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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry that it's been difficult to get Cameron to sleep! Our youngest DS had just turned 2 right before his first trip, and we had similar issues with napping. Eventually, though, he would conk out on someone's shoulder or in the stroller, so I hope things work out that way for you!
LOL at the photos of Nate with the various headgear.
To be honest, I don't remember what my kids' first ride at WDW was! So I think Living with the Land is just fine!. I'm glad he enjoyed Nemo so much! That was one of our kids' favorites when they were toddlers as well.
Glad you were finally able to get Cameron to sleep. We never really worried about our kids getting to sleep. They just fell asleep when they fell asleep. Neither of them really required much sleep.
I don't remember what my kids first rides in WDW were either but most likely it was something in Adventure Land since we always start with MK and almost always go left.
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I'm jealous of your photo inside of Bruce's mouth. Hope will not go near that thing anymore. I guess she thinks he's going to eat her. Hopefully getting Cameron to go to sleep will get easier each day. That's one thing I didn't have to worry about with Hope, even with the noise around her...she was out like a light. Good Luck!
Sorry that it's been difficult to get Cameron to sleep! Our youngest DS had just turned 2 right before his first trip, and we had similar issues with napping. Eventually, though, he would conk out on someone's shoulder or in the stroller, so I hope things work out that way for you!
LOL at the photos of Nate with the various headgear.
To be honest, I don't remember what my kids' first ride at WDW was! So I think Living with the Land is just fine!. I'm glad he enjoyed Nemo so much! That was one of our kids' favorites when they were toddlers as well.
I think I was more upset about Cameron not napping on this day then I should have been. He wasn't that crabby, but he wasn't my happy little guy either. He never did have any embarrassing meltdowns though so it really wasn't horrible. I just had this picture in my head of him nicely napping in the stroller and I was a little upset about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from Epcot! Sorry it's been a bit of a rocky day!
Thanks! I do think the day was more rocky in my head than in reality. We did have a good time and Cameron LOVED being at Epcot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabitha34
Glad you were finally able to get Cameron to sleep. We never really worried about our kids getting to sleep. They just fell asleep when they fell asleep. Neither of them really required much sleep.
I don't remember what my kids first rides in WDW were either but most likely it was something in Adventure Land since we always start with MK and almost always go left.
I'll probably forget about Cam's first Disney ride and it won't matter. Unless I re-read this trip report that is!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
I'm jealous of your photo inside of Bruce's mouth. Hope will not go near that thing anymore. I guess she thinks he's going to eat her. Hopefully getting Cameron to go to sleep will get easier each day. That's one thing I didn't have to worry about with Hope, even with the noise around her...she was out like a light. Good Luck!
You're lucky to have a sleeper! Cameron has never been a good sleeper. Nighttime or naps so it's been a struggle. He's getting better as he gets older. Sorry Hope won't let you get a Bruce picture. Cameron was completely opposite of that. He cried when we left that area. "Bruce, Bruce"
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Sorry about the rocky day so far. Love the pictures from Epcot!!
Thanks! The day does get better...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sorry that the day had a rocky start, but you still seem to have had some fun.
We did have a lot of fun actually. I just needed this day to adjust to how this vacation was going to work. It's a lot different being there with a toddler.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I hope the nap rejvenates Cameron!
And thanks for the info about Lasik. Maybe I'll have to try again.
Naps work wonders. I'm still contemplating getting Lasik myself. I haven't been in for a consultation and am afraid they'll just tell me I'm not a candidate. Although, in reality I'm probably to big of a chicken to actually get it done anyways so it probably doesn't matter.
I'm going to try and get another update in today, but I'm not making any promises. Cameron is still sick. Turns out he had a double ear infection. He was on antibiotics for 4 days and still cranky as can be. I took him back to the Dr yesterday and his ears were still really bad. Because of his antibiotic allergies they had trouble coming up with the next treatment. They ended up giving him antibiotic shots and he has to go back today to be rechecked and possibly get more shots. So me having time to do an update will relate to how that appointment goes.
I can't, however, just leave you all with the sad news that Cameron is still sick so I'll share something else with you all. We managed to bring home a little souvenir from our trip. Arriving October 2012!
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Get the heck outta here! A Disney Baby! Congratulations! I found out I was pg about 2 months after we came back from our first trip in 2000, but the timing wasn't right for a Disney Baby!
And I hope Cameron feels better soon. My DS always came down with a double ear infection really quickly, but I was lucky he was never cranky or whiny, which was actually part of the problem, I never knew he was sick until too late!
Can't wait to read more!
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Since Cameron was sleeping and he couldn’t ride Soarin’ anyways we made our way back over to The Land to get our ride in. On the way there we passed Club Cool. We had told everyone about this place and that Beverly was the best soda we ever had. Was this mean? Anyways we made a quick stop there. Nate had the camera ready:
Breanna actually thought it was pretty good. There is something wrong with that girl. She also doesn’t like chocolate so she’s just strange.
Jean was not a fan.
Jim thought it was alright…
And then changed his mind.
Because we were a little mean I decided we should try it again also. Breanna is definitely WRONG. That stuff is NASTY. We had some better tasting soda and then a cast member started talking to Jean. And then she was on the phone. I knew what was happening, but everyone else was a bit confused. When Jean rejoined us she was laughing. She had been wearing her Happy Birthday button and Goofy called her to sing to her. She thought that was pretty cool. It also prompted Jim “Mr. I’m too cool for this button” to put his on to see if he could top the phone call from Goofy. After a nice laugh we started to make our way to Soarin’, but first Nate, Jim and Breanna headed to grab Fast Passes for Test Track.
