Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 52 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Amazing updates. The Birthday Party at the Coral Reef looked amazing. What a special treat, and I really hope Jennifer and Dave realize how special a place they created. I loved the idea of the gift you gave them, as well as the frames they had on the tables. The food looked delicious.
Glad you had some fun at the Epcot Quest...sorry that the bite is still bothering you. Hope the bug bite kit helped some. I love all the PP pictures of you both at the Studios. Can't wait to hear all about the dessert party.
Sunday 3 May part seven: heading backstage for dessert heaven
When we got to the courtyard of RocknRoller Coaster, we found Dawn and Tina and, before long, we found a big group of familiar faces with Jennifer and Dave coming along a few moments later. We had time to kill, but it went by really quickly, as we were all chatting away, like good PassPorters do and taking lots of photos.
Soon the WIB or Women in Black, otherwise known as Beci, Sara and Coleen (I think thats right) from Mouse Fan Travel were arriving to check us all in and hand out wristbands.
Then we had to wait for a few more minutes before they let us into the backstage area and we were told once again no cameras and to put them away.
One final shot before we headed backstage
I joked that I might have a problem with the size of mine, but I just covered it up. As we went behind the scenes, we got a great view of Tower of Terror (nowhere near as beautiful as at Tokyo Disney though) and we all kept joking that Sharon would be in heaven and that we might have to carry her, as she might faint from the excitement!
We had to climb a fair amount of steps to get to our private party area and, as we kept joking, we were going to need that dessert party when we got there, after all that exercise! Those steps brought us out to the private party area, which is right at the back of the amphitheatre, but dead centre, and there waiting for us were a couple of tables of desserts, along with a table of things like water, fruit punch (not alcoholic!), which was very good and some hot drinks.
It was amazing how quickly everyone dug into the desserts. Sara had earlier warned us that there would be a lot of food and she wasnt kidding. Now I have to say that I love desserts and chocolate, but this just proved to be too much for me. Lovely, but my goodness, they were rich and way too much for me. I tried a couple of cakes, a lemon slice (about the only light option there) and the chocolate, peanut butter and marshmallow cake, but the latter was too American to me and tasted weird to me. Im sorry, but peanut butter and I will never be friends. :
We had an hour before Fantasmic! and we just passed the time by eating, drinking, chatting away and taking lots of photos.
It was a beautiful evening, not too hot and not too cold and it was just perfect. I was very glad that we had booked the package and it was such a nice treat to be able to enjoy this.
Wasn't that just a FANTASMIC night? Of the two times I've seen the show, this was definitely the best: the best weather. the best company. the best FOOD!
Having been on my Lifestyle Change since Jan. and really watching my desserts, I found those desserts to be too much for me and had me wishing for something other than chocolate(a catastrophe!). But of course that was after I ate that YUMMY rocky road bar: the peanut butter(yum yum chez!)chocolate and marshmallow. Talk about rich!!
That was when Larry won my heart forever! I was sitting there holding my bar and it was melting and I said, oh I knew I should have gotten a fork! He looked at me and offered to get it, he was all ready to get up too!! I declined the offer though as I just didn't want him to put down his own dessert get up just for me!
I was completely blown away by the kind gesture, the men in my everyday life are just not as, (oh what do I want to say??) well mannered as Bob and Larry are and Larry, you are the best!
I really enjoyed going behind the scenes and seeing the Tower, although really, everything is themed for on stage, isn't it?
Thanks Mouse Fan Travel for throwing this party for us!! We had a blast!!
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Great update! I think that this is the best way to see Fantasmic. I did the dessert party in 2007 and it spoiled me forever.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?