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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi Everyone! Welcome to my latest PTR/TR! We are leaving two weeks from today for our 5 day stay at the Gaylord in Orlando. DH was nice enough to have to go to a conference for work, and since we have those handy dandy APs, we get to go along!
Cast o' characters:
Me- Rosanna: wife, mother, and (humble) teacher assistant extraordinaire.
DH- Clint: husband, father, and wonderful provider.
DD- Peyton: 15 year old number one fan of One Direction.
DS- Cannon: 13 year old number one fan of pestering his sister.
We will be heading to the airport right after school to catch a 5:30 flight out of Dulles airport. I believe DH will have a rental car. Not sure about his flight info as work can't book his ticket until Oct. 1. Hopefully he will be getting there around the same time, if not on the same flight.
We are staying at the Gaylord, which I am very excited about. I have heard great things. It's not on property, but should be fun anyway. I had several friends who were supposed to be coming with their DHs. but they have all backed out. Looks like it will just be the kids and I on this trip.
Here are the plans:
Saturday: Possibly Aquatica with DH. We did TL in August and were not terribly impressed. Tickets for Aquatica are about the same price and it is a fun park. It closes at 5, so we might try to talk DS into going on the SlingShot again with DD. He refused in August.
Sunday: Friends from Jacksonville might be coming to hang out with us at the Gaylord. If not, we will probably sneak away and go to AK without DH (maybe he will bring his PS3 and happily play video games by himself). His friend arrives Sunday sometime, so he will have some company.
Monday: Epcot in the AM. I am looking forward to snacking around the world during F&WF. Monday evening will be MNSSHP, where we will be appearing as a cast of zombies.
Tuesday- DHS. We have reservations at Sci Fi Diner, which will be a first for us. Hoping to stay for Fantasmic as we missed it in April.
Wednesday: MK. Our plane leaves at 7ish, so we paln to spen our last day opening MK. We have a lunch ressie at the Grand Floridian Cafe', another first.
Those are our roughed out plans for now. I am hoping to have a few meet and greets with some fellow PPers as well.
I hope that you anf your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Hello everyone! I have been so busy since getting back from our trip that I haven't had any time to spend on my beloved Passporter site. I am happy to report that we had a wonderful time and I will get into the details shortly, but first I will tell you what else is new.
We have decided we might be putting our house up for sale next spring (high school zoning issues), so we took advantage of great low rates to refinance and take out some $$ for improvements. We had granite countertops installed the weekend before our trip, and new carpet upstairs and in our formal living room installed the weekend after we got back. We also had bamboo floors put down in the dining room, cabinets put above our washer/dryer, had the deck and fence resealed, and some light fixtures replaced. Everything looks great and we are very pleased with the results. Of course, now I would prefer not to move. We will if necessary though. We will know for sure in the spring.
OK, back to our trip. We planned to leave for the airport around 3 on Friday afternoon, but DH said we might need a bit more time, so we left at 2. We were meeting him at the airport. He got there early and called to say the lines were crazy long. Luckily, he got through the line about the time we got to the airport, so the kids and I jumped out of the car and he jumped in to go park. We waited maybe 45 minutes in line, then headed to security. My DH flies out of Dulles all the time and said he has never seen crowds like that. The line for security took up two floors and took us another 45 minutes to get through. We got to the gate around 4:45, with a 5:25 departure time. I ran into some friends of mine at the gate. Turns out one of them had tried to leave earlier with her DH and DD, got through security before she realized she had forgotten DD's passport (they were going on a cruise). She called her other friend who was leaving for SLC later that day and had her bring the passport. She missed her flight, but had managed to get a seat on ours. It was funny to run into them there, plus DH saw some people he knows through work. Small world and all that. We left on time for an uneventful flight. DH had booked his flight late, and I was in the row in front of the kids. He was able to get the person assigned the seat next to me to trade him so we sat together. There was a funny little moment while we were waiting to take off. The family in front of us were in a similar situation with mom and dad in seats across from the two little girls. Mom was waiting to ask whomever had the third seat in the kids row to trade with her, but the girls were nervous and I heard one of them say (quite plaintively) "but can't you please tell them we are chilllldrennn?" It was so cute. They were soon reunited when the nice man agreed to switch with the mom, but it sure gave me a giggle!
We landed a few minutes early and the kids and I went to baggage while DH headed to the car rental counter. We ended up getting an upgrade to a Ford Escape which was fine for us. We headed out to the Gaylord with a stop at Chik Fil A for dinner. The hotel was very nice. It was also HUGE. It was quite a hike from where we had to park to our room, but the room itself was great. We were planning on hitting AK first thing Saturday morning, so we went to bed at a fairly decent hour.
Hopefully we will be continue to have good luck and the power will stay on. I will fill you in on our day at AK tomorrow. I know I took good notes for that day, so hopefully I can find them!
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Hi all! We have weathered the storm well, not even a flicker of the lights. Today was back to school and work for everyone, so all is back to normal for now (although there is a rumor of a nor-easter next week?). I hope that stays a rumor, because I am precinct chief for the election on Tuesday and we don't need any problems! After that, I don't care, just let us get through Tuesday peacefully.