We finally made it to Soarin’. The girls rode first while Nate and Jim stayed with the sleeping toddler. Jean wasn’t sure if she wanted to ride, but we convinced her. She did say that she had to close her eyes at parts because of motion sickness, but she otherwise loved it. Then we switched and the guys rode. We ended up just sitting chatting and resting for a while. It was nice to take that break. I checked Facebook and realized my mom was complaining of my lack of picture uploads. We had only been there a day and already she wanted pictures of the grand baby in Disney World. So I did what any good daughter would do. I took a picture and uploaded it right away:
She wasn’t amused. Can’t please them all. Cameron woke up while the boys were taking their flight over California so we took him to look at the fountain of nations. He LOVED that thing. It was like The Seas. If he even caught a glimpse of it he would whine until we brought him over. We watched the water until the guys returned and then we decided we had better find some dinner. We headed into the Electric Umbrella and filled our tummies. We had crummy service here and I think Jim’s meal took forever, but the food was OK. Again Cameron liked the dessert.
After dinner Nate, Jim and Breanna went to use their Test Track FastPasses while Jean, Cameron and I rode Spaceship Earth. He was a little bit bored on this ride, but I do think he liked parts of it. After we got off we let Cameron run around in the little interactive area. I’m not sure if the older kids appreciated him helping them play games so I tried my best to steer him away from them. He seemed to have a good time though.
Once the Test Trackers were back we decided to get our sweatshirts out of the locker and then wander for a good spot to watch Illuminations. We of course had to take some pictures of the “ball” as Cameron called it:
It was about 8:15 PM by the time we got over by Mexico and it looked like the good spots were kind of reserved already. Plus we didn’t want to walk any father so we just setup shop right across from the margarita stand. Ok maybe that part was a bit on purpose. I got a margarita along with Jean and Breanna and we waited for the show to start. Cameron had some snacks and fed the ducks goldfish crackers so he was happy. Except for when I wouldn’t share my “smoothie” with him. That made him a little cranky.
Cameron ended up being terrified of Illuminations. He made me hold him and kept saying “no, no, no” over and over. He wasn’t crying, but wouldn’t look at the fireworks and kept wanting me to stand farther and father away from the lake. So I didn’t see much of the show. Nate took some pictures:
After Illuminations we headed to the exit with everyone else. We stopped to return the locker key and also to change Cameron into his jammies. By the time we made it to the buses the majority of the crowd had cleared. I don’t think we waited more than 15 min for a bus and we were soon back at Pop. Cameron didn’t end up falling asleep on the bus as we had hoped and was pretty wound up when we got back to the resort. We managed to get him into the pack and play and we all went to sleep. All in all we had a fun day.
Favorites Cameron – The fountain and “Ma-mo”
Nate – Turtle Talk with Crush and how he got to snuggle with his boy the whole show.
Missy - Karamelle-Kuche. YUMMY! My knee didn’t bother me!
Worst thing about today: Cameron cutting his finger and the stupid sharpies at the coloring stations. That and the fact that Cameron was super clingy to me. I love the boy, but he’s really heavy.
Most interesting thing about today: The happy birthday call from Goofy. The plants on the land ride. 9 pound lemon anyone? The strange Japanese man who stopped me and Cameron in the Land Pavilion. He was asking me something and I couldn’t understand him. Then all of a sudden he was holding a Vinalmation up to Cameron and taking his picture. I was confused and kind of angry that a stranger took a picture of my boy. But by the time I had realized what had happened he was gone.
Weather in Orlando: 73 and partly cloudy. It was chilly in the evening.
Thanks! Cameron is doing a little better today so I'm hoping he has kicked this thing in the butt!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
OMG!!! Congratulations! That's so exciting and I'm so happy for you and your family!!!
Thank you! We're really happy about it, but I will admit I wonder how we'll do on future WDW trips with 2 kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabitha34
Sorry Cameron is sick! Thats awesome about the souvenir! Thats a great souvenir to come with!
Cam is feeling better. He still has a little redness in his ears, but no more shots for him today. And I agree we got one of the best souvenirs around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MGW
Get the heck outta here! A Disney Baby! Congratulations!
Can't wait to read more!
We're kind of shocked by it. We knew we wanted to start trying in the new year and it just so happened that everything lined up with our trip. I really didn't expect to be able to actually say that we were going to have a Disney Baby, but I can!
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I'm glad he enjoyed Nemo so much! That was one of our kids' favorites when they were toddlers as well.
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Pixie Dust
I guess she thinks he's going to eat her. 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
We managed to bring home a little souvenir from our trip. Arriving October 2012!
Pixies for Cameron! 
She wasn’t amused. Can’t please them all. Cameron woke up while the boys were taking their flight over California so we took him to look at the fountain of nations. He LOVED that thing. It was like The Seas. If he even caught a glimpse of it he would whine until we brought him over. We watched the water until the guys returned and then we decided we had better find some dinner. We headed into the Electric Umbrella and filled our tummies. We had crummy service here and I think Jim’s meal took forever, but the food was OK. Again Cameron liked the dessert.
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