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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 would have had a great time together at Mickey and Minnie's houses. I always think how fun it would have been to have these in my backyard when I was a kid.
The other princess we met at the castle, was princess aurora. I wish I could remember what color dress she was wearing. We lost most of our pictures but I will get into more of that later on.
I forgot to mention something very, very important that happened on day 2. When we had our ‘emergency’ we went back to our room, (details in prior post), and there was a voicemail from the front desk stating that we had a package. A package? I certainly was not expecting anything so my curiosity was peaked. I went to the front desk and brought it back to our room. It was a box sent to us from my best friend and the children’s God Mother. In the box was a greeting card, Disney $50 gift cards for everyone, and snacks. It was a wonderful surprise. My kids were so excited to have their own spending money and it meant so much to me that she understood how important this trip was for me.
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I can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip went, as well as how your plans are coming for this years trip!! My son and I will be arriving same day as you!
I know I took a very long break but I am determined to finish this TR.
On to Epcot.
We woke up around eight and could not wait to get back in the sunshine and experience our second Disney park ever! I got dressed. While my girls got ready I decided to go to the food court to fill our mugs with cold drinks. As soon as I walked out I decided to go with Coffee for me and Hot Cocoa for the girls. There was no sunshine. Just clouds. It was still warm but not as warm as the two days prior. When I got back I used my electric tea kettle to make oatmeal and my oldest used it to make chicken noodle soup. Yes, for some reason she likes soup for breakfast. Weirdo. lol. After breakfast, off we went.
When we got there we were amazed by the "Giant Golf Ball" and we were amazed by it. We were a bit saddened that we were unable to go in since it was closed for remodeling. I guess we will have to sacrifice and come back another year. . We go to innoventions west and were thoroughly unimpressed. It was early so it was extremely quiet. They had many displays but no one explained anything to us. We decided not to bother with innoventions east after that.
We turned a corner and saw a few "Janitors" Jamming with trash cans. After they handed out stickers we loved that! Then we noticed a building with a whole bunch of characters with a very long line. So worth it.
We waited and got signatures from several characters but our favorite that day by far was Goofy. My daughter handed him the autograph book first. Then she handed him the pen. Instead of using his other hand he let go of the autograph book to grab the pen. He did this quite a few times and it was incredibly funny. Finally he holds the book with one hand and the pen with the other and everyone in the room started clapping and cheering. This ofcourse led Goofy to let go of both items to also clap. It was a special moment for us and we loved it. Although I am not sure the people on line directly behind me felt that way.
We went on to my favorite ride which was Soarin but we waited online forever. So long that my distraction tactics of trivia and madlibs did not work. This ofcourse was a fairly new ride at Disney. We also waited online forever at the seas with nemo and friends.
It was dinner time and we ate at Teppanyaki (which was renamed Tepen Edo, which I believed got renamed yet again) We all loved it even though we had to wait quite a bit of time. (Yes, we did have reservations)
I had planned on watching the candlelight Processional but it was packed by the time we were out of dinner and I missed it. I was very upset about this.
I'm not sure if it was the park itself, the distance between attractions, our moods, or the fact that it rained on and off and became a bit chilly but although we liked many of the attractions at Epcot we felt that the feeling of "Magic" was not there.
But wait - Illuminations began................ Amazing! Epcot was redeemed.
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