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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Today was our last park day. Skip was flying in later today into Sanford so we were going to have to pick up him as well. That meant less time in the parks than we would like, but it is what it is….and Claire was super excited to have her Daddy coming.
Today we were going to Animal Kingdom. I figured this would be a good day to go since we usually do not spend a whole day there anyways.
I got up and got ready and took some pictures again this morning. I finally walked out on the balcony off our room.
Claire was going to have to move over to the pull out sofa bed tonight….she felt that her Dad should sleep there since he hadn’t been with us all week, but I told her he probably wouldn’t agree.
This was our closet….I had some shirts in there drip drying.
Microwave in the kitchenette.
I think this was the fridge….and I must’ve ironed something.
I believe this is the dishwasher in the main kitchen area.
We used this quite a bit.
Once ready we headed out. I think Mom and dad were going to my Aunts house today. She has a place in Florida about an hour or 2 away and my dad likes to visit them when they go to Florida. My aunt and uncle only spend winters in Florida and they actually live only ½ mile from my parents’ house.
We saw this gator outside and we took a picture for Skip. We have 2 of these are our farm and it always feels like home when we see one somewhere else.
Next stop… Animal Kingdom.
Doesn’t look like the crowds have lessened….does it?
As we entered AK, we found a photopass photographer outside and stopped for a few.
She was new and didn’t know anything about magic shots.
We found another one that did and she took a magic shot for us.
We asked about the box with Stitch coming out of it. She knew what we were talking about but unfortunately she didn’t have the box to do it.
So we headed inside. EXCEPT…..my band once again did not scan. It said I had no park days left. UGH! A manager was called over and I told her today was our last day, she asked how many times we have been to MK…I had to think about it…and then told her..and she said ok. The reason she asked is because the band had a record of everywhere we went and she was making sure it was mine and not someone else’s. She reset the band again…I believe this was reset number 3 now. And we were let in.
And found another photopass photographer.
Not sure why Claire always looks in a different direction, but she is famous for doing that.
She was a little perkier with the magic shot.
Except here where she has creepy eyes.
With those shots done we went on our way.
We had a fastpass for the safari…and that off in the distance….is the fastpass line….YES the FP line was CRAZY LONG!
HOLY SHITAKI MUSHROOMS! I think I posted on facebook something on the lines of…..I hate fastpass plus …..at that moment.
We still had some time before our window opened so we decided to hit the Pangani trail for a bit to waste some time.
We didn’t go too far in and I started worrying about how long the line would take us just to get to the scanning post. We had things timed for the day somewhat and if we ran too late it wouldn’t all work out…well it probably would, but I panicked. So we headed back and got in line.
And believe it or not, it went very fast and we actually got to the post about 5 minutes before the open window…we scanned and got the green light and were good to go. Once we got inside it was clear sailing and next to no wait at all. The reason for the backed up line outside…..people don’t know how to scan and people were arriving way too early. That was stopping people up at the scanning post. Those who were too early weren’t going to move till their time opened up….even if it was 10 – 15 minutes later. LOL. And then many people just had issues with it scanning, laying it wrong on the scanner or the wrong side, etc. I am not saying I am perfect either…I was there 5 minutes early…but once you start scanning….like to get in the park….you kind of get the jest of it….that is if your band actually shows you have tickets.
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AK looks super crowded this day. I have found the FP+ queue for KS to look very long, but for the very reasons you've already mentioned. Heather has told me the FP+ will work 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late, but I guess folks are worried they will miss the ride altogether if they don't stand and wait.
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AK looks super crowded this day. I have found the FP+ queue for KS to look very long, but for the very reasons you've already mentioned. Heather has told me the FP+ will work 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late, but I guess folks are worried they will miss the ride altogether if they don't stand and wait.
That is my understanding too, though I heard some CM will still not let you through, especially the 15 minute late part....which is dumb. Sometimes you can't get there because of slow people in front of you or the monorail down....etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Thank goodness that Fastpass+ line moved quickly - it looked insanely long!
It was very scary when I first saw how long the line was.
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Great safari shots. The black rhino against the wall was expected. We saw him up and moving when we were there in March (during a driving rain storm). He seemed to enjoy the water. Love the lions. It seems with the added walls that the crowds seem to be much greater. Will be glad when the walls are down again.
Looks like you had a great safari!!! We've noticed the last trip just how long the safari fastpass line always seemed to be but it did move quickly thank goodness!
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Great safari photos! Love the one of Claire in the mirror!
I loved that shot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great safari pix! It really does look like it's crowded there!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
It was such a crowded week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a wonderful safari you had! And how cool to see the dance party too!
I have never seen a dance party there before. I think they added a lot of things for the crowds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazy4monkeez
Love the picture of Claire in the mirror!
I love it too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
What a cool mirror shot from the Safari! Might have to steal that and lunch looked yummy, but did you only get half a sandwich!?
Go ahead. I stole the idea from someone else too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Great safari shots. The black rhino against the wall was expected. We saw him up and moving when we were there in March (during a driving rain storm). He seemed to enjoy the water. Love the lions. It seems with the added walls that the crowds seem to be much greater. Will be glad when the walls are down again.
I can't wait for all the walls to come down. They are just everywhere anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Looks like you had a great safari!!! We've noticed the last trip just how long the safari fastpass line always seemed to be but it did move quickly thank goodness!
It was crazy but at least once inside we moved fast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Great pics from the safari, love the one of Claire in the mirror!
Thanks. I do too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great safari pictures, especially the mirror shot! I've never seen a dance party at AK. Very cool!
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And how cool to see the dance party too! 
and lunch looked yummy, but did you only get half a sandwich!?
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