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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hello friends, we are back from the world! What a great trip it was! I am going to do my best remembering everything, and I know that Dana will chime in here and there with her own remembrances, and things I forget. So we should be covered from all ends.
I will start with a brief introduction for anyone who hadn't followed the PTR.
WHAT: FINI2, A Disney Princess Getaway
WHEN: November 28, 2012- December 2, 2012
WHERE: POP Century
WHO: Me, Sparky and my bestie Dana, aka DisneyDana
HOW: A trip 2 years in the making! We met through PP and thought what a perfect place for our first meeting, WDW. Both flying, MA for me and SC for Dana.
Day 1: Arrival Day Wed. Nov. 28, 2012
Dana was leaving earlier than me at 5:30am to get to the airport, so we last touched base the previous night to say, "Goodnight! See you tomorrow!"
So when I got up at 5:30 on Wed morning, after only about 3 hours of light sleep, I knew Dana was on her way. After picking up my niece to put my DD on the bus, DH and I were on our way to my airport by 7:30am. It was an uneventful trip, with a quick stop for something to drink and bio break. I said my goodbyes to DH at the drop off zone, and thought, "This is IT!!!"
I checked my bag, got through security and was walking towards my gate when my cell rang. I answered to hear, "hey....what are you wearing?" I started cracking up. It was Dana calling to see if I made it to the airport, and to say that she was in Atlanta waiting on her connecting flight.
Once we hung up, I pulled out my book. Soon I was boarding my flight, and I was hoping for an aisle seat as close to the front as I could get. I was taking SW, and clicked to print my boarding pass exactly at 24 hours, but still ended up with B20. It could have been worse, and I didn't have to sit with anyone so it was all good.
I chose a seat with 2 women in the window and middle seat, so I did score my aisle seat, about 4 rows behind the emergency exit row. I said hello, and once we were in the air I pulled out my WDW music I brought with me. I listened to that 2 times in a row, and then put it away. I started chatting with the women who were traveling for a business trip. One had business, the other was her friend who came with, as they were going to spend vacation too. I told them about my adventure and meeting with Dana. Once we landed, they both said "Good luck! Hope you don't end up meeting a 7 ft tall man!" We laughed and I was on my way.
When I got through security Dana was sitting there waiting...I saw her and waved, she jumped up and we ran to each other and hugged, while saying, "Omg, we're here!!!" The lady sitting next to her said, "Oh good, you did come!" Apparently, bc I stopped for a bio break most of my plane had already been through and Dana was wondering where I was.
Due to be so excited I wasn't thinking clearly and lead us around in circles in the airport, even though I have done it the last 4 years without a problem. We finally made it to baggage claim, and most of the people had already claimed their bags. However, my 2 seatmates were standing there. So I grabbed my bag, and walked over to them and introduced Dana. They thought it was neat to meet her after hearing about our trip, and were also relieved that Dana did exsist.
I had to grab a quick cigarette before boarding the DME so we went outside, and while there I couldn't wait, so I got Dana's Christmas gift out of my carryon bag and gave it to her.
I was so glad that she liked the gift. (Hey Dana, I just wrote "that she licked the gift"! You gift licker!) I had bought us each a Peapod necklace that a woman on Etsy made for me. They are sterling silver wired wrapped, and I got to choose the color peas I wanted. She put hers on, and I had worn mine that morning.
Soon we were on the DME, and we had about 5 resorts it was stopping at, but POP was first! Yay!
We watched the welcome video and Dana commented that never having taken DME she was surprised how long it was to get from the airport. It is too long when you're on your way to WDW!
We pulled up to the POP, grabbed our bags, and headed in for check in. I had requested the 60's buildings and the 3rd or 4th floor. We already had a pool view room so I knew it would be the 60's or 50's buildings. I was happy to find out that we had the 60's buildings, Building 4 Room 4412 on the corner.
While at the front desk, I got my paper ticket added to my KTTWC and Dana got her non expiration added to her ticket. We were now set to have fun!
We brought our stuff to our room, and immediately left for our ADR at Ohana!
If I remember correctly we took the bus to Epcot then got on the monorail, and got off at the T&TC, then walked to the Poly from there. I think, if that makes sense.
We got to the podium, I gave my name, and the CM says...we don't have a reservation for that name. Oh boy. So I give the confirmation #, well it was in someone else's name...was, bc it was cancelled and I don't remember cancelling it. At this point, we were worried that we wouldn't be dining at Ohana that night. After a few minutes, the CM gave us a pager and said to have a seat.
We decided to go over to the bar and take a look at the drink menu. We had been there just a few minutes and our pager went off. We were taken to a table that had a nice view of the castle. We both had decided to order the Lapu Lapu drink, and boy was it yummy! Food was out almost as soon as we sat down. I loved the chicken this go around. Not the wings, but the chicken that comes out on the skewers. It was so tasty, and I was so hungry not having eaten all day. We ate and ate and ate! Till we were laughing that we could just roll out of the restaurant. We toasted to our 2 year in the making trip, finally being there, and being there together.
This meal has gone on my list for next trip. It wasn't before this, though I had been to Ohana last year. This year I just loved the drink and the chicken, it was very good.
We left and perused a couple gift shops. I just love the art shop in the Poly! Coolest paintings! Once we finished we decided to catch the monorail to MK, to bus to POP.
On the way, we decided to stop off at GF to check out the Gingerbread house. SO COOL! I couldn't believe there was a CM IN the house selling gingerbread. It was nice to just see the GF, as it's one of my favorite resorts...that I'll never be able to stay in.
We also took a stroll around Basin. I had never been in there before, but heard a lot about it. It was pretty neat. I would never spend the money they want for things in there though, I am not much of a bath person. I of course went around smelling all the powders and salts. At some point Dana came over and was laughing bc I had powder on my nose. Let's just say, it didn't look to good. We finished up at Basin and GF with a sugar scrub for our hands. Really neat!
We boarded the monorail heading for MK, and if we only knew what we were in for. It was closing time for MK, and we hadn't even thought about it. When we arrived, there were people in line snaking the entire POP line and out the back. We got in line while talking about how we should have taken a cab, and now we were stuck in line. Lucky for us, there was a super annoying family, with a particularly annoying tween behind us. Good lord, was I glad to get on a bus about 45 minutes later to get away from them.
On the way through the POP I grabbed my mug, and got a drink. Once back at the room, I took a shower and Dana put red tinsel in my hair. SO COOL!
Finally, we laid down and stopped talking. We had an early morning ADR at Tusker House, had to be at the bus stop at 7:00am. My brain wasn't hearing that though, and it was a long night for me.
Next up: Y&Y and Le Cellier burger challenge. Did I like the Yak Attack?
About This Page: 
Fun with FINI2! Nov 28-Dec 2, 2012
We finally made it to baggage claim, and most of the people had already claimed their bags. However, my 2 seatmates were standing there. So I grabbed my bag, and walked over to them and introduced Dana. They thought it was neat to meet her after hearing about our trip, and were also relieved that Dana did exsist.
You gift licker!) I had bought us each a Peapod necklace that a woman on Etsy made for me. They are sterling silver wired wrapped, and I got to choose the color peas I wanted. She put hers on, and I had worn mine that morning.
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
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