A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 90 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Tuesday 11 December – part seven: Celebration, cows, shopping and far too much food!
Then it was into Celebration…
… where I was aiming for the post office to send all my Christmas cards and gifts. That done, I got a few photos…
… and then it was out of the town again.
We started to make our way over to the Orlando Premium Outlets, making a detour on the way to photograph the Blue Heron Resort (all book research for those wondering for either PassPorter’s Walt Disney World for British Holidaymakers or the forthcoming book, PassPorter’s Everything But The Mouse, which will look at the non-Disney theme parks in the Orlando area.
On the way, we also saw what I termed some Disney cows, as they live near Disney!
We finally made it to Orlando Premium Outlets, and this place was just crazy! Honestly, we drove round for about 10 minutes before we found a parking space. We’ve never had that problem before. Half the problem is so much space is now taken up by valet parking ($17 ) but thank goodness for the indoor parking structure, where we finally lucked out and found a space.
We headed straight into the Reebok store, where Mark got three pairs of tennis shoes, and I got one, and we also both stocked up on socks.
From there, it was over to the Disney Character Premiere outlet store. In here, we either find amazing bargains, or it’s a total bust. Sadly it was the latter today. I saw a couple of things I liked, but nothing in my size.
We had one more place to visit, and that was Nautica, where we’ve got some bargains before. Well, today was my lucky day, as it was 40% off everything. I got two sweaters for work for just $63. Bargain!
By now, time was not on our side, so it was back to the car, and we headed back to the room.
As soon as we got there, I asked if the monorail was still down, and was told it was, so I called Laurie and let her know. She decided to get the bus, but as it was 4:20pm, and ‘Ohana was 5:00pm, and we hadn’t even showered yet, I said we’d drive over to buy us a bit more time.
We made it by 5:00pm, seeing lots of people still standing in the same area as they had been earlier, obviously still trying to solve the problem with the monorail. There were still no signs of any trains yet.
We joined Heather, Jese and Laurie at the check-in for ‘Ohana, and checked in, and waited to be seated… and waited… and waited a bit more. I went and asked what was going on around 5:20pm, and was told it would be a “few more minutes”. We managed to grab some chairs, then we waited… waited even more… and guess what? You got it – we waited a bit more!
Finally, I think we were seated about 5:40pm, 40 minutes after our ADR time. The Cast Member who seated me told me that someone told him they had hollered for us, but he wasn’t sure, so he came out to do it again – thank goodness he did, as trust me, there was no hollering before that!
We were seated right by the entrance, somewhere I’ve never sat before, and after a slow start getting cocktails (I went for a Pina Colava )…
… we were off and running, with so much food, we couldn’t finish a single thing. This was just as good as ever, but the sheer quantities of food they bring out are insane. I cannot even begin to imagine how much wastage there is in this place. We started with the pineapple and coconut bread (so good! ) and the salad (love the dressing!), then we got noodles (they were wonderful), broccoli, I had shrimp, the meat eaters I think had wings or ribs, then chicken, then steak (I’m sure Heather will correct me if I got any of this wrong), while the veggies had this brought out…
Now when it arrived, I thought it was for Laurie and I to share, which would’ve worked well, but she had her own!
I thought that was it, but then this plate arrived as well. Oh my goodness, way too much!
I don’t think either of us really made a dent in it…
Then it was time for dessert, the pineapple bread pudding, which was pretty good actually, and lighter than we thought it would be, with vanilla ice cream. We made a valiant attempt on it, but like everything else, we couldn’t finish it. I tell you, you’ll never go hungry here…
It was a great meal, with so much (too much?) to eat, and some wonderful company. I loved every minute of it, and once again, ‘Ohana came up trumps.
’Ohana
Appetiser 9 9
Entrée 8½ 9
Dessert 8½ 9
Service 7½ 8½
Atmosphere 9 9½
Value for money 9½ 9
Yum, Ohana's looks really good. I heard that the town of Celebration has some really nice activities at Christmas time. I think that white sheet on the street is for ice skating. We didn't stop there, but some people in our group did and said it was really nice.
Glad that the food made up for the lengthy wait. But wasting food is such a pet peeve of mine. It'd drive me nuts too, to see all that good food go to waste. We don't do the DDP cuz our kids eat like birds - we do a lot of sharing! Anyway, I'm happy that overall it was a good meal with good friends!!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
So glad Laurie was able to enjoy Pirates with you guys (even with some downed lights).
Sorry for the dissappointing lunch at LTT, we enjoyed (as we wanted to try the lunch menu as we had only ever been there for the family styler dinner), nothing standout but it was god and we had wonderful service, sorry that it was so lackluster for you this time. Even enjoying it as we did it will be awhile before we head back as there are always so many other places we want to try or return too.
Everything looked delicous at O'Hana, I keep meaning to get that on our dinner list but it always misses the list.
It was quite a scene with the monorail down. No one seemed to know what we should do or where the bus to the monorail resorts would be. The first bus to show up was an AK bus and I asked the driver. He said his next stop was the Poly before he headed back to AK, so I got on and ended up beating everyone to 'Ohana. It sure was crowded there and just crazy to wait so long before being seated. And the food! The bread was yummy, and the noodles and broccoli. This would have been plenty for me. If I go again, I'll tell them to skip the veggie stir-fry, as I hardly touched it, and it wasn't that great. The best part of the meal was the company!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I'm so glad you get to see some cows. You'd really love where we live as there are cows all around. 
PassPorter Guide Author
Honestly, we drove round for about 10 minutes before we found a parking space. We’ve never had that problem before. 
Half the problem is so much space is now taken up by valet parking ($17 
) but thank goodness for the indoor parking structure, where we finally lucked out and found a space. 
)…
) and the salad (love the dressing!), then we got noodles (they were wonderful), broccoli, I had shrimp, the meat eaters I think had wings or ribs, then chicken, then steak (I’m sure Heather will correct me if I got any of this wrong), while the veggies had this brought out…
Linear Mode
