First Day at The World - UPDATED 2/2 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Trip Report (continued)
Went to Epcot. It wasn't overly busy, even though we got there near 10am. First stop was Spaceship Earth, which I normally don't do first thing, but since it was walk in, why not? After this we went to The Seas with Nemo and Friends, again no wait. From what I remember of the new Submarine ride at Disneyland, it seemed to be the same except for the ride vehicles. Took time to watch the Manatees too, came out and went to The Land. The sign for Soarin' said 35 minutes, but it was off, the wait was actually 50 minutes. I did ride in California Adventure park, but for whatever reason, this time, I felt like I was going to loose my shoes. We were talking to a young couple on the line ahead of us. She asked me if I ever was on this ride, and I told her that I was on it in California and explained to her the set up of the three rows, and the first row is the highest, and if you don't want to go high, ask to sit in Row 3; she said "oh no I want to high" and I thought her boyfriend was going to lose his lunch. When we finally reached the ride, they were put in row 3, and we in row 1. She looked so disappointed and I said to her "do you want to change?" and she said "you don't mind?" and I said "of course not." And she was thrilled, while boyfriend got green in the gills. I didn't see them after the ride, but I hope the boyfriend was okay. After this we went to Living with the Land, again, no wait, just walk on. When we walked out of The Land, the skies opened and the rain came down...and came down and lasted the rest of the day. We took that time to grab lunch at the Electric Umbrella but then so did almost everyone else in Epcot. Went to Mission Space after lunch, Green side posted 15 minute wait, but it wasn't that long, 10 minutes the most. Orange side had a 5 minute wait, which surprised me because last time the Orange side had waits of double that of the Green. We talked to an elderly couple while waiting, the woman was hesitant about riding, but I explained how it worked, how I am really not a thrill ride person. They were in the capsule with us, and at the end I asked if she liked it and they loved it. We went to Mouse Gears, did most of our shopping in there and decided it would be best to ship the package home just so that our luggage wouldn't be over the weight limit. Little did we know, that we wouldn't have to pay the sales tax, so shipping was not only convenient but cost effective. It was still raining and the skies had that look that you knew, it wasn't going to clear, so we were heading for the monorail and then just stopped for another ride through Spaceship Earth, again no waiting. After which, we went to the monorail to the TTC, then the resort monorail to the Poly. Relaxed, went to Kona for dinner and then to the Magic Kingdom to pick up desert from the Main St. Bakery. Originally, we planned on going to the Studios for Fantasmic, but with the rain, I didn't want to go there especially since the Studios were closing at 7pm. When we got to the MK, the rain was down to a drizzle, and I saw people lining the streets and realized SpectroMagic was on. Fortunately, we were able to find a space on Main Street. Some pictures will be forth coming from Spectromagic if they come out good. Picked up our goodies at the Bakery and went to a spot under the train station to wait for Wishes. I did love the Christmas version, but I can't describe the feeling of hearing "When You Wish Upon a Star" while the fireworks design a star in the sky. I wanted to beat the crowd, so we left as Wishes was coming to an end and headed back to the Poly, stopped and got some coffee and brought it to the room to have with those apple turnovers from Main St. hmm, hmm good.
Tomorrow's agenda -- Animal Kingdom, although that could change. I don't write anything in stone, but go with the flow. It is supposed to be cold tomorrow, and even colder on Thursday.
Sorry about the rain but glad you didnt have to wait to long for any rides. Thats great Cant wait to see the pics. Have fun at Animal Kingdom. Hope it isnt to cold.
I'm glad you didn't melt in the rain! Funny story on Soarin. Main Street apple turnovers would taste sooo good right now.... hope you're staying warm at Animal Kingdom!
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Oh my gosh, what a wonderful, relaxing day you had! And I love touring in the rain - since everyone thinks they are going to melt , it seems like the crowd levels are super low. And how nice of you to let that couple ride in row one on Soarin'... I wouldn't give up row one! Can't wait to see your pictures!
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Originally Posted by MickeyMAC
Sounds like your having a great time. Are the crowds very big?
Not at all. I thought with the Super Bowl, it might be busy. But I've been following the advice of Touringplans and avoiding the parks with the early EMH and that seems to be great advice.
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Animal Kingdom was the plan for today. We got there after 10am, and it was relatively empty. We headed straight for Expedition Everest, it was just a 10 minute wait, not bad at all. So we got fast passes first and went on the standby line. We were in the next to the last seat and the ride, to me at least wasn't any different from being in the middle of the train as we had been on previous visits. The only thing, it was cold when you got to the top of the mountain. Got off the ride, and still just a ten minute wait, so rode again, and a third time, then using our fast passes rode a fourth time, this time in the second seat to the front, and to me that's where you felt this ride the most. After our four expeditions, we walked towards Dinoland, and Finding Nemo was letting people in the show, so we got on the back of the line and got in without any wait and enjoyed the show. Still didn't see Festival of the Lion King, hopefully will do so next trip. We went on Dinosaur, I had to use my GAC, but even without it, the line was just a 10 minute wait, after which we went to Primeval Whirl, which I didn't get on last time because the lines were 30 - 40 minutes long. I was hesitant about riding because I saw some people having trouble trying to get in the cars because it is moving, although slowly, and had a very understanding cast member who stopped it for me, getting on and off. We left Animal Kingdom and as we were leaving Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear were there, with no one taking pictures with them, so I got brave and had my pic taken with them.
We took the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge because I have never seen it. It was beautiful and we sat for a while on the balcony of one of the overlooks, saw some zebra and giraffes, it was just so relaxing and peaceful. I would definitely consider staying at this resort. We had lunch at the Mara, walked around the grounds a bit and took the bus to Downtown Disney. We really lucked out because we were buying some merchandise and I asked about the Annual Passport Discount and was told to see a man at the information desk. Turns out there is a special this month for AP holders, at World of Disney, and in addition to the regular 10% discount, they were giving an additional 10%, total savings on our purchases was $75! Got on the bus back to the Poly to bring our loot and take a short break before going back to the Magic Kingdom.
It was late when we went back, 6:30pm, and the park was closing at 8pm, but we did ride the Walt Disney Railroad to Thunder Mountain, which again was a 10 minute wait, so we rode twice; then rode Haunted Mansion, walk on, then walked to Tomorrowland, and rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We could have probably made it to Buzz Lightyear before the official closing, but opted to head for the exit. We stopped quickly at the Tomorrowland Terrace to see Tinkerbell fly from the castle at close range, then left the park, took the bus to Pop because I wanted to look around. I think we hit it at a much too busy time with parks closing because you couldn't even get through the gift shop, so got on the bus to Downtown Disney to change to the bus to the Poly, picked up some snacks and refilled the mugs and ready to unwind.
Tomorrow's plans -- Epcot since when we were there yesterday, we didn't stay too long, or see to much because of the rain. My husband really wants to go back to Germany to see his beloved trains.
Last edited by AGentlRose; 02-04-2009 at 01:09 AM..
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Cant wait to see the pics. Have fun at Animal Kingdom. Hope it isnt to cold.
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