First Day at The World - UPDATED 2/2 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Final Day at The World
I hope my memory serves me, it's been almost a week since our final day at Disney and considering that both DH and I were sick through most of that day, I hope I can remember.
Plan was to go to Disney Studios in the morning. We had AP tickets for American Idol Experience preview. We got there around 11am,had to check in for the 12 noon show, but were told that there were not enough people (audience? contestants?) for the noon show, but that we could attend the 1pm. But we did check in, got our wristbands and spoke to one of the CMs there who told us that her Mom was going to be singing, which puzzled me because I watch American Idol and the cut off age for contestants was 30, the Mom had to definitely be older than 30. We left the theater area and walked over to Toy Story, on the way, we "met" Goofy and had our pictures taken with him. Not posting that picture because both me and DH looked like we could the hitchhiking ghosts at the Haunted Mansion, we were so white. Toy Story's standby line was 80 min and the fast passes were already gone (before noon), but since it involved stairs in the queue, I was able to bypass that part of the line with my GAC, so our wait wasn't as long. When we left Toy Story it was time to get to American Idol for the preview pre-show. By this point, we couldn't wait to get into the theater and sit down. Finally went in and a CM explained that 3 people would be singing, and that we had keypads on the arm rests and we'll be asked to vote at the end. They introduced the 3 judges, the gentleman judge definitely acted the Simon Cowell part. First up was the CM's Mom that I spoke about, she sang "I Can See Clearly Now" and did a good job. The second was a 14 year old boy from Florida who sang "Sweet Home Alabama", and wasn't bad. The third was another middle aged woman, who sang "Walking After Midnight" in a very soulful, sultry voice and she was fantastic (and the winner). She would be back at the 7pm show, along with the winners of the other afternoon shows. The daily winner would get the front of the line ticket to any American Idol audition (however as explained by the host, today's winner would not be getting the ticket -- probably because of the American Idol age cut off) It was an experience, and probably not something I would do again unless it was bad weather and I wanted to be inside. I do give the performers credit for getting up there and singing.
We decided to go back to the Poly and just rest since we were leaving the next morning and not relishing the thought of traveling for 12 hours from door to door. We did make that one last trip to the Magic Kingdom, took the railroad to Big Thunder Mountain, only rode once even though it was a 10 min wait, it was just too cold. Walked round to the Haunted Mansion and for the first time, I paid attention to the pet cemetery on the way out. I think we always used to be in a hurry to get from one attraction to the next, that we didn't stop to look at exits. There's always something new to discover. We made out way back through Liberty Square to Main St., skipped the Bakery tonight, just too sick to desire sweets. They were putting the ropes up for SpectroMagic and I wanted to get out before it started--- besides it was cold and I had on 4 layers of clothing. We got on the nice warm monorail and when we got to the Poly, I asked my husband if he felt okay to do the loop one time and he said sure, so we sat back, relaxed and enjoyed.
Couldn't wait to get on the Magical Express and get home. There's no place like home when you're sick. The worse part was the 2 1/2 layover in Atlanta, but thankfully we arrived back in Las Vegas safely and 1/2 hour early.
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We were there the same week. And it was definitely cold! Our last day was Thursday the 5th and I didn't take my gloves off all day. So sorry you got sick, hope you are all better now.
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
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Pixie Dust
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Glad you made it home fine.
Great trip! So sorry you and your husband were sick.
Liz 
the 'hidden' Mickey on your bed!
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