Our Fall 2014 Trip Report - Coming to You Barely Live from Orlando - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thanks, everyone, for commenting. Glad you enjoyed the early morning park photos. Early morning ADRs are nice, but this was even better, because we went in before anyone else.
UPDATE - DAY 2, PART 2: The Magic Behind The Steam Trains - Part 1
Spoiler Alert - I don't think anything I'm going to say is much of a spoiler. The name is about all you need to "Spoil" this tour - it's about Steam Trains! I will show some photos, and talk about the sequence of events, so if you are the type who doesn't want any clues before you take this tour, perhaps skip these next two posts (I'll break it up, because there are lots of photos). I won't go into the history or mechanical details of the trains (I'm not saying I didn't listen to every detail, but ...)
Once we finished taking photos on Main Street, Michael took us into the Train Station. Here, he talked about some of the history of the trains, and went into more detail about some of the photos and posters on the street level part of the station. I didn't have any change, or I would have made a pressed penny:
We walked up the ramp to the 2nd Floor of the Train Station where you actually board the train, and heard some more history. We then boarded the train that came especially for us
Michael continued talking, and answering questions, as we circled the park. I took a few photos as we passed through Frontierland, as this is always my favorite part of the train ride:
There are 4 Steam Train Engines at Walt Disney World, and we were riding the Walter E. Broggie from the Main Street Station. We were able to take photos everywhere except when we passed through one gate to the maintenance barn. Michael said he didn't understand, since we could take all the photos we wanted on the other side of the gate. Once in the barn, we hopped off the train and were free to walk around. We could look in the barn where they do repairs (but not walk inside), and we listened while Michael told us more history and some about the mechanical aspects of the Steam Trains. Everyone was able to take a turn getting up into the locomotive which was parked outside - the Roy O. Disney, No. 4.
I was told to get a photo of this - the black pipe is a heat exchanger, one of the first used on a Steam Train locomotive, and designed by a Disney Engineer. It uses the heat output from the engine to preheat the water in the boiler (see, I did listen to some things):
The Monorail Trains are all maintained on the Top Level of the Maintenance Barn - we saw one coming out while we were there:
We were able to see Engine No. 1 coming out of the Maintenance Bay - this locomotive is the Walter E. Disney:
Steam Train Tours are Serious Business ...
After about 45 minutes to an hour at the Maintenance Barn, we loaded up into the Roy O. Disney, and took a ride back to Main Street. There, we exited the train, went down to City Hall where we got a cold bottle of water. We took about a 20 minute break. While waiting outside City Hall, I took some photos of the activities going on around the entrance into the park.
This gentleman was handing out celebration pins in front of City Hall. I asked him if I could take a photo, and explained he had sung Happy Birthday to our Granddaughter a year ago. He was tickled that I remembered. He told us he was retiring soon, but he really enjoyed making the children smile:
We'll pick up with the second part of the tour in the next post. I won't keep you in suspense. We both enjoyed the Steam Train Tour !!! Lou found the train part and the Walt Disney history very interesting. I was just happy to be along for the ride, and enjoyed taking a few photos. Even though Michael is not an engineer or conductor, he has a passion for the Steam Trains, and was very knowledgeable. He is very good at what he does.
Very cool photos of the trains. I'm not an enthusiast, but love to see these well-built machines and admire those who create and care for them. How great that you remembered the CM who helped to make a special moment last year!
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