Rain, Sunshine & Cupcakes ~ June 24 - July 3 - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Your husband sounds just like mine. He goes on his merry way while I am a pck mule and herding Claire usually too. If I give him a job he acts like he is so put out.
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You must try dessert next time. The Meteor Bites were so good! They were donut holes and came in vanilla and chocolate with caramel and chocolate sauces for dipping.
You had me at donut holes. YES, I'm going to try that next time!
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Sounded like a nice leisurely day at DTD. Great pics of everything too.Is T-Rex on the dining plan yet? The food looked very good.
What a jerk at the security line. What, did they think you kidnapped a kid at WDW or something? Lol
Sorry you had to leave. Thanks for sharing!
Your husband sounds just like mine. He goes on his merry way while I am a pck mule and herding Claire usually too. If I give him a job he acts like he is so put out.
It's very frustrating sometimes. But I should be used to it by now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazanya
Great last day! Sorry your trip has come to an end.
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shnewell
You had me at donut holes. YES, I'm going to try that next time!
You're not going to regret it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Can't believe your trip is over! Glad you had a great day at DTD.
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Sounds like a great last day. Your pictures of DTD are great!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Sounded like a nice leisurely day at DTD. Great pics of everything too.Is T-Rex on the dining plan yet? The food looked very good.
What a jerk at the security line. What, did they think you kidnapped a kid at WDW or something? Lol
Sorry you had to leave. Thanks for sharing!
I know right. I think she didn't have anything better to do. Next trip I'll prepare my kids better.
Being the first time we stayed on-site all I have to say is... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I loved everything about it and it’s true what people say, once you’ve stayed at a Disney Resort there’s no going back.
Air Transportation: It was our first time flying Jet Blue and we really liked it. It helps that the first checked bag is free. They fly out of a little airport about 30 minutes from my house making it super convenient. We will continue using this airline for future trips.
Ground Transportation: DME, what’s not to like? You don’t have to worry about your luggage, you ride that big bus with the Disney video, you don’t have to worry about getting lost. We did have quite a wait to get on but that really wasn’t their fault.
I’ve heard horrible stories about the park busses, but I have to say that the longest wait we encountered was 20 minutes. After touring a park, it was such a relief to let others drive us to our resort. And after seeing the crowds waiting for the ferry and the monorail at MK , we were so happy heading over to the bus stops.
Accommodations: I must start by reminding you that I don’t have no basis for comparison. POR is a very beautiful resort, so peaceful and quiet. The size really helps, it doesn’t feel crowded at all. The refurbed rooms were really nice although there isn’t much storage space. The murphy bed was a hit but Abniel quickly claimed it as his. The grounds were well kept and everything looked very well put, as expected from a Disney property. The service was excellent, very helpful and attentive. I’d definitely stay here again.
Parks: Having visited a couple of times, we always find new stuff to do.
Magic Kingdom: The park was beautiful as always. We enjoyed our favorite rides and even got stuck and eventually evacuated one, Splash Mountain . Incredibly I rode the People Mover for the first time on this trip and I knew I would like it but thought the rest would find it boring. Well they didn’t. It’s a great way to escape the park and relax for a bit. We also rode Stitch’s Great Escape for the first time and all I have to say is: Yuck, never again! Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor was also a first for us and it was a big hit. It was quickly added to our must-do list.
Epcot: This continues to be my favorite park. There’s something about it that sets it apart from the rest. I really enjoy strolling around WS, exploring the countries and snapping pictures. We managed to have a few firsts. The most shocking one was Spaceship Earth. We passed by it, never entering and again I thought we wouldn’t like it. I was wrong, everyone loved it. We liked seeing our future and making funny faces for the photo. We did get stuck on it but at least it was in a/c. Another first, at least for me, was Maelstorm. It was a cool little ride, my kids love it so that’s good enough.
DHS: This is my least favorite park. There are still things I enjoy like TOT and TSMM but there are other things that I can live without. We did manage to finally ride Star Tours. Great ride! Another must-do for us.
