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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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A bus for DHS arrived and we were on our way. Our first FP+ was for Star Tours. None of us was chosen as the Rebel Spy.
Our next set of fastpasses had us splitting up. AJ, Abniel and I were going to RnRC, while Arben and Adriel, aka "the scaredy cats" were heading to TSMM.
This was to be Abniel's first ride on RnRC as he'd chicked out on our other trips. This time I told him that if he decided to ride he'd have to head out by himself and wait in the gift shop. He decided to suck it up and ride.
Here's our ride photo.
How AJ manages to stay so calm is beyond me.
After our thrilling ride we reunited with "the scaredy cats". We were getting kind of hungry but our adr at Sci-Fi wasn't until 7. We went anyways, just in case we could be seated earlier. I really wanted to eat at a booth, I mean that's the main reason I booked this restaurant. Well, the CM told me he only had room at the picnic tables. I didn't want that so he told me to check back closer to our time.
We walked around and saw that GMR had a short wait. Even though we had a fp+ to ride later, we decided to get in line and ride now. We got the gangster version, once again.
We also made our way to The Magic of Disney Animation. We skipped the movie and went straight to the meet and greet area.
We met these guys.
Arben was whacked in the head by Ralph's enormous hand.
We then headed back to Sci-Fi and sat outside. When it was our adr time, I approached the podium. I again requested the booth and he told me it'd be a longer wait for it but I was ok with that. We waited maybe 15 minutes and then were led to our table.
All of us had burgers. Sorry, forgot to take pictures. They were good! I find the portions here, at least for the burgers & fries, to be on the small side. The good part is I ate my entire meal, which hardly ever happens. Another good thing is it leaves space for dessert. Abniel and Adriel's included dessert, a sundae. AJ got a sundae and Arben & I shared the turtle cheesecake. Yummy, yummy! I really enjoyed Sci-Fi and will be coming back.
We still weren't quite ready to leave so we went on over to Pixar Place to check TSMM. The wait time was 55 minutes and surprisingly I decided to go in. This gave me lots of opportunity to take pictures of the queue, as when you go through the FP line you miss all of it.
When we were approaching the doorway to the loading area, a CM called out for a party of 5. We raised our hands and were escorted through. They loaded us on a car, with Abniel and I getting a handicap car. Well the handicap car worked great for me, as instead of the string it had a button. You can see my score, first time going over 100,000. Oh and if you're wondering, the wait time was exactly 55 minutes.
We took this picture after
We wandered around, landing at Sunset Blvd. I think we went to check the wait times for ToT and RnRC, but they were too long.
By this time the guys were getting tired. We started heading out of the park. But first we entered one of the gift shops, as the boys wanted some candy. I got some pressed pennies for my collection.
Abniel had a change of heart and wanted to watch Fantasmic. None of the others wanted to, so Arben took them back to the resort while I stayed behind with Abniel.
We started heading up with the masses and then they had us wait by the ropes. We waited a good 15-20 minutes there. My back was killing me and I considered bailing out a couple of times. But I knew how much Abniel wanted to watch. Finally we were let in and although our seats weren't that great (I could kinda see part of the backstage) we still enjoyed the show.
After it was over, we waited for a little while and then exited through the side. We got to the bus stop, boarded the bus and headed to Kidani. We were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.