Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 93 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great pictures of WL! This is one of my favorite resorts and your pictures capture so much of it! Neat photos around Tomorrowland, too! Bummer that you weren't allowed to ride Buzz again.
I manged, in spite of myself, to be practical when extending my trip next week. I really wanted to ask the CM on the phone if there was an AP rate room available at the Wilderness Lodge--I restrained myself. I don't think I would have been able to turn it down if there was!
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We walked across to what I will always call the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and took a ride on that. Honestly, I think we only saw about another four or six people on it during the whole ride. That’s how quiet it was.
I did a couple of night shots as we went through Space Mountain:
As we rode around, we saw that Chip and Dale were out, doing meets and greets, so we headed that way when we came off and again, there was no wait to see them. They were a bit disappointed, as they really didn’t play up at all, which was a shame.
We had also spotted Stitch, so he was our next stop and at least he was a little more in character and as mischievous as usual.
I decided that I wanted to go on the Astro Orbiters, never having done them at Walt Disney World before. Mark came up with me and didn’t ride, which I think was the right decision for him, as you do get some serious pull on these things. I couldn’t believe how much over to one side you’re pushed on them. It was fine and I got some good shots from mid-air, but I won’t rush to do it again, as it wasn’t the greatest feeling, while I was on it. I got some shots from the ride and Mark got some from the platform:
We browsed a couple of shops and got talking to a guy from Rhode Island in the Merchant of Venus, who also supports Liverpool, Mark’s football team and they were happily chatting away for ages. In fact, we did start to wonder if we would ever be able to get away or not. I got a couple more charms for my bracelet that Wendy had bought for me, one Eeyore, one Dumbo, a Magic Kingdom T-shirt and another fridge magnet, so not a bad haul in there.
We walked from there into Fantasyland and immediately found the White Rabbit, so got in line for photos with him. I couldn’t help but laugh at the guy who thought he was the Mad Hatter!
Those are some wonderful shots you guys took from the Astro Orbitor. That's one ride I have no desire to even stand in line for. You confirmed my suspicions.
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I rode Astro Orbiter for the first time as well (back in Feb). I really liked it but I think it might have had something to do with the gale force winds that day!!
The pic of Stitch holding your head in his hand is awesome.
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Well, you should try everything at least once, right? You should have seen how I looked after getting off, the one time I rode. Very green around the gills. It didn't help that we had twice as long a ride, since no one was waiting to ride and the CM running it felt we'd like to ride 'twice in a row'. Wrong. I really wished that I had been able to handle it better. I like the idea of it and it has great views, but.....
Just catching up again (only to get hopelessly behind while I am away). Your spa treatment sounds lovely. I am not a spa kinda girl, but if I did go to the spa, the paraffin treatment would be what I'd do! Glad you got to try Astro Orbiter. I like that it's thrilling, but I hate that there's so often a long wait, so I don't ride it as much as I would like.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!