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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Good grief, I'm exhausted just reading about your day!
Sorry you ended up in a rush for Wishes. But I love the nighttime shots of GF and Space Mountain! The pretzels look yummy too. I hope Phineas & Ferb enjoyed their late-night snacks!
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Just found this TR and am loving your pictures!
The heat you describe is making me remember why we planned our trip for December instead of August! Can't believe you were up until 2am! Hope you got a good night's rest after all that exploring!
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Tina
2009 Feb Disneyland - offsite
2007 Aug WDW - offsite
2005 June DCL West Coast/DL & DCA
2002 April Disneyland - offsite
2000 September WDW/DCL - CBR/Wonder
Your nighttime photos around the resort are very good!
Thanks so much
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Love all the night-time shots! By the way, you are not the only one to feel like that about the Polynesian - it doesn't do much for me either.
It just wasn't that impressive to me. It's probably just not for me. I would love to stay at BeachClub some day though. I liked Yacht Club, but I like the look of Beach Club better. And Wilderness Lodge is another I like the looks of. I don't think the rooms there look impressive, but I love the actual resort a lot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
More great pictures!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great update! I'll admit that the first time I walked into the Poly, I thought it seemed sort of worn and outdated. It's grown on me a bit, though.
I think if I gave it a chance, it would grow on me too. But the likelihood of me paying the price is slim to none. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by shnewell
Good grief, I'm exhausted just reading about your day!
Sorry you ended up in a rush for Wishes. But I love the nighttime shots of GF and Space Mountain! The pretzels look yummy too. I hope Phineas & Ferb enjoyed their late-night snacks!
It was a long day, but if I had gone to a park that day I would've been up that late too, as I think MK was open till 2 that night as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mom2twingirlies
The night time pictures are so cool!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by mushu22
the night
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsnytina
Just found this TR and am loving your pictures!
The heat you describe is making me remember why we planned our trip for December instead of August! Can't believe you were up until 2am! Hope you got a good night's rest after all that exploring!
Thanks so much for joining in. I'm a little slow at writing this. It seems like real life is getting in the way. But I will keep at it. The heat was awful. We usually go in March and though it can be hot, it's never that hot.
I am so sorry I haven't had a chance to update for a couple of days. Real life just keeps getting in the way.
Last night we went and saw Puss in Boots, which was fun. Claire loved the movie and if you liked Puss in any of the Shrek movies, do go see it. It is different than Shrek, but still had some funny moments and some hidden adult humor.
Today I met my older DD, Paige at a local park to take pictures of her and her BF. She was complaining to me that Claire dominates my facebook, (which isn't really true...Disney does ) so I told her we could take some of them and she happily agreed.
Here are a few that I have edited. I still have quite a few to go through, but plan to work on my update tomorrow first then got back to Paige's pictures.
And a couple of silly ones. Jordan told Paige to pose on this fallen tree so she got silly with it.
And Claire was having a fit that she wasn't the center of attention or that I wasn't taking pictures of her. (I had to yell at her to get out of a lot of them...so we let her give Jordan some rabbit ears.
Well. at the beginning of this TR, we were addicted to Disney! Now, I think I am addicted to your Trip Report!!! I have loved the pictures - what a great story and tour of WDW!!
When can you go back??
__________________
"Disneyland has that thing - the imagination and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid."
--Walt Disney
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Nice to see photos of your older daughter. She's lovely! I do like the one of Claire peeping out from behind Jordan.
Thanks. Claire was wanting to be in the pictures badly. I had to keep yelling at her to stand back. So she was happy to do a few bunny ears here and there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wonderful photos of Paige!
Thanks. I think she's happy with them. I'm still going through them though. I took a lot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by thinkpink
Well. at the beginning of this TR, we were addicted to Disney! Now, I think I am addicted to your Trip Report!!! I have loved the pictures - what a great story and tour of WDW!!
When can you go back??
Awww. Thanks. I don't have any plans as of yet to go back. The next trip I do have planned and booked is on the Dream, but that is over a year away yet. (Nov. 4th, 2012 sailing) This coming up year is also our 10 year anniversary. I am "hoping" I can talk Skip into a fun trip for it. I have a few choices...but I do want to let him also agree...somewaht at least. LOL! I would like to go on a DCL cruise, OR got to Disneyland..OR go to Universal/Sea World.. or also WDW wouldn't hurt my feeling either. And I am even looking at Royal Carribean cruiseline as well. I just don't like their shorter ailing ships. At least last I looked. I'll have to do more research on that one. A lot of their ships now have characters, so I think Claire would like it as well. Well I think she would enjoy anything we did, but she is obsessed with DCL right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great pictures of Paige! The fall colors are beautiful!
Thanks. It was a good time of year to go. I wish we had more red trees though. It was kind of more rusty looking. A couple of years ago I got some beautiful tree pictures.
I believe I had set my alarm for around 6:30. I thought for sure I would be up before it rang, but I wasn’t. I showered and packed up, but I seemed to be moving at a slow pace. I ate the rest of my pretzels for breakfast…yes, very nutritional…. in an all chocolate diet. LOL!
I went and filled my mug and called home to Skip and checked in with him. I strolled around a bit and took a few more shots of Phineas and Ferb.
Around 8:15 I dragged my bags up front and got a taxi, which was a very easy process. I was a little worried at how this would work, but several were waiting outside and I got in one immediately. I was off to the Yacht Club!
I tried to take a few pictures on the way, but they were all horrid and I deleted them. The ride wasn’t very long at all and my cost was $10.45. I gave him $15.00. I got out and Bell Services were right there. Such a different experience compared to a Value. They told me they would store my bags till my room was ready and I went in to check in.
I was shocked to find that my room was ready! I was given my AEP packet and kind of browsed through it a bit while checking in. 5 day, water park and more, park hopper passes, a lanyard with pin and name tag, a couple of fastpasses and an updated itinerary.
They told me they would have Bell Services bring my bags right over.
I made the VERY long walk of twists and turns to my room. It was on the first floor at the farthest spot away possible. Room 1001. I walked in and we had a little hallway and then made a turn to the left to our actual room. It was HUGE. I was amazed at the space. For those who bring a stroller, this room would be perfect, as the hallway area was so big you could keep your stroller over there and never be bothered by it. I was barely in the room for 2 minutes and the door knocked. The Bell Boy…well he wasn’t really a boy…he was much older than me….was there with my bag. I couldn’t believe how fast that was. He was very nice and told me a few things about the resort. He also said if I didn’t mind walking outside then it was faster to get to the lobby that way and told me where to exit.
As soon as he left, I texted Brook to let her know I was there and how big our room was. I then went to work taking pictures before I had a chance to mess up anything.
Looking from here, if you turn right at the end, there is another little hallway to our door.
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