From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 57 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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 Mark's back got better. I didn't think the ride was that rough when I rode it. They did a really good job with the theming of that ride. I'm with you anything over 20 minutes is too long to wait for some rides.
Liz
Cheryl - exactly what we're your dates for Disney on this trip, (specifically the second half of the trip) I cannot seem to find them. You were there for a portion of the Flower Show and you didn't seem to be overloaded with the crowds that others posted/complained about.
So, you wouldn't recommend FEA to someone with chronic back problems ? I have back issues and try to avoid rough rides like BTMRR, etc. I try to watch YouTube videos of different rides, but that's not nearly the same as first hand experience.
No I wouldn't. It is rough. It's the same ride as Maelstrom, but we both thought Frozen Ever After was much rougher than Maelstrom. There are a couple of points where I felt as if I was really being slammed around.
Ha! Well that is ironic that I said it's a smooth ride!
I know!
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I have a disc that likes to slip out from time to time, so I'm always paying attention to things like that. I tend to keep my abs super tight during rough rides and that helps greatly! But I didn't find the Frozen ride to be that bad at all.... Mark must have really jolted his back pretty badly then. Poor guy!
But on the plus side, it put it back in for him...
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Oh Eeyore. The sad face is why we love you so! I hope those don't sell.
Cheryl - exactly what we're your dates for Disney on this trip, (specifically the second half of the trip) I cannot seem to find them. You were there for a portion of the Flower Show and you didn't seem to be overloaded with the crowds that others posted/complained about.
Well, we were in Orlando from Friday 20 February - Sunday 5 March. This day was Thursday 2 March, which if I remember was about the first or second day of the festival?
Well, we were in Orlando from Friday 20 February - Sunday 5 March. This day was Thursday 2 March, which if I remember was about the first or second day of the festival?
The reason I asked was we might need to consider our dates to include early March (5th - ?) for our trip. Not ideal on my opinion but with my son's preschool schedule, church etc it might be preferable over waiting another 6 months and going in late October/November. I am truly trying to minimize the heat and crowds while still maxing the park day. All in all as long as we are in Disney I will be happy but I just want this trip to be extra special.
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Last edited by cattailmarsh; 05-09-2017 at 10:47 PM..
The reason I asked was we might need to consider our dates to include early March (5th - ?) for our trip. Not ideal on my opinion but with my son's preschool schedule, church etc it might be preferable over waiting another 6 months and going in late October/November. I am truly trying to minimize the heat and crowds while still maxing the park day. All in all as long as we are in Disney I will be happy but I just want this trip to be extra special.
I was happy with our dates in terms of crowds, although honestly, with the way Disney does things these days in terms of Fastpasses and events throughout the year, I don't think there's really a quiet time of the year to visit any longer.
Thursday 2 March – part three: beautiful butterflies…
We decided we’d do Butterflies on the Go before it became hotter later, as then there’s no way we’d want to be in there. I was glad we did, as we had a lot of butterfly action, and I loved the way my camera was able to capture them.
It was sad in a way, as I recognised some of the breeds, and they used to come to our garden when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen them out naturally in so many years now. I guess that’s down to declining populations…
In this shot, I was focused on one butterfly, when another arrived just as I took it, and booted the other one off the leaf – hence the blur in the shot…
We headed outside, and found more topiaries…
.. and then made our way over to the Land. Inside the standby wait time was already at 70 minutes. However, when we got to the section where Fastpass and standby mix together, the Cast Member was very chatty with someone in the standby line. He explained that they were operating only two of the three hangers today, as they weren’t expecting high crowds. Therefore, the wait time would be kept at 60 – 70 minutes for the day, with the expectation that actually it would take most people around 30 minutes to get through, which is what I’ve suspected Disney does for some time. Manage people’s expectations, and then when they get through a lot quicker than you advertised they would, and they’re going to be happy. If something goes wrong, then the chances are the wait time is going to be what you promised originally. Makes sense to me…
We ended up in the second row, and slightly to one side, but literally the closest to the middle section. Despite that, we still had distortion, particularly on the Eiffel Tower, Neuschwanstein Castle and the Taj Mahal. I don’t understand why Disney can’t do something about that, as it does distract you from the wonderful footage you’re watching. This time, I got a lot more of the scents during the film, which I haven’t had before, so maybe it wasn’t working properly previously or perhaps they turned it up, if that makes sense?
When we came out of there, we headed over to do Living With The Land, which was showing a 10 minute walk, but it was a walk-on.
I did experiment with my camera to see how it coped with low light conditions, and it wasn’t bad actually.
I was really glad we did this, as when we got into the greenhouses, there were lovely Flower and Garden Festival touches everywhere, and we also noticed small changes, which was nice.
Mark spotted these little footprints in the sand… perhaps Mickey’s nephew or cousin had been running about?
We were amazed to finally see people in the lab, I think it’s the first time it’s ever happened to us.
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I was glad we did, as we had a lot of butterfly action, and I loved the way my camera was able to capture them. 
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