Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 73 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I love CBJ!!! I dragged DH to it a couple of trips ago - he was not so fond of it, but the kids loved it as much as me It's nostalgic for me as I saw it with my parents on my first trip. My dad's name is Al so he had to have a 'Big Al' mug from there. Come to think of it, that mug just broke recently and that trip was 20 years ago!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I can report that later in the week Pirates was back up and running as usual, with Davy Jones and all! Maybe they were testing the new mechanics for swapping out the two pirates!
Saturday 9 April – part six: I think we’re the only English speakers on this!
When we came out, I suggested going on the Jungle Cruise, so off we trooped. When we got to boarding, they asked how many people there were in our group and we told them ten. They told us to board the boat, which we were a bit surprised at, as we weren’t sure that we would all fit in. Well, it was a bloody tight squeeze, mainly because people at the front of the boat wouldn’t move up.
As the boat started off, it became clear. We think we were the only English speakers on the boat, as we were certainly the only ones laughing at the skipper’s jokes, which was a shame, as she wasn’t bad.
I got some cute shots of Gabby and Wendy while we were on board.....
... as well as shots from the ride.
As soon as we got off, there was only one thing all of us wanted to do – and that was get a Dole Whip to help us cool off. Bob and Larry took their leave at this point, while the rest of us got various offerings, with both Mark and I getting Dole Whip pineapple floats.
It was around this time I started to get worried about Mark and Wendy noticed something was wrong. Not only was it the heat, but it was also the startings of a blister.
We walked back through the shops along Main Street, loving that air conditioning and concluded that there wasn’t much on offer in any of them, which was a shame.
Can you guess what Wendy was hoping someone would get her...
We headed out for the resort monorail, wondering why on earth Disney forces you to take such a torturous route to get to it. Haven’t we done enough walking already? We lucked out and one was waiting for us and off we went.
We got off at the Contemporary with Josh, as we’d offered a lift back to the Beach Club for anyone who wanted to come with us and he took us up on the offer. We headed downstairs to retrieve the car from valet parking and my goodness, I’ve never had such a long wait for a car to be returned to us. Honestly, it was verging on 10 minutes! In the end, one of the girls went to go and get it. What made it even worse was that there was just no air there. We were so glad to get the car finally and get into the cool of the air conditioning.
We took the back route back to the Beach Club, passing the Golden Oaks development (remember those nice cheap homes that start at about $1 million? )...
... and the new Best Friends Pet Resort. I love the theming here!
Soon we were back at the Villas and each headed back to our room, agreeing with Josh a time to meet up later to head out for dinner at Chef Mickey’s. The next couple of hours were taken up with time online, uploading photos and writing trip report. I also took the opportunity to wash my hair. I didn’t want to do it in the morning, in case it wasn’t dry for my donkey!
After exchanging texts with Wendy and learning that they’d already met up with Sharon, Sean and Ciaran at the Contemporary, we headed out just before 6pm and met Josh in the lobby. We knew that he was a huge Queen fan and so is Mark, so we made sure to put some on in the car and it was a really fun drive over, although we saw some sights on the way, including a guy who missed his turn for Epcot and drove over the grass verge to reach it!
Still in one piece, we made it to the Contemporary, parked up and headed up to the fourth floor to meet everyone and to say hi to Heather and Brandon.
We checked in and had our group photo done, which we later decided to buy.
Then we had to sit and wait to be called. And boy did we sit and wait! Eventually, after watching lots and lots of groups go in, admittedly none as big as ours, we went and said something. It was now coming up for 6.50pm and our reservation was 6.30pm. We’d probably checked in about 6.20pm and had been told that we’d have about a 15 or 20 minute wait.
Next: chaos with a bunch of real characters at Chef Mickey’s
I'm catching up, too. Can I just say I the picture of Josh with Pooh! Pooh looks so tiny. Another favorite is the "face the wall" pix!
Thank you!! Sometimes Joshua surprises the Holy heck out of me. I am thinking that there just might, might have been 1 character taller than him. It'd have to be Goofy and only because of the hat.
You got some great photos of me with the different kids. Bob blends right in with my family here: And obviously, he got the memo to wear matching shirts.
Thank goodness my Bestie knows me so well and surprised me with this a few weeks after getting home:
He is just the cutest thing I've seen down there for ages. I was quite bummed that my DH didn't get big HINT that I wanted it either. You rock Chez!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
) and all the pictures!
PassPorter Guide Author
What a shame about that shirt - I knew you should've got it then... 
We lucked out and one was waiting for us and off we went. 
Honestly, it was verging on 10 minutes! 
In the end, one of the girls went to go and get it. What made it even worse was that there was just no air there. We were so glad to get the car finally and get into the cool of the air conditioning. 
the picture of Josh with Pooh! Pooh looks so tiny. 
Linear Mode
