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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm really looking forward to the new HM on my visit in October. Now even more so as you said it was really cool. Sorry the girls were so annoying. I know they were just having fun but they just don't think. I probably would have yelled something too if they were scaring my child. It's the "mama bear protecting her cubs" syndrome.
Those potslickers looked sooo yummy! The crowdes were crazy! But sounds like yall had a great day!
My DH loves them. I am not crazy about pot stickers but he always eats a ton of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
I'm really looking forward to the new HM on my visit in October. Now even more so as you said it was really cool. Sorry the girls were so annoying. I know they were just having fun but they just don't think. I probably would have yelled something too if they were scaring my child. It's the "mama bear protecting her cubs" syndrome.
More please.
I enjoy all mama bears stopping annoying screaming. And if the screaming was softer it would have been fine. But this was high pitched top of your lung. I cannot imagine it was fun for anyone.
Today was our Epcot day! We had decided on this vacation - since we were taking it slow for obvious peanut reasons - to not set an alarm. Thankfully we are both used to waking up early for work so we usually never slept past 9am. (Usually that would be me sleeping until then). We grabbed some of our breakfast foods and we were off!
Now I am sure some people will say this is silly but I try to avoid the buses. Not that there is anything wrong with them but I find boat and monorail so much more magical. So we got to Epcot by taking the boat to MK. Then jumping on the monorail (I think we took the hotel one because the express looked crowded) then got to TTC and jumped on that monorail. Time wise I am sure it is longer but because you are moving a lot it seems not so bad. At least to us.
Once we got to Epcot we were surprised to see it crazy busy. It took us over 15 minutes to get through the bag check. This was the longest we ever waited. However it was all worth it - the view was as awesome as always. We wanted to do spaceship earth but the line was oddly long so we voted to come back. Usually we just walk on this ride and I am a big fan of that.
Now because of my wonderful PP I knew that Tink and her friends were over in Epcot and so that was our first goal. Good choice too because their lines got long quickly and with a lack of shade it made for some hot waiting. But we were patient and finally got our picture (and some signatures) from the fairies. I wish we could have made it back for the other fairies but I suppose that is a goal for next time! Now I will say that we got pictures of a TON of topiaries. I though to post them all in another post of just pictures. They really need no explination and so I would love for them to speak for themselves.
So of course along the way we snapped a ton of pictures of them. It truly is a beautiful time and I encourage people to see it at least once!
After our mini m&g we headed over to the Ellen ride. Again I am aware this is an old ride but I think it is so funny and I enjoy it every time. Bill Nye is hysterical and I so wish he would do his childrens science show again. BTW incase you did not know he helped make the Mars rover. How neat right?
Our ADR was at Via Napoli and I was definately excited to eat there. I am originally from NY and although I love my southern life I must say I miss the pizza from NY. Well as a bit of a teaser - NY was SHAMED by this place.
But that comes later. First we hit Mexico. I always want to buy something here but end up leaving empty handed. I suppose I always think - what am I going to do with this stuff. I find that is my problem in most of the world showcase....there stuff is so nice but I almost never purchase anything there for that reason. Of course we rode the mexico ride. I know it is cheesey but I like it anyway.
After our trip around Mexico we headed to Norway. I think this country is so pretty. We got on the Maelstrom but of course got stuck. (This becomes a theme on our trip just FYI). Where you might ask? Just before you turn back to facing forward and go down the drop. So we had a great view but had to keep listening to the troll popping up. Not terribly fun. Eventually (I would say about 7-10 minutes) we got free and rode down. Now I think we are in the minority but my DH and I always sit and watch the Norway movie. I like any country movie that allows me to sit and does not make me dizzy. A pre - getting stuck picture! One day I will scan the younger pictures of me here. My mom loves to look at them as usually it is my sister and I in the picture. It is cute to see how much we have grown.
