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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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GG is one of our favorites, too. We usually tell them to leave the fish off and they give us more of everything else. Glad your time at EPCOT went better than your morning.
Liz
GG is one of our favorites, too. We usually tell them to leave the fish off and they give us more of everything else. Glad your time at EPCOT went better than your morning.
Liz
Thanks Liz. GG is becoming one of our favs as well. Lenny likes fish so that's why we get it - we know he'll at least try it and he liked what came out so he ate that.
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For the most part it was. Mini golf that morning obviously put a damper on the day for at least me if no one else. But since no one else contributes much to the TR, you get my point of view of things
I've been quietly enjoying following along with your TR, but I just had to say how happy I am to see someone else who enjoys the Gran Fiesta Tour ride as much as me!!! I feel like I am usually one of the few who really likes it a lot. That's ok though, so much the better for us to not have to wait in a long line, right?
PS - Thanks for the tip about the Hidden Mickey on the volcano. I haven't noticed it...I will look when we are there in October!
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
Your TR from last year made me want to try GG, but we could not get a reservation for the time that is good for my dh to eat (his stomach gets upset if he eats after 6pm), and now you report this time makes me really want to go there. I hope we will be able to make it in the future. I love that Abby stopped Chip and that he came back! The pics are so sweet. Oh, and I love Turtle Talk as much as my dd's! Funny that your phone was able to work in the middle of the room but not in the gift shop.
I've been quietly enjoying following along with your TR, but I just had to say how happy I am to see someone else who enjoys the Gran Fiesta Tour ride as much as me!!! I feel like I am usually one of the few who really likes it a lot. That's ok though, so much the better for us to not have to wait in a long line, right?
PS - Thanks for the tip about the Hidden Mickey on the volcano. I haven't noticed it...I will look when we are there in October!
We too really enjoy the Gran Fiesta Tour. I don't know what it is, but floating along in our boat to that music just makes me
Phew,I have been gone so long and after booking our airplane tickets for October on Sunday I signed back in to get caught up on what's new/changed etc. But then I saw you had a new TR and got so excited. I always love reading your TRs! So i've been catching up last night, today at work (I snuck in to read some) and tonight... I FINALLY got all caught up!
I LOVED how great the Southwest Pilot was and that Abby got to fly the plane. I also enjoyed reading about Seaworld as I'd love to take my DD sometime but she's only 2 so we may wait another year or two.
Sorry Lenny has had some rough moody days, but glad you've been able to manage. My DH has been SUPER grumpy with just the thought of me booking another trip so I'm sure we'll have some rough times once we're there as well.
I wanted to ask you about the HISTK play area. The tour books all say ages 6 and up for it. Did they enforce that? I wondered if there was any play areas that a toddler might enjoy. We tend to keep her in the stroller a lot when touring so I like to find a place to let her let off steam if possible. I don't let her get more than 3 feet away though because I'm SO paranoid. It's one thing if an older child is lost that can communicate well but a child who can't communicate just terrifies me. I had those rubber bracelets made up last year with my phone number and DH's but I won't let her far regardless.
Also, in AK, is boneyard good for toddler ages from what you saw?
I LOVE all the pictures of Abby with the characters but the one with her hugging chip was so authentic, so special
We have done the Disney Visa M&G a couple times but only once got good pictures. I'm hoping the lines will be smaller at our next trip.
GG is one of our favorite places as well. It's a bummer that it's in Epcot though, I love way too many places in Epcot and not enough in all the other parks, LOL
I look forward to hearing more... thanks for taking us on your journey Darlene
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Oh, I meant to ask about the goodie bags... is there another thread about these someplace? I'd love to do something special from our DD for our flight crew next time. Though this time we are flying down on Delta and back on Jetblue. Delta seems so businessy so i'm not sure how they would go over.
Ugh, sorry about the horrible golf extravaganza. I wonder if Lenny is so cranky because this trip was a gift and he doesn't have any ownership of it? I guess what I'm saying is that if you have saved and saved for a trip, you are less likely to try and ruin it with a bad mood, since you've worked so hard to get there. Since this one fell into your lap, perhaps it feels less like "his" trip? Also, I think we as moms have a greater tolerance for our kids' fits, tantrums, and less-than-perfect behavior. Husbands tend to have a lot less patience, probably because they don't have to deal with it as much. Well, enough
armchair psychologist...
I'm glad Abby is having a good time and her interactions with the characters have been priceless. The look on her face makes the vacation worth all the hard times. Looking forward to more!
For the most part it was. Mini golf that morning obviously put a damper on the day for at least me if no one else. But since no one else contributes much to the TR, you get my point of view of things
I like that.... it made me chuckle. and since you were the only one trying to make nice, you get to tell the story anyway you choose
I love the pictures of Abby with Chip and then Dale and all of that for that matter, it looks like she is really getting into the fun of it all.
