PTR: Thingamabobs, Zebras, & Giraffes, Oh My! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
I left off with the who, when, where, etc. So Now I will get a bit more detailed......or try to anyway!
But first, can I just say - I ANNOYED with the Disney site right now I have been trying all day to get Fastpass+ for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ~ and I keep getting booted off.......I get so close, and then BAM - kicked out!!! Oy vie, Guess I will be staying up late tonight and try to get on while the rest of the world is sleeping!
Anyway - on with our plans..............
I had mentioned our resorts ~ last summer we had done a split stay with one week being at AKL Jambo House with a studio savannah view, and the second week was a 1 bedroom at BLT. We ABSOLUTELY fell in LOVE with AKL!!! And hind sight being 20/20 - we wish that we had done AKL the second half of the trip - as we relaxed so much sitting on the balcony watching our animal friends every day - even in the rain - it was great! Who knew that red river hogs could be so entertaining!!! . And BLT ~ well, we really liked the space we had in the villa, and we really appreciated the close walk to Magic Kingdom - the resort itself just didn't really do it for us (well Scott liked it okay - Em & I not so much) - and I really missed that "Welcome Home" hospitality you get at other DVC resorts, there was minimal staff at the front desk area of BLT and they never really seemed to pay much attention to you when you walked in.
We started planning for this trip early last fall and knew that we wanted a 1 bedroom for the stay. We find that as Emily is getting older, it just is really nice for her and Dad to each have more privacy - not to mention how nice it is to have the washer/dryer right in the villa and bring home mostly clean clothes and not have 2 weeks worth of laundry when you return home. Well, points were an issue - as we had used ALL of our points last year and had even borrowed a few. Scott called our very dear friend, Joie (who was the culprit who introduced us to DVC/Disney in the first place 10 years ago) to inquire if she was interested in selling us some of her points for this use year (she is now a single mom and is unable to visit as much as she used to) and of course she was more than happy to help us out! We just needed to figure out exactly where we were staying and how many points we needed from her. So back to the calendar to figure out dates (we knew we wanted to go over the 4th of July) and the DVC website to see what was available - it was looking crazy already and we weren't even near the 7 month window yet
Flash forward to that 7 month window (I believe it was December 2nd) - and we found that really our only options for a 1 bedroom without having to move half way were SSR, OKW, or AKL (both Jambo & Kidani were available). Now of course, to get a 1 bedroom savannah view for that length of stay was ALOT of points , so I suggested a compromise......................as MUCH as I DESPISE split stays, I knew that Emily really, really wanted to stay in a Little Mermaid room at AoA (I had tried to get a room there last August for her last minute Birthday trip and of course that was impossible!). So I got on the phone with Guest Services and found that indeed a room was available for the first couple nights of our trip - and the rate was reasonable (and besides I already knew that I had enough points on my capital one visa to cover one night ) - so I booked it! I have to say, I did a little bit of that "sneaking" in some extra Disney time here.........Originally this trip was suppose to start on July 1, but when I booked the room, I checked to see if June 30th was available also (my thought was we would take a later flight out and arrive in the evening, and wake up in Disney). Of course, when Scott saw the confirmation he caught on quick! But he was okay with it - and we agreed that a later flight (to avoid an extra vacation day for me............more on this later!) would work!
So with that booked, Scott got on the phone again with Joie - told her how many points we needed ~ and she called DVC, got that all squared away - Scott got back on and got us booked in a 1 bedroom savannah view villa at Kidani! We figured we enjoyed Jambo so much - why not try Kidani (my Disney bucket list includes staying at every Disney resort!). And the idea of having that second full bathroom was quite appealing.........especially with a teen!!!
Well - now we had a trip booked for June 30 - July 12, but not checking into AKL until July 3, but we didn't want to tell Emily that we were staying at AoA - we wanted to surprise her, so we had a "Disney Family Meeting" to discuss our trip and we decided to tell a little fib......and we told her that in order to have enough points to stay in a 1 bedroom savannah view the entire trip that we had to book a couple nights at a value resort and that we had chose POP. She was bummed, but was fine with it when she realized that it still allowed us almost 2 weeks! And of course, the first question out of her mouth is - well, can we stay in a Little Mermaid Room at AoA instead??? I immediately straight faced said - nope - already tried - they are full already! She bought it - hook, line, and sinker!!!
Fast forward to I believe February () - and I just couldn't hold it in anymore..........and I was afraid the surprise would be spoiled by her going on MDE or me slipping up here (as she sometimes lurks around here ), so Scott & I called another "Disney Family Meeting" - complete with Disney Jelly Beans and all! I had the reservation booklet that they mail to you (we actually had 2 due to the 2 resorts), along with all my spread sheets - and handed one booklet to her (the AoA one ), one booklet to Scott and told them that they needed to look over it and make sure that the room types and dates were all good ~ she opened hers and said yep, "looks good"...........................me: KID - DID YOU EVEN LOOK AT IT???? HELLO????? MCFLY?????.................Em: yeah, yeah.............OH, wait a Minute!!!! (insert BIG SMILE )........we are staying at AoA, in a Little Mermaid room , and leaving a day early??? man, o man............to be an oblivious teenager again!!!
But needless to say - she was VERY excited to be staying at AoA, in her Little Mermaid room, and being able to swim in the Big Blue pool - AND have a 1 bedroom savannah view at AKL with her own bathroom!!! Can you say spoiled???
So - once again - we get to try 2 NEW TO US RESORTS!!!
Up Next: Dining plans and some extra guests!
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
About This Page: 
I have been trying all day to get Fastpass+ for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ~ and I keep getting booted off.......I get so close, and then BAM - kicked out!!! 
Oy vie, Guess I will be staying up late tonight and try to get on while the rest of the world is sleeping!
with AKL!!! And hind sight being 20/20 - we wish that we had done AKL the second half of the trip - as we relaxed so much sitting on the balcony watching our animal friends every day - even in the rain - it was great! Who knew that red river hogs could be so entertaining!!! 
. And BLT ~ well, we really liked the space we had in the villa, and we really appreciated the close walk to Magic Kingdom - the resort itself just didn't really do it for us (well Scott liked it okay - Em & I not so much) - and I really missed that "Welcome Home" hospitality you get at other DVC resorts, there was minimal staff at the front desk area of BLT and they never really seemed to pay much attention to you when you walked in. 
to inquire if she was interested in selling us some of her points for this use year (she is now a single mom and is unable to visit as much as she used to) and of course she was more than happy to help us out! We just needed to figure out exactly where we were staying and how many points we needed from her. So back to the calendar to figure out dates (we knew we wanted to go over the 4th of July) and the DVC website to see what was available 
- it was looking crazy already and we weren't even near the 7 month window yet 
, so I suggested a compromise......................as MUCH as I DESPISE split stays, I knew that Emily really, really wanted to stay in a Little Mermaid room at AoA (I had tried to get a room there last August for her last minute Birthday trip and of course that was impossible!). So I got on the phone 
But he was okay with it - and we agreed that a later flight (to avoid an extra vacation day for me............more on this later!) would work! 
I immediately straight faced said - nope - already tried - they are full already! She bought it - hook, line, and sinker!!! 
) - and I just couldn't hold it in anymore..........and I was afraid the surprise would be spoiled by her going on MDE or me slipping up here (as she sometimes lurks around here 
), one booklet to Scott and told them that they needed to look over it and make sure that the room types and dates were all good ~ she opened hers and said yep, "looks good"............
)........we are staying at AoA, in a Little Mermaid room 
man, o man............to be an oblivious teenager again!!! 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Threaded Mode
