A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Actually we've come to the conclusion the best place to have jetlag is Vegas... it's pretty much open 24 hours a day, so it doesn't matter what time you're up, you'll find plenty to do and see. ;D
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Mark - causing trouble? Oh I can't believe that? lol! Is that Mark Danger Powers?
YAY! I'm caught up before it's too terribly far in! Phew! I can't wait to read more - this trip report will probably last until my own vacation! LOL! So it will keep me plenty occupied!
Friday 7 December – part three: oh dear, that’s not a good sound!
Once the training was finally done (and my goodness, they are cutting the tours tight these days – the second group was already out practising and the third arrived for their training session just as we left), we headed out, but not too far. We were off for breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. We’d already picked our breakfast when we checked in.
We headed towards the Imagination Pavilion, and then went backstage there, heading for the back entrance of the Land Pavilion. Sarah, who was our other trainer, explained that this was the posh part of backstage, designed to look Ok for guests, as they knew that the Segway tours would be coming through here.
It was inside, passing Soarin’, which only had a five minute wait (in fairness, it was only 9:10am by now) and we were taken to a special area of Sunshine Seasons, which was reserved for us. They brought our food out – I’d opted for a croissant and cinnamon bun, as they couldn’t tell me what fruit was in the fruit salad, and I didn’t want to risk that with my fruit allergy, while Mark had the cooked breakfast. It wasn’t bad, and the orange juice was very nice.
Just checking I have everything out of mine!
We had about 25 minutes to eat our breakfast, and that was plenty of time, especially as I think nearly everyone else went to get Fastpasses for Soarin’ during that period. Even when we left, it was still showing a 10 minute wait, which I thought was very good.
Sarah later explained to us that the changes to this tour were made, as it’s something the most expensive Segway tour in the world, and the feedback was that guests wanted more for their money, so they expanded it to three hours, and added in the breakfast. I think it needs the breakfast in the middle, as otherwise it would be just far too much time on the Segway, and being on that thing for a while, it does cripple you.
We headed back to our Segways at the appointed time, and from that point on, she took the lead, both literally at the front of us as we processed in single file around the park, and in explaining what we were seeing. Mark and I were towards the back at this point, and we did have problems with the headsets we were using breaking up, as we were all told to keep no more than two feet away from the person in front of you, but some people were keeping a much bigger distance than that, meaning that the headsets couldn’t keep up with Sarah, and what she was saying, which was a bit of a pain.
We came out from backstage, and made our way towards World Showcase, stopping first in Mexico to hear more about the pavilion. We stopped in most of the pavilions, with the exception of Norway, as that was busy with the Princess breakfast at Akerhaus. We learnt more about each of the countries in World Showcase, and again, I thought there was more information than in the previous Around the World on a Segway tour. They really are trying to plus this up.
I found the section in China fascinating in particular, as I learnt so much about this pavilion, and saw things I’d never spotted before, and for me, it’s always a thrill when that happens.
We learnt about these dragons at the entrance to the shop, with the male one on the right, who has the world underneath his foot, symbolising power, while the female to the left has a cub under her foot, showing how the women look after the house and family.
We were also told about these engravings which show someone (unfortunately neither of us can remember now) escaping China on a chicken, with the dragon, who symbolised the Emperor a few steps behind him, ensuring he left. It’s a shame we can’t remember the exact details, as it was a good story, and something I’d never have known otherwise.
By the way, these photos were taken later in the day, not while we were on the Segway. They were very strict about this, more so than on previous tours. Ed was constantly giving us the mantra “kerbs are not your friend” and telling people to keep away from them, so I guess they have had accidents, and are trying to stop that.
We carried on our journey, and next stopped in Germany, with Sarah explaining how Fantasyland resembles Germany, as Walt’s vacation there helped to inspire both that and all the various castles around the world in the Disney theme parks.
In Italy, we slalomed our way through the columns of the Doge’s Palace, just as you’d have done in the previous tour, but when we gathered at the entrance, again, we learnt more than we ever would’ve done before. The Campanile bell tower has no bells at Disney, because one of the bells used to summon people to public executions in Venice, and Disney didn’t want to have echoes of that part of history in their pavilion.
We were also told that we’d be leaving around the side of the two statues in front of the pavilion, as apparently walking between them is bad luck. I’ll keep that in mind for the future then…
It was here that we broke for some photos in Italy, and I swear no-one came through the middle of the two statues that I knew about. We were fine, and posed for these photos. I absolutely love the last one!
We got some other photos as well…
It was just after this when we got off our Segways, were taking photos and chatting to Ed that we heard one of the Segways start to complain, and we knew from our training earlier that wasn’t a good sign. Sure enough, it started to shudder, and threw its rider off, before Ed could get to her, and she went sprawling on to the concrete. Mark told me that the wheels of her Segway had touched the one her dad was on, and that they had been told to keep away from each other, so I guess that’s why Disney is so much more safety conscious now.
Next: no I don’t think this was modelled on Detroit
Just to let you know that I've finally got as far as sorting out some "highlight" photos from our cruise and they're now up in the Disney Cruise Line trip report forum.
We had some issues with the sound on our tour as well. And we were not far behind the guide! When we told him, he moved his pack around to his back and that seemed to help quite a bit.
Funny that they never mentioned anything about not taking photos on our tour. I had heard that it wasn't allowed, but nothing was said to us before or during. Jeff had the camera out when we were stopped, but also as we were riding. I'm sure the guide saw him, but did not say anything to him.
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Sounds like a great tour - I am going to have to show this to Scott - as he had done the older version of this tour and really enjoyed it. Him & I had done a Segway tour in Bahamas and really enjoyed it - but yes - it does do a number on your calf muscles!!! Don't like the sound of that woman falling though - but we had one of those on ours and she flipped over the handle bars!! and showed up to do it in flip flops!!! hmmm..........wonder if it is the same family?
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I love learning about all the details in WS. Interesting about the lion sculptures. I always thought the female was squashing the cub and couldn't imagine what the story behind it was! The tour sounds like a lot of fun, and more of a work-out than it looks.
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I love that you learned some new tidbits about some of the countries! Great photos too. Wow, I hope the lady who fell was ok. Didn't sound too good, yikes!
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I’ll keep that in mind for the future then… 
Don't like the sound of that woman falling though - but we had one of those on ours and she flipped over the handle bars!! 
and showed up to do it in flip flops!!! hmmm..........wonder if it is the same family?
Deb
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