Going north, south, east and west! **Updated 1/25** - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Tuesday 28 October – part seven: is she ever going to shut up?!
We finally made it to the princesses and we thought at first that the line was really long, but what we were seeing was the line for candy. I couldn’t believe how long those lines were, compared to the lines to see the characters. I really would’ve thought that more people would’ve been interested in character, rather than candy, but apparently not. The two princesses we ended up with were Ariel and Mulan, neither of whom we had seen before. No-one could get a word in edgeways with Ariel. She was really chatty and wanted to know how we had got here. Poor Mulan just signed the book and I don’t think she said a word.
Next on our character quest were the Pixar characters and, when we got there, it was Jessie and two of the green soldiers. The soldiers swapped out for two more and then we got Woody, which was quite neat. Again, I think Mark managed to stun a character. One of the soldiers asked him something about being a soldier and he once was many years ago and immediately rolled out his number. The poor soldier didn’t know what to say to that.
Then it was off to get a drink and a few more photos.
We then figured that we would get Mickey and Minnie, as they were about the only characters that we hadn’t yet seen, but it was not to be. When we found out where they were (they weren’t easy to find), they had cut the line for the last time, as they were due to take part in the character cavalcade at 9.30, so we settled down to wait for that.
It was neat. There were only a couple of floats, but plenty of characters, although I didn’t manage to get all of them, as my poor old camera just couldn’t keep up with them all. They stop to do a dance routine at three points along the route, but we were a little further down from that area, so we just saw them go past.
Once they did, we headed towards the exit to beat the rush out of the park, as the party finished at 9.30 with the cavalcade, so there was nothing more then to keep people there. Not great planning. We picked up a bit of candy on the way, but only got the things we knew from home, like M & M’s and Snickers.
Once back at Sunshine Plaza, we said goodbye to Sharon, who was going to get one final ride on the Tower of Terror (of course – what else would you expect from her?! ). As for us, we headed out, getting a Photopass picture on the way out and then we took some night-time shots of both park entrances. It’s a shame to think that the next time we come back her, the one for the California Adventure may look very different. I think that’s a great shame.
We walked back to the room via Downtown Disney and that was the end of another day.
Today we walked 4.12 miles The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 90’s (according to the forecast that night, it hit 94 degrees today! ) The best thing today was the Trick or Treat Party. The worst thing today was how hot it was. The funniest thing today was Mark with Lady Tremaine and the two ugly sisters. Today we tried the Disneyland version of Toy Story Mania And the result was it’s also a lot of fun. The most magical moment today was Mark meeting Maleficent.
Sounds like you had a lot of fun - as always I love the first pic with Ariel and Mulan. They look so, i don't know, real! You know how sometimes the face just won't match the character that well? These two ladies definitely were given the right characters to impersonate! Great!
Wednesday 29 October – part one: entertaining Daisy!
Today it was time to pack again for the final time this trip before we headed home. Fortunately, all we had to do was throw what we had used in the cases, as they didn’t need to be packed for a flight, just a drive this afternoon.
We got bell services to store the cases and walked over to Paradise Pier to meet Sharon for breakfast at the PCH Grill for breakfast with the characters.
As we walked in, we saw Goofy with his surfboard and I commented that we would have to get a photo of Sharon with him and, just as I did, guess who we saw? Sharon texting on her cell phone. She was so intent on that, that she didn’t notice us at first. Mark even went to sit next to her and it took her a moment to realise who he was.
We were quickly taken inside, which was a relief, as the last time we were here, we never ate here, as we waited half an hour with no sign of being taken in and we gave up with it. No such problem today. We were taken immediately to have our photo taken with Minnie, although this one can’t be added to your Photopass, as they want to sell this image to you. Well, fortunately we were at a table right next to the character greeting area, so as soon as it was quiet, we went up and got our own photo with Minnie.
It was really quiet in here and we had no problems with seeing the characters. Stitch came around almost as soon as we sat down and then had to go in for a break, but when he came back, he gave us all bear hugs and deliciously extracted who knows what from his nose and put it on us. Nice Stitch.
Then we saw Lilo and Pluto in short succession, although I missed getting my photo with him. Fortunately, I hopped up to see him while he was in the character greeting area and got a great big bear hug from him as well.
Minnie eventually headed in to be replaced with Daisy, who we hadn’t seen yet, so we were straight up there to see her and got a lovely message in our autograph book from her to have fun. Well, Mark certainly did that a few minutes later, when he ended up dancing with Daisy. It was a classic and you could tell she enjoyed it. I felt a bit sorry for the characters actually, it was so quiet in there, that they didn’t really have that much to do and were obviously getting bored, so we did what we could to entertain them.
I think the face Mark is pulling in this one is him quacking at Daisy!
As for the food, this has to be some of the best breakfast food I’ve ever come across at a character breakfast, either here or at Walt Disney World. My favourite was the Hawaii grilled salmon, which was excellent and they had a good choice of egg and potatoes dishes, as well as a huge choice of pastries that were lovely. The omelette station was pretty impressive as well. I’ve never seen things like shrimps offered on one of these before. All in all, I would say that this had to be one of the best character breakfasts we’ve ever had at either Disney park. It really did tick all the boxes and I’m glad that we were finally able to get in here and try it.
PCH Grill:
Food 9½ 9½
Service 7½ 8
Atmosphere 10 9½
Value for money 9 9½
Average score: 9.06
We headed out, getting the photo we wanted of Sharon with Goofy and his surfboard on the way.
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I couldn’t believe how long those lines were, compared to the lines to see the characters. I really would’ve thought that more people would’ve been interested in character, rather than candy, but apparently not. The two princesses we ended up with were Ariel and Mulan, neither of whom we had seen before. No-one could get a word in edgeways with Ariel. She was really chatty and wanted to know how we had got here. Poor Mulan just signed the book and I don’t think she said a word. 
I love the first pic with Ariel and Mulan. They look so, i don't know, real! You know how sometimes the face just won't match the character that well? These two ladies definitely were given the right characters to impersonate! Great! 
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