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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Signing in! Loving your view at AKL it's getting me excited for our upcoming stay there! My boyfriend didn't think it would be his things but when I showed him your pics I got "that's beautiful!"
What a great start to your day, a beautiful sunrise over the savanna and lots of character love at Cape May!
Thanks Cam - that view was so beautiful, I can't wait to get back there!
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Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
I'm signed in and caught up! I love everything about the trip so far. Breakfast looked delish and you can't ask for a better room.
Thanks! yes - that room was pretty much paradise!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Signing in! Loving your view at AKL it's getting me excited for our upcoming stay there! My boyfriend didn't think it would be his things but when I showed him your pics I got "that's beautiful!"
Before I go further, I wanted to apologize ahead of time to those who might not enjoy tons of photos..................................thi s particular day is very photo heavy, therefore it will take several posts to get us through the entire day!! So I am posting another one tonight, hopefully for your enjoyment!
BUT before that, I wanted to share one particular photo from our first evening at AKL that I just found (it's not a great photo, as it was taken from the phone)!!!
Totally relaxing on the balcony with a glass of wine and a view!!!
Okay..............now back to our regular scheduled programming...............
Sunday, June 30, 2013 Continued………..
A little back history here (to refresh from PTR) – we had originally planned to fly into Orlando and we were going to stay at a hotel near Sea World for the first 2 nights with the Sea World package (which seemed reasonable) to ensure that we got Emily to visit Sea World as it had been quite some time since we last visited this park – but we quickly realized that it would be much easier to just start our vacation off staying on property like we always do in WDW and when we figured the cost of it all, it was less for us to just pay out of pocket to add the nights onto our reservation at AKL that we already had – so we promised Emily that we would visit Sea World our first full day so that it happened – we tend to always say that we are going to go, and then we get all caught up in the bubble and forgetting about stepping out of that lovely bubble.
We arrived at SeaWorld a little after the park had opened.
Like I mentioned, it had been quite some time since our last visit here, so we first stopped at the Guest Services to gather our bearings, maps, etc. and we had decided with Scott’s back issues it was worth our mindset to just purchase their Quick que for each of us to ensure that it would be a more pleasant day for all of us.
While we were finishing up with all that business, we noticed that “Shamu” had come out for meet and greets ~ so of course we took advantage of that! And yes…..Emily remembered to bring in a phone case and a sheet of paper from her autograph book for Shamu to sign!
Then it was time to head to our first show of the day – One Ocean. We scored pretty decent seats – just above the soak zone (no way am I sitting there! Especially with my camera!), but first row of that upper section, almost right in the center! SCORE !
As much as this show just absolutely amazes me, I couldn’t help but think of all those affected by the incident that had happened a few years earlier (and I apologize for even mentioning it), as I found myself watching the show with these amazing animals along with these trainers that appear to just love their job so much ~ and then looking at my own daughter knowing that that is one of her dream jobs. Now, seriously, my husband is a fire fighter, so his job is pretty dangerous, but it also made me realize it doesn’t matter what we do for a career – as long as we enjoy going to work every day.
Sorry for that crazy little ramble there…………
Again – the show was amazing, the music, all of it – but most of all watching Emily watch it and seeing the amazement in her eyes!
I will let the photos tell the story!
Probably on one of my favorites from the day - a mom and baby!
This is WHY we do NOT sit in the splashzone !!!
After the show, we went to the Wild Artic attraction ~ this is a theater type attraction that makes you feel like you are involved in the action (similar to Star Tours) – it was pretty intense, and probably not such a great idea for Scott’s back .
After exiting the ride, you enter into an exhibit area to view the beluga whales, colossal walruses ~ which I have to say, these guys/gals (?) were quite interesting to watch…..they swim upside down quite a bit!, and the polar bears! I did wish the polar bear could be outside enjoying some fresh air, and Scott and Emily kept laughing at me reminding me that it is Florida and it’s over 90 degrees today and he probably wouldn’t be too happy out there. I still think he needed some vitamin D!
