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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Portillo's looks so interesting! I'm sure you noticed the rooms above the conservatory at the Opryland Hotel. I've been lucky enough to stay in one twice. One of my favorite hotels outside of WDW.
Portillo's looks so interesting! I'm sure you noticed the rooms above the conservatory at the Opryland Hotel. I've been lucky enough to stay in one twice. One of my favorite hotels outside of WDW.
Mine, too! Especially after staying at the Hyatt Place across the street! We stayed at the Gaylord the first time we went to Nashville and I told Muffin the only way I will go back is to stay here again!! ( or maybe if he promised to go back to the Nashville Zoo-Hello AK in Tennessee!!)
Today, Muffin had to make one sales call in Nashville and then he would be done for the remainder of the trip! His call was not until 12 PM so we went downstairs for a nice breakfast and then went to the Opry Mills mall.
We walked around the mall for an hour or so and he left me there to go to Madame Tussaud’s. Yes, there is a Madame Tussaud’s in the mall! It was strictly dedicated to the music industry and honestly, I did not know what to expect. I was so pleasantly surprised!!
It costs 24.95 for admission and you go in through a small entrance in the mall. As soon as you get inside, there are a few hallways that you can take and a door that opens every 5 minutes or so.
Once inside the door, I realized that this is a fairly large museum! I walked into what looked like a living room with several sofas. There was a huge fireplace curtain covering an entire wall and a door on the other side of the room, which was closed. So, of course I sat down on one of the sofas!
An entrance hall:
Bob Dylan does not look happy
Billie Holiday looks a little more cheerful
Hank Williams
This is where you wait by the door
The sofa room
The fireplace
Then somehow, the fireplace turns into a projection screen and there is a short movie on the history of music which I found very interesting! After the movie, the back door opens and you come out into the actual exhibit area.
Patsy Cline had her own studio
George Jones
I think this is Shorty somebody, but I liked his outfit!
I am actually not a big country music girl but maybe you guys know who this guy is. I know I’ve seen that car before.
These guys I know:
Minnie Pearl
Loretta Lynn
Kenny Rodgers before his eye lift!
Lynn Anderson
Elvis
B.B. King
Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Stevie Wonder and Tara O’Hara
Kid Rock
The Boss
Bruce Springsteen and Tara O’Hara
Me and J.T.
Katy Perry
Miley Cyrus
Bruno Mars
Beyonce
Faith Hill
Tim McGraw
Keith Urban
It was great visit and it took me about two hours to walk the whole museum!
It was a beautiful day so I decided to walk back by way of the Grand Ole Opry. We went here last time, so I didn’t go in but even the grounds are beautiful!
I, of course, had to do a little shopping so I went back to the Gaylord and bought a really pretty pair of elephant earrings and a necklace and then I went to the Falls again for a glass of wine.
Then I went to Findlay’s Irish Pub for lunch. I got a delicious pub burger and fries and a coke and had a great conversation with the guy sitting next to me at the bar.
On the way out I saw a guy that looked just like Santa Claus and I asked if I could get a picture with him and his wife:
I walked back from the Gaylord and right at that time, Muffin texted me and told me he was on his way back. I told him to just meet me at the Hyatt. When he got there, we got ready for dinner and guess where he wanted to go for a drink?!
So! We sure got our use out of the Gaylord without staying here! This time, we went to Solario Cantina. This is a beautiful Mexican restaurant and I had an excellent margarita here! Muffin got a glass of wine.
Then it was time for our dinner reservation at the Aquarium Restaurant, which was right at Opry Mills. We had a delicious meal here and shared a bottle of wine. We both had salmon for dinner and it was cooked perfectly! The restaurant really is a giant aquarium and it was very cool!
After dinner, we drove back to the Hyatt and then took a nice walk. We watched a little TV and then went to sleep.
What a great day you had! It's been more than 10 years since we last went to a Madame Tussaud's and I do remember being a bit disappointed by the quality of the waxworks, but those look way better than the ones we saw. I bet they've improved their techniques over the last few years....
Love your jellyfish hat!
Some of those wax figures looked super real. I’ve never been in a Madame Tussaud’s. But Kenny Rogers looks BETTER than he does in real life!
What an awesome day! The wax museum looked like a lot of fun!
I'm guessing the unknown figure next to the car is Waylon Jennings as the car is the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. And I believe He's the one who sang the theme song.
What a great day you had! It's been more than 10 years since we last went to a Madame Tussaud's and I do remember being a bit disappointed by the quality of the waxworks, but those look way better than the ones we saw. I bet they've improved their techniques over the last few years....
Some looked better than others at the wax. Use up, but you could at least tell who everyone was.. It was a fun day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Love your jellyfish hat!
Some of those wax figures looked super real. I’ve never been in a Madame Tussaud’s. But Kenny Rogers looks BETTER than he does in real life!
Thanks, Colleen!. The wax museum was totally cool and I agree about poor Kenny!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
What an awesome day! The wax museum looked like a lot of fun!
I'm guessing the unknown figure next to the car is Waylon Jennings as the car is the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. And I believe He's the one who sang the theme song.
Another great day! I've wondered about that museum. Now I know it is quite well done. We might have to try that sometime. The restaurants at Opryland hotel are so cool!
