Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - return to WDW! COMPLETED - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 15 November – part one: that doesn’t exactly look straight to me!
Despite our late night last night, we set a wake-up call. Tempting as it was to just lie there and sleep as late as we wanted, I knew we had a red eye flight home tonight, and really we needed to be tired enough to stand a chance of sleeping on that…
It wasn’t a good start to the day. When the alarm woke us both up, Mark told me that he had sinusitis. not on the day we’re flying home please…. As a result, he got going very slowly, while I tried to finish up the packing. I figured I’d squeeze a bit more into one of the cases, but unfortunately, while it still had space in it, it was up to its weight limit. Isn’t that always the way? We kept taking bits out, until it was just about right, transferring it into the other cases, leaving us with two near the weight limit, and one that was significantly under, so that was something.
There was very little happening out on the savannah, that was typically until we called bell services, and then there was plenty happening out there…
All in all, this had been a great room with some superb views of the animals.
Once bell arrived, I went down to the shop to get one more stamp for the Christmas cards – typical, I did all the others, then found I’d missed one. As I came back to post it, I found Mark coming down with bell. Now that’s what I call good timing!
We picked up the car from valet, bell loaded up our cases very impressively, and we set off for the Beach Club. Once there, I couldn’t help but get a few photos of the lobby – it always feels like home here whenever I walk in!
We picked up our breakfast from the Marketplace, with Mark getting a muffin, and me getting a coconut bar. Then we headed across to Epcot.
Once we got there, we had a choice of which way to go when we got to the United Kingdom, as it appeared that World Showcase was already open, at 10:40am. We headed towards France…
Like elsewhere in the parks, they had some Christmas decorations out. I hope this is just stage one of putting these up, because my goodness, there wasn’t much to be seen.
.. and when we got there, we discovered that in fact World Showcase was closed off, but now the rope is in France, rather in the United Kingdom. Why they’ve changed that, I do not know.
The main Christmas tree had been put up, but from this distance, it didn’t exactly look straight…
We walked through the United Kingdom…
… then Canada…
Then we got close up to the Christmas tree, and it still didn’t exactly look straight…
Poor Mark! I hope he did ok the rest of the day. I love the way they do World Showcase in the mornings now. They have one side roped off after Norway and the other after France, as you can now have breakfast in both places before all of WS opens. It's really nice stopping for coffee in a nearly empty France while waiting for everything to open up.
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One last glance of the animals on the savannah. I'm glad you had such entertainment there for those few nights!
Yep, France's bakery is the reason for the change in the rope location. Which is nice for those staying at the adjacent resorts! Cute Christmas decor there too - I wonder if that ornament with the Tower and Triomph is new as I don't recall seeing it in 2012 when we were there?
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I love walking through Epcot when it's quiet like that!
When DS and I went in Jan. 2012, we were walking WS during night EMH and it was so deserted. It was very cold, but it was like we had all of WS to ourselves. It was magical!!
Poor Mark! :-( I hope he started feeling better before your flight.
I love the way they do World Showcase in the mornings now. They have one side roped off after Norway and the other after France, as you can now have breakfast in both places before all of WS opens. It's really nice stopping for coffee in a nearly empty France while waiting for everything to open up.
Oh no, poor Mark. Flying is hard enough you dont want any problems with your ears , nose, sinus... Hope he feels better.
To be honest, the biggest problem we had was the jetlag. I think our bodies struggled with the red-eye back from Hawaii on the Tuesday night, then having another red-eye on the Friday night and 10 changes in time zones in five days. Next time we go to Hawaii, we'll do it differently.
One last glance of the animals on the savannah. I'm glad you had such entertainment there for those few nights!
We really did luck out with everything happening out on the savannah.
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Yep, France's bakery is the reason for the change in the rope location. Which is nice for those staying at the adjacent resorts! Cute Christmas decor there too - I wonder if that ornament with the Tower and Triomph is new as I don't recall seeing it in 2012 when we were there?
I hadn't seen it in anyone's photos before, so I was assuming it was new for 2013 as well.
I love walking through Epcot when it's quiet like that!
When DS and I went in Jan. 2012, we were walking WS during night EMH and it was so deserted. It was very cold, but it was like we had all of WS to ourselves. It was magical!!
I love it when that happens. It's always magical to feel as if you have a park to yourself.
Looks like you had a successful time at the Christmas Party. I can't imagine touring the parks all day, knowing you have a long Red Eye ahead of you. But, it sounds like the smart way to do it.
Looks like you had a successful time at the Christmas Party. I can't imagine touring the parks all day, knowing you have a long Red Eye ahead of you. But, it sounds like the smart way to do it.
I figured it was the only way to do it - at least then we'd be tired and hopefully sleep on the flight home.
Some great shots from your balcony before you headed out, from the pictures you took it definitely seemed you had a great location for animal activities.
Glad all the packing is taken care of and now you can enjoy your last day.
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Ridiculous about the resort monorail! 
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not on the day we’re flying home please…. 
As a result, he got going very slowly, while I tried to finish up the packing. I figured I’d squeeze a bit more into one of the cases, but unfortunately, while it still had space in it, it was up to its weight limit. Isn’t that always the way? 
We kept taking bits out, until it was just about right, transferring it into the other cases, leaving us with two near the weight limit, and one that was significantly under, so that was something. 
We headed towards France…
Sorry Mark has sinusitis this morning! 
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