After that adventure we were getting just a bit hungry so we decided to stop in at Mango Joe’s for just a light lunch which we shared one order of chicken fingers with fries, some watermelon and Emily had some strawberries ~ dang, they looked good, but I would have looked like a giant strawberry had I eaten one! We had also grabbed the souvenir cup to be able to refill it throughout the day.
While we were eating ~ it started POURING!!!! You know the torrential Florida type of POURING!!! The kind that it doesn’t matter what kind of poncho you have on, you will get SOAKED to the bone!!! Lucky for us, we had chosen to sit in the covered pavillon area and we just sat and relaxed watching all the people run for cover! And then it began thundering and lightning like crazy! It got pretty scary! And of course, now this was cutting into our touring time……….seriously Mother Nature, do you mind? Of course, we were hearing that just about everything was shut down, and everyone was taking cover where they could.
It finally started to lighten up and the thunder and lightning had stopped, so we made our way out, but had found out that Journey to Atlantis was still down due to the lightning in the area – so we headed to Turtle Trek. Now let me add here that one of my favorite animals is sea turtles, I don’t know what it is about them, but I find them beautiful and they seem so graceful. (I actually used to have a pet tortoise, I miss him) So I was looking forward to this attraction. It was amazing (I know I have been using that word a lot…….but really it was!). I really enjoyed walking through to see all the sea turtles swimming around, and hearing stories about each of them and how they came to live at Sea World, most of them it’s just a temporary home for them until they can return to the ocean. We also saw the manatees, which can you say ADORABLE? They are so cute……….kinda remind me of my Pug!! Then it was time to enter the theater……..now I had no idea what to expect as I avoided any you tube videos like the plague – it WAS AMAZING!!!! I felt like I was right in there with them!!! And let me tell you, I so wanted to leave there and go find a nest to camp out and wait for it to hatch!!!
Up Next: Just how cold will it be???
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I really should take my 13 yr old to Sea World! I was last at the Orlando one in 1980, I think! We used to go to the San Diego one when we lived in LA, every time we had visitors, but we haven't lived there since 1993.....
You had great timing with lunch!
Love sea turtles! We just snorkeled with them in St. Maarten, and that was probably one of the highlights of the whole trip.
I really should take my 13 yr old to Sea World! I was last at the Orlando one in 1980, I think! We used to go to the San Diego one when we lived in LA, every time we had visitors, but we haven't lived there since 1993.....
You had great timing with lunch!
Love sea turtles! We just snorkeled with them in St. Maarten, and that was probably one of the highlights of the whole trip.
Despite what some might think, we think it's a nice park. Again, so much to do, you have to make choices, as you will see we did. But yes, if she enjoys sea life, you should take her!
So jealous that you swam with sea turtles!!!!!!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Keep the photos coming! Great shots of the whales.
Sounds like your planning is working out well: some special Disney time at AKL to get you in vacation mode, then a day at Sea World. Thanks for the info on shows and attractions - it's been a while since we've been there.
Smart move to do Sea World on your first full day. Love all your pictures!
Thanks, we felt it was - we most likely would not have gone if we hadn't do so that day!
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Originally Posted by lauriep
NOT too many photos! Looks like you had a good time at Sea World and were in a good spot to wait out the downpour.
Awe - thanks! Lots more photos to come!!!!
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Originally Posted by shazza
Keep the photos coming! Great shots of the whales.
Sounds like your planning is working out well: some special Disney time at AKL to get you in vacation mode, then a day at Sea World. Thanks for the info on shows and attractions - it's been a while since we've been there.
Awe - thanks! Lots more photos and attraction info to come! It was a busy day!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Great timing for lunch to hide out from that storm. LOVED all the pics from Sea World, as I never did make it over there yet!
Yes, we lucked out with choosing a covered area to eat! Thanks! Lots more photos to come!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
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..................thi s particular day is very photo heavy, therefore it will take several posts to get us through the entire day!! So I am posting another one tonight, hopefully for your enjoyment! 
and a view!!! 
day for all of us. 
- a mom and baby!
!!!
.
! 
And of course, now this was cutting into our touring time……….seriously Mother Nature, 
do you mind? Of course, we were hearing that just about everything was shut down, and everyone was taking cover where they could. 
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