Animal Kingdom: This park went up on my park list. I took the time to really appreciate it’s beauty and it’s really breathtaking. There was a first here also. I was so happy to finally be able to see FotLK. I wasn’t disappointed. I even liked it better than Finding Nemo. I’m really hoping they don’t take it away. We saw the afternoon parade and although we enjoyed it I don’t think I’ll wait for it next time.
Food: The best part of all! And we had plenty of it. We used DDP because of the convenience of having everything prepaid. I don’t know if we’ll be using it again as, depending on when we go, Abniel will be considered an “adult” . Out of all the kids, he’s the most picky and the one that eats the least. So it’ll be a waste of money and food. We’ll see...
The restaurants... what can I say. Out of all the TS we ate the only one we had previously visited was Chef Mickey. We tried a variety of different ones and each one had something good. My personal favorite was Via Napoli. Oh my gosh, so delicious! The biggest disappointment for me (and I know I’m in the minority here) was 50’s PTC. And I think it was partly my fault. I’ve read so much about this restaurant, about their food and their antics. Well, maybe I got my expectations too high. Our server was not entertaining at all and the food was so-so. I’d probably give it a second chance but not in the near future.
I thought for sure I’d gain like 10 pounds from all the food we ate. Thank goodness for all the walking we did.
The dates we chose were exclusively because of Abniel’s birthday. I had the crazy idea to celebrate it at Disney. I knew, going into it, that it would be crowded and hot. We had a little surprise named TS Debby that tried to mess with us and made it rain for the first 4 days of our trip. But after suffering the most suffocating hotness ever, we were wishing for the rain. I didn’t see much difference in the crowds. We managed fine and used lots of fps. Would I visit again on these dates? Probably not.
The best part of the trip was being able to enjoy the alone time with my family. Seeing the joy on Abniel’s face each time they brought him his birthday cupcake. Watching Adriel jump up and down, so happy to meet his favorite character Jake. Spending time with AJ, doing rides together. Enjoying Wishes and Illuminations surrounded by the people I love. Priceless!
Some people don’t get why I like Disney so much and why we visit every year. For me, it’s a way to unwind, to forget about the problems and the everyday stress. It’s a place to have fun with my family without having a care in the world. If people can’t understand that, well that’s their problem.
Remember from my PTR, I said that the ulterior motive of this trip was to get Arben to like staying on-site so much that he wouldn’t want to stay at any other place. Well... mission accomplished! He is now hooked with the Disney Resorts and all it offers.
As for future trips... you’ll have to stay tuned. There will definitely be a trip in 2013 but what hasn’t been decided is when. It could be May/June, or a fall trip , or even a Christmas trip (nov. or dec.).
Thanks to all who have followed my adventures! I hope I didn’t bore you with my writing although I compensate that with my handsome boys.
Great wrap up. Glad you liked staying indite. I was the same way, I don't want to have to stay offsite again. Of course, unless it meant not going at all!
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Liz 
They fly out of a little airport about 30 minutes from my house making it super convenient. We will continue using this airline for future trips.
, we were so happy heading over to the bus stops.
never again! Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor was also a first for us and it was a big hit. It was quickly added to our must-do list.
There’s something about it that sets it apart from the rest. I really enjoy strolling around WS, exploring the countries and snapping pictures. We managed to have a few firsts. The most shocking one was Spaceship Earth. We passed by it, never entering and again I thought we wouldn’t like it. I was wrong, everyone loved it. We liked seeing our future and making funny faces for the photo. We did get stuck on it but at least it was in a/c. Another first, at least for me, was Maelstorm. It was a cool little ride, my kids love it so that’s good enough.
. Out of all the kids, he’s the most picky and the one that eats the least. So it’ll be a waste of money and food. We’ll see...
Oh my gosh, so delicious! The biggest disappointment for me (and I know I’m in the minority here) was 50’s PTC. And I think it was partly my fault. I’ve read so much about this restaurant, about their food and their antics. Well, maybe I got my expectations too high. Our server was not entertaining at all and the food was so-so. I’d probably give it a second chance but not in the near future.
(nov. or dec.). 
PassPorter Guide Author
so much for sharing another trip with us! 
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