Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 55 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Great updates Cheryl. I'm going to B&C on my trip - for sure - that burger looked amazing. Sorry it was so hot for you. Is the sand art covered? I'm just curious as to if it will all wash away in the rain.
Interestingly, I don't think so - and we did see a Cast Member doing some work on it while we were there, presumably to keep it in top condition...
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I hope all the flower displays are as fresh lookin gwhen I'm at Epcot on 5/13! Right now, the extended forecast for that day is a high of 95, so I will be looking for the air conditioning, too!
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That picture of Wendy's family on the bench is so funny! Gabby is just adorable Sounds like the heat never let up for you on this trip! My older daughter asked me to take her to Disney before she starts law school this August so we have a trip planned for Aug. 3-8. I'm gearing up for the heat and I'm sure the humidity is going to be 100% when we go!!!
Love all the pictures, especially love the "sand art". Sorry the heat was getting to your group but hopefully you found some reprieve in Captain EO and the AC.
That picture of Wendy's family on the bench is so funny! Gabby is just adorable Sounds like the heat never let up for you on this trip! My older daughter asked me to take her to Disney before she starts law school this August so we have a trip planned for Aug. 3-8. I'm gearing up for the heat and I'm sure the humidity is going to be 100% when we go!!!
: sadly we didn't have much joy with the heat this trip - I think nearly every day saw record breaking highs.
Friday 8 April – part five: : Indiana in the United Kingdom!
I think it’s fair to say that Wendy, Mark and Josh were not that keen on seeing Captain Eo, but I was. It’s something to do with the fact that one of the strongest memories I have of my visit to WDW in 1987 with my parents was seeing this and then heading out into a warm Florida evening, with Another Part of Me blaring away. Since then, I’ve always loved that song, as it brings back such good memories.
When we went in, we were told to move all the way across, as it was going to be SO busy in the pre-show. Yeah, right...
Mark and Josh got chatting to a group of girls from a college in Philadelphia. Oh my goodness, they were not the brightest buttons, shall we say? They asked where we came from and when Josh said Indiana, they asked if he meant Indiana in the States. Josh, straight as anything, told them : he was from Indiana in the United Kingdom – the bit that doesn’t have an accent. You want to know the best bit? They fell for it!
Finally we headed in to see Captain Eo. So did it live up to my expectations? Well, actually, surprisingly, it did. Ok, so it was corny 80s stuff, but I really enjoyed it. I didn’t remember much of it at all, just literally the last couple of minutes of it. The bit with the spaceship landing was good fun and I was amazed at how much the theatre shuddered during the 17 minutes. I’m sure I remember reading somewhere that they did add some effects in, so maybe that’s why I was surprised?
As soon as they landed, Wendy said in quite a loud voice (although it can’t have been that loud, as Josh, sitting three seats away from her didn’t hear, but Mark and I certainly did!) “is this when he starts dancing?” It took a little bit longer for that to happen, but when it did, it was spectacular, although only one tiny moonwalk, which surprised me, as I was sure there would be more than just that.
The Supreme Leader was superb, the make-up that Angelica Houston must’ve undergone for that must’ve taken hours! Was it just me or was there an element of the Borg from Star Trek in the whole thing? Perhaps that’s where the idea came from?
I absolutely adored Fuzzball and would’ve bought one at the merchandise stand, except that the soft toy ones didn’t look nearly as cute as what I’d seen in the film.
Of course, my favourite bit was the ending with Another Part of Me and I got a huge dose of nostalgia, coming out of the theatre, with that still playing. Suddenly, had it not been for the fact that it was daytime and roasting outside, I could’ve been back on that trip nearly 25 years ago. It was a great nostalgia trip for me and I loved seeing it – thanks to Wendy, Josh and Mark for bearing with me on that.
We headed straight for the Land and Soarin’, which was showing an 85 minute wait, although as Wendy said, the line didn’t look that long. Thank goodness for her Guest Assistance Card for her foot, as I had yet to get mine for my chronic fatigue. We got in line and lucked out and got row one, right in the middle. That couldn’t have been more perfect. : I don’t know what they did to this for this journey, but my goodness, we got a dose and a half of pine and orange smells. It was almost intoxicating!
When we came out of there, Josh split to go and see the British Invasion, while we wandered through Innoventions. Amazingly, it was Wendy’s first ever visit in there. We didn’t stop to do anything, although hopefully we gave her a glimpse of what goes on in there and why it’s worth a visit – particularly in hot weather! As you can tell, we were taking every opportunity to get out of the sun whenever we could.
