Our "Let's Try This Again" Trip Report UPDATED: 11/1 - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just came across your TR...WOW! You guys are amazing! Too come all the way from Cali and have the energy you have! I tell ya, me and hubby are dead for at least a couple of days! LOL We have NEVER made it to an opening of a park either! LOL Sounds like you had a blast! We were just there in August too! I think it's awesome you have had so many cool experiences with CM's! From one DL goer to another ! Can't wait to hear more!!
Glad to see you back...hoping that the medical and computer issues have passed. What an amazing day. Looks like lots of fun at DHS, sorry that the server at 50's did not play her part as well but glad that you both enjoyed lunch anyway. Looks like a great afternoon at AK, how cool that the CM recognized you and how special that the CM that Roger traded pins with and gave the card too treasured the thank you card so much as well. That is really a perfect example of Disney magic from both ends
What a great day you had. I didn't know that about the benches. WHat a neat thing to learn today. Love all the pics. Can't wait to go to AK and actually stay long enough to see the parade. Its always too hot for us. Looking forward to more. Hurry back.
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Day 5 (8/12/09)
Today is a busy day! Our actual 16th wedding anniversary was June 26 but we waited until we got to WDW to celebrate. Today is the day we chose to celebrate our anniversary.
We started off the day at the Magic Kingdom having breakfast at Crystal Palace with Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Woods (my favorite characters!).
A rare look at an almost empty Main Street before the park opened.
A view of the castle without any people in the picture.
Crystal Palace – one of my favorite restaurants.
Pooh and I sharing a smackerel of honey!
We always love to see piglet since he is not a meet & greet character at DL.
to be continued...
__________________
Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
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Shortly after breakfast, Roger left to catch the boat to Fort Wilderness for one of his favorite things – the Backtrails Segway Tour! The two castmembers (Robert & Ron) leading the tour remembered him from last time (2 years ago) and let him demonstrate some of the maneuvers to the group of 5 on the tour. After some training, they rode through Fort Wilderness and then on the path to Wilderness Lodge and back. Roger had a great time as usual!
Segway tour castmembers – Robert & Ron
Roger having fun on his Segway!
While he was on his tour, I stayed at the MK to do some of the attractions that he does not care for as much as well as my favorite (BTMRR!). I also visited Country Bear Jamboree and The Enchanted Tiki Room and climbed the Swiss Family Tree House. I rode Winnie the Pooh, spun on the teacups, watched Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party and ate a Mickey Bar while exiting the park to meet up with Roger.
The view from the Swiss Family Treehouse
to be continued...
__________________
Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
Trying to get a picture of the mouse from a spinning tea cup.
Mickey in Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it!
After meeting up again at WL, we went to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours to cool off in the afternoon.
Miss Tilly
Roger started off on Crush n’ Gusher before we headed over to the Storm Slides. After that we headed to the back of the park to do Keelhaul Falls & Mayday Falls.
Crush n’ Gusher
to be continued...
__________________
Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
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Since the line was too long for the family raft ride, we headed into Castaway Creek instead. After going around the park one and half times, we ended our afternoon in the Surf Pool before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Relaxing in Castaway Creek
Roger in the Surf Pool
Our favorite Anniversary splurge while at WDW is The California Grill. We love the food, the castmembers, the atmosphere and seeing the MK fireworks from way up there! We were not disappointed as we had another great celebration this year! We had wanted a reservation for 8:45 p.m. so we could time it just right to watch the 10:00 p.m. fireworks from our table, but all they had available was 7:35 p.m. Judi tried for weeks to get us in later but they never did have a cancellation. At first they told us we would have to leave after dinner and then we could come back to watch the fireworks from the balcony but in the end, we got to stay at our window view table and watch them from there.
View of the castle from our table
As for the food….we started with the triple cheese flatbread and then shared the cheese Ravioli with Sun-dried tomatoes for our first course. For the main course, Roger ordered the Grilled Pork Tenderloin and I had the Oak-fired Filet of Beef with the teriyaki barbecue sauce. They were both melt in your mouth delicious!
The triple cheese flatbread!
Of course we had to order dessert with the fireworks!
Roger had the Trio of Temptation (cheesecake with Pistachio Cookie and chocolate banana sauce, White chocolate mousse with passion fruit Puree and California strawberries with Mojito “Sabayon”).
to be continued....
__________________
Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
I had the warm molten chocolate cake with the house-made cherry swirl ice cream.
As for the castmember….we had a great time with our waitress Kelly! Since they knew we were celebrating our anniversary, they had put Mickey confetti on our table. We were making designs with it when Kelly remarked that she is always amazed at how the guests come up with so many different things to design with the confetti. After she left, Roger got the idea to spell out “Hi Kelly” on our table with the confetti.
Roger’s message to our waitress spelled out with the Mickey Confetti.
He showed it to her once it was done and she got so excited. She said she’s never had anyone do that before. She kept coming up with excuses to come by our table so she could see it. We took a picture with her and the message on our table at the end of our meal!
Kelly, Roger and I and her special message!
As for the fireworks….even though it had rained earlier during dinner, the windows were dry by fireworks time and we had a great view! They dim the lights in the restaurant and pipe in the soundtrack to the show. It is pretty spectacular to watch them from 15 floors up! It was the perfect ending to a really fun day!
Ta! Da! That’s a wrap! The ending to a very fun day!
One more thing…When we got back to the room, we found a cute little bear holding a flower for our towel animal for today!
More to come….
__________________
Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
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