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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Glad the dinner at Cali Grill did not disappoint! All your food looks delicious,. This is one restaurant still on mine and Luke's to do list. Sorry about the meanie photographer at CRT, but glad you got a redo. Breakfast choices do look better there.
Great photos with the Princesses in the restaurant. I hear you about some of the photographers, and I remember thinking the lighting set up wasn't good for the Cinderella photo. Strange, since they take zillions of photos there every day.
Glad you had a great time at CRT despite the grumpy photographer!
It was lovely, just something about eating in THE castle!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a shame about the miserable Photopass photographer - I can't believe she had the nerve to make comments about you when you came down to retake the shot.
Yeah it was a little insane, but we just didn't let it bother us, the other one was MUCH friendlier. You can tell they were both a little rushed this morning (and people were probably commenting on why THOSE PEOPLE got to go in front of the line )
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a shame about the bad-tempered photographer. I'm in agreement with you about the lighting at the character photo spots. Such a strange failure on their part-- very easy fix in most cases.
Whew, glad it wasn't just us feeling this way. My mom is a photographer so she can be a bit extra picky about it at times. Just seems silly to us, to have the nice set up and then tank the lights!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Boo to the grumpy photographer
I have also noticed some of the photo pass photographers are not so "talented"
Although the food and menu did look quite good.....might have to consider that again
It was quite delicious, and there are several other things I wanted to try! That late in the trip I just couldn't do a big heavy breakfast! As I continue going through my Photopass pics it's amazing how some are so great and some are just bad.
What is up with these rude and grumpy CMs?
Glad you enjoyed your time at CRT! And also that you were able to retake the picture.
It's a stressful time to be working at WDW to say the least, lots of overtime and very early/late hours. So I get it, but no need to take it out on the guests!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Great photos with the Princesses in the restaurant. I hear you about some of the photographers, and I remember thinking the lighting set up wasn't good for the Cinderella photo. Strange, since they take zillions of photos there every day.
I wonder how many complaints they get about it, or if people just accept it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Glad the dinner at Cali Grill did not disappoint! All your food looks delicious,. This is one restaurant still on mine and Luke's to do list. Sorry about the meanie photographer at CRT, but glad you got a redo. Breakfast choices do look better there.
You have to get up there sometime, it's such a great experience!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
What was up with that grumpy photographer??? I'm glad they were able to make the bad pic right for you!
Me too! Still not the most amazing pic ever, but the photos on the way to the castle make up for it
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January 5, 2014: Day 8, Part 2 - Cute food and surprise meets!
So we headed out of the Castle and towards Fantasyland with some time to kill, we had FP+ for Space Mountain, Meet Rapunzel and Peter Pan but they didn’t start until about 11am. I think at this point we potentially moved our Peter Pan FP+ up before the other two, as we didn’t see ourselves staying late enough to use it. We also potentially just got in the standby line. Around this time we also went on Pooh followed by Small World! I love this ride because I see something new every time
Hunnypot selfies
Apparently I also take a ton of pics on this one. At this point we had time to kill so we figured we’d go investigate meeting Merida. We found her little spot and were told by the CM to go ahead and get in line, she’ll be back out in 10 minutes and it will be the shortest wait all day. Well 15 minutes later still no sign of Merida or them letting us in and finally another CM that Merida would come out in 15 minutes and it’s about a 20 minute wait at this point. Well we still have no where else to be and had never met Merida, but just another case of not meeting expectations so blah. It was also getting HOT at this point and most of her line is in the sun. Eventually I went on search of water, and who did I find while I was looking?
The White Rabbit!
He had no line and no Photopass, but by the time my mom wandered over, there was quite a line! Anyway back into line with a nice refreshing water and the wait is much better. Finally we are let into her area and my gosh I just thought she was the perfect Merida (I was feeling like we were getting the B-Team at points of breakfast...) plus it was super cute watching little kids with their archery! We then headed off to Space Mountain I believe. No photo evidence because man those ride pics are always just awful!
We then went and explored Storybook Circus, which we had done in 2012 but hadn’t seen since they completely opened it. Well once again, there was no line for some character fun so in we went!
I always send a pic of Dumbo of some sort to my CP friend in the Netherlands, his favorite!
I love the new set up they have in here. The characters are so cute in their Circus world! We browsed through the shop a little, debated getting a treat, but I had my eye on something from earlier that I was set on having
We headed off to our FP+ to meet Rapunzel! Man do they have that set up to just trick ya and send you through whatever random door they see fit. Works for me, we had almost no wait! It was Rapunzel and Snow White I believe. Both were adorably in character to the point where we didn’t stop talking enough to take a picture until my mom told us we had to LOL! It was also about this time I finally heard from my dad, saying he was on his way. At some point it was decided to meet at DTD for lunch, as he didn’t have a ton of free time since he had to take my little brother back to his Mom in Sarasota. Lots of driving for them today! Anyway I figured it had them at DTD around 1ish, by construction and parking and everything I figured I had until about 1:30 to get over there.
