Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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!
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.
No bueno on your dining experiences. Can't wait to hear about your Segway tour, maybe they will let you take a couple back to WL so you can use them to travel to and from the lobby!!
You must be in the same studio we were in on our January trip! LAST door down the longest hallway off the Villas lobby.
I think I would have enjoyed staying there more if I just stayed in the Wilderness Lodge itself, not the DVC part. But hey - now you've done all the DVC resorts! Will you try to catch Princess Sharon and her feat of staying at ALL resorts?!
Any improvement in the heat? My weather app on the iPhone doesn't look like it's cooling off much there - mid to high 80's in the day, and mid 60's at night. But maybe some of the humidity has gone?
I think that's the one next door. We're the second to last.
We'll stop at all the DVC resorts, as we can't afford to resort hop everywhere - the only way we can afford to visit WDW so often is that we use our points and, although you can use your points at many of the WDW resorts, it's not an economical use of them. :
The weather has been much better today - only high 80s and a bit more of a breeze.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Sorry that Le Cellier was somewhat of a dissappointment, I have been hearing this and I really hope that maybe they just need to get their act together after the changes and that it shapes up soon. Sorry that the food service has been less than stellar so far...hoping to hear service changes around for the better.
Thanks for your review of the WLV...so now that you have done them all Cheryl, what sits at the top three of your list
Top three:
1) Beach Club Villas
2) Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas
3) Bay Lake Tower (I think... )
I'm wondering if I should cancel my Le Cellier ADR for next Tuesday now... Will I be wasting my money??
I would still give it a go - just don't go into it expecting dinner to be a true signature dining experience, because we didn't think it was. As a result, it's pricey for what it is, but I would never want to put anyone off from trying a restaurant, as you may have a totally different experience to us.
The Segway tour was an absolute blast today - it was so much fun, more so as it was just the two of us on it! As a result, we did more than we would've done otherwise - you'll have to wait for the actual trip report to see what that was... I can thoroughly recommend this tour - we absolutely loved it.
We then had a very fun lunch at Biergarten - the entertainment was much better than we remembered and the food selection was very good. Someone in our party enjoyed the beer on offer there..
We spent a lot of the afternoon in Epcot and are now back in the studio, getting ready for the cruise tomorrow morning! We have dinner at Artist Point tonight and then an early start with breakfast at 'Ohana and some time at Magic Kingdom before we head off to Port Canaveral.
If I don't get a chance to log on again before we head out, then it may be a couple of days before you hear from us again...
We have dinner at Artist Point tonight and then an early start with breakfast at 'Ohana and some time at Magic Kingdom before we head off to Port Canaveral.
Sorry you are not loving the VWL. We were way down that end in October for our first stay at the villas there. It's my second home resort. I still liked it, and am hoping to someday stay there when the Christmas decorations are up. That's a truly special time at the WL. Still, BLT is my first home resort, so I am happy to see it appear on your list. By the way, Bob and I were in pretty much the last studio at AKV-Jambo House last weekend--way out at the end of an arm of the resort. We think it's next door to one we were in previously, so we are getting used to being a long ways away from the lobby. Come to think of it, we were pretty far out at BWV, too. Hmm....
I hope, hope, hope that the service and food are stellar for you at Artist Point tonight. It is one of my favorite restaurants on property.
It all sounds wonderful! Hope you have a delicious dinner, and a great time in the morning. Bon voyage!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
All caught up now. Hope the cruise portion of your trip goes off without a hitch! And, hope it is going to cool down it doesn't do it too much now. Nothing worse than a cold cruise!
We've stayed at WL but not WLV. It is my favorite deluxe resort (will probably rank the Poly a very close second, but we've only stayed there once).
Hope the next portion of your WDW trip has better luck with food AND service! Catch you when you get back!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.