The Promise of Spring: F&GF 4.0 UPDATED: 5/11 - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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With Characters in Flight, keep an eye on the weather - even if it's a light breeze on the ground, it may not be running. We tried to do it on our last day in Disney and that's what happened to us. We stood there amazed, as there was only a little wind, but they said it was much worse at the point where the balloon goes up to, and if it's more than (I think) 20 miles an hour, it doesn't go up.
I love days when things can be up in the air with plans. I'm really looking forward to hearing about your opinions on Planet Hollywood. We will be in DS our first day, usually we have an early dinner there. Your reviews will be in plenty of time for our trip. Our trip is in November 11-19th.
Plans look good for the day and seems that they are pretty flexible! I had no luck with getting a FP+ for 7DMT last October and hope I'm able to score this Fall as I want to experience it for the first time!
Hope you can get a SDMT FP+ as it really is a neat little coaster ride.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
I'm considering doing Characters in Flight too, so I'll be interested to hear about your experience!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we'll get to take flight. Then I could come back with a good report..
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
With Characters in Flight, keep an eye on the weather - even if it's a light breeze on the ground, it may not be running. We tried to do it on our last day in Disney and that's what happened to us. We stood there amazed, as there was only a little wind, but they said it was much worse at the point where the balloon goes up to, and if it's more than (I think) 20 miles an hour, it doesn't go up.
I've got my fingers crossed for no wind in the air high or low.
I love days when things can be up in the air with plans. I'm really looking forward to hearing about your opinions on Planet Hollywood. We will be in DS our first day, usually we have an early dinner there. Your reviews will be in plenty of time for our trip. Our trip is in November 11-19th.
Awesome! I definitely get a review up by then. More and more we are loving the days where plans are more flexible and carefree.
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I suspect that I might wake up before the alarm sounds this day because I’m so excited about our agenda. I hoping that I actually manage to get some sleep. We’ll be visiting Animal Kingdom today with the highlight being the Caring for Giants tour. We plan on getting to the park early so we’ve scheduled a FP+ for It’s Tough to Be a Bug at 9:05, and we’ll try to get there promptly because we are supposed to be at the check in kiosk for the tour at 9:45 for the 10 o’clock tour.
The Caring for Giants tour last 60 minutes and is guided by an animal specialist. There are both backstage and onstage portions, and no photos can be taken backstage. But once we get to the elephant viewing area, I can photograph to my heart’s content. For more information see this link. I can’t wait to experience this tour, but I don’t want to rush the trip either. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ev...ng-for-giants/
We should be done around 11:00, but just to be on the safe side, we did not schedule another FastPass until 12:00 when we’ll board a truck for Kilimanjaro Safaris to enjoy more time with the elephants and all their African friends. At 1:30 we have a FP+ for Finding Nemo: The Musical. Afterwards new FP+ selections can be made or we can wander the trails again or whatever strikes our fancy this late in the trip. We may catch an early lunch prior to our safari, possibly at Harambe Marketplace.
Dinner tonight is at Boma at 7:40 PM, giving us plenty of time before we need to depart Animal Kingdom. Boma was my idea as I couldn’t imagine staying at the lodge and not eating here. After our first stay here back in 2003, Boma held the honors as our favorite restaurant for many years. In fact, one year Luke and I made the decision to skip it. Stefanie did not let us forget our error, and frequently reminded me over and over for the next year not to forget Boma again. We had a similar situation when I omitted The Garden Grill from our ADR list one trip. After dinner, we’ll just head back to our room upstairs. An early evening with some balcony time with the animals will probably be needed after an early wake up day for me.
Just joining in and as always trip sounds fabulous and can't wait to hear about these new restaurants. Sorry you have had some ailments and hope they don't effect the trip in anyway.
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We’ll be visiting Animal Kingdom today with the highlight being the Caring for Giants tour. We plan on getting to the park early so we’ve scheduled a FP+ for It’s Tough to Be a Bug at 9:05, and we’ll try to get there promptly because we are supposed to be at the check in kiosk for the tour at 9:45 for the 10 o’clock tour.
After dinner, we’ll just head back to our room upstairs. 
An early evening with some balcony time with the animals will probably be needed after an early wake up day for me. 
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