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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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As you can see, i am having a hard time to upload pictures. This is my first time. I uploaded them on the computer, as DD was at work and i didn't know where she uploaded the pictures. And now she is sleeping over at her friend, so she can't help me. Then i uploaded them in photobucket, then on the site. These pictures are from our arrival day. I have some more. i have to figure out the size, which the last one, i used 250 x 200. Also i have to figure out how to put more than one picture per post.
Anyhow i will start my trip report:
Day 1 September 5, 2009
Up at 1:45am, but actually i hadn't slept at all as i went to bed at 1245 so of course, i couldn't sleep. Leave for the airport at 2:45am. Park car at Park & Fly, shuttle to the airport at 3:45am. Have breakfast at Tim Horton's (i had a cream cheese bagel and DD had a BLT and we each had a donut and coffee. Check in our luggage with United Airlines. It costs $20 per suitcase., go through security then to our gate. DD does her homework. Buy a muffin from Starbucks for later. Read a book that a friend loaned me "the shack", but it's actually the only time that i will get to read it during my holiday. Plane leaves at 6:45am. I don't want to seem like complaining, but it was such a small plane, we couldn't bring our carr on's with us, we were seated at the back row next to the only washroom on the plane! So we couldn't move our seats back. The guy in front of me had his seat all the way back. They served beverages, i had juice and coffee. DD slept almost the whole way. What we have to suffer to get to our magical destination, but it's worth it. I tried to sleep, but since i was next to aisle and people were using the facilities constantly ( a man almost sat on my table, while he was letting the other guy pass by on his way out of the washroom) so i couldn't sleep. The next flight was much better, as we had a big plane. Last time, i flew with Delta/Northwest, and we had a bigger plane, but with United, this is my second time, we seem to be getting smaller planes from Edmonton to Denver. Arrive in Denver at 920am, go to our next gate. DD buys 2 McDonalds breakfast sandwiches, board the plane to Orlando, we're hungry on the plane so DD eats her sandwiches and i eat my muffin.
The plane was supposed to leave at 1010, but there was an oil spill in one of the runwaays so they had to shut it down, we got to leave at 1045. I slept off and on, most of this flight, read and had OJ and coffee. DD slept and listened to her ipod music and watched a movie on her ipod. There was quite a bit of turbulance caused by storms in the area. They were showing a movie, but i didn't like to used previously used headphones (on my return trip, i realized that they have new ones).
Arrive in Orlando at 3:46pm. Get on the DME at 4:30. Check in at the All Star Music and then it's pouring (which we didn't have much rain during this trip, but this time it was), we're walking all over the place to find our room, then we find out the cards don't work. When i called the front desk, they say that they'll send someone, we wait and wait, nobody, we're starving, exhausted, the room is far away, it's pouring. I finally send my daughter to buy mugs to get pop as we're so thirsty., still no one, Call the front desk again, they say they'll send someone. I said can i send my DD to get another room, they said we'll see if we can accomodate her and have a magical day. At this point i was having a miserable day, send DD to the front desk. They gave her new cards. Then maintenance show up an hour later. Then bus do DTD.
Dinner at Wolfgang express, Tried the BBQ chicken pizza, but it's way too spicy for me, they were very good and replaced it and i got a turkey sandwich, still spicy, but not as bad, i ate it. DD had chicken fingers and fries. Since we were starving, we went to Ghirardelli for dessert. i had the brownie sundae and DD had the banana fudge sundae. We met this nice couple from Wisconsin at the table next to us and we started talking with them. Get a free chocolate sample. Check the World of Disney store, but it was so crowded. We took the bus back to the resort at 10pm.
Arrive at 1040, long ride and the bus was so crowded, but i guess after all it had been a pretty good day, i was in Disney. Just like DD said, it was our first day at the Disney resort, we had to get organized, but all in all everything turned out pretty well. Our luggage was in the room when we came back, so we got everything organized and went to bed at 11pm
Great start. That stinks about the keys not working and having to wait so long. That happened to us when we stayed there. We enjoyed Wolfgang Express while we were there. Sorry it was a bit spicy for you. I look forward to reading more!
