The Trip Full of Thanksgiving and Christmas 11/19-11/28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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We soon got I the Fastpass line for Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Now keep in mind, I do not like roller coasters. At all. But because it was smooth and short I was able to tolerate it. And go ahead and laugh at my face. It is exactly how I was feeling.
After we got off, I spotted my friend coming out of Seven Dwarves Mine Train! I chatted with her and her daughters while Tim hit it off with her husband very well. But I forgot to get a picture! We both were having magical trips. We had a lot in common and a good friendship had been formed. We will see each other again I am sure.
The boys then had a Fastpass for Splash Mountain. Meanwhile, I went to visit Ariel. I hadn't seen her before, so this was fun. We talked about the fact that it was Thanksgiving but I promised her I would not eat any fish today.
I then walked over to the Splash Mountain gift shop and talked to one of the Cadt members while waiting for the boys. She told me that they did offer a 99 cent Thanksgiving dinner in the cafeteria today. I made sure to thank as many cast members as possible for working on this day, as many of them would much rather be with their family I am sure.
The family behind mine cracked me up in this picture.
From there we took the train to the Fantasyland Station.
It was pretty crowded so we couldn't sit together. I sat with Oreston and Tim sat with Caden.
At this point we were thirsty and Preston was warm. He wanted a frozen lemonade. We stopped in Tomorrowland and took care of that, then got on the Peoplemover for a break.
The crowds were starting to pick up now.
When we got off of that we headed to our Fastpass spot for the Festival of Fantasy parade. It was funny because my son was wearing a shirt for Olivet Nazarene University, which is where we went to school and it is a school nearby. As we were walking a lady pointed at him asking if he went there, and he said no, but his parents did and we live near it. It turns out she lived in a neighboring town. It really is a small world!
It was kind of nice to be somewhat in the shade.
We have not been able to see this parade yet, so I was really looking forward to it. I love these decorations.
A Cast Member came over and Tim was chatting with him. Before I knew it, they were singing Laughing Place together. It was cute.
Soon the parade began.
My favorite!
I do love Peter Pan and Hook!
Smee came over and high fived us! He seemed really happy that we knew who he was.
Tick Tock Croc
Then my favorite part of the parade.
That was amazing!
The Seven Dwarves came by, and while this is not the best picture, Bashful and I had a good interaction. I told him that I was Bashful too, so I loved him. He really liked that.
Can you guess who came to visit us next? Not a good picture, but Tim got a video of it. I told Alice my favorite tea was Insanity. She liked that!
Caden got waved at by Pluto.
Soon Mickey and Minnie came, and the coolest thing happened. Mickey pointed clearly at Preston's shirt, signaled that it was his shirt he was paying attention to, and made a heart with his hands. Clearly Mickey's "friend" is an Olivet person. That was awesome! Who knew a small town University could get so much love today of all days. I blew Minnie a kiss and she caught it and blew one back. I loved it!!! We loved that parade! I am not a parade person, but I am so glad we saw this. It is worth a Fastpass for sure!
Afterward we noticed the wait time for Tinkerbell was 15 minutes so we went right in there. It was probably closer to 25 but that was okay. I had mentioned to Tim that I had really been wanting to meet her, so I was really excited. As you will see in a moment, it really brought out my inner child.
As we went up to her, I told her I had found a couple of her lost boys, and they insisted on growing up. She told them that growing up was highly over rated.
We then had a discussion of Wendy and she talked about how jealous she was of her.
It was my job to keep her away from Peter.
But this is the photo that captures it all.
We all had a great time in there.
After that we stopped at Main Street Confectionary and cashed in all of our snack credits, as we had a ton. We then headed back to the resort for a break.
Meanwhile we began to look at the repacking situation and realized we were in trouble. We were going to need another suitcase. Uh oh.
Also I was working out another meet with a Disney friend that was alone on Thanksgiving and looking for some quick service places that served Thanksgiving dinner. Funny thing, our resort was! So we worked out a time for that.
Meanwhile we rested for a bit before continuing our Thanksgiving day.
Next update: It is a Ghost town!
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Last edited by dutchdisneyfamily; 12-27-2015 at 07:04 PM..
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