I took really good notes for our day at AK, so I will be pretty precise. The rest of the days...not so much. Here we go!
We were catching the first shuttle of the day at 8:15. I got up and got ready, then went out to forage for breakfast. I found the little coffee shop/bakery in the middle of the Gaylord Bayou. I got a cinnamon roll for Peyton, a chocolate croissant for Cannon, and a yogurt parfait for myself. When I got back to the room, I shuffled the kids out the door. This is when we discovered that the stairwell right by our room went directly down to where the bus waits! Score! We were on the 4th floor, but going down was a breeze. The bus was there and waiting. It is a very nice bus and we were the first stop, so we were at the park at 8:30. They kept us at the gates until 8:55, then they "escorted" us through the park to KS. We decided go ahead and ride it and we were on our safari by 9:10. There were a lot of animals out and about, but they have changed the "story" a bit, apparently in preparation for the addition of zebras to the savannah. We did not get to rescue a baby elephant on this trip, but it was still fun.
After the ride, Peyton decided she wanted a leather bracelet with her name engraved on it, so she got one while Cannon and I got pretzels. I love the jalapeno cheddar pretzels. Yum! Cannon had thought about a bracelet as well, but decided against it.
Our next stop took us to KRR, but the return time was still too early as we were hoping to make the 11 am Nemo show, so we went on to EE. I was still enjoying my pretzel and Peyton wasn't in the mood, so Cannon hit the SRL. He might have rode it twice...
Next we headed to Dinoland where we had a 10 minute wait for Dinosaur. The kids then actually got me to ride PW. I usually sideline this ride, but I had taken my Bonine and was feeling pretty good, and we waited less than 10 minutes for our "whirl". The kids told me when to close my eyes and I survived just fine. It was about 10:45, so we went to get in line for Nemo. The line was short, but they were announcing a possible cancellation due to technical difficulties. I made the kids wait any way (grumble, grumble!), and then...they cancelled it. No Nemo for us this trip!
We headed back to EE and Cannon and I rode SR again. The ride is fun for me, until it isn't. I really don't love the backward part, but I can ride it...once. Peyton finds herself holding her breath on this ride and it makes her feel like she is going to pass out, so she didn't ride it this trip. The funniest thing happened after this ride. Cannon likes to make funny faces when he knows it's picture time and he pulled off a great one. He looked terrified, eyes all big and mouth wide open. I saw it and nearly wet myself laughing, but then this group of teenage boys came up to Cannon outside and they had actually taken a picture of his picture and showed it to him, like "Dude! Look at your face!" They thought it was so funny and then when they saw him they couldn't wait to show it to him. I didn't burst their bubble that he did it on purpose. It seemed like it totally made their day.
We headed back to KRR and waited in a 20 min standby line. We had ponchos so we didn't get too soaked. By this time, Peyton had decided that she wanted to get a rivet (sp?) added to her bracelet and Cannon had decided that now he wanted one, too. We headed back to Africa where we got his bracelet, but their riveter was broken. They did tell us that we could get one added at the kiosk in Epcot (Outpost, Morrocco, or England...not sure exactly where).
It was about 11:30 and the kids were hungry, so we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I have to say, this was not the first time we have eaten here, but I was shocked at how expensive it was. Peyton and I split an entree with a side salad and Cannon had a burger. Three soft drinks. Our bill was $55. Yikes!
We decided that since the first bus back to the hotel wasn't until 2, we would head over to Epcot so the kids could get their rivets. The bus was actually scheduled to pick up at Epcot at 2:30, so off we went. We made it there by about 1:30, and immediately headed to the left to try our luck at the Outpost. They said no, they though Canada. We kept going as they had suggested Morrocco at the AK stand. Nothing in Morrocco. Keep going...all the way around to Canada. I don't think I have ever taken such a quick trip around the world.
The girls in Canada were very nice, and coincidentally, their engraver was broken. Lol. We really did have to go to both places to get the complete bracelets. Cannon got a Goofy rivet and Peyton got Tinkerbell. They are pretty cute.
We caught the 2:15 shuttle back to the hotel and immediately took a nap. Afterwards, We went down and checked out the water park. It looked like it would be alot of fun for little kids, but mine didn't really want to hang out there. Peyton and I ended up taking a quick trip to Walmart for a few essentials I forgot to pack. We ended up grabbing dinner at the sports bar at the hotel (it was nothing exceptional and very pricey) and then hit the hay at about 10:30. It was a busy day, but with time for a nap we were all happy!
Next up: How to fill a Sunday without going to a park...
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. It's not on property, but should be fun anyway. I had several friends who were supposed to be coming with their DHs. but they have all backed out. Looks like it will just be the kids and I on this trip.
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Pixie Dust
We stayed at Gaylord Palms in October 2009 and it is sooooo nice! Enjoy! 
PassPorter Guide Author
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What a shame about the Finding Nemo show. 
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