We stopped off at the Art of Disney store for the same reason, although I also saw some wonderful drawings of each country at World Showcase from the same artist who I’d bought prints from during the 2009 Flower and Garden Festival. It’s a shame that they didn’t have a smaller size or a montage of all of them, but apparently the artist is due to be in residence when we get back from the Dream, so maybe then there’ll be more choice.
We found the topiary of Donald, who looked a bit mean – I don’t know what you think...
We wandered slowly down towards the front of the park, so that we could see the topiaries there and stopped to get our first Photopass pictures of the vacation so far. Sadly, I am still awaiting the arrivial of our Photopass CD, having ordered it and had it shipped last Monday! International shipping can be a real pain. As soon as it arrives, I'll post the Photopass pics covered so far in this trip report...
We were very impressed with the topiaries of Lotso and Woody, although we felt Buzz left a little to be desired. He just looked a bit manic!
After a few pictures, we were sweating all over – seriously! – and it was time to get out of the sun. What better way to do that then by visiting Spaceship Earth, which was a walk-on. Wendy and I went together and opted for the Spanish soundtrack, saying we were visiting from Tokyo. It was interesting to hear the soundtrack in another language and, when we weren’t chatting and I could be bothered to pay attention, I did understand a fair bit of it. However, I was disappointed that Dame Judi Dench wasn’t doing the Spanish version of the narration..
Mark got some shots of his future:
When we came out of there, it was over to Guest Relations to get my Guest Assistance Card, which was quickly done. Then we found Daisy. We don’t know what Donald and Daisy had done wrong to be separated, but that’s what had happened to them this year:
In between was the main display of Mickey, Minnie and Pluto.
Our next stop had to be Ice Cool for a bit of refreshment. Given the weather, it’s no surprise that it was packed in there and it was tough to find a machine that didn’t have a line for it, but we got there in the end. I had quite a bit of my favourite one, the watermelon one – I think from China, if I remember right. The Kinley from Israel wasn’t bad either. Oddly none of us had any Beverly. Can’t think why...
We went back out into the blazing sun to get some more Photopass pics...
... then we wandered slowly across into World Showcase, getting lots of photos of the Flower and Garden Festival offerings on the way.
The first thing we found were the butterfly topiaries by the Butterfly Garden.
I have to say that I love Beverly! I can't imagine why you didn't have any. Sorry about the heat, but it sounds like you found lots of diversions to avoid it. We both love Captain EO, it brings back some strange memories for me as I got lost in line when I was little, but when we finally saw it, shortly after it originally opened, it was great!
It certainly sounds like you're having a lot of fun in your "Disney bubble", despite the heat and the rough start to your vacation. Looking forward to the next installment!
I absolutely adored Fuzzball and would’ve bought one at the merchandise stand, except that the soft toy ones didn’t look nearly as cute as what I’d seen in the film.
I can't believe they are still selling those! My parents bought one for my brother when we visited...in 1988 I think??? It wasn't our first visit though. Anyway, I remember him carrying it everywhere!!! Maybe I should buy him one the next time we go.
Great day! Love the story about Indiana, UK. Sad that it fooled college kids!!! I'm hoping neither of my kids would have believed the bit about "the part of the UK without an accent"!!
I like the Israeli drink at Club Cool, too! The watermelon one is a bit on the sweet side for me - although I won't go so far in the other direction to say I enjoy Beverly!
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Sorry about the oppressive heat!
Sounds like the heat never let up for you on this trip!
My older daughter asked me to take her to Disney before she starts law school this August so we have a trip planned for Aug. 3-8. I'm gearing up for the heat and I'm sure the humidity is going to be 100% when we go!!!
: sadly we didn't have much joy with the heat this trip - I think nearly every day saw record breaking highs. 
They asked where we came from and when Josh said Indiana, they asked if he meant Indiana in the States. Josh, straight as anything, told them 
Ok, so it was corny 80s stuff, but I really enjoyed it. I didn’t remember much of it at all, just literally the last couple of minutes of it. The bit with the spaceship landing was good fun and I was amazed at how much the theatre shuddered during the 17 minutes. I’m sure I remember reading somewhere that they did add some effects in, so maybe that’s why I was surprised? 
As you can tell, we were taking every opportunity to get out of the sun whenever we could. 
Anyway, I remember him carrying it everywhere!!! Maybe I should buy him one the next time we go. 
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