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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We got a front row seat and we waited for the show to start. Patty and Lisa texted us and said they just passed Rick Springfield as they were heading to the boat launch…but didn’t even realize it till after he had passed and some other ladies mentioned that he was walking by. Ugh!!! I want to see him!!! LOL.
This is a show I have never seen and I was really impressed. I had debated coming to see it with the girls or heading off to see what the wait for Kong was…I am so glad I came. It was pretty funny and a lot of fun.
Brook and I then went to see what the wait was for ET, but even with Express Pass I think it would be a good 15 – 20 minutes in total before we would be done and we needed to really be back for our event before that, so we decided to skip it and head that way.
I believe they called this Central Park, though I had never heard this area called that before.
We had to show our credentials to get in and then we walked a little ways to where they had standing tables set up. We all wished they had some chair too.
They had tables set up with food and one for drinks. This was supposed to be supper and we were kind of disappointed. It had some sandwiches on one table, and then another had veggies and dip I believe and then one had some Cajun foods, like jambalaya and some sausage things. I am not a big fan of Cajun food….and even the sandwiches seemed to have a Cajun flavor…..but I thought the sausage things were tasty and the jambalaya was good. Not the best I had, but decent. I can eat that, but I really couldn’t make a meal of anything as it was all more appetizers. Many people did not like Cajun food at all and some went out and got some snacks and brought them back.
After a bit we were told we could go off again on our own and to meet back here at a certain time. Had I known we were going to have more free time, I would have left and found some more food.
A bunch of use decided to go on the Simpsons….which is one of my all-time favorite rides. Lisa is nervous about rides and she kept asking us how each one was….and then she would scream the whole time….and we would laugh hysterically at her…and usually she said she liked them when she was done.
I think Lenora and Brook went on ET while we were on the Simpsons.
After that many of us headed over to Men in Black and rode that….I had the high score! Yay!!!!
It was then time to meet back up to get ready for the parade. I thought they had us meeting fairly early, but I had no clue what we would have to do to get ready.
Where we waited for what seemed like forever. We had been divided into groups, I believe according the lanyard we were wearing. My company was wearing the Simpsons themed lanyards and they had all sorts of different ones for each company.
We chatted and waited and chatted and waited……
My friend who had said he would be in the park today messaged me and said he was across from the new Jimmy Fallon ride so I told him I would look for him.
Finally something started to happened and we got announcements and told how to throw the beads…Frisbee style or underhand…never overhand….though it was easy to forget and sometimes I accidently did so. But throwing overhand you can really beam people. Heck even the other 2 ways we were pegging people on accident.
We had to wear costumes, which just slipped right over our clothes….super easy…and they had different sizes. He went over the rules again and when we saw our float……so many people wanted to take a picture, but of course he had to keep reminding us we couldn’t. There were all the people back there ready to go and I recognized them all from the other night when I watched.
Chris told us that a song we would hear a LOT would be Feet Don’t Fail Me Now. He said the best way to time when to throw the beads was to sing in your head…..Feet don’t fail me now, Feet don’t fail me now….throw…..and repeat. He said that way you should have enough beads to last the whole parade route. We had boxes of beads but once they were out, then they were out. We would have a hook in front of each of us with beads hanging and he would be on the float coming around to refill as needed.
Oh Boy!!!! This is going to be fun!
We then boarded our float…which is just basically wood on our side…not pretty at all. And Brook and I headed up top and Lenora was behind me and she was up top on the end….just a little ways from me. We had a lower level of people below us, so we had to be sure to throw over them too. We filled both sides of the float and soon we were singing….Feet don’t fail me now, feet don’t fail me now!
We just kept laughing as we would throw the beads. We honestly were trying to be gentle but we had to get them to the sidewalk too and every so often we would totally blast someone who wasn’t paying attention. Note to self…if watching a parade where they are throwing beads…..you may get hit!
I threw one out and totally caught the guy by surprise and he caught it just in time…and then I realized it was my friend and I yelled his name! He was with his mom, who I had also met before, so they both waved back!
As we got to the end we were running lower on beads but there were a couple of spots that people weren’t standing at the whole time and they still had beads on the hook, so we grabbed those and we had enough to last us to the end.
And I just have to say this was soooooo much fun. I would love to do it again. If you are ever there during Mardi Gras you might just get a call in your room asking if you would like to be in the parade…..DO IT!!!!!!! Now you will lose some evening time in the park, but if you are there a few days this will totally be worth it and such a fun memory. This was seriously one of our favorite things from this whole event….and we did some pretty cool things.
We rolled backstage again and took off our costumes and put them in a laundry bag….again no pictures. We were more towards the front of the parade, so when we headed out the parade was till going on. We once again were to meet back at our Central Park location for a dessert party.
Unfortunately dessert wasn’t much better than dinner. They had some bread pudding and I think the other was King bread …or something like that…both being Mardi Gras themed. The bread pudding was ok…not great but ok and the sauce was good on it. The bread was like a really really really dry cinnamon roll. I put the bread pudding sauce on that as well and that made it better…but all in all it was not that great and I really wanted something chocolatey.
We decided to meet up at the patio bar. I went to the room for a bit and I think I called home…etc. I then headed down the patio and just hung out with the girls for a bit. It was nice to just relax and talk and catch up a bit and unwind from the day. All too soon I was just too tired to go on and headed back to the room to go to bed. Lenora had gone back earlier I believe and she was going through her pictures on her phone and making cute collages. She always makes the cutest ones.
We had a busy day tomorrow with classes and tours so we decided it was time to get some sleep.
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