The Promise of Spring: F&GF 4.0 UPDATED: 5/11 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
You seem to have some great plans made for the first couple of days.
I always wonder about posting plans since we almost always end up altering them to some degree once we are there. But we like having at least a bit of plan before we head out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluejn
Signing in, can't wait to read more
Thanks for signing on!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Your MK day looks great even with the changes due to the health issues. Glad you were able to get BOG. Judy and I finally got dinner there last trip after many failures on the past few years. She really wanted to get to dance with Beast. He seems to be a lot more coordinated than I am when it comes to dancing. Be sure to ride Haunted Mansion, I just read that Memory Maker now has a video of the playful ghosts added.
I hadn't heard about the Haunted Mansion video. That has to be too cool!
Just catching up, Cam. My heart goes out to both you and Luke... along with lots of hugs and pixie dust. Though we've never actually met, I want you to know that your family - especially your precious Stefanie - has touched me deeply. In a forever kind of way. Stefanie's beautiful spirit was evident to all of us who had the privilege of reading about her many Disney adventures. And I continue to be inspired by your and Luke's outlook on life. Grief will be a part of your existence, but that angel of yours soars a little higher every time she sees you smile. Of that you can be sure.
Loved your photos of the house and also of the prints. I've had my eye on that AKL print for years! We bought a couple of very inexpensive prints (more like placemats) in the AKL gift shop. They sat around in our basement for a long time until we finally got around to framing them... and now they look fabulous in our living room! Always nice to bring a little Disney magic home.
Great plans for your first night and first day at MK!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm still thankful every day that I was privileged to be Stefanie's mom, my greatest job ever.
Every time I notice the new prints on the wall, I think how much better our whole living room looks. The one in the safari bathroom is also perfect where it is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roxie2006
Just caught up and I think all your choices for Dining is great!!!! I really want to hear about the River of Lights Dining Package. We usually dine At Planet Hollywood our first day, but I have been reading some terrible reviews, so we're not sure if that will be our choice this time. Maybe I'll wait and hear what you and Luke think about it first. We are going to do BOG this year too!!! Your MK Day looks great!!!!!!
I'll be sure to include lots of pictures of Tiffins and ROL with as much description as I can. When Luke asked me to see about a Planet Hollywood Observatory ADR, he said he'd read some mediocre reviews of it, but thought it would be cool to see the refurb and check out the food ourselves. I'll definitely review that meal, too.
Your MK day sounds lovely. I've never been on Space Mtn. With the fibromyalgia, I can just tell it would leave me in pain. I have chronic neck and shoulder pain, especially on my left side, though my right side seems to be flaring up lately too. Big Thunder Mountain was really rough too, so I learned my lesson back on our first trip. LOL
I believe I read that you are planning the balloon ride in Disney Springs. It is great. We have done it both during the day and the night. We even had a proposal on our date flight.
Your MK day sounds lovely. I've never been on Space Mtn. With the fibromyalgia, I can just tell it would leave me in pain. I have chronic neck and shoulder pain, especially on my left side, though my right side seems to be flaring up lately too. Big Thunder Mountain was really rough too, so I learned my lesson back on our first trip. LOL
Anyway, more great plans!
So sorry about your fibromyalgia. . So far I can still do BTMMR, but it seems more an more rides drop off as I age.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldmom
I believe I read that you are planning the balloon ride in Disney Springs. It is great. We have done it both during the day and the night. We even had a proposal on our date flight.
We are really hoping to get a chance to ride Characters in Flight.
Epcot is today’s destination, which means Flower & Garden Festival for blooms and food. The plan today is to head immediately to Test Track to do the standby line before it gets too long. Well, almost immediately, you know I’ll have to stop for some photos of the front F&GF displays. Back to the tiered structure for FastPass+ at this park, it is so annoying with three premier rides grouped together. Soarin’, Test Track, and Frozen Ever After manage to vie for our time every trip now. We have two full Epcot days so for this day we selected Soarin’ from the three. It has always been one of my favorites, and the new movie makes is even more incredible. But that means hightailing it to Test Track as soon as we enter the park and I’ve taken some photos. With that in mind, we made our first FP+ for Soarin’ at 10:05, so we’d have plenty of time for both these attractions.