Anyway the princesses were great and we headed out (the pictures must be on a real camera somewhere!) But first, I had to stop and get my treat!
A Cake-Cup! YUM! So simple but so nice. And WAY easier to eat than a cupcake!
We headed out, but first my mom wanted to stop at the Photopass area to make sure all the Cindy pics were on the Photopass (spoiler, they weren’t and am still missing the first horrible ones) I was right on track to head back to the Poly, change my pants, and head to DTD to meet my dad (and his girlfriend! Spoiler again, they got married last week ) Except this line moved SO SLOWLY. We must have been there 45 minutes. I ate the entire cake cup, threw it out, got back in line, and we hadn’t moved. Make it worse? My dad was EARLY! They must have sped something fierce because he was at DTD wandering around by 12:30! CRUD! We were finally through the Photopass line, where she told us to just do it online (duh, I knew we could but we wanted to be sure!)
Quickly we were on a monorail, I threw on some shorts and hailed a cab. $20 and 20 mins later I was finally at DTD! WHEW! We went to Earl of Sandwich for lunch, always a tasty treat, but unfortunately all we really had time for Then we walked back to their car because they were parked all the way over by Cirque. It was nice to see them, I just wish my dad was a little better about making real plans sometimes, as I felt super bad for being so late, but was already at MK when he decided all this!
Little bro does not take after me, as he hates pictures!
I again debated shopping around a little, but ended up just heading to the bus stop since I was a bit tired (I know, we are so lame on this trip!) But all the rushing around wears me out a little! Busses were a bit slow so when a GF bus pulled up I hopped on, knowing the route between the two was an easy walk and off I went! (Mom was being super thrilling and doing laundry while I was at DTD, and was still doing it when I got back!) Time for a little R&R at the Poly before our last night!
How hot was it that day? It's surprising, given it's early January to hear you talk about ditching the jeans and grabbing shorts, but then again, I remember people saying how hot Christmas Eve was.....
Caught up again. Sorry the weather is being a pain, but you're managing to have a lot of fun anyway. Sorry you didn't enjoy BOG, but not every restaurant is for everyone. Luckily there are so many choices - you can do Cali Grill instead! Love all your photos (your brother seems to be a typical boy - my nephews hate posing for pics too). It seems like you're a grumpy CM magnet, but I guess when the crowds are so high, you encounter more grumpy CMs. Sorry the trip is coming to an end, but looking forward to more!
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Great pics from MK! Glad you were able to meet up with your Dad!
It's always nice when I get to see him, as it isn't often!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Nice that you got to see your Dad, even if it was a brief visit. Your little brother looks exactly like his daddy, and you look so much like your mom!
When I'm blonde and tan, I look just like them too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
How hot was it that day? It's surprising, given it's early January to hear you talk about ditching the jeans and grabbing shorts, but then again, I remember people saying how hot Christmas Eve was.....
It got up into the high 70s! Such a change from the 40s a day or two before Mother Nature just could not make up her mind!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Caught up again. Sorry the weather is being a pain, but you're managing to have a lot of fun anyway. Sorry you didn't enjoy BOG, but not every restaurant is for everyone. Luckily there are so many choices - you can do Cali Grill instead! Love all your photos (your brother seems to be a typical boy - my nephews hate posing for pics too). It seems like you're a grumpy CM magnet, but I guess when the crowds are so high, you encounter more grumpy CMs. Sorry the trip is coming to an end, but looking forward to more!
Yep, we have a lot of favorites, it's almost a relief to not want to be rushing back to all of them! I kinda felt like a magnet- one of those "if everyone around you is miserable, maybe you are the miserable one!" but I was really having a great time all the rest of the time. I think they are all just overworked around the holidays
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Sorry about the meanie photographer at CRT, but glad you got a redo. 
Breakfast choices do look better there. 
)
) Except this line moved SO SLOWLY. We must have been there 45 minutes. I ate the entire cake cup, threw it out, got back in line, and we hadn’t moved. Make it worse? My dad was EARLY! They must have sped something fierce because he was at DTD wandering around by 12:30! CRUD! We were finally through the Photopass line, where she told us to just do it online (duh, I knew we could but we wanted to be sure!)
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Love all your photos (your brother seems to be a typical boy - my nephews hate posing for pics too). It seems like you're a grumpy CM magnet, but I guess when the crowds are so high, you encounter more grumpy CMs. Sorry the trip is coming to an end, but looking forward to more!
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