We knew our ADR was coming up and not wanting to be late for pizza we made our way over to Via Napoli. You are in luck here as I remembered to take pictures of at least the pizza. The luck with this goes downhill quickly. We did not have to wait long for our table and I was thrilled to see many a cute Italian waiter. Ours -named Gabrielle (I am sure I did not spell his name right) was definately pleasing on the eye. And he did a good job. I was so thirsty I must have drank a gallon of lemonade and he was so prompt in getting me more. While the waiter was cute I must say the restaurant was TOO loud. I do not know if there is a smaller dinning room off to the side but I really did not like the one big room we were sat in. But really you guys are all looking for pictures of our meals - right? Well wait no more.
By the way, I am drooling again. Problem? Those are the INDIVIDUAL portions. I don't know about you guys but I certainly cannot eat 6-8 pieces of pizza myself. No matter how delicious. And unfortunately we were not staying in a villa this time or even going back to our room any time soon. What did that mean? We could not take left overs (although he did offer us a box to do so). Of course we are on the dining plan and so dessert was in order. I do not remember what my DH got but I got the zepolis and they were MOUTH WATERING. I swear I almost died from a food overload here. I would DEFINATLEY eat here again, especially if they have another room to eat in that is not so loud.
Full and happy we made our way around world showcase. Once more my DH wanted to do the Kim Possible missions. I had no interest in doing them but I wanted to take pictures so I just followed my DH to the country he was going to and took pictures. Sorry I so do not remember what country this is by. However you can hear singing coming from the tower and I did catch a photopass photographer there! Unfortunately all the lines for the characters were incredibly long and it was warm that day. I was full and had no desire to stand in the huge lines in the sun. It was at that point I became aware that quilt completion would not happen at the end of this trip. I suppose it just adds some goals to the next trip.
Once my DH had enough of the missions (or so I thought he had enough) we headed back out. Sadly because of the added peanut there was not a lot of rides I could partake in. So we decided the pool at the resort was a good next stop and we made our way out. Stopping for a few pictures. As we headed back out we were thrilled to see Spaceship Earth had practically no wait so of course we went on. But guess what happened. Yup we got stuck. For like 15 minutes! Luckily we were stopped by an AC vent so it was relaxing. I actually started to fall asleep! (My stamina on this trip was severely lacking). Despite the delay I still love this ride. For the most part I find the old rides the ones I enjoy the most. With my favorite Epcot ride accomplished we headed out. We did head back and go in the pool however while the water was warm the air was not and so I think we only spent an hour out there. We grabbed a CS meal for dinner and relaxed/ate in our room. All in all a great day!
Sounds great!!! Sorry about the rides breaking down. Pizza looks great and my DH LOVES pizza. Gonna show him the pics and see if he won't wanna try that one day.
Great morning at Epcot! I can't wait for Stefanie to meet Tink here! I love Ellen's Energy Adventure, too, and Stefanie is always wishing Bill Nye would be back on TV. Your pictures have me very excited about eating at Via Napoli in a few weeks.
Great Epcot day! The pizza looked great. With me, my HD, and my DS and threes pizzas there would not have been any leftovers and they would have still been hungry aleast 30mins later! They eat ALOT!
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Me and Cole in the Sears Tower Skydeck, 103 floors up, in a glass box hanging off the side!
Love the photos, great job taking it slow. We loved Via Napoli too. We did Ohana dinner I too prefer pot stickers else where (they were dry) but the rest was soooo good. (oh and no shrimp for me)
I wish it was less crowded for you.
As per many have said fall is great in Disney, So ................ I have convinced DH to push next years trip to November. I really want to go the last week of Nov. - Frist week of Dec. any thoughts? That will also be around Peanuts 1st birthday any thoughts of a special way to spend it? would love a meet up (looks like we have the same taste in food and rides.)
Sounds great!!! Sorry about the rides breaking down. Pizza looks great and my DH LOVES pizza. Gonna show him the pics and see if he won't wanna try that one day.
The pizza definately does not dissapoint. I am very pizza picky and this left me completely satisfied.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great morning at Epcot! I can't wait for Stefanie to meet Tink here! I love Ellen's Energy Adventure, too, and Stefanie is always wishing Bill Nye would be back on TV. Your pictures have me very excited about eating at Via Napoli in a few weeks.
