You’re Driving Straight Through? No Thanks…I’ll Stay Home - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Glad you enjoyed and those seats are steep! Very cool to see the parade balloons being filled.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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My goodness those seats were high up! I'm glad you enjoyed the show - we absolutely loved it when we saw it in London, but I've heard nothing but good reviews of it. I'm surprised to hear there have been any negative reviews.
That was quite the walk back and what a shame you couldn't get any closer to the balloons.
Those seats are so high up We saw one play on Broadway, I think it was "Into the Woods" and our seats were up high like that. Glad your "stroll" at midnight worked out.
Glad you all enjoyed Aladdin. I saw it on Broadway and thought it was good but certainly not the best of Disney's Broadway shows. It's amazing how much walking you actually do in NYC but you were certainly troopers doing it after Midnight in the cold temps!
I'm glad that you loved Aladdin! We loved it too, even though I agree the seats are crazy small. I think my seat was close to where yours was.
I was so surprised about Matt when it happened..I was like...but he was just there! hahaha
I really should just lose weight (easier said than done) and then at least I could fit a little more comfortably in the seats.
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Originally Posted by SuperDave
Glad you enjoyed and those seats are steep! Very cool to see the parade balloons being filled.
Very steep...it really is scary.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Those seats did look scary steep, but the show sounded fun. Impressive walking 40 blocks at midnight in the cold.
I know, I can't believe we walked the whole way...but we got some exercise then at least.
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Originally Posted by chezp
My goodness those seats were high up! I'm glad you enjoyed the show - we absolutely loved it when we saw it in London, but I've heard nothing but good reviews of it. I'm surprised to hear there have been any negative reviews.
That was quite the walk back and what a shame you couldn't get any closer to the balloons.
It was scary. Luckily when the show started I was more absorbed into that and didn't think about the height then.
I was so bummed we couldn't get up close to the balloons. I am glad we had the opportunity a few years ago.
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Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Those seats are so high up We saw one play on Broadway, I think it was "Into the Woods" and our seats were up high like that. Glad your "stroll" at midnight worked out.
Did you like it? I am not a big fan of the movie...though I have watched it 3 times.
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Originally Posted by lindawdw
Glad you all enjoyed Aladdin. I saw it on Broadway and thought it was good but certainly not the best of Disney's Broadway shows. It's amazing how much walking you actually do in NYC but you were certainly troopers doing it after Midnight in the cold temps!
Hopefully some day I can see some more!
It does seem easier to walk in NYC though...with all the sights to see it goes by pretty fast.
We got up early and got ready. We grabbed some breakfast so we would make it through the day!
Geoff and Gail were a bit faster and already off to get a spot for the parade, so we texted them and found them easily.
It quickly started filling up and I was acting as bouncer for our location. We had to save enough space for the rest who would come later. Many tried to go through and stand in front of us and I would let them know they couldn’t. Some complained that it wasn’t fair for us to be saving spots and Gail would chime in that maybe next time you should get up earlier.
It was a bit chilly this year. We had hand warmers and feet warmers, though I swear mine didn’t seem to be warming all that much on my toes. 2 years ago when we came to the parade, Claire and I were lucky enough to be invited by my friend Brook to watch the parade from the old Amazon building. Brook was hoping to get this chance again and so were we. As it got closer, Brook decided they were going to go out of town for Thanksgiving since they had no word about it being available. Of course right after they made their plans they were alerted to availability to watch from the building again. Too late, so Claire and I had “slum it” this year with the rest of the family.
As it got closer to the parade time, other family members arrived.
We talked about how last time we were here Geoff had brought a turkey hat and we just laughed and laughed. We saw some people down the way wearing them and again we just totally laughed.
Well he was not to be outdone and he told Aunt Mary he needed something out of her bag. So he was digging around and we kind of stopped paying attention to him as he was pretty much inside her bag…head first….and then came out with this!
Another great parade! It was a lot of fun, but we were now cold and many had to use the bathroom, so we started making our way back to the Marriott.
The line to get back in is crazy long after the parade. They have security there and you have to queue just to get to the elevator. We decided to head to Starbucks and Gail went in and I waited outside with Claire and Alexis…..who were cold!!!!
Gail finally made it through the line and got what she wanted and then we decided to head back in. The line had gone down and soon we were back at our room where we were warm and could use the bathroom!!!
Time for showers and to get ready for our Thanksgiving meal.
We headed down to the restaurant and soon were seated. Last time, Geoff had gotten a big chocolate turkey as a surprise on our table. It was so good too. I found out he did get one this year as well and we just didn’t tell the kids.
Somebody had not handled it well though and the back end was all smashed and broken. Now we weren’t upset, because we had one 2 years ago, but if this had been our first, we would have. I believe Geoff did call them to let them know it was broken later though. I sure hope they either gave him a partial refund or a discount for the future as this chocolate was expensive.
Great pictures of the parade. I must confess that I don't know who most of the people in the parade were. Your Thanksgiving dinner looks very good. Sorry the turkey was broken.
Liz
Great spot for the parade. How early did you get there to get a spot? You and you're family are true NYers telling people tough luck if they wanted to stand in front of you
Great pictures of the parade! You were definitely on the right side of the street to see Jimmy Fallon! Geoff is seriously the best uncle! It always seems like he makes everything so fun for the kids and all of you!
Great photos from the parade and you all certainly enjoyed it even with the cold weather! Nice start to your dinner, even with a broken turkey!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Now that is the way to do Thanksgiving. Family, street side viewing of the Macy's parade and a great meal with a chocolate turkey. You did well with the pictures even though you were not close. Claire has really grown since we saw her at Disney several years ago. Very pretty.
Such wonderful parade pictures Jenn!!! Your family is amazing how they love to do all these things together. I've eaten at the restaurant that you had your Thanksgiving dinner at several times! It has great views of Times Square.
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Very cool to see the parade balloons being filled.
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
I'm glad you enjoyed the show - we absolutely loved it when we saw it in London, but I've heard nothing but good reviews of it. I'm surprised to hear there have been any negative reviews. 
We saw one play on Broadway, I think it was "Into the Woods" and our seats were up high like that. Glad your "stroll" at midnight worked out.
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