The "Together the Magic Continues - As a Family" Trip Report. Aug 26 - Sept 6 at POP - COMPLETE!! 11/15 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Loved hearing your side of the day Liz...I am trying to picture you running towards Pooh, Brent spinning around and around and the kids hysterically laughing. To think this is just the start....
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Day 2 – Friday August 28 Typhoon Lagoon in the Morning, Epcot in the evening!
Since we just received our photopass CD, I want to include a better picture of the Cinderella who was so smitten with me she called me ‘boyfriend’: J
Also wanted to include this one of Jordan and Aurora, just because I thought it was cute:
Here is the belle that clued me in that Cinderella would be back soon:
Thanks again, Belle:
This was a sleep in morning as Typhoon Lagoon doesn’t open until 10:00, but I was still up before dawn on my usual morning trek to the food court to fill my mug with coffee. Found a spot to sit by the lake and since it was payday, I take out my blackberry and check to make sure our paychecks were direct deposited correctly. (Love my blackberry!) All was well, so back to vacation. Woke up the rest of the family, had breakfast then hopped the bus to Typhoon Lagoon. Made it there for opening, and headed straight for Crush N gusher. Got two rides in then saw two people come out of the tube into the splash pool WITHOUT a tube, then decided to move on to other things. Went on a few slides then on to the wave pool where we got some neat pictures:
Jordan and Tori:
Group shot:
Here comes the wave!
Splash!
Then it was on to the lazy river, and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Biergarten.
I had really high hopes for this meal because my best friend back in High School, joined the Army, got stationed in Germany and married a German girl. Consequently I had the privilege of having REAL German cooking a few times before he moved to Germany permanently. I had heard good things about Biergarten so I was expecting great things. The atmosphere and ambience were superb. Loved the band, loved the people we wound up sitting with. (They claimed they worked for Disneyland in CA and were on a fact finding mission. OK sure) Here’s a picture of Brendan sharing a toast with them:
The food, however, was a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps I was spoiled on the Saurbreten my friends wife made way back in the day. She marinated that stuff in Vinegar for days, and it must melted in your mouth! The food here wasn’t that different in taste from an American Buffet. It was a good meal though. J After dinner we split up. Brendan, Jordan, and Cheyenne (Gubby- her priceless nickname!) went with me to ride Test Track, Mission Space, and Spaceship Earth, while Tori and Liz set out to explore Italy and France. I want to take a minute to comment on how neat the dynamics of this blended family actually are. Going as one big family unit allowed us to split up and do different things on many occasions that really helped make the whole vacation so much more fun for all of us. I took the younger kids to go ride rides while Liz took her oldest daughter that came with us for some one on one time to explore a few of the countries. This was a very cool thing for us! Some pictures of me and the younger kids
When it started to get dark we met up again for illuminations. We watched on that little island between UK and France. It was a great place to watch the show. I still am just in awe of this show. Stayed awhile after the show was over and leisurely made our way out. Since it was an EMH night, Spaceship Earth was open so we rode it on our way out. Love this ride too!
Rode the bus back to POP and a quick dip in the pool for me and Liz. Kids went to straight to bed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Kids are soft these days!! I also think this was the night the space shuttle launched. We called the kids out to see it, and it was actually a lot more of a show than I thought it would be. You could see the glare from the launch blast, and you could follow the flame of the rocket exhaust for a long time. Godspeed!
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom all day, then the following day: Epcot and an unusual waitress at Akershush ! Wait a minute, what is she doing?
Now why are they all doing it???
Stay tuned to find out!
Brent
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Last edited by Disdadnmi; 09-26-2009 at 11:05 PM..
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I was such a basket case when that happened. There's more to come though!
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Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
PassPorter Guide Author
I can't wait to hear the stories from Akerhaus and the meeting with Tinkerbell.
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