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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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That's right, our trip is a couple of weeks away, and I'm just now doing a PTR.
But to be honest, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. I was sick last week and didn't feel like doing much of anything. Then Monday an EF-2 tornado rolled through our town and knocked out power, cable and internet services to the entire town. It went right over the house and knocked a few trees down. But we're back up and running (some people in this town of 11k are still without power right now, ugh!). We were very blessed (not lucky, but blessed) because no one was hurt nor killed during this tornado.
Our friends, who are at Disney right now and have been there since Sunday were not home when the tornado hit. However, they still don't have power and lost 3 trees in the backyard. We had another storm roll through yesterday, and the lone tree standing got struck by lightning yesterday. We went over and cleaned out their refrigerator and freezer the day after the storm so they wouldn't have food leaking everywhere and stinking.
Anyway, so with all of that now behind us, I'm wanting to try and get a PTR in before we actually leave for our trip. So, here's the information:
Who: Myself, a 39-year-old Disney fanatic. I went my first 37 years without stepping foot at WDW and have regretted that very much since making our first trip in April 2014. There's also Emily, my DW, a 30-something year-old who is the reason I'm hooked on Disney. She "dragged" me there two years ago. Three days into the trip, she said I could go anywhere I wanted to on the next vacation. Where did I want to go? To Disney at Christmas. She's the reason I'm hooked on Disney and the reason I'm celebrating 10 wonderful years of marriage. She is absolutely my princess in every way I could ever ask for.
This is myself and DW from our Dec. 2014 trip:
Dates: June 10-15 Accommodations: Spending this trip at Pop Century. We're not doing the DDP and are paying OOP for food. Why: It's Disney, do we really need a reason? Seriously though, it's our 10-year anniversary trip. My wife begged and pleaded with me to go for our honeymoon, and I said no. She begged for several years after that. Finally, in 2013 I said yes and we made our first ever trip to WDW. We went back this past December. We were talking about plans for our anniversary. When I asked what she wanted to do, she said how about Disney? I said no problem. I have taken on the planning for this trip as she has no idea what we're doing. She knows we're going, but that's it. She doesn't know what we're doing, where we're staying or anything.
I will start the PTR with this information and say that I have been working on our anniversary night plans for a couple of months. I've made plans, changed them, changed them again and again and again. DW talked to Kingdom Magic travel planner (also our very best friends in the whole world) to try and get any information from her. She said she didn't know what we're doing because we've made so many plans.
June 10
We're going to Dallas the night before (June 9) to stay in a hotel because we've got a 6:10 a.m. flight from Dallas to Orlando, which lands at 9:45 a.m. We've got DME planned and then plan on going to MK that afternoon/evening. Haven't decided about lunch plans, but will either get something at All Things Pop (if they're still open for breakfast) or possibly at the park, maybe Pinocchio Village Haus or Columbia Harbour House.
We have FPs for Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid (12-1 p.m.), the Jungle Cruise (1-2 p.m.) and Enchanted Tales with Belle (5:20-6:20 p.m.) We have ADRs for The Plaza Resturant, which we've never had. We typically go back to the room about 2 p.m. and rest until about 5 before going back to the parks, but I'm not sure we will on this day since it's our arrival day.
We learned a couple of weeks ago that the local high school band is going to be at WDW the same week we're going to be there, and they're scheduled to perform in the night time parade that night. I'm not sure how that works or what time is it at, but we plan on watching that and taking some photos. I'm super excited about that because I went to the high school here and played in that band, and now they're going to be at WDW.
There are no plans for the rest of the night, so we will just hang out for the parades and Wishes. I'm hoping to watch Wishes from somewhere besides the Hub (maybe the bridge by Tomorrowland or the road over by Splash Mountain). We'll then head back to the resort because the next day is our anniversary, and I've got some special plans for that day.
Up next: What we're doing for our 10-year anniversary.
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Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
The only damage thank goodness was to houses and trees, which are all replaceable. As I said, we were very blessed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Great start! I'm glad that the tornado didn't do any real damage to your town.
