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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Me – Veronica, lawyer age 28 Layla – my daughter, age 3 ½ Jessa – my sister, zookeeper, age 26
Our journey: Layla and I were coming from central Iowa and my sister was coming from southern Indiana. We had originally planned to drive, Layla and I would swing over and get my sister, only about a 10 minute deviation from the shortest route from Iowa. About 11 days out, my parents offered to pay for the difference to fly. I shopped ticket prices and decided that we would all fly out from St. Louis, a 6 hour drive for me and Layla, 3 hours for my sister.
Our Lodging: All Star Movies, preferred room, basic dining plan
I had gotten my car cleaned out and packed the day before we were to leave. We needed to be backing out of the driveway at 5:30 am. I went to bed with Layla at about 9:00 the night before, she is going through a phase where she hates to sleep in her own bed and who wants a giant fight the night before vacation? I woke up at 3 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. I read a little, tossed and turned a little and then when it was about 4:45 am, I got up. My husband works nights, so he was up and hanging around. I said goodbye to him and he carried Layla out to the car in her jammies and said goodbye to her.
Layla
We were on our way at 5:15 am! I thought that Layla would fall back asleep, but she didn’t at all. I explained that we were going to meet Mickey and the Princesses at Disney World. She just kept asking when we were going to be at the airplane. I think I could have taken her for a short plane ride and she would have thought that was enough fun.
We drove for a while, I was testing out a new route to St. Louis through some pretty rural areas. We drove past the American Gothic house and took a picture for my mom, that’s the sort of thing she gets a kick out of.
American Gothic House
Then we stopped at a small town gas station/café to go the bathroom and put on Layla’s regular clothes. All the regulars at the gas station were lined up along a counter and looked at us a little oddly. I took a picture of the grain bins outside of the gas station, just for contrast of where we were headed.
Grain Silos
After one more gas stop and maybe a stop for iced coffee, we were headed into St. Louis. Layla did pretty well on the drive. She watched the sing-a-long in Disneyworld about 3 times, did some coloring and we sang along to the “Mickey’s silly songs” cds. About the time that traffic was starting to get heavier, she started asking if we were at the airplane about every 60 seconds. We found where we were headed and got a little confused while trying to find the cheap parking lot. We ended up in the $9 a day lot instead of the $7 a day lot, but I figured that was good enough. The shuttle to the terminal stopped right at our car. We pulled our things out of the trunk and hopped on.
The shuttle deposited us outside of our airline’s check in area at about 11:15 am. I had already checked in and printed our boarding passes online, so we didn’t have anything to do there, as we were going to be carrying on our luggage. I got a couple of harassed-sounding phone calls from my sister as she couldn’t find the cheap parking lot either. She finally found it and met us right inside the door. Layla and I hadn’t seen her since February, so it was really good to see her walking in the door towards us.
Layla, Jessa and I rode the tram out to our gate and hung around for a while, waiting for our plan to board. It was on time, scheduled to take off at 2:08 pm for a nonstop flight to Orlando. Layla made friends with another little girl and they spent the whole time giggling, running around, and watching planes take off and land.
Layla and Jessa
We boarded about 1:30 pm and they made both Jessa and I gate-check our wheeled carry-on bags. We also gate checked Layla’s stroller. The flight was very good, nice and smooth. Layla liked the whole thing and was really good. About ¼ of the plane was kids, including one lady who was flying by herself with a 5 month-old and a toddler. She was brave!
Me and Jessa
We touched down in Orlando, got the stroller and found out that we had to go to baggage claim for our other gate checked items. Got them, a little grumpy, and headed over to the DME desk. I hadn’t gotten our vouchers before I left, but I gave them our reservation number and they found us and printed them pretty quickly. We got in line and then were on the bus in about 3 minutes. The bus driver mentioned in passing that we should keep our vouchers for the return DME trip, which was lucky because I would have tossed them otherwise. The trip from the airport to our resort was about 35 minutes.
The bus was for all of the All-Star resorts, but no one was going to Sports. Most of the bus was going to Movies with us. When we got to the check-in desk, I think we only waited about 5 minutes, the staff was wo/manning all stations and they moved everyone through pretty quickly. The cast member who checked me in wasn’t that great, she couldn’t answer the question I had about transportation for our breakfast at Ohana the following morning and didn’t tell us anything about the resort. I think I would do on-line check-in next time.
We got to our room, I was hoping for either the Toy Story or 101 Dalmations buildings, but we were in Fantasia building 8 on the side facing away from the pool. The rooms were really cute with the theming and you could tell that they had recently been updated. The double beds were plenty long enough, which was my main concern about them, because my toes usually hang off if the bed isn’t a queen size. We dumped our stuff and went swimming in the big Fantasia pool to cool off as it was HOT. I think we got done about 8 and went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. We didn’t have any trouble using our meal plan. I can’t remember what anyone got, but it was all perfectly adequate, if unexciting, food. We went back to the room, I hooked up our little DVD player to the big TV and started Princess and the Frog, then we pretty much passed out.
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I had asked for a wake-up call at 6:28 am because we had a 7:30 ADR for breakfast at Ohana. Whoever put the tip in about hitting speaker so that everyone can hear the wake-up call must be far better than I am at operating strange phones when awakened from a sound sleep.
We took a cab over to the Poly. The fare was $18 and the guy said that he didn’t have change for a $20. Well, all I had were $20s, so he got a really small tip. Felt a little bad about that but what can you do? The Poly was really beautiful, so lush and tropical. I would love to stay there. Layla was pretty grumpy most of the time and wouldn’t smile at all in our picture. We got our buzzer at Ohana and had time to run over to their little store and grab some sunblock, then we were seated. We got a window table where you could see the castle, although not too well because the windows were so watery from the insane humidity.
pre-character grumpy Layla
Breakfast was really good, I liked the juice very much. Then Stich came out and Layla finally perked up and started to get excited. The food was really, really good, the kids’ parade was very cute. Everything went really smoothly. After coffee and breakfast everyone was feeling a lot happier, so we took some pictures and got a squashed penny. Then we jumped a bus for the Animal Kingdom.
We didn’t make it there quite in time to see the opening show or anything. I turned over my volunteer voucher and got a one-day, one-park ticket with no problem. My sister, Jessa, had a friend who was going to let her in the park for free, so she waited outside the cast member’s entrance for her friend and Layla and I waited for her inside. Jessa got inside the gate and was happy as soon as she saw some animals. She was a little disgruntled that my plan was to go and get fasspasses for Kilimanjario Safaris and do some stuff in Africa. She didn’t like walking past the animals without stopping to look.
We got our fastpasses and went to the Pangani Forest trail. Jessa talked for quite a while with a cast member outside the colobus monkey exhibit while Layla and I watched the monkeys climbing around. The entrance to the aviary on this trail was really clever and it also has bird spotting guides. Layla liked to try and identify the birds based on their pictures. We spent a while looking at the gorillas, the area in front of their exhibit was pretty crowed but mom, dad, and the new baby were right up by the glass so we got a good look. We also got a look at one of the bachelor males further along the trial.
Gorilla family
When we got out of the Pangani trail and our fastpasses for the safari ride were ready. Fastpass is the best invention ever! We got in our safari truck, that ride loads very quickly. We saw a lot of animals along the way, hippos, giraffes, rhinos with baby rhino, other animals that just aren’t as cute. Jessa thought she remembered one of the bridges rocking and steaming like it was about to fall or something like that, but we had the poacher story that I’d heard so much about. Layla liked the animatronic baby elephant the best out of all the animals that we saw on the ride. Sigh.
In safari truck
Giraffe
Elephants
Then we went over and saw the Festival of the Lion King, which was probably one of my favorite things in the park. Whoever told me not to miss it and that it’s totally different than the broadway Lion King show was totally right. I could have done without the ending number, but it was so cool. I really liked the monkey gymnasts.
It was soooooo hot and humid this day! Layla and I were flagging even after we’d sat in the air conditioning for a while. We sat outside of Pizzafari while Jessa went to see the Oasis exhibits, including a training presentation that her friend did, I think with lemurs. While Layla and I were waiting, we watched some people feeding these ducks that were hanging around. They were worse than dogs! They came to beg right next to my feet. The ducks were probably Layla’s favorite part of the whole park. There were ducks hanging around all of the outside restaurant seating.
Outside of Pizzafari
After Jessa got back we made our way over to Kali River Rapids and got fastpasses. Then we poked around Asia for a while, bought Layla a stuffed elephant, and looked at the apes on the ruined temple exhibit. Jessa thought that the rope walk for them was really neat. We saw them come down it at some other point when we were walking past.
Then we went to see Flights of Wonder, the bird show. I thought that my sister wouldn’t have any interest, but she really wanted to see it. The show was really cute and Jessa got picked to participate. After she got done, they gave her a little “honorary cast member” certificate. She was so thrilled, hehehe.
Flights of Wonder show
After we got out of Flights of Wonder, we hoofed it over to see the Nemo musical show. We got there just about as they were closing the doors. Layla was very excited to spot Nemo swimming around the bubbles surrounding the stage. Every time he passed you could hear a bunch of kids yelling “NEMO!” The show was cute, but I could have done without all of the songs. The puppets were amazing. They were created by the same guy who made the ones for the Lion King musical, so if you have seen that, you will recognize some of the concepts. I liked this show, but if I had to pick one of the Animal Kingdom shows to skip, it would be this one.
Layla and I, Layla's busy watching for Nemo
blurry picture of shark scene
After we got out of Nemo it took us a while to find our stroller (they really do re-arrange them constantly. I pinned my purple “voluntEAR” pin to the top of ours, which helped find it for the rest of the trip.) Our fastpasses were ready for Kali River Rapids, so we went over that way. They were out of fastpasses for the day and the line was super long. It felt sooo good to just walk right up with our passes! We got strapped in to the ride. Layla was a little freaked out but she did fine until we got to the burned out jungle, then she whimpered and cried the rest of the ride. She told me later that night that she was afraid of the fire on the ride. I never would have thought that THAT would be the scary part. You’d think it would be the drops or pretty much anything else.
We were soaked after we got off the ride (by the way, each raft has a semi-waterproof area to fit a small purse for everyone, which I didn’t know) and I was starting to feel that familiar migraine feeling. I told Jessa that I had to sit down in the shade for a while or I was going to get a migraine. Layla and I sat and drank some water and had some frozen lemonade near Yak and Yeti restaurant while Jessa went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. I think she was a little disappointed at our speed (or lack thereof). My migraine definitely starting to get worse, so I took some medication and it went away in about half an hour.
After Jessa got back, it was about park closing time, so we made our way back to the entrance and got on a bus back to our resort. Jessa collapsed on the bed for a while and Layla and I went swimming. There is a small kiddie pool next to the big Fantasia pool. It was about a foot deep and pretty much just a cement hole, but Layla LOVED it. I think we spent about an hour there, then grabbed Jessa to get some dinner. All of us had been too hot to eat during the day, so we spent a counter service credit on dinner at the cafeteria. Again, tasty food but not necessarily memorable. We watched part of the Lion King, Layla jumped on the bed for half an hour, then we sacked out.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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