Sparky's Gone to the World- A TR 9/13/11-9/20/11 - Page 42 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a great time at DHS - we alway enjoy our meals at the Sci-Fi, we usually do lunch as well, the theming is so fun but you should definitely try to fit in 50's PT one day as well, we always have a great time there.
Love the pictures from the Jedi Training, someone looks lik they are having a ball, love seeing that big smile
Oh my goodness! How cute is she? Love the gummy smile!
Awe thanks! I do think she is pretty cute too and the gummy smile is the whole reason I love that picture. Some people said it was too bad that she was missing her front teeth for the BBB/pics. But it's okay with me, that her right now, and I think she is adorable. But of course I do, I'm her mom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
What a great time at DHS - we alway enjoy our meals at the Sci-Fi, we usually do lunch as well, the theming is so fun but you should definitely try to fit in 50's PT one day as well, we always have a great time there.
Love the pictures from the Jedi Training, someone looks lik they are having a ball, love seeing that big smile
I have to say we enjoyed DHS SO much more this year! We usually go for a half a day, more or less to eat at Sci-Fi...but this year we really enjoyed our time there. In fact, we were just commenting on how we want to spend some time there at night next time, we loved it at night with all the lights.
Thanks, she had such a good time. She was so excited, even more so than BBB. She goes both ends of the spectrum. Star Wars-Princess....for christmas we got her the 2 things she wants most...A Power Rangers Megazord and the Disney Princess and Me Belle.
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Great photos from the JTA! I laughed at your daughter waiving to Darth--too funny!
Thanks Heather! I think that one video clip alone makes it worth the purchase of the Kodak Playsport. There is another one from when she met Mickey at TH breakfast that is really cute. I don't know if I will end up posting that one or not.
While waiting for the Star Wars Jedi Training, Marky and I had been talking about RnRC. We made plans to ride together which was great, as I had no one to ride with Marybeth said that she had gone on enough.
So we made our way to RnRC. The men settled down on a wall with my DD to wait and Marybeth decided to join us for one last ride. We were in our vehicle pretty quickly, Marky and I in front and Marybeth behind us. We screamed and laughed and it was a blast! When we checked out our pics, I had my etes closed and Marky had a crazy look on his face that cracked me up. As we were exiting Marky asked if I wanted to go again, I said as long as it was okay with Marybeth and Mark, sure! Marybeth said that was fine, but she was sitting this one out. So off we went. The whole time, Marky and I were talking about the pic. About how I have to keep my etes open. I swore this time I would and...I did! When we got to the pic viewing area, our pic was cracking us up so bad. Instead of closing my etes, I had them open as wide as they would go. It was hilarious! I didn't purchase it however, and it is one of the two regrets I have from this trip.
When we met everyone out front we decided it was time to try out the Star Wars ride. Marybeth and Mark wanted to grab something to drink, but Marky wanted to ride SW, so he went with us and they met us in the gift shop. I have to say that again, it was around 95 and DHS has lots of sun, especially at the SWJT stage. During the SW ride, I started feeling slightly
dizzy. I have no idea what version we got, but I made it through. Once in the gift shop, we checked out the photo Marybeth and family had made earlier which was pretty cool. They were going to get another one and head to meet and greet with Phineas & Ferb. We headed to the smoking area (that is shady) near Sci Fi Dine in Theater with my smart water (which we just tried for the first time while there and LOVED), with the plan to meet Marybeth and family at the Lights, Action, Motor show at 4:00.
I downed my water and we sat. About quarter of we decided to start heading, when we got to Phineas & Ferb we saw Marybeth and Marky were the second in line once they were back from break. Lighting McQueen and Mater next door were practically empty so we hopped in that line.
We finished our photos with Lighting and Mater just as Marybeth and Marky came by, so we headed to the show.
Mark had gone ahead and was waiting for us, but we didn't see him in the crowd so Marybeth said let's just go and sit, we'll find him. It was crowded, in the sun, and smelly, definitely not a must do every trip. About 5-10 minutes into the show Marybeth spotted Mark in the crowd and waved him over. What a good ete!
We talked about what are plans were at this point and whether we were going to try to stay for Fantasmic or not this night. We decided that letting the kids play in the HIStKPG and then head to the resort for dinner and swimming (and an FAB) was the way to go. I told DH I liked this plan, as it was also Lorraine's last night and I wanted to say goodbye...or spend a little smoke/chat time with her.
The men went to get something to snack on and us ladies went with the kiddos. As soon as we got in the playground the kids went into this tunnel and we followed. Once through that and we decided to plant our butts and make like the trees
around us, but not before we told Marky to keep and ete out for my DD. 20 minutes or so later, we headed to find the guys. Once we found them, we made our way to the bus, stopping on the way to get our Jedi Training pics added to our photopass.
We rode back together and then met up for dinner at the POP caf. We had a nice meal and then went to our rooms to change for swimming. Lucky for us, not sure if I mentioned before or not that we were in the 90's building and they were in a pool facing 80's room, very convenient.
We finally made it to the pool and swam for a while, the kids together and Marybeth and I waded around chit chatting, while the guys sat at a table talking. At some point, Marybeth and I went back to her room to make
drinks. She had a stash She's not dumb!
When we got up to the room, there was an older woman looking at her window display. We started talking and next thing you know the guys were wondering where we went. They thought maybe we had a few drinks in the room, but when Mark came up a good 15-20 minutes later, we hadn't even gone in yet!
By the time we made it out to the pool again, Marky had hurt his ankle in the pool and was resting on a lounge chair. After a few minutes of goodbyes, Mark and Marybeth helped him to their room and we went to our room for showers. DD and I showered and I was soon headed to see Lorraine, who was as I suspected and expected, there. I talked to her for a good hour or so, in the process exchanging email and phone info. This brings me to my second regret of the trip...not getting a pic of me and Lorraine!
After saying goodnight to Lorraine and saying "See you in the morning!" Which was the last time before she was due to leave around 11am. Poor woman said that it would take 23 hours from start (boarding the DME) to her front door in England. I then headed to bed exhausted and full of happy and special memories.
This by far for our whole family, was our best day at WDW ever. We had such a great time with Marybeth and her family. The men got along great and talked the whole time, plus neither of them are riders so they got to have someone to
wait with. Marybeth and I talked and talked like we were old friends and Marky was so good to my DD. She liked him so much, she asked everyone she met for the next few days where her friend Mark was.
As of this writing, I have spoken to Marybeth online, and it seems that she and her family had as much of a good time as we did. She said it was their best day at WDW ever! In fact, they had so much fun that when we plan our next family trip, they want to know when we are planning it, so they can try to go then too. I told DH about it, and he said "Awesome! I loved them! I thought they were nice, good people, and so much fun. I would love that." I agreed completely. Thanks again PP for another friend connection!
On a sad note, I realized that I have misplaced Lorraine's email info. This makes me very sad, VERY SAD and I am hoping that I come across it at some point but I can't find it or for the life of me remember where I put it. I can't remember her last name, and all I can remember of her email is benillysomething @something. Ugh... I will have to look around more.
Next Up: Yet again telling my DH what he has to order at lunch...of course, the best burger in the world!