Double the fun : East & West coast Disney & Universal parks - UPDATED 1/14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I got up at 11.20am, eager to start the day . I was particularly excited about today, as my first full pay in three fortnights would be in my savings account , and I was eager to get my internet banking sorted (ie. bills payed), so I could stop thinking about that unfortunate bit of reality for the rest of the holiday. (For a portion of our trip, I had to take leave without pay as I didn't have enough recreation leave accrued, which in turn, affected my income )
Before Nest re-injured his back last night, the plan for today was to go to Downtown Disney and catch a movie after Keith had warned us the night before about the expected Thanksgiving Day crowds . While waiting for Nest to wake up and see what he felt he was physically capable of doing for the day, I made alternative plans to do my internet banking at the Contemporary's business centre, before moving onto Epcot and tackling it in a more positive frame of mind with no unrealistic goals while there, to prevent myself from getting flustered, disappointed and irritable, in case Nest said he was bedridden.
Nest got up at 1pm, much to my relief, as it felt as if my stomach was beginning to eat itself, I was that hungry! With Nest's approval, I walked over to Everything Pop and got us both the Thanksgiving special the food court was putting on from 12 noon till 10pm. Our meals consisted of carved roast turkey with gravy, corn bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, sautéed green beans, a dinner roll, and a little container of cranberry sauce on the side. For dessert, Nest had apple pie, and I had pumpkin pie with cream (which Nest jokingly nicked a spoonful of.) I bought bottles of water to go with it, as nothing else seemed quite right. It was such a delicious meal, which we ate while watching courtroom reality TV.
I was thrilled to hear that Nest felt mobile enough to accompany me to Downtown Disney after lunch! I consulted my diary for the due dates of my bills, and found I could postpone my planned stop at the Contemporary's business centre, and head straight for Downtown instead - woo hoo! Not knowing the screening times of the movies, we set off at 3.15pm once both of us had gotten ready, hoping that we'd be in time for a screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
The bus to Downtown Disney wasn't crowded. In my excitement at finally being out and about, I accidently had us get off at the first Downtown Disney bus stop instead of the second one , so we had a bit of a walk to get to the cinema. This was the first time Nest and I had been to a cinema in America, and were impressed that it had 24 screens, six of which were showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in close succession!! What luck! Our screening of the 4.30pm session was shown in a big cinema, which was very similar to the preferential cinemas in the theatre back at home. We found the tickets to be cheap, which was exciting in itself. We paid just $10.50 each to get in, where-as back home, a ticket costs $17.50 each We probably spent the "savings" on snacks though, with Nest getting a strawberry ice block, a packet of Skittles, and a large Diet Coke, while I got a Haagen Daas ice cream bar (vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate with almonds through it), a small bag of popcorn, and a large Coke.
We sat in the very back row (how cool is that?! ), and settled back to be entertained in an uncrowded environment. The ads preceding the movie weren't annoying as the ones back home. There was a don't add your own soundtrack, which featured mobile phones and a crying baby. I only say that, as when the baby started crying, I thought someone had actually brought one into the cinema itself, which would've wrecked everything, and began complaining to Nest about it ... before realising I had been tricked
I always look forward to the previews of upcoming movies, but none of the ones shown on this occasion, caught my interest ... at the time. I remember the animation, Rio, being one of the previews, as well as Cowboys and Indians starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. (I have since seen Cowboys and Indians, and really enjoyed it! )
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was quite good, but a far cry from the wonderful innocence and magic of the first ever Harry Potter movie. And even though I knew it was a two parter, I wasn't annoyed when it ended where it did. I'm glad it didn't leave me busting with impatience for the second and last installment of the series, as a year is just too long to wait for something you're terribly excited about. Nest wasn't as favourable with his review as I was, as he had read the book before seeing the movie, and found that it differed quite a bit. I heard him quietly disapproving of the dancing scene to himself during the movie, and so badly wanted to laugh out loud as a result Thankfully, other people in the cinema found the scene humourous, allowing me to laugh out loud after all
When the movie ended I and saw what the time was, I let out a disappointed cry - we had totally missed our Thanksgiving dinner reservation at Tony's Town Square Restaurant! (I hope the audience knew this, and didn't think I was overly disappointed in the movie ending where it did ) I hadn't expected the movie to go for as long as it did, and honestly thought we'd have enough time to make our way to the restaurant afterwards, which I had spent so long in choosing from other Magic Kingdom restaurants putting on a Thanksgiving Day menu. Despite having decided earlier that day, to avoid the Magic Kingdom at all costs, we thought it would still be ok to quickly dash in for dinner, seeing as Tony's Town Square Restaurant was just inside the entrance to the park.
