A Christmas Ship Comes Sailing In (A Cam and Luke TR) Completed 2/16 - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Would you consider sitting at the table with me for a bit?
Day Three, Part 3: Saturday, December 6, 2014
I woke once in the night, but otherwise slept so much better here than I had in Macon. In fact, I was in a deep sleep when the alarm blared at 7:30. No rush to get ready, but we were headed to the bus stop right at 9:00 and found a waiting MK bus. Passed quickly through bag check and the ticket scanners. Slowed so I could get photos of the front of the train station. Most were hampered my fellow guests just as excited as me to see the holiday decorations.
Once inside Town Square, we learned that taping would be done at 10:00 for the Frozen Celebration, causing us to miss out on the cool PhotoPass pic with wooden soldiers.
Instead we went to the Confectionary to purchase breakfast, a large chocolate chip cookie in the shape of a Mickey head with its ears hand-dipped in chocolate. We also got Cokes. We walked through Uptown Jewelers to our usual alley to dine. And guess who was there? None other than Mary Poppins who only had one current guest. I had let out a little gasp when I saw her, and she had looked my way. She requested I sit at a table with her for a little chat. Magical! Unfortunately, I have no memory of what we talked about as I was so excited and nervous the whole time we were talking. She’d ask a question, and my brain seemed to slowly process it before I had an answer. Luke took photos then the CM with her took a pic all three of us. We moved to another table to eat our mega-nutritious breakfast while Mary continued to meet other guests, including many NCA cheerleaders. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, were everywhere as they were part of today’s taping.
After we had satisfied our hunger, we needed to get to Space Mountain before our FP+ expired. But when we reached the ride it was down. A CM posted at the entrance told us our FP+ would work whenever it reopened, and hopefully, that would be before we had to leave the park. What to do now? The People Mover, of course. Halfway up the moving walkway, the belt stopped and we had to complete the walk to the top unaided. Steepness really works the calf muscles! From here we toured Tomorrowland, including seeing the lights on for SM.
Next we rode Buzz where I became a Space Ace for the time in a long, long time in a land far, far away.
Scores:
Cam = 354,800;
Luke = 54, 600.
I skunked Luke. Early in the ride I found a target and just kept hitting it.
We moved to the left for Carousel of Progress, and afterwards, took time for restroom break. When we came out of the restrooms, Luke noticed that SM was working, so we finally got to ride it. Stephanie sent a text that they were entering MK just as we had gotten off SM. So we waited outside the shop at the end of Space Mountain. I loved seeing her again as we last met I think in October 2009 when she and our Stefanie became buddies. We talked for a while, but totally forgot to take a photo. Eventually, we had to part ways as we only had 20 minutes left on our BTMRR FP+. Even with the FP+ we did have a bit of a wait.
NEXT: Ever seen the back side of egg nog?? (Hint: The next update will probably cover a single attraction as I kind of went crazy with pictures of it. )