Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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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.
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05-04-2001, 05:24 AM
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#1
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Community Rank: Sightseer 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Urbanna, VA USA
Posts: 82
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AKL Adventure!!!!!
I'm posting this as we are getting ready to leave for the airport. I really hope I don't bore any of you to tears with the reports and wind up being sued because you fell asleep at the keyboard and have permanent imprints of the keys on your face!!! LOL
For those that have followed me over here to see my reports and those who are reading this and saying "Who is this person and why am I actually reading this?", I anticipate posting the previous day's adventures early each morning.
We will also be spending (GASP) one day at Sea World and I will sneak a small report in here on that one.
Who is going??
My husband, Dickie 50
Myself, Elaine 49
Dickie has been to WDW 3 other times and I have been twice. In a previous life, my children and myself spent a great deal of time at Disneyland so all of us are Disney people, good and "hooked".
We leave Richmond in about 5 hours from now and anticipate arriving at MCO about 2PM. Tiffany Town Cars will be meeting us at the airport and also providing transportation to Sea World.
I hope if you have any questions, you will let me know and I will promise to corral the nearest CM to get answers for you and to give you our unbiased opinions on our trip.
This will be my first time at the World as a disabled guest so some comments will be directed in that subject as a help for anybody having to use an ECV and oxygen there.
We will be at AKL until the 13th.
See you in the AM for the first report!!
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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..
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05-04-2001, 07:17 AM
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#2
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: South Holland, Il, USA
Posts: 457
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Re: AKL Adventure!!!!!
Have a great time!! And I NEVER get bored reading trip reports, it makes me feel like part of the magic, so WRITE WRITE and WRITE some more!!
Enjoy yourselves!!
Disnygirl  |
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05-04-2001, 09:00 AM
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#3
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
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Re: AKL Adventure!!!!!
Elaine...can't wait for the first installment! I am so excited for you! -HiddenMickey
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05-04-2001, 09:28 AM
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#4
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Community Rank: Wayfarer 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Florida
Posts: 108
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Re: AKL Adventure!!!!!
Have a wonderful and safe trip!
I can't wait to hear about your trip and Sea World also. 
I lived in Virginia for 47 years and my children and grandchildren are still there.
I leave next Friday to go 'home' for a week
and pass by Richmond on the way to Colonial Heights and Lake Gaston, where my parents retired. If you don't mind...could you bring me back a Mickey Bar everyone raves about? I don't think I can wait for my trip in 2002!!
Take care and have fun, fun, fun! Please give Mickey and all his friends hugs for us.
~jo anne
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05-05-2001, 07:07 AM
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#5
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Community Rank: Sightseer
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Urbanna, VA USA
Posts: 82
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Re: AKL Adventure!!!!!
OUR ARRIVAL
The flight here was actually pleasant and as I am a legendary coward, that's a lot for me to say. The Tiffany driver was waiting in the baggage claim area and introduced himself as "Daniel The Best Driver" was a sweetie. He is from Brazil and asked as soon as we got under way if we needed to stop at the grocery store. As I had boxes waiting here from net grocer, I thanked him for asking and declined his kind offer.
The guard at the entrance to AKL did check our name against a computer list and then stepped in the shack and checked it one more time in a computer.
The lodge is much larger then it looks from the entrance and the hallways to the rooms branch off from the main lobby. The artwork is beautiful but after the initial impression, it kinda went downhill from there.
Our travel agent messed these reservations up BIGTIME and all though I won't post the name out here in the public, the agency was Dreams Unlimited. This is NOT Disney fault and it just plain created a mess down here for us to take over an hour to straighten out. NEVER again will I use any agency as I have found out that we as individuals, with the help of others on this board, can do much better on our own.
We went through 3 different rooms before deciding to accept the third one. I know that management must have been tearing their hair out at that point but, I was pleasant to them and about to suggest that we transfer to another resort, when the third seemed to be a possible solution.
ROOM Description
We are on the Giraffe Trail in room 2020. It has a full view of the pool and, a little corner of one of the Savannahs. We saw some Bongos out there yesterday grazing (antelope type animals).
The room itself has 2 queen beds and a double vanity bathroom with a tub. One problem right off the top is that there is not much room for 2 adults in this room much less adding a couple of children to it. There are only 5 drawers, of which two are tiny to store your personal items and even though we pack light....there's just not enough drawer space. Add to that my scooter and the oxygen concentrator and at the end of our stay, we will have overflow in the hallway.
BOMA
Folks, I'm really not difficult to get along with, but this first day turned out to be really less then desirable at the end.
This restaurant has enormous potential if they could fix the service problems they have. The waitress explained the buffet to us and took our drink order and then we didn't see our drinks for 20 minutes. Dickie dropped his knife and she picked it up and never brought a replacement!! We waited 30 minutes more for our check (and I was about to fall asleep myself after this days adventure) and the whole thing was so bad for him that he has said to cancel further priority seating there for him.
The food was tasty with some strong spices but the temperature of the food leaves you wondering if it truly is safe to eat unless you see it being put out fresh. I'm a former restaurant manager and will go on record to say, there is a potential food safety problem here.
Well, I'm sorry this one is so down-beat but it doesn't spoil the fact that we are at Disney and this is vacation and there's more magic and fun waiting just around the corner for us.
Things will get better so stay tuned!!!
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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..
[This message has been edited by ElaineM43 (edited 05-05-2001).] |
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05-05-2001, 09:16 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Sightseer
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Urbanna, VA USA
Posts: 82
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Re: AKL Adventure!!!!!
The End of Day ONE
We had an absolutely delightful day at the Animal Kingdom Park.
As I am wide awake and my DD is coming to see us tomorrow, I thought I would write tonight at the end of the evening instead of tomorrow AM.
I'm happy to report that the bus system works exactly as it should and despite my hesitation in using this scooter, it has been a blessing and not hard to load on the bus correctly at all. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus to come along outside the lodge to go over and about 20 minutes for the bus to come back.
The Safari really surprised me with the amount of animals that were visable around noon today. We even saw a male lion lounging around. One of the elephants must have been in a playful mood because as the Safari bus went by he actually sprayed some water at us. The hippos were all in the water staying cool and the crocodiles were up on rocks with their mouths open cooling themselves. The 2 white rinos were even out and about as were the giraffes. All in all a wonderful ride!!!
We then took a walk through the forest and the huge male gorilla was up by the plexiglass holding court. He was watching us as much as we were watching him. It really seemed he was quite comfortable there and this could have been one of his favorite pastimes.
Lunch was at the Rainforest Cafe and it was very good and the service excellent. We came back to the lodge after that to sit out on the balcony and enjoy the weather and the view. As luck would have it, the bongos and 2 elands were out on the savannah and we watched them for a long time.
Dinner was at Jiko and everything was excellent there. We both had the beef tenderloin and it was so tender, you could have cut it with a fork. The service that our waiter Bill provided was top notch.
All in all a really wonderful and relaxing day.
Tomorrow is going to be fun in an entirely different way as DD hasn't been with me to Disney since she has been 7 years old. As she now belongs in the 30 something group....we will have a ball and probably both turn into 5 year olds before the day is out at Magic Kingdom.
I did talk to a CM at the front desk today and there are still 250 rooms left to open. Most of the service people for the hotel itself admit to being lost yet in the halls on more then one ocassion in the last week.
More about tomorrow will be coming Monday AM!!!
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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..
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