Spooky Foodie Fun - TR from Adventurous Stranger!! - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After TL, we went back to the Dolphin to take showers and have some vino! Wine in hand, we trekked down to the Friendship boat dock to visit Guest Relations at International Gateway to purchase Emily's Park Hopper tix and my Tables in Wonderland card. I had a idiot moment and thought they wouldn't let us on the boat with wine (REALLY?? I am a dopey) and we hoofed it.
Once I had the TiW card in hand, we just HAD to use it. We chose Big River Brewing Co. on the Boardwalk since it was somewhere I hadn't eaten yet. We grabbed two seats at the bar. We sampled a few beers and I picked the Steamboat Pale Ale and Em got the Southern Flyer Light Lager. We also ordered the Chicken Nachos and the Kobe Burger to share. Good thing we did, they were huge portions!! Both were pretty good, the burger being slightly overcooked. While we were stuffing our faces, the Brew Master was behind the bar tapping a special keg for an upcoming wedding. Basically it was a suped up version of their Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale. We were lucky enough to each get a taste! Delish! Not hoppy at all.
Full and slightly buzzed it was time to get ready for the Food & Wine Classic at the hotel. More wine, dresses on, hair and makeup did we headed downstairs to the causeway. 5:30pm we exchanged our business cards for wristbands along with a cute little plate that had a wine glass holder built in and a plastic wine glass with the F&W Classic logo on it.
After reading as many reviews of last year's F&WC, I knew to visit Shula's Steakhouse booth first thing. Correctamundo! There was already a line quite long. Now, I love steak and this carved piece of Strip was exquisite HOWEVER the creamed spinach served along side was worth taking a bullet for! Not to mention the serving size of the steak was pretty dang huge for an all you can eat event. 4oz easy. We stopped by the Washington State booth for a taste of Cabernet to enjoy with the steak. Luckily, we found a high top table that allowed us to cut the steak and enjoy slowly. Excellent start I should say! Forgive me if I can't remember the wine, they did supply us with a booklet but I lost it as you'll soon see.
Happy Campers, we tried the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake Sliders from Garden Grove (sorry no pic) which were quite good. We also tried to get some complimentary tix to "Cocktails 101" which was presenting a Caiprirhina but they were all out already!! It was 6:01 for Peter Pan's sake! The band was in full swing under the huge fountain that pours down the side of the Dolphin. I was amazed how nice an event it was. The tents were set up on the causeway between the Dolphin and the Swan and then continued along the water in front of the Swan leading towards the beach area.
Next up, we got in line to meet Todd English who was personally handing out his Brown Buttered Lobster Roll and signing copies of his new book (which just happened to be sold in the souvie tent a few steps down) First we grabbed a pic with Chef English.
Then he handed us the Lobster Roll
Then I dropped it. Crap. I was quite embarrassed. Oh well. Good thing I'm not to crazy for lobster anyway!
Next stop was Kimono's tent. I had read reviews on how they have the best sushi and the Dragon Roll was no joke! We made a mental note to revisit their tent later.
There was a tent for a new liquor "Moonshine" which is not your Grandpa's Moonshine that is served in a Ball jar. This is only 80 proof which makes it legal to sell but it just seems like a fad to me. They were serving it in a Watermelon Cocktail which was ok, a little too sweet if you ask me. Next tent over was Tyku Sake. Tyku makes organic, gluten free, chemical free, yadda yadda yadda liquors. There was Premium Sake served with what I figured was grape juice with a spicy sugared rim (and I stress, spicy!) The Super Premium Sake was served chilled (yum) and also mixed with Sangria (Holy Smokes, this was crazy good). We grabbed a seat at a table at the very end of the walkway and enjoyed the company and opinions of others. So far, everyone we spoke with was really enjoying the event. Some folks were guests of the hotel while most had just happened upon the event or seen signs for it while diu ning at the hotels. All had purchased the $76 all you can eat option rather than purchased individual tix.
It was around this time we all noticed the really big, really dark clouds moving in at an alarming rate. While we stopped at the Banfi tent (I LOVE BANFI) to sample the few wines they offer that I haven't tried, the wind kicked up and started sending items flying around like the Wizard of Oz! Within minutes, the rain arrived with a vengance and sent people running in all directions. We hung out in a tent with some wine reps who were planning on making their way over to the VIP tent. This is where I got peeved. You mean to tell me, I'm going to have to huddle under an awning (the tents were closing) with all the other folks who forked over good cash to watch all the VIPs live it up for free (funny that tent never closed, maybe Todd English had something to do with it)
After 20 minutes of waiting, we set out to find a booth that was still open. We went into the Swan, thru the hallways crammed with pissy people and out the other side. While standing there figuring out what to do, I spotted a bunch of folks under an alcove still enjoying wine. Then I heard it, POP! the unmistakeable sound of a champagne bottle being opened! Paradise found, for there was Moet & Chandon, still pouring while it was pouring!! Chardonnay, Petite Meunier (pronounced Man YAY) and of course, Champagne. This made our frowns turn upside down! We chatted with folks from all over, drank oh, say, three bottles of bubbly and even got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to Emily (how cool to celebrate your 21st at a F&WF!!)
Drunk on Champagne, we braved the rain to visit a few of the booths that had reopened. Brookly Brewery was pouring again but unfortunately, I'm not a fan of any their brews. We did the very cool Shrimp Cocktail Steamroller from Blue Zoo (all ingredients stuffed into a clear plastic tube, you suck it all out like a shot). We raided the dessert tent but I can't remember which was my favorite.
Last stop on the rainy tour was a tent of French wines from the Rhone Valley. There was a tasty Alsace and a delightful red called Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45. We started up a conversation with the wine rep Kirk and actually ended up grabbing a bottle to take back to the room. Not sure this is what you are supposed to do, but we did it anyway. We exchanged numbers with Kirk and we all met up later that evening for drinks and dancing over at the Atlantic Dance Hall. I cannot stress how awesome it was to have approximately a 5 minute walk to ADH & Jellyrolls. ADH seems to have become the reincarnation of the old Motion video club from PI and it was a nice flashback. We cut a rug until we couldn't dance anymore and made our way back to the hotel to change into our bathing suits for some hot tub time. Kirk grabbed us some more Alsace and we talked for hours! We ended the night (or morning by that point) with another late night visit to Picabu for sandwiches and more of that delish tea (I ran up to the room for my refillable mug first) We said good night to Kirk and thanked him for his hospitality and fell into bed a wee bit before 4am!!!!
All in all, despite the monsoon that ruined our party, we still enjoyed quite a bit of good food and way too much of good wine! I will definitely be attending next year for sure. The atmosphere was elegant but not stuffy. The food was outstanding, we still comment of the sushi and sake with sangria! I highly recommend the F&WC. FYI, the event was moved indoors into the convention center Saturday night. I wish they had listened to the weather forecast and did that Friday as well.
Wow- the food and wine classic food looks delish! I'm sorry we didn't have time to go. Cool that you met Todd English! Sorry about the rain - we were heading down for our anniversary dinner at FF just as that rain was coming down - it was nuts!
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Yeah, they should've had it indoors all along. Glad you were still able to enjoy most of it. I really like Todd English's food in his Vegas restaurant. bluezoo is on my list of things I want to try at WDW.
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Just started, now all caught up! WOW what fun you're having. These are some events that I probably won't be able to do for a long time so I appreciate all the details! (That young whipper snapper with you is hanging in there... or is it the other way around? lol)
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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