Whew! What a day! The airlines seem to be going to those smaller jets a lot lately, I totally understand the 'crampedness' of it.
I hate when that happens at a hotel! You've had a long, rough day, walk all the way to the other side of the property, and the key won't work! And you were in the rain! I'm glad you were able to get through it and still be happy!
i am back and had a lovely time. I want to write my trip report, but first i have to figure out how to upload pictures on the site. I asked my DD to upload pictures on the computer, which she did, but now i have to figure out about the site.
I'm trying to figure out the same thing. I want to do my first report.
Whew! What a day! The airlines seem to be going to those smaller jets a lot lately, I totally understand the 'crampedness' of it.
I hate when that happens at a hotel! You've had a long, rough day, walk all the way to the other side of the property, and the key won't work! And you were in the rain! I'm glad you were able to get through it and still be happy!
Yea i think what makes it worst is when you don't have enough sleep, so all these inconveniences seem to be worst, or you seem to get more bothered by them then if you are well rested.
Great start. That stinks about the keys not working and having to wait so long. That happened to us when we stayed there. We enjoyed Wolfgang Express while we were there. Sorry it was a bit spicy for you. I look forward to reading more!
We had a really good time at the All Star Music, even though this happened. And i love the Wolfgang express, the staff was extremely nice (servers and cooks). We went there 3 times.
Up 7am. Shower, get coffee with mug at the resort, take pictures ( i just realized that even though it said Sept 5 on my pictures by the pool, they were from this morning), so the only pictures from Sept 5 were the ones in front of the all star music sign and the ones of the room, all the other ones were from this morning, on our way out of the resort).
Now DD had brought american money and she wanted to go shopping at the Outlets (so do I) we always find such good deals there (we actually went 3 days during our trip and same thing our last trip). So take bus to DTD at 8:45am. Have a good breakfast as i love Disney food, but i don't like mall food, so we eat at Earls (turkey sandwich and coffee and DD has chicken sandwich and pop - we keep the brownies - i ended up taking them back home to Edmonton). Walk to West Side and take # 50 bus at 920am to Seaworld and # 8 bus at 1020 to Prime Outlet (we waited 45 minutes for the # 8 - apparently they had a bus break down) Arrive at the outlet at 11 -
Now this part might be boring to guys as it has to do with shopping so you can skip. We went to Juicy Couture, where i bought a hoody and DD bought a track suit (hoody and pants, i also bought a purse for my oldest daughter), then Guess (where i bought 2 pairs of jeans, a belt, a wallet, a hoody and a blouse, DD bought 2 pairs of jeans, a belt, a wallet, a purse and a jacket), we went to Disney store ( i bought baby clothes for my future grandson, a mickey Santa, a Disney cookbook and pj's. We were starving so we had a large frappucino at Starbucks ( i don't like to eat in malls. The only place that i didn't mind to have something was there).
Ok, done with the shopping, bus # 8 at 305, # 50 at 335 to TTC, at 415 take the monorail to MK and 445 boat to Fort Wilderness for Hoop de doo dinner show at 5.
i forgot to mention that yesterday at Wolfgang, it included dessert as well so we kept the chocolate chip cookies, which i ended up taking to Edmonton as well, as we wanted sundaes from Ghirardelli for dessert.
So i will post pictures from the hoop de doo dinner show, it was very good, but we prefered Spirit of Aloha show. We had salad, corn bread, lemonade, chicken, mashed potatoes, strawberry shortcake and tea. at 7pm we took the boat to MK, at 740 but ASM to put away our parcels, as it was getting heavy to carry around. We went back to MK at 9pm for the EMH from 10pm to 1am, found a spot to sit to watch the fireworks at 10pm on main street. FP for Buzz, then have a cinammon bun at the main street bakery, DD had a danish, then we go on Buzz, take FP for Big Thunder, go on Pirates, Jungle cruise, Big Thunder, at 1230, call it a night, wait for the bus to ASM, there were so many people waiting in line. We ended up going to be at 1:20am Long day
I found that late at night, there were always so many people waiting for the bus, that we tried to leave a little before the park would close so we wouldn't have to wait so long
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So far so good. I'm going to start working on my TR now. I can't wait to read all about your trip. 
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