Checking off that Bucket List ~ Disney Style! - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Remind him Christmas will only be like 10 days after you return home
Yeah - I have a feeling we will be doing a lot of Christmas shopping while there. It will only be like 5 days (we get home on the 20th) and after being off work for 2 weeks - I have a feeling I will be working a lot of it. Christmas eve, day, the day after....
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Catching up!!! So cool that yall got to go to the Enchanted Tales with Belle!!! The Little Mermaid ride is SOOOOOOO COOOOOOLLLLLLL!!! OMG! I cant wait, I cant wait to ride this!!! The Safari pics are great! When it comes to snacks Em sounds alot like my son, man that kid can eat, I went to the store the other day to just pick up some snacks and yesterday when I came home from work Cole said that he was sooooo hungry, I asked him to grab a snack and he said....Mom we have been out for days! I was like WHAT!!! I just went to the store 3 days ago how can we be out????? And then he eats a full dinner (2 plates atleast!!!) I think him and Em are the same age? 14. Cant wait for the next update....hope the rain stops!
I knew you would LOVE the new Ariel ride!!! yes - Em is 13 1/2 (have to make sure I put that 1/2 in there! )...........she blames all her eating habits on dance!
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Originally Posted by chezp
Love the photos from outside on Test Track!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydeva
LOVE the earrings!!!
Thanks! Animal Kingdom - Big Store near Safari!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Sounds like a nice afternoon at Epcot! I can't believe people were actually waiting 3 hours for test track! That's crazy!!! Did you like the changes to Test Track? I've heard mixed reviews from people.
It was a nice afternoon - actually we were only there a short time! and I can't believe they waited that long either..............but watch - it gets crazier!!!! I actually prefer the original version
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Those mickey earrings so are so cool. I will have to get me a pair when we go. By the way, We are going in May 2014 so I think the wait times will be a lot shorter! I am hoping anyways!! Can't wait to read more!
Thank you! Big store over by the safari at AK! No, the lines should be much better then!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
I want the Alex and Ani now! And the earrings. I've already warned Chuck!
LOVE, LOVE my jewelry!!! I am starting to think I need another jewelry box just for all my Disney jewelry!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
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We left the room about 5:45, as we had ADR’s at Cape May Café (another first for us for dinner) – and we figured the best way to get there would be to take the bus to DHS and then the boat to Y&BC. Well, this took much longer than we expected and we were about 40 minutes late for our ADR’s – which always stresses me out to be late – of course the CM was fine with it.
While we were waiting for our table to be ready – we wandered through the lobby area taking photos of the gingerbread and chocolate displays!
We were soon being sat at our table with our server Barbi – who was FANTASTIC!!! She sent the Chef over to speak with me regarding my allergies – and once he gave me the okay on what I could/could not have – we were filling our plates!!! We had never given this place a thought before, being from New England where we can get good seafood whenever, wherever we want – BUT apparently we had been missing out – as we REALLY enjoyed this buffet!!! I could have eaten just the snow crab legs and salad and been a happy camper!!!
Just to show some of what we "sampled"............
The dessert selections were quite good here too – they had a crème brulee that I wanted to try – however, it was garnished with berries (can’t have) so the chef brought me out some without berries!! YUM!! Fantastic Service here!!!
Em's Desert:
And Miss Em herself:
Another side note here …….it does not matter where we go, Scott always manages to make friends along the way……..there was a HUGE group sitting next to us – and they were firefighters from CT (the other side of the state from us) and Scott and them chit chatted through most of our meal!
After being completly satisfied with dinner, we headed back out to take a boat back (we did wait for about 20 minutes for a boat) to DHS –
A few pics of the Boardwalk area while we waited (it was cold!!!) for the boat:
it was about 9:00 pm when we arrived (the park was open till 1am)
Of course, we stopped for some Photopass photos........
and then we headed straight to Toy Story Mania!!
Yep............that was me!!
Not such a flattering shot........
Then we saw that the wait for the new Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow was not that long (maybe 20 minutes) so we headed to that. It was interesting – not something that I need to do every trip – but it was still good. Of course, trying to get photos in here is difficult.
After we were ready for what we came to DHS for!! Osborne Lights!!! We went in the back side – over near Studio Catering Company – and first came up to Santa Goofy!!! He was fantastic!!! I just love Goofy!!!
We then wandered all around the area, taking photos – and stopping at all the photopass photographers – although we hadn’t realized that every time the lights started dancing to the music, the photographers couldn’t photograph – and it was our luck that as we would reach the front of the line, the lights were ready to dance!
I apologize now if I bore you with all my photos...........I just couldn't help myself! And these are only a fraction of what I took (Cheryl - you understand, right?!?!)
One of the times that we had to wait for the lights to stop "dancing" the photopass photographer's assistant had my camera and she told us to put our arms around each other while watching the lights..............and this is what she did!
Of course, the lights were just absolutely beautiful – and the pictures do not do it any justice! And of course, when they make it snow it just makes it even more special!!!
After our viewing of the lights – we headed for Star Tours for a ride………..and guess who was the rebel spy…………….yep ~ ME!!!
Next up was a ride on the Great Movie Ride – and after all that I have been reading about people getting the cowboy version – I was bummed that we once again got the gangster version……..next trip I will definitely ask about the western!!
Then we headed for Rock ‘n Roll Roller Coaster!
Emily insisted on a piggy back ride.........Parents......hold on tight............they grow WAY too fast!!! I so remember when this was easy to do............
It was now 1:00 a.m. and we were officially closing the park! We did stop in a few of the gift shops that were still open – however, we did not purchase anything tonight.
But we did stop for one more photopass photo!!!
We were all on the bus heading back to POR – and I think we all fell asleep on the bus, but were soon cozy and fast asleep in our beds!
Up next: someone's having a magical birthday!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
What a great finish to your day! We've not tried dinner at CMC yet, but your plates all looked delicious. Maybe next time we stay at BCV, we'll add this to our list. You all crammed a lot into your time at DHS. I totally get all the pictures of the Osborne Lights When we saw them in 2010, I took pictures for awhile and then Luke took over. We both couldn't get over how beautiful they were.
Sounds like a fantastic night! I absolutely LOVE the Osborne lights! Did you find the purple cat? We haven't done Cape May - but I think that's making the list too! Oh my does that list get long! Love the piggy back ride! They sure do grow up soooo fast! Chuck's son is now 21 and 6'3"! I remember changing his pull ups!
What a great night! Your photos of the Osborne lights are amazing and I love the photopass pix, too, especially the ones with Santa Goofy. I think Em could carry you piggy-back easier than you can carry her!
What a great finish to your day. I can't believe those details on the carousel that I managed to miss during our trip - how many times did I look at that thing during our stay?
Yes Lisa way too many photo's bored me to tears as I spent past hour just going back and forth between them in awe praying that it will be just as cool for us in Nov. Love the displays in lobby of BCR have to see if we can fit CMC into line up along the way.
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Dinner looked wonderful. Sounds like a great evening closing down DHS! I love the pictures of the Osborne Lights, especially the one with all of you having your arms around each other. Such a sweet picture!
OK - I just caught up on the last three updates. You've outdone yourself with these photos! Love them all - EPCOT, POR, Cape May, and the Osbourne lights. You do such a great job capturing the on ride fun - enjoyed the Test Track shots since we haven't tried it since it has re-opened.
Hope the storm doesn't cause much trouble. Sounds like Scott will be busy!
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me out to be late – of course the CM was fine with it. 
He was fantastic!!! I just love Goofy!!! 
Deb
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