Graduation, Good Health & Giggles Galore - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Before heading out of our Norwegian castle, the crew decided Test Track was next. This was a must do ride for each of them, and they were willing to wait on line to ride together. The standby line was at 75 minutes which still gave us plenty of time to ride and head over to our next park, Animal Kingdom for our fast passes.
While waiting, the kids passed the time trying to hookup to my Memory Maker account which I purchased earlier through MDE . Some could and some could not. I wasn't pleased with Disney's customer service at all with this product. The kids were advised to call CS to connect to my account. After very long periods of time, over 45 minutes, on several occasions, we hung up. I am still missing several pictures, but have not had the time to call them. My other compaint is that MDE should offer 1 day MM as they do on property. I overpaid for our 2 days in the park, which bothers me.
The kids enjoyed some of the interactive games. The germs were bothering me in there, especially after seeing how dirty one of the air conditioner ducts were. I couldn't help but bring out the hand sanitizer.
We decided to save time and skip making our own cars. The CM directed us beyond the stations to the next set of doors. When we made it on to the platform a handsome CM from South Africa said "Happy Birthday your majesty! " The girls loved his voice and his looks and quickly engaged him in conversation. My DN remarked 'I have to get in on this Happy Birthday action. "
We loaded into our car and away we went! We had such fun and laughed our way through the ride. The best was racing around the outside at top speed. When all was said and done, despite the neon lights and missing the crash test dummy, this was a 10 out of 10 for everyone.
When we got to the cars on display, DS noticed DH's new pickup truck. So imagine a tall kid giving a thumbs up in front of a Chevy pickup.
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.
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After a great ride on Test Track, the kids were thinking of one more ride before we headed to Animal Planet. Although we were headed to Journey Into Imagination With Figment, we were distracted by Mouse Gears and stopped there instead.
DGA was looking for the Graduation Cap Mouse Ears. DS wanted a hat to keep the sun off his face and DBB wanted a baseball cap. I was searching for a big, floppy hat. DN was looking for something to wear on the golf course and DGC needed a hat for her father. I honestly believe this group tried on almost every piece of headgear they had in the store. I kept thinking “Ewww, head lice.”
I offered to head to the car and get the air conditioner going as they searched for the perfect headgear. DN said she would walk with me and we told the crew to take their time. We exited the park, chatting away and not really concerned about the path we were taking. Suddenly, we heard yelling and realized two CM’s were directing their attention our way. A whistle was blown and a CM yelled to us to get back on the sidewalk. We had entered the roadway to walk across to the parking area on the other side of the road. Apparently, that was against Disney rules, so we went back on the sidewalk until we could walk directly across the street and not on a diagonal. I’ve never seen anyone yelled at before by a Disney CM, so we must have been really breaking the rules. Let me apologize now to the Disney staff and security for jaywalking.
When we reached the car, we opened all the doors, turned on the a/c and waited for the car to cool down. Since no one was around, I hopped in the front seat and did a quick change into a clean dry top. That made me feel world’s better.
About 5 minutes later, our merry cast of characters come bopping along the parking lot, with all but one sporting a brand new hat. DS was wearing a hat that appeared to come directly from a Mary Poppins movie, DGA had her graduation Mouse Ears, DBB a new ball cap and DGC was just shaking her head. They hopped in the car and were thrilled that the car had cooled down. DGC said they kept admiring themselves with the assorted hats, and they probably could have stayed there picking out more hats.
Off we went to our next park, Animal Kingdom. We were looking forward to seeing the park at night, The Jungle Book show and riding Kali River Rapids in the dark. I had offered everyone wipes to clean up with. I bought a box of wipes in the ladies section of the drug store because they were individually wrapped and could be carried easily into the park. I had not looked closely at the box, so when I passed them out the boys were howling over the fact that I had given them “feminine wipes, ph balanced for your cleansing needs.” When they finished laughing, they used them anyway to wipe off their faces and around their necks. At this point, we were all very comfortable with one another, and almost any topic was fair game. When we got out of the car, DN said she was going to grab a can of dry deodorant spray to refresh herself with. Next thing I know, it’s being passed around like a can of bug spray, without a care as to who was using it.
Heading towards the park, there was a kiosk selling head gear. Yup, we had to stop. DS spots the perfect hat to be worn on a safari. It had the perfect brim size to keep him shaded, a strap to keep it from blowing away and he looked rather handsome while wearing it. So being the good mom that I am, I agree to buy him the hat, so he can look great. I was not going to spend another forty bucks on a hat and ended up wearing the Bert hat from Mary Poppins. It was not my best look, however with the heat and humidity, lack of sleep and makeup, today was not my best day! DGA and DGC purchased matching blue Monster University ball caps. They were so cute. Little did I know I was really traveling with a bunch of Mad Hatters.
We finally made it over to bag check. The lady looking through my bag had a big laugh at what I was carrying. Five pairs of sunglasses, three wallets, two sets of car keys, four cell phones, two cameras, a Ziploc bag with assorted medications, a Ziploc bag with a fresh pair of cotton undies and a small travel sized bottle of Gold Bond’s powder, which somehow managed to open and spill in the bag, and of course, my sandwich bag of ph balanced feminine wipes! She told me the powder spilled and I groaned thinking about the mess that I had in there. There was no doubt in my mind I would be going through the metal detector, and sure enough, I was invited to walk through one - extra layer of protection. My group was waiting just beyond the metal detector laughing at me and joking. “Really, Mom, Anthrax in your bag?” “No worries with her, she could never run fast enough to get away from herself.” The security officer smiled and said “Nice kids you have, ma’am.” He then directed each of them to come back and go through the metal detector! Thank you, kind sir! Once again, I was thankful Disney was diligent with security, but we never imagined that a week later, it would not be a laughing matter.
Now mind you, there are not throngs of people entering the park. It’s late afternoon, people are leaving and there might have been forty people entering when we did. Between shopping for hats, getting cups of cold water, my bag check, it was 45 minutes since we exited the car! Good heavens we have to get moving. Not so fast though. I stopped at guest services to pick up birthday buttons for DGA and DGC. They were thrilled to wear their buttons, and sported both their Happy Birthday and I’m celebrating pins. It was at this time we realized DGC didn’t have fast passes with us for the rides. Our first ride was Expedition Everest. She couldn’t score a fastpass for EE, but managed all our other rides. I gave her my Magic Band so the kids could all ride together. I told them go have fun and I would meet them over near our next FP, Primeval Whirl, which was in Dino Land.
For the first time ever I was SOLO in the parks. This has been my dream for many years. Did I take advantage of my situation? Nope, not at all. No artistic pictures, no trying new things, no finding my favorite snack. Just a quick trip to the nearest bathroom.
Wish me luck, I have a free morning, so I am going to call for Memory Maker help. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I will speak to a real person. I hope they can locate my missing photos. If I am feeling pushy, I might ask about a refund due to the price difference. In fact, I may request that they provide an extension for how long I can view and play with the pictures. I have a road trip to Purdue next week and holiday weekend in Lake Placid. I have work to do.
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