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I was so glad to read your review of Garden Grill, we're trying it for the first time in October--it is actually the only dinner ADR that we have. It has become increasingly difficult to get an ADR since they stopped serving lunch.
I've been quietly enjoying following along with your TR, but I just had to say how happy I am to see someone else who enjoys the Gran Fiesta Tour ride as much as me!!! I feel like I am usually one of the few who really likes it a lot. That's ok though, so much the better for us to not have to wait in a long line, right?
PS - Thanks for the tip about the Hidden Mickey on the volcano. I haven't noticed it...I will look when we are there in October!
Thanks Ashli - I'm glad you're enjoying my TR. And you're definitely not alone in liking the Gran Fiesta Tour. I like everything they have and how they wove in the story of looking for Donald. It just works and we like it. I never noticed the Hidden Mickey either until Abby mentioned it but don't ask me how she knew about it
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Originally Posted by saibot0001
Your TR from last year made me want to try GG, but we could not get a reservation for the time that is good for my dh to eat (his stomach gets upset if he eats after 6pm), and now you report this time makes me really want to go there. I hope we will be able to make it in the future. I love that Abby stopped Chip and that he came back! The pics are so sweet. Oh, and I love Turtle Talk as much as my dd's! Funny that your phone was able to work in the middle of the room but not in the gift shop.
Keep trying for an ADR - you never know what will happen. You could always luck out and get one when you least expect it. Chip was too funny, I didn't expect him to run back when Abby told him not to go but seeing that hug was priceless. Mom calling was funny too - I still don't understand how or why I got reception there but no where else
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Originally Posted by aprild
We too really enjoy the Gran Fiesta Tour. I don't know what it is, but floating along in our boat to that music just makes me
It's probably the story too with Donald missing - they do have him doing some silly things.
Phew,I have been gone so long and after booking our airplane tickets for October on Sunday I signed back in to get caught up on what's new/changed etc. But then I saw you had a new TR and got so excited. I always love reading your TRs! So i've been catching up last night, today at work (I snuck in to read some) and tonight... I FINALLY got all caught up!
Congrats on the tickets and glad you could finally get caught up
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I LOVED how great the Southwest Pilot was and that Abby got to fly the plane.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what you're talking about here. If the pilot was great for getting us to Florida early, that's fine but no one was allowed near the cockpit, not even Abby so she most definitely didn't fly the plane.
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I also enjoyed reading about Seaworld as I'd love to take my DD sometime but she's only 2 so we may wait another year or two.
Sea World was nice but i can see waiting
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Sorry Lenny has had some rough moody days, but glad you've been able to manage. My DH has been SUPER grumpy with just the thought of me booking another trip so I'm sure we'll have some rough times once we're there as well.
I'm starting to think we all have rough times at Disney. It's just a matter of if we're willing to admit to them or not, KWIM?
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I wanted to ask you about the HISTK play area. The tour books all say ages 6 and up for it. Did they enforce that? I wondered if there was any play areas that a toddler might enjoy. We tend to keep her in the stroller a lot when touring so I like to find a place to let her let off steam if possible. I don't let her get more than 3 feet away though because I'm SO paranoid. It's one thing if an older child is lost that can communicate well but a child who can't communicate just terrifies me. I had those rubber bracelets made up last year with my phone number and DH's but I won't let her far regardless. Also, in AK, is boneyard good for toddler ages from what you saw?
I'd like to say they don't enforce it because I thought I saw smaller kids there too with parents but I'm not entirely sure. And for that area, it's definitely someplace you'd want to stay very close to her because there are just so many places where she can crawl and hide. There are just a couple of slides but most of it is climbing stairs and crawling places so I don't know if it's someplace you want her to go anyway. The Dig Site at AK might be better, especially if she likes sandboxes because of the one they have but the other part of the boneyard is climbing nets and big slides so she may not be big enough to do them.
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I LOVE all the pictures of Abby with the characters but the one with her hugging chip was so authentic, so special
Thank you
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We have done the Disney Visa M&G a couple times but only once got good pictures. I'm hoping the lines will be smaller at our next trip.
I think it's a matter of hitting it just right for a small line. Last time we went early - not long after it opened. This year we went after 3 - much closer to when it's getting ready to close
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GG is one of our favorite places as well. It's a bummer that it's in Epcot though, I love way too many places in Epcot and not enough in all the other parks, LOL
I guess I can see how that's a problem but that's what they make hopper tickets for
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I look forward to hearing more... thanks for taking us on your journey Darlene
Thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'll post more later today
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