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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 wonderful breakfast at Tusker House, love all the character photos and the fist bump story, too cute.
Great fun with the Sharon and family, the kids look like they had a great time together and how wonderful that you got to meet up with Dawn and her family for a bit as well.
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
When the rest of the gang finished with their EE ride, Maddie and I met up with them and then we all headed for Africa. Much to Sharon’s chagrin , the boys wanted pizza at Pizzafari while we wanted to ride the safari before we left AK. We said goodbye to the guys, but only a “so long” to Sharon because we would be seeing her tomorrow after she dropped her family at the airport in the morning.
We pretty much walked on to the safari and had a great time. Mary Devall was having fun taking pictures with her phone, so then Maddie asked if she could do the same with my phone.
One of these pictures is not like the others:
I admit to wincing a few times as she held my phone over the side of the truck as we bumped along. I had visions of a wart hog talking on my phone. Thankfully, Maddie can hold on to a phone as well as her sister can.
Afterwards, Mary Devall requested that we go on the Pangani Trail. We pretty much just breezed through to the gorillas. She stood for a second looking for something and then announced “Okay, I’m good.” Apparently, she just wanted to find something that was referenced in one of her Kingdom Keepers books.
As we walked back through Africa, who do we spot but Sharon, Noah, Daniel and Isaiah. They had eaten lunch and were waiting on the rest of the family. We chatted a while longer while the girls grabbed some ice cream at a nearby stand and then said again. We had such fun with them today and I loved how all of the kids immediately became fast friends. I know that we will be meeting up again though . . . especially since I now know that Daniel found Thom entertaining. Thom never misses a chance to put on a show!
We headed out to the bus stop and to the first bus that we saw. Our plan for the latter half of the afternoon was to go to BB and hopefully miss some of the earlier crowds. The plan worked very well. We changed into our bathing suits and then stored our clothes in the locker that we rented before heading straight for the family raft ride. This had been our favorite ride on our first trip to BB this summer, so we were itching to ride it again. It did not disappoint!
On our first trip to BB earlier this summer, Maddie had been very picky about what she would ride. Her first experience apparently gave her a good comfort level because she was willing to ride everything this time. While we were in the area, we rode both of the racer slides. It actually started pouring down raining when we were waiting in line at one point, but it only made a fun afternoon all that more exciting.
Once we were finished with that section, we moved on to the raft rides where we took turns riding with each other. Thom had missed out on the enclosed single rider slide in June, so he was able to experience the slide that’s a bit like Space Mountain with water. On most slides, Thom and Maddie ride together since Maddie and I have a history of flipping when we ride together. While Thom and Mary Devall rode the enclosed slide, Maddie and I are paired up for an open slide.
Before we took off, Thom gave me a bit of advice to make sure that Maddie didn’t go flying when we hit the pool at the bottom. I leaned back as far as humanly possible and then yelled for Maddie to hold on tight when we landed. Thankfully, we both remained upright in our raft.
After the raft rides, we took it down a notch and moved to the kiddie area at the request of the girls. We all did the kiddie slide and then the girls began their quests to cross over the ice bergs as many times as possible. I loved how all of the parents were in the water helping and encouraging the kids as they crossed (even if they were total strangers). I ended up meeting some really nice people there.
The girls were actually still in the pool when the lifeguard suddenly called everyone out due to lightening in the area. The sky looked foreboding, but it never rained again. It was 6 p.m. by this point, so we decided to go ahead and leave since we didn’t know if the slides were going to open back up before the park closed at 7 p.m. After we claimed our clothes and cover ups from the locker, I spotted the mini doughnut stand as we made our way out of the park. Thankfully it didn’t close due to lightening! I bought a big batch which we all enjoyed as we walked to the bus stop.
A bus came quickly and we were soon back at the Swan. Tonight had been our date night at Shula’s, so we had zero plans at this point. We showered and then headed for the Boardwalk to find some dinner.
This is where we had a breakdown in communication. I had previously suggested Kouzzina since it was right there and I knew we could get in. Everyone else looked at the menu and then suddenly we were walking away. I just assumed that no one saw anything that they wanted and just followed the crowd.
Mary Devall took this photo as we made our way around the Board Walk.
With every other option turned down, we headed into Epcot, but no one could decide what they wanted. Thom finally said something about me choosing and I said that I that I had already suggested Kouzzina but no one wanted to eat there.
For some reason, he thought I didn’t so that’s why we had kept walking. At this point, he felt bad about not listening earlier, so he took it upon himself to make a decision. He went to check on availability for Tokyo dining and put our name on the list. We grabbed drinks from the little kiosk outside and pulled up a bench. The girls went inside the store to browse while we sat outside chatting. It wasn’t Shula’s but almost like a date.
Our pager went off about 8:30 or so and we were seated one table back from the big picture windows in front so we knew we would have a good view of Illuminations. We had so much fun at this meal so I think it was meant to be that we come back here.
I love walking in the park when it’s closed, so we took a leisurely walk back. We stopped in a store on the Boardwalk to buy a scrapbook and also stopped at a photo booth so the girls could take a picture. It truly was a fun “fly by the seat of our pants” sort of evening.
__________________
Sometimes words aren't needed . . .
Last edited by Jillybean; 11-25-2013 at 10:05 AM..
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
, the boys wanted pizza at Pizzafari while we wanted to ride the safari before we left AK. We said goodbye to the guys, but only a “so long” to Sharon because we would be seeing her tomorrow after she dropped her family at the airport in the morning. 
I had visions of a wart hog talking on my phone. 
Thankfully, Maddie can hold on to a phone as well as her sister can. 
Apparently, she just wanted to find something that was referenced in one of her Kingdom Keepers books. 
again. We had such fun with them today and I loved how all of the kids immediately became fast friends. 
I know that we will be meeting up again though . . . especially since I now know that Daniel found Thom entertaining. Thom never misses a chance to put on a show! 
While Thom and Mary Devall rode the enclosed slide, Maddie and I are paired up for an open slide. 
Thankfully it didn’t close due to lightening! 
At this point, he felt bad about not listening earlier, so he took it upon himself to make a decision. He went to check on availability for Tokyo dining and put our name on the list. We grabbed drinks from the little kiosk outside and pulled up a bench. The girls went inside the store to browse while we sat outside chatting. It wasn’t Shula’s but almost like a date. 
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