Seeing as making our dinner reservation was out of the question, we made the executive decision to go and see another movie And it was no contest what the movie was going to be - how can a person consider going to see any other movie, when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a new action movie out?!! Thank goodness we went straight from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 to buying tickets for The Rock's Faster, as it was showing in a small cinema and the seats filled up so quickly. As Nest and I had had a snack banquet during our first movie, we weren't all that hungry, so just got a packet of M&M's to share this time round in case we got an attack of the munchies, and a bottle of water each.
Faster was an absolutely awesome movie! Other people must've thought so too, as the audience burst into applause at the end, which never happens in Australian cinemas, so surprised Nest and myself. Faster was about The Rock's character going around taking revenge on the people who murdered his brother during a burglary gone wrong. It shot straight to the top of my favourite movies list starring The Rock. While Nest did enjoy this movie, he thought it wasn't as good as The Rock's Welcome to the Jungle.
We caught the bus back to the Pop Century Resort after getting out of the cinema, and went to get a spot of supper from Everything Pop on the way back to our room at 11.22pm (we couldn't believe the time!) Nest got parmigiana chicken with two slices of bread so he could make it into a sandwich, and I got a turkey ciabatta, as well as a cup of worms in dirt for dessert. While waiting to be served at the check-out, I grabbed a packet of cashews from the display nearby, to share. Beverage-wise, we stuck to water.
We watched some great shows while having supper. First up, there was the "fat free" yoghurt episode of Seinfeld, followed by a wonderful and relatable episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, involving not being able to find anything sharp enough to get into those tough plastic packages. The last show we watched before calling it a night, was the bogeyman episode of My Name is Earl. Nest and I appreciated John Carpenter's Halloween theme being played when one of the characters gingerly went to look under a bed.
Before this trip, I never understood how people decided to have park free days. Nest and I are now two of those people! We had thoroughly enjoyed our park free day.
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. I was particularly excited about today, as my first full pay in three fortnights would be in my savings account 
, and I was eager to get my internet banking sorted (ie. bills payed), so I could stop thinking about that unfortunate bit of reality for the rest of the holiday. (For a portion of our trip, I had to take leave without pay as I didn't have enough recreation leave accrued, which in turn, affected my income 
)
. While waiting for Nest to wake up and see what he felt he was physically capable of doing for the day, I made alternative plans to do my internet banking at the Contemporary's business centre, before moving onto Epcot and tackling it in a more positive frame of mind with no unrealistic goals while there, to prevent myself from getting flustered, disappointed and irritable, in case Nest said he was bedridden.
With Nest's approval, I walked over to Everything Pop and got us both the Thanksgiving special the food court was putting on from 12 noon till 10pm. Our meals consisted of carved roast turkey with gravy, corn bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, sautéed green beans, a dinner roll, and a little container of cranberry sauce on the side. For dessert, Nest had apple pie, and I had pumpkin pie with cream (which Nest jokingly nicked a spoonful of.) I bought bottles of water to go with it, as nothing else seemed quite right. It was such a delicious meal, which we ate while watching courtroom reality TV.
, so we had a bit of a walk to get to the cinema. This was the first time Nest and I had been to a cinema in America, and were impressed that it had 24 screens, six of which were showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in close succession!! 
), and settled back to be entertained in an uncrowded environment. The ads preceding the movie weren't annoying as the ones back home. There was a don't add your own soundtrack, which featured mobile phones and a crying baby. I only say that, as when the baby started crying, I thought someone had actually brought one into the cinema itself, which would've wrecked everything, and began complaining to Nest about it ... before realising I had been tricked 
)
And it was no contest what the movie was going to be - how can a person consider going to see any other movie, when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a new action movie out?!! 
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