Everything is Subject to Change Updated 7/6 - Page 48 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Luke was disappointed too when we rode the WDW Railroad and there was not a single good view of the construction. I think we have the crane in one of the few photos he too of that area.
I am so excited about the new Fantasyland expansion. But, looking at your photos, I just realized something. I'm NOT going to know all of MK like the back of my hand when the new section opens!! How strange it will be to have to look at a map to figure out where to go instead of just loving to look at the map.
So cool that you're taking a quick trip to Disney!! Enjoy!!
While the rest of you are busy deciding where I'm going to eat 4 meals on my next trip, I'm going to finish up this one!
I fished my coveted FP out of my pocket. What ride was I headed to?
Nope!
It's time to meet the Princesses. Brandon doesn't super enjoy waiting in line to meet characters, although he humors me a little bit.
The new meet and greet queue is a little bit plain, probably because this is a temporary location!
First up Cinderella!
Then Belle, who was just lovely!
and my favorite Aurora!
We had a discussion about how I thought she should be wearing her blue dress, so that we could match!
I think I've lost a little bit more weight . . . we'll see in the pictures next week.
I wandered around for a little while, waiting for my FP to see Mickey to be ready to use. I don't think I rode anything. I did notice the shockingly long line at Country Bears, due to the fact that it was Gay Days at the MK.
I took some architectural shots in Adventureland. I think I went to see how long the line was for the Jungle Cruise and it was outrageous by this time.
Next it was off to meet the Big Cheese! The details in the queue are amazing and I love it!
Travel Stickers from all the Disney Parks!
There are just so many cool touches in this room!
And finally I get to meet the Mouse and his Main Squeeze!
And there were some more things to see before exiting the room!
I really love what they've done with the gift shop on the way out. It looks like the prop room for Mickey's Magic show!
I really wanted to buy these, but I restrained myself
It was almost time for lunch when I finished browsing!
Luke took many of the same photos in the backstage area for Mickey and Minnie. The princesses were in the reverse order when we meet them last month. We all improved of the new location and set up, especially as it was in the A/C. I can't believe the line for Country Bear Jamboree.
Lunch time! I checked in at Tony's Town Square. (Didn't see that one coming did you?)
I was given a pager and waited a few minutes in the area outside the restaurant.
I was seated shortly and noticed immediately that the seating was too low for the table It made my meal a little bit awkward because I'm so short. My waitress was very pleasant and was quick with suggestions and drink refills. I ended up squished in between two parties and it was a little bit loud with their competing conversations. That was not the fault of the restaurant, but I was trying to read and it was a bit distracting. I can't even remember what I was reading.
I ordered the calamari, for comparison purposes of course.
It's a solid dish, but for my liking the sauce could have been thicker and a little saltier. I noticed lots of salt lacking on this trip. I wonder if Disney is trying to be "healthier"? IF that is the case . . . they're ruining the food by policy!
I also had the chicken parmesan. It was slightly overdone. The chicken was dried out, not inedible, but not great. The tomato sauce is a little thin, it's the same as they use for a dipping sauce. I could have used more sauce, but my waitress was being hassled by one of those large parties 6 or 8 different checks right after my food arrived. I just decided to suffer through. You can see in the photo that the pasta under the chicken has almost no sauce on it at all.
I passed on dessert so that is actually the last photo from this trip.
The meal was okay. I don't think I'll be running back to Tony's any time soon. I do have to get over to Il Mulino at the Swan.
I headed out of the Magic Kingdom, and got back on a bus to All Star Sports, where I had already decided I was going to finish my last minute shopping. (Can I tell you how heavy my carryon bags had become!) I also grabbed a Mickey Bar for dessert! It wasn't long before I was loading onto the DME bus and headed to the airport. I did some browsing. I was surprised that the Universal stores didn't have any books about planning a trip to Universal. I wanted to buy one to read on the way home. The book shoppe didn't have any either.
Before I knew it I was landing at home and getting a ticket for the airport shuttle. I was a little bit sad because I didn't think I'd be back to the World until October. Guess what! I leave in just about 36 hours for a short, two day trip.
I don't know if I'm going to wrap this up tonight or tomorrow morning, but it will get done before I leave!
Tony's was an ADR I had to cancel at the last minute, so I've been wondering if I want to try it on my next visit. What was that "relish" on the calamari?
Oh, and I hope your shifts go by easily, and have a great trip!
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Tony's was an ADR I had to cancel at the last minute, so I've been wondering if I want to try it on my next visit. What was that "relish" on the calamari?
Oh, and I hope your shifts go by easily, and have a great trip!
My dh and I do not like salt. I do not cook with it- ever. The only salt we consume is what is already in the food products before preparing. So Disney lacking on salt for us is a good thing. Does Disney have salt shakers on the table so you could add more? I do agree you needed more sauce. We have never dined at Tony's. I have been considering it for a future trip just for the novelty of it.
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Tony's was definitely a surprise - not somewhere I would expect you to try. I have not been too impressed the couple of times I've been there. Can't wait for your final thoughts. Wish I could run down and play for a few days this week - but that ain't happening.... oh well = have fun!
What a great last morning, I loved all the pictures from Mickey's new meet & greet, the theming looks great. So I was surprised at your choice of Tony's (probably only becuase I never recall you mentioning it), I also found the seating a bit shorter than the tables, I had one of those couch looking seats and I actually propped myself up sitting on one of my legs bent so I could feel more aligned with the table. Sorry that the meal was not great, but it did look filling but I have to agree the sauce looking pretty lacking in your photos. I really enjoyed our meal there but I went with the pork that came with some butternut squash puree that really was the star of the dish but it looks like they have already changed their menu and took the puree off...quite sad as it was probably the best part of the meal for me.
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You certainly packed a lot in on your last day! I love all the pictures of Mickey's new meet and greet area. And thanks to those Small World pictures, you can probably guess what song is now stuck in my head!
Loved the last updates, especially the photos of the posters you saw from the train. The last time I ate at Tony's the room was dirty, table wasn't completely set and the food was cold-- won't be back any time soon!
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How strange it will be to have to look at a map to figure out where to go instead of just loving to look at the map.
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Does Disney have salt shakers on the table so you could add more? I do agree you needed more sauce. We have never dined at Tony's. I have been considering it for a future trip just for the novelty of it.
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