Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 - Page 56 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Glad you're loving it. Pictures and little snippets on FB look fantastic! We had a whole Canadian trip planned when DH finished his second masters and I was pregnant with DS. But then 4 months along I was put on travel restrictions - not allowed to go more than 25 miles from my hospital, and the trip was shelved. Still haven't managed to get there after 20 years!
Oh no! You should definitely put it back on the list and I hope you make it one day.
The Fairmont is lovely! I showed Dave and he opined we should plan to go there and stay for a night...maybe on a trip to see family in Niagara...then drive to Quebec, then back to family and home...
I should map that out while he's so taken with it!
After your descriptions, I certainly want to go!
Hey go for it while he's keen! My goodness, I should be on commission from the Canadian tourism board!
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I have that problem too, but definitely make time to come here - you won't be disappointed.
My brother and his wife visited Quebec City a few years ago and absolutely loved it as well!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I have been reading along ,thoroughly enjoying all of your planning. My kids call me a professional tourist, and I think you can give me a run for my money. Love how you research and plan. I could spend weeks exploring Maine, and I do love Portland, but Ellsworth will be practical for you. Your Canadian portion of the trip is the same one I traveled 35 years ago with high school friends. We stayed in college dorms rather than hotels. Loved, loved, loved Montreal and Ottawa.
I always brought friends and guests to the Observation Deck of the Twin Towers. My parents brought us there the week it opened. I still bring visitors there and cry every time. My cousin, by the grace of God and angels in heaven, is a survivor.
My father also brought us to see the first Concord arrive in New York. Enjoy the Cirque shows. I know your stars will align and your timing will be practically perfect in New York. Do you have or have you used Groupon for hotels? I use it regularly for getting hotels in New York whenever we go for a show or concert.
One more suggestion, look for the evening street shows in Animal Kingdom. We wished we skipped our nighttime safari fp to stay and watch the complete performance by the African dancers near Tusker House. Best free, street show Disney has provided according to the crowd loving the show we caught.
Finally, my thoughts will be with all of you paying tribute to Lizard Cop. I learned so much from him. He touched so many of us and was taken so tragically from his family.
The Disney outlet in Niagara Falls was a bit of a disappointment to us. Most of the merchandise was very generic, no great bargain and geared to small children. The mall is considered a designer mall. When we saw the new shopping area at Disney Springs, my son mentioned it reminded him of The Niagara Falls Outlet Mall.
I have been reading along ,thoroughly enjoying all of your planning. My kids call me a professional tourist, and I think you can give me a run for my money. Love how you research and plan. I could spend weeks exploring Maine, and I do love Portland, but Ellsworth will be practical for you. Your Canadian portion of the trip is the same one I traveled 35 years ago with high school friends. We stayed in college dorms rather than hotels. Loved, loved, loved Montreal and Ottawa.
Ottawa looks amazing. So far, we're not feeling as much love for Montreal as we did for Quebec City, but it's early days. We haven't fully explored it yet, so we might change our minds after today.
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I always brought friends and guests to the Observation Deck of the Twin Towers. My parents brought us there the week it opened. I still bring visitors there and cry every time. My cousin, by the grace of God and angels in heaven, is a survivor.
Oh my goodness.
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My father also brought us to see the first Concord arrive in New York. Enjoy the Cirque shows. I know your stars will align and your timing will be practically perfect in New York. Do you have or have you used Groupon for hotels? I use it regularly for getting hotels in New York whenever we go for a show or concert.
I don't use it that often, I may have to look into it. In the UK, it's always advertised as being more for days out than anything else.
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One more suggestion, look for the evening street shows in Animal Kingdom. We wished we skipped our nighttime safari fp to stay and watch the complete performance by the African dancers near Tusker House. Best free, street show Disney has provided according to the crowd loving the show we caught.
Thanks for that.
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Finally, my thoughts will be with all of you paying tribute to Lizard Cop. I learned so much from him. He touched so many of us and was taken so tragically from his family.
The Disney outlet in Niagara Falls was a bit of a disappointment to us. Most of the merchandise was very generic, no great bargain and geared to small children. The mall is considered a designer mall. When we saw the new shopping area at Disney Springs, my son mentioned it reminded him of The Niagara Falls Outlet Mall.
Well, that is definitely off our list and we already have plenty of purchases from the one in Merrimack!
Sorry for the lack of update yesterday - bit of a busy day...
We had a wonderful dinner at the Fairmont last night, which capped off a generally good day. I had words with managers at the Fairmont about what happened to me yesterday morning and they are making amends, let's just put it that way.
We headed out and went over to the Montmorency Falls, after a suggestion by someone on Facebook, and also because it was due to rain, and we couldn't face walking around the city in the rain, after having already done it in beautiful weather. It was quite the experience!
We then drove over to Montreal and our first stop was the Olympic Park, very 70s. We went up the tower there and got some amazing views over the city. Then we headed back down for the 3:30pm tour of the stadium with Sharon which was a lot of fun - our guide was very entertaining!
We then headed for the hotel and got caught in the world's worst traffic jam. We were 300 metres from our hotel and it took 20 minutes to crawl that distance. I was so livid when we got there, and told the receptionist we weren't impressed with the city so far. She obviously knew just what to do - give us a room upgrade!
I am typing this in the living room of our two bedroom suite. It's like being in a Disney Vacation Club villa!
Last night we went out for dinner with Sharon, and we're off shortly to meet up with her and then we'll spend the day exploring the city. Can't wait!
Have fun! Montreal is a great city, lots of variety.
Your comment of dealing with management at Frontenac made me remember that we had issues there too. 17 years ago, so I don't remember what it was anymore. But we stayed for 3 nights (back when I could get travel agent deals) and they sent us banana bread 2 days in a row, and gave us hotel credit that we used up at the bar. But I can't remember anymore why?!
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Tanya
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Still haven't managed to get there after 20 years!
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I was so livid when we got there, and told the receptionist we weren't impressed with the city so far. She obviously knew just what to do - give us a room upgrade! 
But I can't remember anymore why?!
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