Pre-Trip Report We're Going To Disney - For the FIRST TIME! Feb. 16-Feb. 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Pre-Trip Report We're Going To Disney - For the FIRST TIME! Feb. 16-Feb. 19
Well it's official we have booked our first Walt Disney World Trip!!! We will be staying at Coronado Springs for the first two nights (Feb. 16, and Feb. 17) and then will be staying in Animal Kingdom Lodge (Feb. 18) in a Savannah View Room!!!!!! The cast of characters will include ME (age 13 almost age 14 - I know rather young - I'll be writing the majority of the TR), and my Dad (age 52 - he'll be adding into the TR on occasion!). We are also known as Fozzy (from the muppets) and Baloo (from Jungle Book) respectively!
Here's Me ... (sorry for the hideous picture - haha - it's on our fire escape - this picture was also taken about a year or a little more ago!)
And here's Dad (He's Australian BTW - If there are any Aussies on the board he wanted me to mention that)
We will be flying Southwest (leaving Feb. 16 at 7:20 AM from LaGuardia Airport - NYC and arriving in Orlando at 12:50 p.m) - and on the way back we will also be flying Southwest but opted for the Business Select option since it would allow us to check it when we could and still be assured we got into group a for boarding (leave Feb. 19 at 1:50 from Orlando and arriving in LaGuardia at 6:20 pm).
On our first day in Disney will be going to Magic Kingdom - and just go exploring. Probably will get fast passes at the rides that are super crowded. That night we plan to either chill at the pool (we are major water people as you will see in the next paragraph) or do a little downtown disney exploring!
On our second day we will be going to Blizzard Beach first thing in the morning - and going on all of the hot rides! We opted for the park hopper option so when it starts to get really crowded we plan on heading out, grabbing some lunch and maybe checking out Animal Kingdom (the only park I really requested to see - I REALLy want to try Expedition Everest) or maybe Epcot depending on what mood we are in.
On our third day we will be going to Typhoon Lagoon (told you we were water people ) and have the same plan as day 2 in that we will explore the water parks in the morning into the afternoon and then go back and explore around the other parks! We also are checking out of Coronado Springs that morning and having Disney (thanks Disney) transfer our luggage to AKL.
That night we will be checking into AKL and spending the rest of our time at Disney there. That night we have the only ADR we have made and that's at Boma!
On our fourth and final day we will be spending our time at AKL enjoying the animals, the pools, and the amazing atmosphere. A perfect ending to a hopefully perfect trip!
Anyway - will be adding pictures, more notes, and more as we get closer. Will update as soon as we receive updates and will definitely write throughout our trip!
Baloo will also probably be updating sometime in the near future!!
We can't waaaaiiiittt! Thanks for reading!!! Hope I didn't bore you
We have posted our day by day schedule on page 3 - first post - thats our next "official" post if you want to keep reading!!