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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Holy cow that is a lot of people!!! Sorry you were having a bad day. Way to go on the Club level.
It was a great day, just one reallyyyy big hiccup!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Oh, wow! What a mess! I think I would have not been happy it I had paid for a Theme Park view and that is what I had received!! I have been pricing those theme park views and they are not cheap! I know it is still not the best view, but I am glad you at least got club level and a special viewing spot for Wishes! I think I would have cried a little too, maybe a lot!!!
Thank you, I'm so glad I'm not alone in feeling that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness, those crowds for the Magic Kingdom were just insane!
I'm so glad you were able to sort something out with the view - after all, they'd sold you and you'd paid for a theme park view and then not to provide one just isn't on. It's only right that they eventually came through for you.
Any other night of the year I wouldn't have cared and would have just accepted the lower priced room, but I mean, you saw MK that morning, there was just NO WAY I was braving any of that crazy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
WOWZA!!! The crowds!! We didn't even try to go to MK on the 31st last year when we were there! Sorry you had all the troubles with your room, but nice score on the club level!
Yep I don't think I would ever try, especially with the fireworks being offered the night before as well! I learned that they didn't start letting people in again until 8pm!
Apparently I didn't get to starting this soon enough as I feel I'm so far behind. Sorry about the problems with your baggage when you arrived. Glad it was sorted out though. Seems like you've had bad luggage mojo recently.
The GF looked amazing. And the crowds looked insane. Seems like you were able to deal with them ok. Must have made some good planning choices.
What a ride with the Theme Park View debacle. I wouldn't be happy if I had been expecting TPV and got what you did. I would have probably taken CL though. But that view wasn't anything to write home about. Hopefully the private beach viewing area works out for you!
The crowd both of people and cars trying to get into the MK are ginormous. You all made the right decision to forego a park this day. I kept turning my laptop around so Luke could see your pictures of the train layout at the Yacht Club. He has many of the same pieces in his own layout. Glad you all enjoyed Raglan Road. It has quickly become a favorite for Luke and me. What a mess with the room! Glad it was mainly straightened out.
Holy Moly with the mass of people! I'm glad you had a great time at RR! Great pictures from the Epcot resorts! Sorry about the mess with your room at the Poly! I wouldn't have been happy either! At least they finally upgraded you to club! More please!
Sounds like you had a nice evening at MK despite the crowds. Looks like a great meal at Tortuga Tavern. The crowds going into MK on NYE was insane!!! There is no way I would have ever dealt with that sea of people. Sounds like you had a nice lunch at Raglan Road. Sorry about the problems with your room, but congrats on getting a club level room!!
Sorry for your troubles! I can feel your frustration with the view situation. After all you did pay for a theme park view. But hey, you got upgraded to CL so not all is bad.
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Apparently I didn't get to starting this soon enough as I feel I'm so far behind. Sorry about the problems with your baggage when you arrived. Glad it was sorted out though. Seems like you've had bad luggage mojo recently.
The GF looked amazing. And the crowds looked insane. Seems like you were able to deal with them ok. Must have made some good planning choices.
What a ride with the Theme Park View debacle. I wouldn't be happy if I had been expecting TPV and got what you did. I would have probably taken CL though. But that view wasn't anything to write home about. Hopefully the private beach viewing area works out for you!
I had a lot of time to work on it this weekend I don't know how we managed to avoid a lot of the crowds, it helped that there really wasn't anything we felt we "had" to do... except see the fireworks! And I was just happy to actually see the Lagoon at all, it turned out pretty great, you could see bits of the fireworks from our new room
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
The crowd both of people and cars trying to get into the MK are ginormous. You all made the right decision to forego a park this day. I kept turning my laptop around so Luke could see your pictures of the train layout at the Yacht Club. He has many of the same pieces in his own layout. Glad you all enjoyed Raglan Road. It has quickly become a favorite for Luke and me. What a mess with the room! Glad it was mainly straightened out.
The train was so intricate! We spent quite a bit of time walking all around it and taking in all the details
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Holy Moly with the mass of people! I'm glad you had a great time at RR! Great pictures from the Epcot resorts! Sorry about the mess with your room at the Poly! I wouldn't have been happy either! At least they finally upgraded you to club! More please!
Coming right up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Sounds like you had a nice evening at MK despite the crowds. Looks like a great meal at Tortuga Tavern. The crowds going into MK on NYE was insane!!! There is no way I would have ever dealt with that sea of people. Sounds like you had a nice lunch at Raglan Road. Sorry about the problems with your room, but congrats on getting a club level room!!
