Two little boys have a dream come true - 18 day holiday of a lifetime (Pop Century, AK & Others...) Pre & Post Trip Report - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Up late as we're tiring now but off to the Magic Kingdom where we had a reservation for a character lunch at the Crystal Palace.
We arrived a little late but we'd called ahead in advance to say we were on our way so all was OK.
Food was good and we filled ourselves and we had good visits from Pooh, Tiger, EEyore and Piglet throughout the meal. Then for a tour around the Magic Kingdom which was packed full with it being a Saturday and nice weather. We did a full circuit of the MK Railroad then watched the parade and then caught a boat across the lake to the Wilderness Camp Grounds for the Hoop De Hoo show which was absolutely first class. It was expensive at $210 for the 4 of us but worth every cent in the end. The food was more than acceptable with plenty to eat. Whish we hadn't eaten so much at lunchtime now. and the entertainment was extremely good. Even Tom laughed at a lot of the humour going on.
We then caught the boat back to the MK and it was just as busy. We struggled finding somewhere good to photograph the fireworks but managed to video the performance and enjoyed watching them all except Charlie who had fallen asleep by this stage. The park was still open until 10pm so we had a wander around and did the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride and also the Pooh Bear Honey Pot ride which were both good. We were amongst the last people out of the park and had a good bus journey back to the hotel. Just time to download all the photos and video before gong to bed so had to do the blog this morning.
Looks like the plan is to do Hollywood Studios today and then drive into Kissimmee for our evening meal........
I just found your Trip Report again and I'm so glad! It sounds like you are all having a wonderful time, and it's so nice to read about it each day. Hope you continue to have nice weather and loads of fun. Can't wait to read tomorrow's report!
Well, this morning we had a bit of a lie-in in fact the housekeeper called twice before we'd left. We had breakfast at POP Century but actually it was lunch as it was past Noon!
We decided that instead of doing a park today we'd catch up on some retail therapy so we had a mooch around the shops in Kissimmee and Kissimmee Old Town, the flea markets and so on but didn't find much. We then went to Belz, had some snacks in the food court for our tea and after a decent coffee at Starbucks, made our way back to Pop Century.
We then spent the evening planning our next couple of days before we move off down to Clearwater to ensure there's nothing we've missed.
Charlie is just having a bath now and then it is a relatively early night for us as we want to be off to the parks tomorrow early doors just to suprise the Housekeeper.......
Well, the lazy day did us good ysterday as this morning we were up bright and early and breakfasted and in the line for the bus before 10am.
We went of to Hollywood Studios and ended up spending the entire day there.
Last night, we'd made a list of the attractions at each park we want to do before we go home and we managed our whole list for the Studios today apart from the Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger Spin which had long lines all day.
First today we did Playhouse Disney which was superb, the look on Charlie's face as the music started for each of his favourite characters came on, and then they all appeared. He loved every minute of it and secretly so did we.
We then headed over to Muppets 4D and then Stunt Action Moteurs. We'd seen tis before several times in Paris so we knew what was coming but it was still excellent. After that, a spot of pizza for lunch then watched the Toy Story Block Party Bash which was better than we were expecting. Indiana Jones was next and at this point, Charlie decided it was time to take a nap until the last bit where the aeroplane comes in. We then went to the Brown Derby where we had a reservation for dinner which was nice. We then went to have a look at Fantasmic but the show was full, luckily it was on again later that same night so we went for a quick spin on the Great Movie Ride and then back to Fantasmic. The queue was horrendous but we managed to get in and it was a superb show.
Following that, the Spaceranger Spin was still at 60mins wait so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel for a coffee and bed after the usual downloading of photos, video, charging the batteries and writing the blog.
Must go as we're up even earlier tomorrow as we want to hit EPCOT at 8am for the extra Magic Hours to ensure we get Test Track done.
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