Well That's not what I expected.....TR May 2011 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I can't wait to go back to TH in September. And that juice! YUMMY! I'll be drinking that every day since I'm pretty sure that the same juice is served in the lounge.
What a funny story about the safari sounds like everyone had a great time. Love the food reviews, we love the breakfast at Tusker House, the juice is delicious.
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Sounds great so far!
We did a surprise trip in January and surprised our boys (9 and 15) with a sweet 16th "unbirthday" trip for the oldest as we were leaving our Carnival cruise...heck, we were practically in the neighbourhood so we had to go, right???
Anyway, they were a little stunned, too, but our youngest just kept bringing it up the whole trip, sort of like "pinch me - am I dreaming?" ...i can't believe we are here....we should have been going back to school today, but here we are at WDW.....you are the best mom ever - do you think other kids ever get surprises like this....that sort of thing. It was pretty cool. I bet when your kids talk about it with their friends you are big heroes right now! You know they will remember this the rest of their lives too, and the whole chocolate thing will just get funnier!
We like the same part of Pop as you do - we were placed there by luck our first visit and then went back over by the bowling ball pool. While the whole resort is laid out really nicely, we did end up lugging a sleeping toddler back from the bus each night and the walk was definitely easier over by the playground.
This was such a great day. So relaxed and free. The weather was a nice 89'f perfect for me.
We started as normal. At the gate 7:40am for breakfast. This morning was at Hollywood and vine. I love the new characters and dancing they do. Devyn had fun but wouldn't dance. He was to busy eating Mickey waffles with Strawberry sauce.
When we were full we headed out and got to hear rope drop from behind the buildings.Near this
When the CM gave us the green light we wandered to the hat but were temporary distracted us.
After the distractions were over we meet the masses at TSMM. We skipped the FP. The ride wasn't open yet so the line looked huge, we lined up way back near the fire station. We moved so fast the sign said 50 min. nope it was maybe 20. see the line
after that we crossed the street to meet Buzz and Woody. We love the photo spots but some people just let their kids do what ever. So People were rushing through the photos bottle necking to the end. I wanted to tell them speeding through wasn't going to speed up Buzz.
When we finally made it to Buzz and Woody We positioned Devyn so he couldn't see who it was till the family before us was clear (didn't want them to have an adopted kid). So when he rounded the coner he RAN to Buzz. First thing the boy does? Tries to push his buttons to make the noises like his at home. But more important Woody was being snubbed. Poor Woody. Then Buzz went for the high five and missed and clocked Devyn in the head. Devyn made the Buzz noise like his button was pushed, Whew that could have been bad.
After we decided to stay in the back area since lunch was at Mama's so we went right and found the the backlot tour (5min wait). It was a first for us. We got held up on it for a moment with a good view of the cars for the stunt show, I think it was just a warm up but Devyn was happy. As we were walking off Mike and Sully were just coming out and had only 3 families in line so we stopped to say HI. Devyn tried to scary Mike so he jumped back. I love Disney.
We made our way to Muppets (Crysta's fave) and a walk in. As always funny. We had about 45min til lunch so time to let the kids run, the best place... Honey I shrunk the kids. They added some new stuff or maybe I just don't remember them. the water wall in the little section?
Ahh lunch time. Mama Melrose. We had the best waitress she gave great suggestions to max the plan and told the kids "only one piece of bread, to share, there was tons of food coming" She brought Becky's out in sections like ours so she didn't fell excluded and for Devyn she got him his own plate with every course. The food was great too.
Starwars was still closed til the 20th.but we could play there
Abandoned ship I'm being taken over
Lunch was done and where to go? Crysta choice to go draw. So we headed to Pixar place but made a pit stop to the great movie ride on the way. We have only ever seen the western one but this time we got the gangster. When we got to the Alien part I covered Becky's eyes more because it drops down but Devyn refused to hide his eyes and busted out " oh cool" our car laughed as the gangster tried to acted scared after that.
Moving on we saw a 5 min wait to see Little mermaid so we jumped in line. I love the cool mistyness of this show.
OK now to what Crysta wanted. we watched the movie (we had a 10 min wait) then saw a few friends with very small lines, then found a seat to wait to learn to draw. We drew Jiminy.
We had our teacher sign our work and headed off to see Indiana Jones. Devyn loved this show last year, still does.
Then to Crysta real love here. Rockin' roller coasted. So while D and Crysta rode the first time Becky and I went looking for some snacks, Staring roles was closed (by 5min) So that was out. We went in the the villian's store and got 3 cotton candys and 3 chocolate covered strawberries. The girl put them in the system wrong so we had a problem paying but the girl next to her fixed it. then we grabbed a red powerade on the way down to tower of terror. Becky had been so gun-ho to do it til her sister got in her head. Sadly I did not get to ride. As I got to RR Crysta and D were off. So I sent them for a 2nd while I got Becky settled with her drink and a strawberry. and before she was finished they were back. I got my turn and knew why they were so fast. the time said 5min but we walked right on. So the Daddy daughter duo rode a 3rd time (4 for Crysta).
Up next was Dinner. We needed to see our Aunt Claire at 50's PT. The kids loved watching the old TVs while we waited. We were seated fast and were in a good section. Our room was friendly and we were all getting time outs. We would put our elbows on the table and get yelled at, So my lovely tween asked "can we put our knees on the table?" Aunt Claire told her she could if she could do it with her "tush still in the seat." Aunt Claire was smitten with Devyn as he used all his manners and played too, he pretended to sleep at the table so she said she was going to drink his shake (she made him his own since he didn't "like" aka want the kind others had ordered.)
We took some photos then headed to main street for some last shots before jumping on the bus. Walked on the bus and we were swimming.
We did a lot but did not rush or go commando style, we just seemed to have great timing, would this continue?
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