What a great day! Love the pictures from Madame Tussaud's! Your dinner restaurant looks great!
Thanks, Marnie! . It really was a terrific day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Another great day! I've wondered about that museum. Now I know it is quite well done. We might have to try that sometime. The restaurants at Opryland hotel are so cool!
You definitely should try to and I loved the restaurants! You are so lucky to live where you do!! I so hope we can get back sometime!
Although today was our last day of vacation, our flight home was not until 9:30 PM tonight. This meant we had a full day to tour! In fact, I had to split this day in two to share, we did so much!
Part 1-The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere
We got up, had a nice breakfast and checked out of our hotel. We loaded up the rental car and then went to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. We didn’t know much about this zoo before coming here but read great reviews. We, as you know, are animal people, so we thought why not give it a try? To to mention it was another gorgeous day!!
As soon as we pulled into the Zoo, which was only about 6 miles from where we were staying, we were impressed. The road back to the Zoo entrance is like the road into AK. We got there just after it opened, so we easily found a parking spot in the huge lot.
Again, this Zoo, even at the entrance immediately put me in mind of AK and I got more and more excited!! When we went to buy our tickets, the lady there was so nice! The total price for the two of us to get in was 36 bucks, but Muffin mentioned that we belonged to the Philly Zoo and that immediately brought the price down to 21 bucks with free parking! We didn’t even have our zoo pass with us!!
The Zoo is set on 200 acres and is mostly open air with very few caged animals. In fact, I can only think of a few that I saw outside. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous and there are trails that you walk. The Zoo is divided into three walking paths including Zoo Central, the Jungle Loop and the Savannah Loop.
We started out in Zoo Central to begin our journey.
Can you see this guy?
Next we headed to the Jungle Loop. Just like at Disney, the landscape gradually changes to lots of bamboo and lush greenery.
This was my favorite area!! We walked through a gate and there were kangaroos everywhere!! Out in the open!!!! We watched them digging, hopping and eating!! I even got to pet one!! The zookeepers explained that they were all females and were quite docile. As long as you stayed on the path and didn’t bother them, they went about their business. It was fascinating to watch!!
I must say petting a kangaroo was not something I ever pictured myself doing. It was really cool and they have the softest fur!
Muffin was a big chicken and declined to touch these beautiful creatures. His loss! . I will also note here that there was great hand washing and sanitizing on the way out of this area!
Next, there was an open area with turtles you could also touch and feed. I didn’t feel I needed to touch a turtle, but this little girl was adorable!
Then we headed to the Savannah Loop.
This was an are where you could feed the Lorikeets, but since we can do that at the Philly Zoo, we passed on this. Still, it’s fun!
They also have a zip line here! We didn’t do this either but it looked fun!
Some beautiful horticulture:
We made our way to the Grassmere Historic Home and Farm. This wound up being so cool! As we approached the home, there was a tour guide there who invited us in and gave us a private tour and a ton of history on the Croft family, who owned this entire property. The home was built in 1810 and the Crofts were farmers. It remained in the family through the Civil War, when the family fled the property for fear that the army would seize it. When they returned it was completely untouched.
I couldn’t remember the exact story of how it became a Zoo, so I went to good old Wikipedia and this is indeed the story we were told:
Nashville Zoo’s history at Grassmere began in the late 1980s. Sisters Margaret and Elise Croft were the last two owners of the Croft House and family farm at Grassmere, located six miles south from downtown Nashville. They donated the 300-acre farm to the Children’s Museum of Nashville, which is now the Adventure Science Center. Ownership of the land went to the city, which was still bound by the Croft sisters’ will to maintain the area as a nature center. In 1996, then-Mayor Phil Bredesen offered the Nashville Zoo the chance to relocate from Joelton to the Grassmere property. On May 1, 1997, the Nashville Wildlife Park at Grassmere opened to the public. In October 1998, the zoo closed its Cheatham County location to focus all of its efforts on the current Grassmere property. In 2001, the Nashville Wildlife Park at Grassmere officially became the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. The resulting facility has been engineered to grow so as to take maximum advantage of its 200 acres.
Here are some photos from our tour:
There is even a family cemetery on the property:
There is also a play area for kids that looks so fun!!
This is the zoo shop on the way out:
We had an amazing time here and I would return in a heartbeat!!
That looks like a fantastic zoo! Reminds me of the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC a little. There you can walk on these paths where the kangaroos have freedom to roam (but you couldn’t pet them). You can also feed giraffes there, which was a ton of fun. And they have zip lines.
Seemed like a perfect day for the zoo, and a nice finish to this trip!
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I'm sure you noticed the rooms above the conservatory at the Opryland Hotel. I've been lucky enough to stay in one twice. One of my favorite hotels outside of WDW. 
( or maybe if he promised to go back to the Nashville Zoo-Hello AK in Tennessee!!)
His call was not until 12 PM so we went downstairs for a nice breakfast and then went to the Opry Mills mall.
It was strictly dedicated to the music industry and honestly, I did not know what to expect. I was so pleasantly surprised!! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Thanks, Donna!
I so hope we can get back sometime! 
In fact, I had to split this day in two to share, we did so much! 
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