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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great pictures! I remember my grandparents visiting Cypress Gardens when I was a kid, so it's cool to see some of it.
How neat! I wish I remembered more from my trip there as a kid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
These are called Cypress knees. They grow above the roots of the cypress trees generally in swampy areas to allow the roots to draw in oxygen. They are harvested by artists as a raw material for carvings.
Very cool...thanks for telling me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
The Banyan tree is beautiful!!!
it sure is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
That is the most impressive Banyan tree! These trees were probably my favorite part of Key West.
it is amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by clio
I'm glad to see that part of the gardens are still there. I've been to Cypress Gardens several times and enjoyed walking around them. The Southern belles used to stand by air conditioning units in the summer to keep cool.
Liz
We did move on but they were faster than me. They can’t leave anyways…I have the car keys.
I thought this was funny…as I had issues getting onto facebook at the park all day!
Isn’t this just so pretty?
Once we were done with the gardens we headed up towards the front. I knew we had not seen the whole park but we were kind of annoyed with the place and had no desire to stay any longer. We all agreed the Gardens was by far the best part of the park, but we also really enjoyed miniland.
Of course we had promised shopping for Claire so we tackled the stores. Skip is not a shopper and he often follows you around…I think to hurry you up. It annoys the heck out of me….but Claire had him with her this time.
I bought a magnet and Claire roamed and roamed.
We found that the prices were not good. They were even a bit higher than prices at places like Target. We told her to limit what she got and she could get something at home for cheaper and then we wouldn’t have to worry about packing. This was not so exciting to her. It also didn’t help that she was picking out some of the most expensive things, which we vetoed. It was becoming more of buying something for the sake of buying it rather than something she actually wanted.
After the shopping I think we made bathrooms stops and then worked our way out of the park.
We headed back out to the car and then made our way back towards Disney for our last night. The ride was long and boring and I am pretty sure Claire took a snooze once again in the backseat. I think we stopped for soft drinks once again before getting on the main highway. Again, this is not a short drive to Disney. I would say at least an hour. I have heard people say it’s less and it could depend on traffic or how fast you drive, but I would not expect to get there in less than an hour.
The gardens look beautiful and you captured some great pictures! Sorry the Lego store was so expensive. I know Claire was looking forward to her shopping spree.
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I agree, the gardens look like the best part. The Lego pelican in the water was cute!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
I loved the pelican too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
The gardens look beautiful and you captured some great pictures! Sorry the Lego store was so expensive. I know Claire was looking forward to her shopping spree.
She really was looking for something with UniKitty and it was sold out. We also checked at DTD later and they told us it was the most popular one and sells out all the time. She did get it for Easter though. That bunny kept watching and found it for her!
But she still thought she should just buy to buy and I wasn't a fan of that and Skip kept telling her no way. He did buy her something, though I no longer remember what set, but she was happy because he paid for it and she didn't have to use her own money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
The gardens are beautiful. I believe that they and Miniland would be my only reasons to go to this park.
It really is the only real reason I would ever think about going back...and if I go back it won't be till Gracie can enjoy it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Glad you at least enjoyed the gardens and Miniland!
It was a long day, but those areas were great highlights. I just wish we enjoyed the rest of the park better.
Our next stop was at Old Key West. I was knocking off another hotel on my bucket list of trying to stay at all resorts at some point in time.
We pulled in and it was hard to find a parking spot, but someone pulled out and I took it and then went in to check in. I was kind of tired and grumpy at that point, but the lady was pleasant. I totally forgot to request a first floor room…I always do, not sure why I forgot…but I asked if there was one available and she said no. I told her we had a lot of bags and it would be hard for us to carry up the stairs but she said we could put a call in for someone to do that. I had no desire to wait for someone to come and do that. I asked if she could check again for a first floor as it was kind of important to us and she said no, everyone else who got them today were for medical reasons…..if I had been thinking straight I would’ve brought up Skips THREE hip replacements…however I wasn’t thinking. I knew I would be carrying those bags up the steps and yet I wasn’t smart enough to tell her the reason why I was the one to carry them up. Yes, Skip can carry them too, but I knew he would pull the hip card. So then she points out our building and room. I think we were in one of the furthest buildings away from the main building….again not impressed and asked for something closer and she told me no, it was pretty full. Dang it. She handed me the parking pass and told me that parking had just gone up this week at the parks too. Wow! It had gone up while we had been cruising.
So I join my family and we drive all the way back to our building.
I parked and Skip said he wasn’t bothering with bags till later on. I told him to grab one now as I wanted to go through them and he said no. I was a little annoyed to say the least.
We went in the room and Claire showed Skip how to use the bands to open the door, but then let him know that it was her job to do so and then they plopped on the beds and I went down to get the bags and I explored our area a little bit.
The good thing was, we were pretty close to the bus stop.
I was working up a nice sweat…and this was my family.
A tour of our room.
The room was VERY spacious.
