to Frontierland, it was pretty empty.
Made the family stop for a quick shot in front of the castle!
We did walk past Splash Mountain, and look hopefully to see if maybe, just maybe, they were thinking about reopening 2 days early, and actually had our hopes up for a bit. As we watched, logs started going down the big drop, no water running. Then all of a sudden, whoosh, WATER!!! Could it be that I would be able to ride my FAVORITE ride afterall?!?! We saw a CM and asked whether there was a teeny tiny chance of a soft opening. Nope. Not open for guests until February 1.
We spotted Donald Duck with no one waiting, so got some pictures taken.
Then we saw Woody & Jesse, and DD had her picture taken with them as well.
On to BTMRR!! DH & I found a bench right outside the exit and waited for the kids. There was absolutely no wait at all, so in no time, they were exiting the ride, and DS had another HUGE goofy grin on his face! He loved this ride more than TT!
They rode a second time before we all decided it was time to get some breakfast! We walked back to Main Street, as we wanted to eat at the bakery. On the way, we had the STRANGEST sighting EVER at Disney World!! As we were walking around the castle a squirrel shot across the path in front of us, CARRYING A BONE BIGGER THAN HE WAS!! Yes, you read that right, A BONE!!! It was HUGE. It took a minute, but then I realized, it was probably a turkey leg bone. It all happened so fast, and he disappeared with his treasure into the bushes, so I don’t have a picture to share. But the rest of the trip we teased the kids about the carnivorous squirrels of the Magic Kingdom!
Breakfast was yummy, and took 1 QS for each of us. I had a croissant and a bowl of grapes, as well as a latte, while everyone else had an egg, ham & cheese croissant sandwich and some kind of milk (chocolate for the kids, “plain” for DH).
I’m not sure of the order of our next stops, but know we did Peter Pan, Snow White (had to, since it’s disappearing soon),
Philharmagic (LOVE THAT SHOW!), Small World, Haunted Mansion (where we were stopped mid-ride a few minutes, luckily, overlooking the ballroom) and then another train ride for the kids on BTMRR. MK had extra magic until 10 pm that night, and we had 5 pm dinner reservations at Akershus (Epcot), so we decided this would be a great time to head back to the hotel to spend the afternoon at the pool. We took the boat (the fog had lifted by now!) and while DH went back to bed, the kids and I went to the pool. We were so disappointed about the construction going on at WL. It meant there was no hot tub (where I’d planned to sit), and the geyser wasn’t working. The kids also didn’t think much of the slide – too small compared to some of the other pools on property.
DD ended up getting a hair wrap, and DS, of course, had to eat again! He had the barbeque chicken pizza at Roaring Forks, while DD & I shared a cheese one.
Before we knew it, it was time to make our way to Epcot. We again had a fair wait for a bus at WL, and made a stop at Fort Wilderness before heading over. I had planned enough time to account for that, though, so we arrived in Norway a few minutes ahead of our ADR.
As you enter the restaurant, you stop for a photo op with one of the princesses. (And included in the price of your meal is a 5x7 of the picture, as well as 4 smaller versions!) When we arrived it was Belle, so DH was happy, as B&TB is his favorite movie of all time!
Photo taken, you are seated at your table. This is a 1 TS meal, and includes more than many. Prior to your main course, you are able to enjoy the buffet that has salads, cheeses, meats and bread. I had a delicious beet & apple salad, some chicken salad, and green salad with a zinfandel vinaigrette. I also had some Muenster cheese with a roll.
The rest of my family thoroughly enjoyed the multiple kinds of salmon available. Then we ordered entrees. I ordered the Mushroom Stuffed Pasta, which was outstanding!!
It had kale with it, and I’ll admit to never having that before. Now, I’m searching for recipes as it was so yummy! The other three at our table all ordered the Traditional Kjottkake - Ground Beef and Pork Dumplings served with Mashed Potatoes, seasonal Vegetables, and Lingonberry Sauce.
