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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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02-21-2002, 03:40 PM
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#1
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Community Rank: Day-Tripper
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Wigan, England, UK.
Posts: 9
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Discovery Cove
Has anyone been on the Discovery Cove day at Seaworld? Is it worth the money? [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
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02-21-2002, 03:46 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 7,150
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Re: Discovery Cove
First of all WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I havent been there but I had info sent from there and decided not to do it until my son got a bit older. I wanted us all to go into the dolphin pool but he wouldnt be able for a few more years! I hope that if anyone does know the answer to this will let us know! I wanna gooooooo!!! [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]
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02-21-2002, 03:58 PM
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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: Discovery Cove
Haven't been, Yet [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] . But some close friends went last year and are visiting again this week with their 6 and 8 year old children. They thought it was awesome. Also, Fortissimo wrote a report in 2000 that covered at day at Discovery Cove that was very good. She might be able to point you toward her report. -HiddenMickey
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*
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Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
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02-21-2002, 05:16 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Trailblazer
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: jacksonville, fl usa
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 5,790
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Re: Discovery Cove
I'm going on a limb here and voting a thumbs down on Discovery Cove. DH and I went to check the place out last summer. They gave us a mini tour and we decided it just wasn't worth the money. Other than the dolphin interaction, there is not much else to do there. And the time spent with the dolphin is minimal, about 30 minutes. They also mentioned there is no guarantee the dolphin would be willing to be playful on any given day. Just my thoughts.
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02-21-2002, 07:22 PM
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#5
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PassPorter Guide
Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Pine Bush, New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 1,900
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Re: Discovery Cove
My Daughter and I went in Dec. It was a 72* day not to warn but sunny. The ray pool was cold we just waded. We did snorkel alot in the heated river. It went in to the bird place and we hand fed a baby deer. Pet him too. The food was very nice. The day was very quite and not crowded at all. They took pictures of everything you did and tried to sell them to you.
As for the Dolphin experence. It was a 30 min group experence. You wear the wet suits they give you and spend time near shore w/whole group and then your party spends time w/dolphin off shore. You get to kiss, pet, shake hands and tell them to do a trick. They take your picture.
It was a great day. This was our first Dolphin experence and even tho it was short it was nice. My Daughter is 12 and loves Dolphins. This park is very mainstream. Not a wholistic experence. Daughter did learn that while she loves Dolphins she does not want to see them again in captivity. But she is 12 and has not swam that much in the ocean.
We spent alot of time snorkelling and enjoying the day. I did buy pictures. $15 each and they make me get teary eyed. My Husband and other
Daughter went rollercoaster riding. I liked our day. The price was worth the privacy but not during a crowded season.
Susan
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02-22-2002, 05:44 PM
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#6
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Recovering VMK Addict!
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Thornton, CO
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 13,087
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Re: Discovery Cove
Welcome!
Discovery Cove, in my opinion, should not be missed. Swimming with the dolphins was worth every penny we paid.
As hiddenMickey stated, I wrote about my experience in my trip report. Here's the link: http://www.mediamarx.com/cgi-bin/ubb...;f=15;t=000009
It's not a NASTEE report, but it gives you an idea about our adventure to Discovery Cove!
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02-23-2002, 12:03 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Adventurer
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Gilbert, AZ, USA
Posts: 922
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Re: Discovery Cove
Fortissimo -
Thank you so much for the thumbs up. I just paid off our reservation for 11/30/02 and we are all looking so forward to this day to start of the trip. Even if I only had 10 minutes with a dolphin for us the rays, birds and river would be worth the price. I'll have to share our thoughts when we get back.
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02-23-2002, 08:34 AM
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#8
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PassPorter Guide
Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Pine Bush, New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 1,900
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Re: Discovery Cove
You are going to love the river! Snorkeling here is great. Keep your wetsuit on and you can float. It is deep and and there is a place to see sharks behind glass of course.
Susan
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02-23-2002, 09:54 AM
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#9
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 7,478
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Re: Discovery Cove
Fortissimo, I have read the NASTEE report and I just finished yours. It was every bit as excellent as the NASTEE (imho)!!!! I have printed it out for all of the wonderful tips for our next trip (unfortunately not until next year [img]graemlins/cry2.gif[/img] ). Our last visit was in October 2001 and I never wrote a trip report. I am so inspired by yours and NASTEE that I think I will give it a try. I will try to post it sometime this evening. It's hard to schedule time on the computer as both of my sons have hockey games scheduled all weekend. (BTW, we were psyched when the AV's won the Cup with our boy Ray Bourque on the team! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ).
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02-23-2002, 05:04 PM
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#10
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Community Rank: Traveler
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Lincolnshire, England
Posts: 461
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Re: Discovery Cove
Steve - It is expensive but I really enjoyed the day. Not crowded and not that much to do but the dolphins made it worthwhile. You also got passes for sea world which is worth a visit!
I have since seen something at Disney where they have a Dolphin encounter which if Dolphins are the key may be better.
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02-23-2002, 05:17 PM
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#11
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Community Rank: Jetsetter
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: New York City
Posts: 2,471
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Re: Discovery Cove
I went to Discovery Cove last August and loved it.
I wish I knew that the cost for Discovery Cove also includes admission to Sea World. If I do it again, I will book my dolphin experience in the AM so I could head over to Sea World in the evening.
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02-23-2002, 06:23 PM
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#12
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PassPorter Guide
Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Pine Bush, New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 1,900
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Re: Discovery Cove
The Sea World Pass that comes with it is good for 7 days. As many visits as you want for 7 whole days. Nice.
Susan
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02-24-2002, 12:37 AM
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#13
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Community Rank: Day-Tripper
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Wigan, England, UK.
Posts: 9
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Re: Discovery Cove
[img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] Thank you to everyone for replying. I think we are going to take the plunge and book a day at Discovery Cove! Thanks again from the UK! [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]
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