I'm really excited about this trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
Wow! You are very fortunate that the tornado did not do damage to your home. Your plans sound terrific for your first day!!
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start and plans!
Not long for you guys, either. PM me if y'all still want to meet up like we had talked about previously.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAyers
Awesome start! Not long now
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by belle0517
Great start!
The next update should be shortly. I'm still trying to find out what time the night parade is (or whichever parade they march in so we can see them).
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
So glad you're ok. How neat to see the band while your at MK!
Looking forward to the next update!
Thanks. This is the third or fourth time we've been in the closet or under the couch just this spring. We've had lots of springs in the past with bad storms, but never this many warnings. Then to have one go right over the house. It's the first one we've been in, and it's really scary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezie
Yay! You started! So glad everyone was ok from the tornado. Scary though!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
This represents 10 years of being married for myself and DW. I'm not going to post a wedding picture per her request, but I will say the time has flown by and I've loved (almost) every minute of it. Now on to the plans...
We will be going to MK this day and want to catch the welcome show, which begins at 7:40 a.m.
I had planned to sleep in a bit since the day before was going to be a travel day, it was our anniversary and I had an ADR for 10:30 a.m. at 1900 Park Faire. But all of that fell through.
When I first booked this trip, I booked breakfast ADR at Cinderella Royal Table since that's the very first meal we had on our first trip in 2013. I ad it paid for and everything. Then one day, she was watching Mary Poppins on TV and said she'd love to have breakfast with Mary Poppins and company. I asked if she'd rather do that over CRT, and she said yes. So, I canceled CRT, got my money back and booked PF.
Then she learned that Bert wasn't part of that breakfast, so she said cancel and just plan a nice dinner for our anniversary. I took it a step further. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to jump on My Experience on the spur of the moment one night before going to bed to see if there was an opening for BOG. I had booked it originally, but canceled it because she nothing on the menu sounded interesting.
I was very lucky in that one night when I jumped on really late right before bed I found an opening. I jumped on it. When it was confirmed, I went running through the house hooping and hollering. She asked what it was about, and I told her I had book an ADR I had been wanting (I didn't tell her since it's all a surprise.).
So, we have ADRs for BOG at 9:50 a.m. on our anniversary.
That's the first thing we have planned. We then have FPs for Peter Pan (12:15-1:15), Big Thunder Mountain (1:15-2:15) and Seven Dwarves (6-7). We plan on heading back to the resort after BTMRR for a bit like we have always done.
We have a carriage ride reserved at Port Orleans Riverside for that evening (6 p.m. I think), so will have to take a taxi from Pop to POR. Afterward, we'll bus to the MK (might do our FP for 7-Dwarves at this time) and boat over to the Grand Floridian for dinner ADR at Narcoosee's at 7:50 p.m. I have booked California Grill at 9:30 to watch the fireworks and have dessert.
I'm not sure if I'll keep that as I'm going back and forth on watching the fireworks from Cali Grill or the beach at the Polynesian. Either way, we'll monorail from GF to either of those spots to watch the fireworks and then call it a night.
Friday, June 12
Hollywood Studios Day
We will probably start by going over to Rockin Roller Coaster for her to ride (I don't do roller coasters) and then have a FP for Tower of Terror at 9:25 a.m. I won't be riding that either. We might catch the Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage at that time as it's only showing in the AM because of the Star Wars Weekend activities. Our next FP is Star Tours at 10:45 a.m.
We have a lunch ADR for Momma Melroses at 2 p.m., but I've been thinking about dropping that and going over to the Boardwalks to try Big River Grille or Boardwalk Bakery for lunch, just to try something different. Afterward, we'll head back to HS to catch a bus to the resort to rest for a bit.
Our final FP is for Toy Story Midway Mania from 6:25-7:25. Here's where I'm kind of in limbo. She has asked over and over again about going to see Fantasmic. So, I am thinking about getting a dinner package for Momma Melrose's that night for Fantasmic. We plan on catching the early show and then heading back to the resort.
Up next: The final 2 days of this short weekend wrap around trip.
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You are very fortunate that the tornado did not do damage to your home. Your plans sound terrific for your first day!!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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