Now, in our house, a dumpling is a jiao zi, or Chinese dumpling. So I think they were all expecting something like that. But what arrived was like a meatball on steroids! There were two “dumplings” on each plate, and each one must have easily been two pounds! They all found them to be far too heavy, and DD wasn’t sure she liked anything about them. She far preferred MY meal!! So, she had half my pasta, and I tried one of her “dumplings”. I also found them a bit on the heavy side, and the sauce was applied with too heavy a hand as well. Oh well, more room for dessert! I did wonder afterward if they would have allowed DD to trade her meal for the pasta dish, if she’d said she just didn’t like it. We didn’t ask. For dessert, they serve family style, with a plate that has 3 different desserts.
They said they would bring more of anything if we needed it, but given how heavy those meatballs had been, the three small portions were more than enough for the four of us! There was a chocolate mousse cake, a rice pudding with berry sauce, and a puff pastry shell filled with mixed berries. All three were quite good, although the puff pastry was my favorite. During the meal, there are princesses coming by for photos. We saw Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Ariel, as well as Belle. We realized, our kids are not as excited anymore about the character meals. Just another reason we’re renting 3 & 4 year olds for our next trip!! Although DS did get very sheepish when Ariel stopped by – he must like redheads!
After our meal, it was time to head back to MK. The first thing we saw when we walked back through the gates was PLUTO!! DD screamed and ran to get in line (she does love that dog!)
We decided that the kids would go their way – they had a date with Space Mountain, and DH & I would find a spot on Main Street to watch the new show and Wishes. We felt very safe letting the kids “do their own thing” this trip. They had a phone and I had a phone, so we knew they could reach us at any point, and with so many trips to the World, they know their way around quite well. They apparently rode SM 5 or 6 times while we watched the shows. The new memories show they do (with the scenes projected on to the castle) was AMAZING!! I got some video, and lots of pictures, but it’s one of those things you just have to see in person. Can you tell that's Walt?
Of course I cried…
Then Wishes began, and I cried some more! DH was happy as we’d found a spot right in the middle of Main Street. He has this thing about symmetry, so isn’t happy if we’re too far to one side or the other. Claims it interferes with his enjoyment of the show! (He’s an engineer, what can I say?!)
When Wishes ended, we did some shopping on Main Street. It was nice to do this just the two of us, as we could look at the things WE wanted to see! We got a cute t-shirt for DD, and a vinylmation Mickey for DS that looks like a soccer ball. We also got a Mickey decal for the back window of DH’s SUV. We already have the DVC member one on one side, so this will give more symmetry to the car! (told you he has a thing about that!!) Our best purchase, though, had to be the etched crystal "thingy" we got at Arribas. Using the photo I had JUST taken tonight of DD & Pluto, they etched that into a crystal thing. We will give it to her for her birthday in March. So excited about that!!
We met up with the kids, and it was about 9:30 now. They’d just finished doing BTMRR several times, and loved it in the dark! DS also said he loved Space Mountain (we still aren’t sure that he wasn’t a pod-person. How could our formerly ride-phobic son be enjoying all these thrill rides?!). We made our way over to POTC, and spent some time with our buddy Cap’n Jack Sparrow. Never get tired of that ride! Then we had the shocking realization that we had not yet had Dole Whip!! That needed rectifying immediately! Love that stuff – and while I’ve been jealous to read that folks have found it outside of Disney World, I think it may be a good thing that I am limited to having it only when at the World! Apparently I was too busy eating it to remember to take a picture, though!
Since we were working 2 parks in to the day tomorrow, we decided not to hold out until 11 pm and closing. We made our way out to the boat dock, and after a short ride, we were back at our hotel by 10:45 or so. We spotted a bit of the water parade on the way, but my pictures are a bit on the blurry side.
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Pixie Dust
the food photos. The strawberries look amazing where was that?
Sammi
and DS, of course, had to eat again! He had the barbeque chicken pizza at Roaring Forks, while DD & I shared a cheese one. 
Can you tell that's Walt?
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