We ended up with lots of tasty food on this trip, including from the Club Lounge
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Sorry for your troubles! I can feel your frustration with the view situation. After all you did pay for a theme park view. But hey, you got upgraded to CL so not all is bad.
Yep, wasn't what we had planned on but everything has a way of working out
December 31st, 2013: Day 3, Part 3 - Club Level Life
Let me start by saying, if there’s ever a time to splurge for Club Level at the Poly, New Year’s Eve has got to be it. They really went above and beyond to give us a great NYE experience
After just a bit of rest, we headed on over to the lounge to investigate. And I don’t know if it was just the stress of the afternoon or the exhaustion, but this was my favorite night of food offerings! They offer cheese and crackers each night, and two-three hot items that differ each day. There is also a kids option each night. This is from 5-7pm.
Conch Fritters and Veggie Cornucopias
Lounge Christmas Tree
Adult beverage options
We ate a bit and headed back to the room for more rest. My friend from High School was actually here with her family too, and they were doing the Luau tonight so I was waiting for her text saying she was here to go say hi to her and her fam My mom was napping pretty hard - she was coming down with a sinus infection, not sure if I mentioned this at this point yet. But it was just started to get bad now.
Also sometime with all this happening I worked on tracking down my Disney Florist package. Since our original plan was for us to be by ourselves in the room, I had ordered us some Rosa Regale, snacks, and champagne flutes. My package wasn’t on the reservation when we checked in and it hadn’t showed up yet. It showed up, however it was NOT what I ordered, well not all of it anyway. There were no flutes and none of the savory snacks. Less of an issue now, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t just pay close to $200 for 3 bottles and a box of chocolate covered pretzels.
I ask to be connected to the Disney Florist but have to dial myself. Okay that’s fine. I get a hold of them and they say the “Wine Garden” was no where on my order, just the individual items I had, but I was only charged a little over $100. WHEW. I missed my flutes but was not about to deal with it further, I was happy to have our champagne and our lounge!
Cait arrived around 7pm and I went and met them in the lobby. We had a great time catching up, she works for ESPN now in Connecticut so she was interested in potentially buying into DVC so I was telling her family all about it.
I walked them over to the Luau, said our goodbyes and then headed back to the room to check on my mom. We wanted to test out the fireworks area and camera settings during Holiday Wishes which was at 8:30pm so I nudged her awake to ask if she wanted to come with me. She did!
We were quickly off and headed to the special area and were ALL ALONE. We got there around 8ish so we were a bit early, but we weren’t sure when or if it would get busy so we just stayed put. It was nice that there were towels on all the chairs. A lot of people ended up using them as blankets since it was chilly and damp! All was fine until about a minute or two before the fireworks started a family came and sat right next to us, which is fine. But the kids CLEARLY wanted nothing to do with the fireworks and were throwing sand around while their mom snapped a bunch of very bright flash photos… of the fireworks. Some people!
We moved up a row and went back to enjoying the show An amazing vantage point despite some of the drizzly weather (the area inside was full up) but we bundled up no problem and enjoyed our nice little beach area
We swung back through the lounge for some desserts on our way back to the room, for ME to get a nap this time so I could stay up for the fireworks and to ring in the new year!
Lounge from the beach spot!
Desserts
I think peanut butter somethings
We got all ready to go and checked out the snacks that they extended through midnight. It was just some chips and such with the cookies and desserts.
Ready to go!
Late night snack options
NYE set-up in the Lounge
Failed beach selfies. We tried
We headed back outside and just opted for the first row this time and waited. Once again, PERFECT VIEW. It’s so amazing to see it from inside the park one night, and then way back here the next night. As I mentioned, we were turning our heads all over the place on Main Street, but from our nice little lounger we were able to see it all, and it’s amazing how big of an area it spanned! We also toasted our champagne before the fireworks started, so we’d have hands for our cameras
Fantasy in the Sky
Fireworks everywhere!
Just look how tiny the castle is surrounded by all those fireworks! I was amazed! A quick walk back to the room and right to bed!
Day 3 Recap
Today in one thought: Resorts abound!
The best thing today was: getting to experience Club Level fireworks viewing
The worst thing today was: initial check in at the Poly
Today we tried: Raglan Road
The result was: delicious and a new restaurant to keep in rotation!
Plans we missed: DTD Shopping and Artist Point
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What a wonderful experience with Club Level. Great food and drink choices (White Zinfandel? I'm sold! ) and I love how they celebrated the New Year as well. Wonderful photos of the fireworks and I'm so glad you had your own area to watch it, even if you didn't get the view from your balcony you'd originally hoped for.
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Wow, what a spread at club level! Sorry about your florist package being messed up! You're just not having the luck this trip! Great pics of the fireworks!
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