From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 66 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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OK, I'm still catching up, but I had to respond to this before I forgot...
This hotel holds a special place in my heart, so it thrills me so much when people love it. And the next time we're both in Orlando at the same time, perhaps we can work out a stay that won't cost a small fortune. Save
Hey - works for me! We're back in Orlando in January 2018... just sayin'
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the Star Wars Dessert Party! We liked it too! Our favorite item was the seasoned pita bread!
Dang it, I think I missed that...
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I did NOT like the swamp milk. I could have lived without the Chewbacca mug, and actually ended up leaving mine in our hotel room, although my DH and DS brought theirs home.
It did take up a lot of space in our suitcases, I will admit.
Cheryl, the dessert party at DL WOC came preplated - fruit, cheese and sweets. No buffet line. Although there just wouldn't be space. You were seated at assigned tables, and ate during the show.
For some reason, your pictures now show up at work. So now I've seen the spread. Wow! That's really something!!
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Cheryl, the dessert party at DL WOC came preplated - fruit, cheese and sweets. No buffet line. Although there just wouldn't be space. You were seated at assigned tables, and ate during the show.
Thanks for the details. That really doesn't sound like something that would work for us, not with my tree fruit allergy. I'm sure they could work around it, but Mark has to be careful with cheese, as he has a dairy intolerance, so buffets work much better for us.
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For some reason, your pictures now show up at work. So now I've seen the spread. Wow! That's really something!!
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Thursday 2 March – part eleven: time to see the Star Wars fireworks!
Although we’d seen some of the larger fireworks over the last few nights we’d been here, I had little idea what to expect from this, as I’d deliberately not watched any videos, and I was glad I hadn’t, as it meant everything was a nice surprise. It was beautifully put together. I can’t say whether someone who’s not seen the movies would enjoy it, as obviously I have, but I’m thinking they probably would.
I liked the way they used the whole cannon of movies to tell the story, and how there were darker and lighter parts to it. The projections on the theatre are just unbelievable, and really to watch this and get the best out of it, you really do need to be able to see those – something to bear in mind if you don’t go to the party and you’re looking for a viewing spot.
I tell you when the flames go off above the theatre, wow, you really feel those – we were quite shocked at how hot they were!
Once the show finished, of course everyone was heading out of the park, but honestly, it wasn’t as much of a scrum (rugby term for those who don’t remember from previous reports ) as I expected. There was still quite a lot of space in between people. I’ve seen much worse at the Magic Kingdom, let’s put it that way.
When we came out, we figured we probably could have made the first Friendship back, but as there was no sign of one, and we knew it would take around 20 minutes to get back to the BoardWalk (it’s the third stop from here), we’d already decided we weren’t going to bother, and were going to walk. If you’re staying at the BoardWalk, it’s probably about a 15 minute walk, and we weren’t the only ones. I was quite surprised by how many people took the walkway, and a lot of them were going further than the BoardWalk. We figured we might as well walk our dinner off, and the temperatures were warm enough to make it a very pleasant walk back.
We were back in the room before 8:30pm, and it wasn’t long before we were in bed and out, although we didn’t fall asleep until after IllumiNations obviously… as that’s a little loud here.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was the Flower and Garden Festival. The worst thing today was Mark pulling his back in the morning. The funniest thing today was Mark with the Jawwas. Today we tried the Star Wars dessert party And the result was it was wonderful, and definitely the way to see the fireworks! The most magical moment today was watching the Star Wars fireworks.
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I remember when the fireworks first started and a lot of reviews said where the best viewing area was. Then the dessert party started and took over that exact spot!! I think you did have the best place to watch.
I can see how the dessert party would be worth it for adults, especially with the drinks included. But not sure it's worth it for kids.
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Thursday 2 March – part eleven: time to see the Star Wars fireworks!
Although we’d seen some of the larger fireworks over the last few nights we’d been here, I had little idea what to expect from this, as I’d deliberately not watched any videos, and I was glad I hadn’t, as it meant everything was a nice surprise. It was beautifully put together. I can’t say whether someone who’s not seen the movies would enjoy it, as obviously I have, but I’m thinking they probably would.
I liked the way they used the whole cannon of movies to tell the story, and how there were darker and lighter parts to it. The projections on the theatre are just unbelievable, and really to watch this and get the best out of it, you really do need to be able to see those – something to bear in mind if you don’t go to the party and you’re looking for a viewing spot.
We saw the Star Wars Fireworks last June...just a week after they started. My husband is a huge Star Wars fan but I've never seen any of the movies and have no desire to see them. I know a lot of the characters from the movies but don't really know their relationships/interactions. I know nothing about any of the plot lines of the movies. That being said, I absolutely loved the Star Wars Fireworks show at DHS!!! I wish we would have had time to go back and see it again before we left. It's currently my favorite nighttime show at Disney (though I haven't seen Happily Ever After yet). I thought the projections were amazing and I felt totally immersed in the show even though I didn't follow the story line (frankly, I wasn't really paying attention to that). And the heat from those pillars of flames was intense! I tell anyone who will listen that this show is absolutely worth seeing even if you've never seen any of the movies. And I agree that you need to position yourself so that you have a clear view of the projections. I felt like the fireworks were just a bonus and it's not critical to have a clear view of those as they're not the focal point of the show.
It certainly looked they had put out a good selection of foods for the Dessert Party! Glad you both enjoyed it so much and thought it was worth the price. I enjoyed seeing all your Star Wars Fireworks pictures since I still haven't seen this show with even with all the trips to Disney this past year. I love the walkway between the Boardwalk Resort and DHS. It's one of the reasons we so enjoy staying there!
Looks like a superb show! Do we know how long it's running? Right now the calendar doesn't show availability in October or November (when we'd want tickets)
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We're back in Orlando in January 2018... just sayin' 
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I love the walkway between the Boardwalk Resort and DHS. It's one of the reasons we so enjoy staying there!
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