Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 51 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The recognition portion of the luncheon would have had me very teary eyed. I can' imagine not having my PassPorter or this website to help with all things Disney and with life in general. The quest looks like so much fun, too!
After our energy adventure, it was off to Club Cool for a drink stop and this is where Wendy and I decided to bow out, as we wanted a break before the Fantasmic! dessert party later. It’s a shame, but sometimes you need to recharge your batteries.
Before we did, we headed into MouseGears for a shopping spree and I found lots for Mark, a Pooh and Piglet together with a message saying “I miss you”. How appropriate. I knew instantly that I had to get it for him. I also found two T-shirts for him and a couple of great Epcot fridge magnets. I don’t know if it’s me, but there do seem to be a lot more fridge magnets at Disney this vacation.
Those purchases made, we headed towards the entrance and on the way, I found our Leave A Legacy tile and showed Wendy. Gosh, that was 10 years ago now that we did that, on our honeymoon. It’s a great shame that they don’t still do this, as it would be lovely to do an another one in December, 10 years on.
We stopped for a Photopass picture on the way out, but this time I asked if we could get a photo by the Beauty and the Beast topiary and the photographer was only too happy to oblige.
Then it was out and we just missed a monorail, but that was OK, as we were the first ones there for the next one, so you can guess what my next question was to the Cast Member – can we go in the front cab? And we were able to!
It was a fun ride over there. I do love riding this at least once every visit. We transferred to the resort monorail at the Ticket and Transportation Centre (no front cab here) and headed back to the Contemporary and our room.
Once there, my first stop was the ice machine to ice my ankle and that darned insect bite, as it was killing again and was pretty inflamed. Wendy gave me one of her strong painkillers, which helped as well.
That done, I went to get some photos from the fire escape at the end of our corridor, which Wendy kept reminding me to do, as you can see more of the Wilderness Lodge area from there. It was a pretty neat view, although I spent most of my time there terrified that the fire door would shut on me and I’d never get back in again.
We sat there for a while in the room, just chilling and, after a while, we went to the shops on the fourth floor to see if I could find a Band-Aid for my insect bite and they had an insect bite kit, perfect for me. I suggested to Wendy that perhaps I should have a look in BVG, as usually I like the stuff in there and I knew that she wanted to get me a present. As happened last time, they had some great things in here that I hadn’t seen anywhere else so far and I fell in love with a yellow Walt Disney World T-shirt, except the only problem was that they didn’t have it in our size. Fortunately the Cast Member found one in the back, so I left Wendy to get it for me, as it was a present after all and I headed back to the room to tackle my bite.
Finally, it was time to head to the Studios for our Fantasmic! dessert party and wee went to catch a bus over there. The bus stop at the Contemporary isn’t exactly well laid out. There’s just one area for all the buses and, when we walked over there, we saw one leave. Oh well, if it was a Studios bus, too bad. When we got there, we started talking to a guy who it turned out worked in the concierge at the Contemporary. He had been waiting for a Downtown Disney bus for 40 minutes. He told us that the bus that we’d just seen leave hadn’t been a Studios bus, which was good, but the picture he painted of the Disney bus service wasn’t good and we began to wonder if we would make it in time or if we would have to take a taxi. Fortunately, luck was on our side and the first bus that showed up was for the Studios. It was great for us, but I felt sorry for the guy who had to carry on his wait for the Downtown Disney bus. I dread to think how long he waited in the end.
We stopped at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian on the way to the Studios and, at both stops, people asked if this was the bus for Downtown Disney, so I guess he wasn’t the only one waiting on that bus.
We made it to the Studios just after 7.00 and headed through the bagless entrance (such a nice feeling and I wish I could do that more often, but sadly it’s just not usually possible for me, by the time I have to bring in my lens case, glasses, sun tan lotion, trip report notebook – you get the idea! ). Our first stop was for some Photopass pics. The first guy we came to said “PassPorters, there’s a meet t 7.30, isn’t there?” How nice to be famous! When I asked him to get show with both the hat and the Crossroads of the World behind us, he said “yes, anything for a PassPorter”. Sweet…
We walked through the park, stopping for a few more Photopass pics on the way:
Larry: That's about how much of my cake I could eat too!! Oh to have been able to take a doggie bag with plenty of that!
My friend, we take AWESOME photos together, you know that?
You know, I totally forgot to even go down the corridor with you. Glad I could get you exactly what you wanted!!!
Oh, wasn't that a treat to be able to ride up front? We also always try to get upfront at least once, but of course it doesn't work when all 6 of us are there, as two usually have to sit out.
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Great updates Cheryl!! Your photos of lunch and the presentation to Dave and JEnnifer were wonderful - you when you spoke from the heart - you spoke for all of us!
Great updates, Cheryl! I never even thought about there being insect bite kits in the gift shops. I'll have to remember that just in case. The PhotoPass pictures of you and Wendy are super, too!
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I also found two T-shirts for him and a couple of great Epcot fridge magnets. I don’t know if it’s me, but there do seem to be a lot more fridge magnets at Disney this vacation. 
and I headed back to the room to tackle my bite. 
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