As we move from one attraction to another today, we’ll wander through the gardens so I can take lots and lots of photos. My handy F&GF passport will help me keep track of each one. The festival merchandise I’ve seen doesn’t really appeal to me, except for a Tervis wine goblet available exclusively to AP holders. So I don't have much shopping planned even though we will visit the Festival Center today.
After the tier one choice is made, I kind of stare at the screen, thinking most of the tier two selections don’t really require a FP+. We did consider two though that can have longer queues at times throughout the day. Our second FP+ will be for Spaceship Earth at 11:05. Anyone know if the cameras are working on SE again? The loss of these makes the ride a bit bland at the end. Our third FP+ will be for Character Spot. We do like a little character time, but don’t really go for the character meals anymore. So this guarantees we get some time with Mickey and Goofy, two of our favorites. But if we’d rather start grazing through the food booths, we might just skip this one.
At this point we’ll definitely move into World Showcase for lunch and strolling the pavilions for topiaries and gardens. By the way, we do know we’ve planned to be at Epcot on a Saturday during a festival, but it’s what worked in our plans and is when the Festival Center is open. Hopefully, it won’t be too obnoxiously crowded. We don’t have dinner plans for this park other than the festival food booths. So, if it gets crazy, we can easily evacuate to another park, the resort, or Disney Springs. If we opt to stay, we’ll finish the evening with Illuminations. Unbelievably, I have not seen Illuminations since October 2015. That simply makes me sad as this is my favorite nighttime show. But Luke’s health made nighttime events last May difficult and then a whole family meet at DS and Hurricane Matthew nixed seeing it in October. Or we could come back to Epcot after a break elsewhere. But I am determined that I am seeing it this trip. I’ve just got to see it this trip.
Of course, at some time we’ll head back to resort and bed. By the way, every day I plan time on the balcony for animal watching and photographing animals on the savanna both morning and evening.
Plans look good for your first day at the F&G Festival! I too can't stand the tiered FP+ sytem in Epcot! Glad you'll be returning to Illuminations as it's my favorite nighttime show as well!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Great Epcot plans! I too hate the FP+ tiers there, and will also be rushing to Test Track as soon as we enter the park, before our Soarin' FP. Soarin' is my absolute favorite ride, and I can't wait to see the updates!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Plans look good for your first day at the F&G Festival! I too can't stand the tiered FP+ sytem in Epcot! Glad you'll be returning to Illuminations as it's my favorite nighttime show as well!
Thanks! I can't believe how long it has been since I've seen Illuminations. I once said I couldn't got to WDW without seeing. I've survived, but I'm not going to miss it another trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great Epcot plans! I too hate the FP+ tiers there, and will also be rushing to Test Track as soon as we enter the park, before our Soarin' FP. Soarin' is my absolute favorite ride, and I can't wait to see the updates!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I was very impressed with the new movie and the refurb to the theater we were in. We were in one of the original, but it was still awesome.
Your MK and Epcot plans sound great! We missed Illuminations this past trip but we did see some of the fireworks from the bridge near the Swan and Dolphin resorts which were beautiful. We will for sure see them at our dinner together in May! We did find the lines long for even the second tier rides this past week but hopefully that will be different come the late Spring.
Your MK and Epcot plans sound great! We missed Illuminations this past trip but we did see some of the fireworks from the bridge near the Swan and Dolphin resorts which were beautiful. We will for sure see them at our dinner together in May! We did find the lines long for even the second tier rides this past week but hopefully that will be different come the late Spring.
Luke keeps reminding me that we'll get to see Illuminations for sure at our dinner. I'm being a bit selfish as I really want to see it two times to make up for missing it.
Yes, the cameras are working again at Spaceship Earth - well, they were last week. I am so with you that, outside the tier 1 attractions, I struggle to use my Fastpasses, but last week, there was a 35 minute wait for Spaceship Earth at around midday and a 50 minute wait for the character spot - I've seen it longer on the app as well, so those sound like good choices to me.
Spaceship Earth and Character Spot are usually my tier two choices as well. The problem comes when making Epcot FP selections for our second Epcot day as we don't really need to do SE or CS a second time.
About This Page: 
I always wonder about posting plans since we almost always end up altering them to some degree once we are there. But we like having at least a bit of plan before we head out. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Big Thunder Mountain was really rough too, so I learned my lesson back on our first trip. LOL
Parlor Panther in 'stalking mode'
Glad you'll be returning to Illuminations as it's my favorite nighttime show as well! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