I so wish Bill Nye would come back! I loved him!!!! And Via Napoli is SOOO good. Definately glad we went. I have to thank other PP for that as my DH and I probably would have never even thought of going there without other great reviews (and pictures!).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
It looks like a great and relaxing day! Your pizzas looked yummy! I know our mushroom pizza was pretty darn good!
The relaxing day is always wonderful. I find that if we take the relaxing approach we get less cranky (well really I get less cranky) and tend to see more anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG
Great Epcot day! The pizza looked great. With me, my HD, and my DS and threes pizzas there would not have been any leftovers and they would have still been hungry aleast 30mins later! They eat ALOT!
Lol I should have saved it for you guys! I really was the slacker in the pizza department. My DH ate all of his and I think a slice of mine. Sadly I was the weakest link. Lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by niccole
Love the photos, great job taking it slow. We loved Via Napoli too. We did Ohana dinner I too prefer pot stickers else where (they were dry) but the rest was soooo good. (oh and no shrimp for me)
I wish it was less crowded for you.
As per many have said fall is great in Disney, So ................ I have convinced DH to push next years trip to November. I really want to go the last week of Nov. - Frist week of Dec. any thoughts? That will also be around Peanuts 1st birthday any thoughts of a special way to spend it? would love a meet up (looks like we have the same taste in food and rides.)
No shrimp for me either! The crowds were bad but for the most part (except for character interaction) it was not so affecting to us. Most of the seriously crowded rides were things I could not go on anyway!
As to you 2012 trip (or rather the second one since technically the original late 2011 one will have to be moved) I would love that. I really want to do all the seasons and so very much want to try for winter again. Actually I had to have a very evasive and odd conversation with my father the other day. He was asking about when we were going to Disney this year because he was looking up the best way for him and my mom to get there. I had to tell him not to buy tickets for the planes yet because I might get discounts or something. Of course the real reason is because we are going to have to move the trip to like March because if all things go as planned there is no way we can go in beginning of December.
I would love to meet another PP, especially one with similar interests. Definately something I would love to look into. I already know this peanut is going to be born a Disney fan.
Just got all caught up! Many Congrats on the peanut. I saw the addition of the ticker and went to searching to find the story. I understand the infertility issue. My DH and I tried for 10 years off and on. Then, as you quoted Dumbo, that which brought us down brought us back up. Our house flooded during Hurricane Katrina, but when all was said and done with the insurance, we were able to rebuild, pay off some bills and adopt a baby. He is 4 know and we just got back from his first trip. I know you and your new family are destined for many happy Disney trips to come.
Sounds like a wonderful and relaxing day in Epcot. I'm so with you on taking the boats and monorail over the buses they ARE more magical.
I think so too. I am sure it does take more time but somehow I feel like it doesnt. I love the monorail so much I think (or rather know) that is why we chose our first DVC purchase to be BLT. Can't be too far from the magic!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ttnmama
Just got all caught up! Many Congrats on the peanut. I saw the addition of the ticker and went to searching to find the story. I understand the infertility issue. My DH and I tried for 10 years off and on. Then, as you quoted Dumbo, that which brought us down brought us back up. Our house flooded during Hurricane Katrina, but when all was said and done with the insurance, we were able to rebuild, pay off some bills and adopt a baby. He is 4 know and we just got back from his first trip. I know you and your new family are destined for many happy Disney trips to come.
Thank you so much on the peanut thanks! I am honored my ticker inspired a search for the story. Sometimes I find it hard to believe it is real.
As to to the dumbo quote that is one I really have lived by through our struggle. Actually many disney quotes got me through. I think the most appropriate for any struggle to make a family is from the fairy godmother in Cinderella who says "Even miracles take a little time". I could not agree more and I am so happy your miracle got to you.
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We grabbed a CS meal for dinner and relaxed/ate in our room.
I saw the addition of the ticker and went to searching to find the story. I understand the infertility issue. My DH and I tried for 10 years off and on. Then, as you quoted Dumbo, that which brought us down brought us back up. Our house flooded during Hurricane Katrina, but when all was said and done with the insurance, we were able to rebuild, pay off some bills and adopt a baby. He is 4 know and we just got back from his first trip. I know you and your new family are destined for many happy Disney trips to come. 
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