Now I have been told since I have come home that many of the buildings do have an elevator to use….I do not recall seeing one for ours, but I just might have never noticed it. If there was one though, I am annoyed that I wasn’t told about it. I freshened up a bit and got ready for our evening. I told Skip we were meeting some people before dinner. I really had not told him about this meet till this day because he thinks it’s weird to meet people sometimes. He didn’t seem to mind though, and even if he did….too bad! LOL.
Our dinner was to be at 8:30 tonight at T-rex and we were going to meet Michael and his wife Judy from Passporters around 8 or 8:15 if I remember right. Michael and I communicated before the trip a bit and exchanged numbers. He ended up booking a T-rex around the same time too so we figured we would meet each other before dinner.
All of a sudden Skip was in a rush to get to DTD. We headed to the bus stop as I knew DTD was a mess with parking at the time. We asked what bus to get on to get to the main building and some lovely people explained the bus system to us a bit. Basically we could get on any bus, but always double check that they were stopping up there. I had debated driving up there but with the small parking lot I just didn’t want to chance not finding a spot.
We rode the bus up there and then headed to the boat dock.
The boat was there and we got right on before it left and we started on our way. Even though I thought we had left with plenty of time to spare, it was soon apparent that we were running late. And Skip seemed to be extra worried about it, which surprised me. Come to find out he thought we were meeting Michael and Judy 15 minutes earlier than our planned meet. LOL. I did text Michael to let him know we were on our way, but the boat was pretty slow.
They did do some trivia games as we sailed along and that passed the time.
My phone rang and it was Michael telling me they were there. It was hard to hear as the boat was loud…but I shouted to him that we were running late but on our way.
Soon we saw this lovely sight.
As we excited the boat the balloon was coming down.
DTD was busy, crowded and had construction walls all over the place.
I led us the completely wrong way at first. Well it used to be the right way, but the construction wall had us come to a dead in so we had to turn around and go a different way.
We found Judy and Michael fairly quickly and started chatting away.
Skip kind of kept quiet. He was not super friendly the whole night really and I do apologize to Michael and Judy about that. He wasn’t mean or anything, just quiet. I think it’s because he just didn’t know them at all and I think he thought I knew them for years…even before I met him….not sure why he thought that. LOL.
So after chatting a bit, Michael and Skip go to check us both in. I am not exactly sure how it happened but Skip said the guy at the podium asked if they knew each other and would it be fine to sit together and they agreed so now we were going to be sitting together for dinner…..which was a nice treat. And I believe we could be seated then if I remember right (and I might not be as it’s been almost a year ago. LOL).
We all got seated with Claire, Skip and I one side of the table and Judy and Michael on the other. Claire was extremely shy and Judy did her best to try to talk to her but she just sat that and pretended like she didn’t hear or would look at me. I sat across from Michael and we chatted about Disney, cameras and our trips. Skip and Judy sat across from each other for the most part and talked a bit too. It was noisy in there so it was hard to hear those 2 from where I was sitting but we did our best.
Judy got a little wild.
Claire refused to wear it but Judy had no issues. LOL!
I took a few pictures around the place too.
I could hear Skip grumbling about the prices. I should’ve done the dining plan for this one day just to keep him happy. I always know when he has to pay out of pocket he grumbles.
I think he went with a steak…maybe with ribs too…or was it chicken?...…No wonder he grumbled….he wanted one of the most expensive things on the menu.
Claire went with steak as well and I went with the appetizer combo.
It’s hard to get good pictures in here with all the strange lighting.
There’s Michael in the background….I wasn’t on my game and we never did get a picture together.
Claire’s steak.
This food colored blue doesn’t look quite as appetizing. LOL.
The meteor shower went off a few times.
I really love this place.
I must’ve gotten up and took some pictures…perhaps taking Claire to the bathroom.
A few weeks before our trip the aquarium here had broke. I had wondered if it would be fixed by the time we arrived….Nope, they had a fake overlay though.
At one point Skip asked how long we had known each other. For some reason Skip thought we had known each other for ages…long before him….nope. I told him I had only been on Passporters for about 3 or 4 years at the time and that’s where we met. It was almost like he was jealous that we were chatting away. Poor guy. LOL.
This aquarium was still intact.
I love the ice bar here.
At one point Michael asked me how my older 2 kids were doing. I looked at Skip and we smiled. My son is famous for going from job to job. For some reason he thinks he should have some manager position at every place he works and he has no experience. I think he was between jobs at this point in time….though he may have started a new one by then. (He quits before he has a new one lined up….He doesn’t use his head to much at times). And my daughter Paige…..I had to stumble over that one. Paige was expecting …Gracie….at the time, but only a handful of people knew it. Claire did not yet, nor had she told my parents yet. I just kind of said fine and left it at that. LOL.
Our meal had come to an end. I had thought going in I would get dessert but I couldn’t even eat my whole appetizer so I didn’t even attempt dessert. I thought it was excellent. Skip wasn’t impressed….but his opinion doesn’t count. He is famous for not liking places I like….I think he does it just for spite.
We said our goodbyes and headed out. I was planning on shopping and Skip did not want to. He wanted to know how to get back to OKW so I gave him his options. Skip then tells me he has never seen me smile so much as when I was talking to Michael and my face must hurt. LOL! I guess he is used to me scowling at him over his dumb jokes! Hahaha.
We chatted a bit then parted ways and Claire and I headed towards the Lego Store.
I think Claire made a purchase here and then we headed to World of Disney.
I was in the search for the 2015 zip up sweatshirt. And I could not find it anywhere in the store. I had seen it in the parks every single day and decided to wait till we came back to buy it.
I gave up after a while and asked a CM who told me they were sold out. She said she could see which parks still had them in stock, but that wouldn’t do me good as I was done with the parks. I figured I would check out the OKW shop and hope to find one there……spoiler…I did not…but luckily I went back in August and I was able to pick one up then.
We also ran into Judy and Michael again while shopping and chatted a bit.
We shopped around and I found a shirt I really liked but not in my size. I had them look to see if one was in stock but the only place that had it in stock was in a park and again, we weren’t going to any.
I did get this one I believe.
I thought this shirt was so cute.
I now wish I had bought it.
With purchases in hand….and I can’t remember what we bought, we headed back outside.
I think we may have popped in a few more stores and then headed to the bus stop. DTD was pretty busy and quite a mess to navigate with all the walls.
We arrived back at OKW and got off at our stop. I am going to take a short minute to talk about OKW. It’s a very nice resort, but if you don’t have a car I think getting around can be hard. I don’t like driving around at WDW. I prefer the buses…I know that’s not for everyone, but I just rather have the driving done for me. At OKW, in order to get to other areas of the resort it takes a long time, so it’s better to drive…..but I was always worried about finding a parking spot up front too. I might have missed another lot and didn’t realize it, but the lot I saw was fairly small. The resort was so big too. If you want to get something to eat or fill your mug, it could take quite some time to get up to the main building by bus. The resort is very nice though and the rooms are very spacious.
We made our way back to our room and Skip was there….glad he found his way back! We asked if he had any problems and he said no. He said he had actually walked around DTD a bit and watched some entertainment and I think had a beer too. He took the boat back and on the boat he “made a friend too”, which we giggled about since Claire had made a friend on the cruise and talked about her nonstop. We asked his name and Skip didn’t know, but we named him Amando since Claire’s friend had been named Amanda. He said that Amando and him talked the whole way back and he had his truck parked up at the main building and gave Skip a ride back to our building so he got back much faster than taking the bus. Of course we teased him about his new found friend and asked if they had plans to meet up the next day.
We all hit the sack. Tomorrow we would be going home, but we still had half of a day to enjoy the last bits of our vacation. The plan was to let Claire swim as much as she wanted and just laze around. We had to be out of our room by 11 but we figured we would just get lunch and if the mood struck us we could go resort hopping as well till it was time to leave for the airport. Well you know how plans and my husband go….the day ended up being totally different……
Sorry you didn't get a first floor room. If I remember right, at Old Key West, only a few of the buildings, generally those nearest Hospitality House, have elevators, so there's every chance yours didn't have on, if that makes you feel any better...
Great dinner with Michael and Judy - so lovely to see photos of them, just a couple of weeks after we met them.
Sorry you didn't get a first floor room. If I remember right, at Old Key West, only a few of the buildings, generally those nearest Hospitality House, have elevators, so there's every chance yours didn't have on, if that makes you feel any better...
Great dinner with Michael and Judy - so lovely to see photos of them, just a couple of weeks after we met them.
Good to know!
It was a treat to have dinner with them. They are both so nice and friendly.
I have the same t-shirt. I really like it! I don't think I've mentioned yet that I LOVE the matching Disneyland zip-up sweatshirts that you and Claire have! I hope I can find something just as cute when I go to Disneyland this summer. Hopefully they will have some good merchandise for the 60th anniversary.
Your room at OKW looks really nice. Too bad the resort is so big and you're so far from the main building
I do love the size of the rooms at OKW, but I do agree that it sprawls, making getting anywhere from many of buildings quite the ordeal. Dinner sounded very fun!
The dinner meeting was GREAT. Getting to meet you and the family was very enjoyable. It was like we had known each other for a long time. (OK, that would apply to you and me.) I didn't mean to leave Skip out even though I am sue that it seemed that way. Judy has gotten used to my getting sidetracked and talking about Disney so she does not get too upset with me. (At least she says she is not upset.) T-Rex is one of our favorite restaurants even though it is very noisy. Judy and I did not have an ADR for that evening. We are members of the Landry's Club which gives us first available seating. That is what I used to bypass the long line. You would have thought that with both of us carrying DSLR cameras we would have gotten at least one pic with all of us. Glad you caught Judy as the T-Rex. She is a good sport and is always trying on various hats. It would be fun to catch up with you on another trip.
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These trees were probably my favorite part of Key West. 
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