3 Amigas? Not So Scary! We're back! TR - updated 12/10 - Complete with Collectibles! - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I think my trip was the right length -- I'm not used to burning the candle at both ends, but I could do it for 48 hours!
OK, so let's get this thing started! I arrived via SW and DME at the Polynesian Wednesday around 12:30 p.m. and was thrilled to hear those wonderful words: "Your room is READY!" I was nonplussed, really I was! That hasn't happened to me in AGES!
So I walked and I walked and I walked to Tahiti, which is super-close to the monorail that would be incredibly convenient whenever we wanted to pop over to MK or Epcot.
First, the Poly: I it! As you enter from the parking lot, the lush tropical foliage begins.
Then you get to your room, which is beautiful.
I like the bathroom, too!
The only "complaint" I have about the bathroom is a minor one -- it's great to have two sinks, but it's better when the sinks are outside the bathroom, so one person can be showering while one or two others are messing about in the sinks. But it all worked out fine for us.
As soon as I got into the room, I loved the way the closets are lit up to welcome you -- that's a closet on the left.
And I always love to get a photo of the desk lamps when they're interesting -- I really like this little guy!
Since my luggage would be delivered later by DME and I was anxious to meet up with my pals, I Sheri, who for once answered her phone immediately. "Hey, I'm HERE!" I announced.
And then she replied, "That's great. I'm at work."
Yep, some big surprise inspection or something caused Sheri's boss to say, "We need you, kid" or whatever. So Sheri told me to find Terri and start having fun, "But not too much fun, and no drinking until I get there." She assured me she'd be arriving sometime that afternoon.
So then I Terri, who informed me that she was standing in Epcot at that very moment, having arrived from Jacksonville shortly before. So I grabbed my small shoulder bag and discovered how incredibly close to the monorail my building was.
I was in Epcot shortly after that, and Terri and I began our tour around the world and my first F&WF ever.
gotta love those "surprise inspections" from join commission. those of you in healthcare know EXACTLY what i am talking about. i had a feeling "they" were gonna show up and impose upon my trip. eh....it is what it is. at least some fun was had in between times! you are doing a marvelous job on the beginning of the day....
It was a warm afternoon, but not too humid -- which is for WDW, right?
I put $50 on a gift card that I wore on my wrist all afternoon -- and by day's end, I had spent all of it.
We started posing for PhotoPass pics, to be added to this TR later -- you will simply have to be patient to see all our lovely poses.
Terri and I started feasting our way around the world, beginning here:
I had the spanakopita and then baklava, and both were delish , and Terri have the chicken souvlaki with tzatziki, and she liked that a lot, too.
I know I took some food photos, but they are eluding me at this moment -- Terri, if you get a minute, would you add some of yours?
Since it was pretty hot out in the sun, I had no trouble following Sheri's directive to avoid alcohol -- well OK, I did have one alcoholic beverage, but it was one of the fruity frozen ones that don't have much alcoholic content, so that doesn't count!
My favorite food of all the little bites I tried was from:
I had the Pastel de Choclo (beef and corn pie) which had a sweet relishy kind of thing plus a spicy kick -- it was a great combination of flavors!
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Now, you would think that with F&WF going on that Terri and I wouldn't be tempted into getting food anywhere else, BUT you'd be wrong. Germany has changed one of its shops into this:
Good thing I'd bought my Hummel Goofy back in February, because this was the shop that came from. (The Hummels are available at Art of Disney on Main Street now.)
Well, since we discovered that both Terri and I chocolate and caramel, of course it would have been RUDE not to at least peruse the shop. So we did.
Thank goodness we had eaten enough little bites around the world that we weren't terribly so we showed great self control and simply split a caramel-filled chocolate cookie, which was . Don't we look in this picture?
We tried, but we simply couldn't finish this rich, yummy treat. Terri tried to save it for later, but the heat did a number on the chocolate and the caramel. Well, we knew we'd go back with Sheri later that night -- and we did!
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gotta love those "surprise inspections" from join commission. those of you in healthcare know EXACTLY what i am talking about. i had a feeling "they" were gonna show up and impose upon my trip. eh....it is what it is. at least some fun was had in between times! you are doing a marvelous job on the beginning of the day....