The Neverland Gang Is Back...And I Don't Wanna Grow Up!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The Neverland Gang Is Back...And I Don't Wanna Grow Up!!
Friday morning October 30th finally came!! Tyler and Jason raced to the fridge and took off the last 2 days of the calendar. As we would not be home for Halloween, they took that day off as well to reveal a Mickey-head pumpkin. We would be celebrating Halloween at MNSSHP the next day!!
We finished up some last minute packing and headed out early to SmartPark JFK. I looked on line for some kind of JFK parking because we’d be landing so late on our return that I didn’t want anyone to have to schlep out to JFK to get us, but I didn’t want to schlep all of our luggage, a stroller and 2 tired kids on the train out to the parking, which I think is technically back in NJ. So, I found SmartPark. You drop your car off with them, they shuttle you to the airport, you call them after you get your luggage on the return and they shuttle you right back to your car. Sounded good to me. So we took a chance and went with the SmartPark. I will HIGHLY recommend this way of parking/traveling for anyone going out of JFK. As soon as we got there, we dropped the car, the guys there took our luggage, put it on a small bus/shuttle thing, and we were on our way. We were with 2 other families with kids (one with a girl and one with 2 boys). The little girl and her family were on their way to Disney also, and the two boys and their family were going on a Disney cruise…no…I wasn’t jealous. The others on the bus were a little bit older couple on their way to Venice, Italy. Nice! So all the excited kids chatted about Disney and their favorite rides and then ooohed and aaahed when we started driving near the airport and close to the big jets. They dropped us off right at the Delta door, we checked our luggage and began the circus of removing shoes, folding the stroller, taking off jackets and herding the boys through security. