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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Greetings fellow trip report readers and writers. It has been quite a while since I have posted in this forum, but as the great Rafiki said, “It is time”.
Life in the past year for the pride has been quite the adventure and has unfortunately left me with little time, or energy, to either write (as in finish my last TR) or read the wonderful reports of others here. But, I vow to do my best to finish this one. I also have the promise from a fellow Passporter, and very dear friend, to give me a swift kick in the backside to keep me on track. (that would be you, disneydani)
With that said, allow me to introduce the characters, and provide a little history, of each of us on this adventure. For those of you who have read a previous Nala and pride trip report, much of this is a repeat, so I apologize for that. There is, however, some new information about Kiara that may be of interest. For those of you who have never read a Nala and pride TR, I must warn you that I a very long winded, and I also write from the heart. More than once I have been told that a tissue was required when reading a TR of mine.
Nala - That would be me. At 48 years old, I am making my 40th trip to visit the mouse. My love of WDW began in 1971, when the day after Christmas, my parents loaded up the motor home and headed to Ft Wilderness to check out this new, fabulous campground /theme park my father had heard about. Lucky for me, my parents fell in love with WDW, and many more trips over the next nine years were taken. So many trips to FW were taken over those years that it felt like a second home to me. Once I flew the coop, the trips to “the World” were not as frequent for me, but still my love of this magical place was close to my heart.
Even though I was classified as an “adult”, I was fortunate to take a few more trips back to WDW with my parents. One day a few years back, while digging in the attic for who knows what, I came across a packet filled with memorabilia from a trip to WDW. I knew once I picked it up, it was nothing from recent years, or recent trips with my family, and upon opening it, I saw maps and brochures of places and things at WDW that were long since gone. River Country, Discovery Island and passes for WDW transportation. Passes that used to be issued to guests of FW, the Poly and the CR that were required to board any method of transportation at WDW. And those passes had my father’s name on them.
A flood of wonderful memories of the man who was responsible for my love of WDW washed over me, and then I noticed something that shocked me. The departure date from Ft Wilderness on the passes. It was 7/10/1990. What was shocking about the date was that two years later, on 7/10, my father passed away.
Needless to say, every trip I have taken back to WDW after losing my father, I have felt him with me in spirit and I am sure this trip will be no exception.
Grumpy - Ahhhh Grumpy, my beloved husband of 13 years. Grumpy was a Disney skeptic, having been once as a child in the late 70’s, and hating it, so to say he was a hard sell for our first trip, is a gross understatement. After years of begging and pleading, and realizing I was not going to relent on the subject, he agreed. But it was under complete and total protest. Grumpy had a pretty good clue that his wife was a Disney freak, but he had no idea I was also a compulsive, neurotic planner. In the months of preparation that occurred before the trip, I drove him crazy. And he drove me crazy grousing about having to go to WDW. It was during this time that I started calling him Grumpy, and the nickname stuck.
What Grumpy also didn’t know about his loving wife, is how cunning and conniving I can be. The poor man was like helpless prey in a spider’s web the second he drove onto WDW property. I made sure to put him in an environment I knew he would love and I was bound and determined to show him WDW was more than just theme parks and crowds. Being that he is an outdoors kind of guy, a cabin at Ft Wilderness was the perfect place to set my trap. And since it was a place I knew so well, I was a perfect tour guide. As I expected, Grumpy stepped one foot into our little cabin, and while he wouldn’t admit it, he was about to be hooked, for life. As our first trip went on, Grumpy found many more little things about WDW that he enjoyed, and it didn’t take long for me to realize my evil plan was working.
Nine years later, Grumpy is as much of a Disney freak as I am, and possibly even worse. While spending some time in Atlanta for business back in the winter of 2007, he picked up a little Valentine’s present for me.
It was his first (and only) tattoo, and something I thought he would NEVER do, but it proved to me that his love of all things Disney was permanent. He is “Grumpy” forever. And I am extremely proud of my successful conversion of him.
Kiara - our beautiful, wonderful, amazing daughter, whom it is safe to say, is the absolute light of our lives. Kiara is 100% a daddy‘s girl and I often tease Grumpy that is it not fair that I grew her for nine months, spent six hours birthing her, and she came out thinking I was chopped liver and he was the cat‘s meow. There are, however, a few times when Kiara prefers me to Grumpy. Those times would be when she is throwing up, or needs to escape to “It’s a Small World” to avoid the fireworks.
Speaking of avoiding the fireworks, while Kiara is twelve years old, her mental capacity is about that of a four year old. Her speech is limited to simple words, phrases and sentences and sometimes difficult to understand. While her gross motor skills were slow to develop, years of physical therapy have been a blessing and she is fully mobile. Her fine motor skills, while not great, are in the high functioning range, and to look at her, she appears to be a perfectly, normal child. Kiara also struggles with some sensory issues, the most severe being to loud, sudden noises. Due to this, fireworks are out of the question for her to watch. The funny thing is, she loves fireworks. On TV, in a movie, from behind a glass window where the sound is buffered, she adores them. Up close and in person, or even miles away while outside, they are off limits and more than she can handle.
Kiara is also obsessed with water of any type. Pools, ponds, lakes, streams, sinks, even toilets, are favorite sources of entertainment. Disney princesses are also an obsession and she loves to meet and greet them. No meet with a princess is complete with Kiara until she obtains the coveted “kiss”, that of a big, bright lipstick mark on her face from any of them.
Since Kiara has been subjected to all things Disney since she was just a tot, she took to WDW like a duck to water. Converting her into a Disney freak was as easy as taking candy from a baby. Due to her sensory issues, through trial and error, we have over the years learned what she can and cannot handle. The list of what she can handle is not that long, but neither Grumpy or I will ever tire of taking her for a spin on the Magic Carpets and both of us look forward to doing so with her on this trip.
Unfortunately, due to a recent development in Kiara’s health, the list of things she will do may be shortened to an even shorter list of things she can do safely. On a very cold, dreary morning in February, while I was getting ready for work and Grumpy was in the living room with Kiara, I heard a very loud crash which was followed by Grumpy yelling for me to get downstairs. I knew from the panic in his voice that something was horribly wrong.
I ran down the steps to find Kiara on the floor violently convulsing and Grumpy on his hands and knees next to her, screaming for me to call 911. While the paramedics arrived in a matter of minutes, it seemed an eternity and both Grumpy and I can say those minutes were among the absolute worst of our lives. Never before had either of us felt so helpless and bewildered, and never before had either of us been so terrified. Something was horribly wrong with our little girl, and both of us feared the worst.
An ambulance ride to the ER, multiple tests, and thirty-six hours later, we had an answer. Kiara has epilepsy. Both Grumpy and I knew this news presented us and Kiara with new challenges in our lives, but it was a far better outcome than what it could have been. While learning that our child has epilepsy was scary, it was a huge relief that we weren’t dealing with a tumor or hemorrhage of the brain. Grumpy and I were both made aware that finding the right medication and dosage to control Kiara’s seizures was going to be a long period of trial and error, but we can, and will, deal with that.
Needless to say, I now have concerns about Kiara enjoying some of her favorite rides at WDW. While we have been lucky and she has only had one other seizure since the first one, both have happened when she was playing on the computer. I fear that lights on some of her favorite attractions, such as Buzz Lightyear, could be triggers. If I had my way, I would wrap Kiara in an inflatable suit and make her wear a helmet not only at WDW, but everyday. It is Grumpy that reminds me that she is entitled to a normal life, and even though it comes with risks, she deserves to live it.
So, live it she shall do.
It has been way to long for us since we have been back to WDW, and the three of us are counting down the days until we return to our happy place. It is a place that has always held so much magic for us, and I am sure this trip will be no exception.
But………..
There is one more member joining the pride for this adventure. Before I go into a detailed introduction of this person, I thought it would be fun to let you all try to figure out who it is. Let me give you a clue and tell you that Sarafina will be joining the pride. And any die hard Lion King fan will have no problem figuring out who this person is.
Up next: The introduction of Sarafina and how this TR got its title.
What a fabulous start! I am already in love with you and your family!! You have a beautiful little girl and you are obviously such a brave and strong woman. That is one lucky little girl! I cannot wait to hear more!! Seriously sitting on pins and needles here lol!
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Glad to see another of your TR's (I them). What a scary day in Feb! My DD is sensitive to noise as well...have you tried earphones on Kiara? (the ones used when at a firing range?) We have used a pair of my husband's on last year's trip & DD them! Here she is on Backlot Tour
She was able to enjoy loud rides & fireworks without any problems!
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Last edited by mpwife153; 10-24-2010 at 05:31 PM..
It has been quite a while since I have posted in this forum, but as the great Rafiki said, “It is time”.
I dunno, I like my quote better....
Hmm...now where did I leave that cattle prod????
I, of course, am thrilled that you dove in head first and strated your PTR! Thanks to my new obsession with CVS bonus bucks, I have a huge stockpile of kleenex....all with your TR's name on them.
Keep 'em coming.....or else....
Danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
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Kiara is 100% a daddy‘s girl and I often tease Grumpy that is it not fair that I grew her for nine months, spent six hours birthing her, and she came out thinking I was chopped liver and he was the cat‘s meow. There are, however, a few times when Kiara prefers me to Grumpy. Those times would be when she is throwing up, or needs to escape to “It’s a Small World” to avoid the fireworks. 
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Here she is on Backlot Tour
for Kiara! 
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