From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 34 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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That's like classical vs. rock n roll. Comparing apples to oranges!
True!
Quote:
They're both very well done, but not to everybody's taste. It is very cool that you could get so many photos without people in them though! Portofino is done with great detail indeed, wow! I can't imagine anyone not enjoying their time spent there.
Nor me. And you are so right, both of them will appeal to different people. If we all liked the same thing, then life would be very dull...
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Nice tour of Portofino resort as the theming looks amazing! Even better as it was so quit there which helps with better photos without people in the photos and focuses just on the resort.
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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!
Tuesday 28 February – part one: a very important mission!
I was amazed when Mark told me it was 6:45am. We really had had a lot of sleep, considering we were in bed at around 9:30pm last night. I guess we needed it…
Disappointingly, when we looked outside, it was very misty, but I was hoping it would burn off for our first visit to LEGOLAND Florida, as we had lots of photos I needed to get there.
Before we headed out though, I had a very important mission… I got an email from Disney asking me to complete an online survey about our dining experience the day before in Animal Kingdom, and apparently it would only be available for 24 hours. Oh well, better get it done now. I tell you, if I wasn’t a Disney fan and interested in what they were asking, I’d have given up with it way before the end. It just went on and on and on… good grief, they wanted to know so much! There were questions about the time of day you dined, what you thought of the menu, was there something to your taste, was the restaurant clean etc. I got the feeling they were potentially asking about further restaurants in Animal Kingdom, as they did ask whether you felt you could get a good range of dining options there, which was interesting.
We headed out just after 8:30am, seeing some of the work that is non-stop on Disney property…
Soon we were on the I-4, and very glad we weren’t going the other way, as there had been a three car shunt.
We headed off to take photos of a hotel, and saw some of what I’d call the “real Florida” on the way, including orange trees…
… and small properties, not in gated communities as you’d see in Orlando…
We also came across this fertiliser distribution place – not what you expect to come across.
Later on we found a power station….
… although as we entered Winter Haven, I was more taken with this.
As we headed towards LEGOLAND Florida, we came across another lake – we’d seen quite a few already around here.
We literally arrived a few minutes after 10:00am, when the park opened, and paid for preferred parking, which was $22, compared to $17 for ordinary parking. It’s not much more, and it’s way closer, considering they don’t have trams running in the parking lots, and the added bonus is you can park under the shade of these solar panels. Very neat.
We made our way into the park…
I thought this was a great idea, and something I’d like to see Disney doing. However, as we were later to find out, most of these didn’t actually open until 11:30am, meaning the first hour and a half the park is open is pretty much a washout when it comes to dining…
We made our way through the park…
… and stopped here, as I wanted to ride it, and get a view of the park from above….
Wow! Orange groves! Reminds me if when I was a kid. My grandparents went to Florida for a month or two every year, and always brought us a big bag of oranges and grapefruit when they returned.
A variety of scenery! We made the drive to WDW from Ft Lauderdale and passed loads of orange groves. Very neat to see!
Only $5 more for preferred parking? Deal. Especially with the shade provided! Yes that food map is great. Then you don't have to keep pulling out a paper map and looking at the numbers to which restaurant is which!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Wow! Orange groves! Reminds me if when I was a kid. My grandparents went to Florida for a month or two every year, and always brought us a big bag of oranges and grapefruit when they returned.
The first time we went to Orlando was January 1981 and we toured all the way down to Key West. On the way, one night we stopped for dinner and met a truck driver. He was driving a truck filled with oranges. Basically, they'd had a frost and that was absolutely unheard of back then, even in the dead of winter. He gave us as many oranges as we wanted, as all of them would perish by the morning because of the frost and he wasn't sure he'd make it to his destination by then.
Nowadays, you see so few orange groves, certainly in the parts of Florida we visit.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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Even better as it was so quit there which helps with better photos without people in the photos and focuses just on the resort. 
There were questions about the time of day you dined, what you thought of the menu, was there something to your taste, was the restaurant clean etc. I got the feeling they were potentially asking about further restaurants in Animal Kingdom, as they did ask whether you felt you could get a good range of dining options there, which was interesting. 
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