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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Alrighty then! This trip just keeps getting more exciting as we go along. My dd is planning on riding down with us for a couple days. She wants to see her baby girl's face at her first look at the MK. She can't stay for the whole week, as she has a very young baby..and she just started back to work.
She is going to fly back mid week. Yea! Someone else to keep Grumpy from running over Bambi on I-95 at 3 am!!!
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We did it! We pulled off the surprise with the girls. They were not too happy about getting a car ride at bedtime, but slept all the way to Orlando. Just as the sun was rising, the questions started. Where are we? Where are we going? (Madi can read..and a few miles from POR it dawned on her that she was in Florida. And what is in Florida??? All together now...WDW!) They were really excited when we pulled in. The cast member who checked us in gave them about 16 Mickey stickers to share and a first time visitor's badge.
Our room was ready, so we quickly ate breakfast and caught a bus for the Magic Kingdom. The look on thier faces were priceless when they saw the castle. The princesses were on stage, and there was magic in the air. We spent the first day playing, riding, and running.
Monday we went to Epcot. They had a great time gathering stamps on thier pass ports. We made it halfway around the world. Then we fast passed our way on to Soaring. They loved it! I loved it!
As we had lunch at the castle plans for the next day, Madi and I caught a trip to POP to catch a bus to DTD for a shopping trip. ( bought 2 dresses at home...on sale!) Her dress was too small, so we had to shop for a different size. She chose Cinderella's gown and shoes.
I gave them an invitation that I made up at home from "Cinderella" inviting them to lunch. I just love that 7 and 6year olds still have imaginations. Anyway we caught the boat back to POR. It began to storm, and Madi voted for dinner and bed...I forgot that I was supposed to return to Epcot with jackets for the others. So we shared dinner and dessert and waited for the family to come home. They arrived after dark...a little damp and very cold...but forgiving. Some kind soul lent Morgan a jacket during the fireworks.
On Tuesday we stashed the dresses, shoes and crowns in a locker (what a deal!) and toured fantasy land and tomorrow land. Then we got the girls dressed for the big event. Lunch in the castle! I let Goofy enjoy lunch with the girls. Grumpy and I had lunch at Peco's. Rode Pirates, and toured the haunted house. We rejoined the girls...changed clothes..and continued playing. We ended our evening under Tink's flight path. I cried over "Wishes". It's my favorite thing at Disney. Madi cried because she was tired and worried. Morgan cried as Tink flew over. She remembered her other grandmother (that passed in July.) Tink was her favorite charictor and Morgan said she was crying "happy tears" for Yau Yau.
So after it was over we were going to just sit and wait for the main crowd to vanish, but Madi really had a melt down. She was scared that the park was going to close and we would be locked in. So after much convincing...had to tell her that cast members left after checking to make sure everyone was out...and that they had cast members that mowed the lawns and painted and changed light bulbs...She was ok. Not happy, but ok. Then the POR bus was packed and a long line for another bus to arrive. We noticed that the other bus to PO was nearly empty...so we went home on that one, and caught a boat to Riverside. BEDTIME!
Wed. morning, Goofy flew home. Grumpy got up at the crack of dawn and drove her to the airport. The girls and I met him at PO for breakfast. It was very cold and rainy. We spent the morning in the room. We caught the bus for Animal Kingdom. Did I mention the cold rain??? We made it in time for the Lion King. The girls were chosen for the lions team to march in the parade. They were very excited. Afterwards we made our way to Everest. It was a walk on. They had extended hours, but no one came! We had the park to ourselves...well maybe a few other people...but not many. Morgan and I rode it once, and enjoyed watching Grumpy and Madi fly by a couple times. Dinner was at the BBQ place with the ducks and geese. They are very aggresive. Then we did the dinosaur ride. The girls loved it, but Grumpy and I couldn't handle a second ride. We went home in the cold rain.
Thursday we split into teams after breakfast on mainstreet bakery. Madi and Grumpy headed for Space Mt. and Morgan and I went to Buzz's. The sky was blue, and the wind was cold. Even with jackets we were cold. We did a lot to indoor shows in fantasy land. Morgan got a special "conductor's card" on the train. She got to call "All Aboard".
In the afternoon we took a quick tour of the monorail resorts. In Poly the girls got to take part in Lei making. We also found out where the rich people stay. GF! wow. We caught the boat back, and played a while longer. Just as it was getting dark we headed for POR.
Friday we finished touring the world at Epcot. The girls were chosen to march in the US. They became honorary Daughters of Liberty. We finished with Soaring! Our big mistake was leaving WDW in the 5 pm traffic. It took 90 minutes to make it out of town.
We made it back to Chapel Hill at about 4am.
Our trip was magical! We only made one ADR at the castle. We used the $500. gift card for meals. We did find that the meals at POR were very good and large enough portions to share. However, the menu did not change at all during the week. We probubly will venture out next trip. One adult portion of Alfrado was plenty for two adults. one child breakfast was plenty for 2 kids (with a mixed fruit). We did buy the refillable cups for each of us, and that worked out well.
We did use the photo pass a few times. We also took plenty of pictures with our own camara. The photo pass cast members also used our camara. Recently we ordered the calender. It incorparated 12 photo pass pictures and cost around $25. We just got it in the mail this week, and it is well worth the money. It was beuatiful.
The girls only got to swim the first day, as the weather changed to mid 50's during the day. I figure we can swim at home. WDW is about the parks!
We loved POR. We came home loaded in beads and Mickey stickers. Housekeeping did a great job, and left numerious towel critters. The trundle bed was a great thing to seperate the two squirmy girls.
The girls were very adventurious. The competion of the age difference helped. Morgan would normally shy away from roller coasters, but if Madi could do it, she could too. They even decided that the haunted house and pirate ride wasn't scary after the second time around.
Madi's mom just got engaged and they are honeymooning at WDW (a couple years down the line). Guess who gets to watch the kiddies? Yup, I get to go again! Yes, it is good to be a grandmother!
How exciting!! I sometimes find myself daydreaming about what it's going to be like taking my grandchildren to the World (a long ways away-at least I hope so!) and seeing the magic through their eyes!
Flame Tree BBQ is our favorite CS on the whole property. My daughter just loves the corn muffins & I love the baked beans-so we usually swap the two. She gets the ribs & my son and I get the 1/2 chicken. Definitely too big of portions-at least in the past. Now that my kiddos are 14 & 18 they'll be able to put their meals away no problem-and may even finish mine off! I do agree those ducks/geese can get extremely aggressive and mean-I've been pecked in the leg a few times & for no good reason either!!
I hope you're going to add some pictures of your trip!! Thanks for sharing!
You all did a terrific job with the surprise! Sounds like an overall terrific trip! Glad you all had such a good time and that there is a trip in the future, too! for sharing your adventures with us!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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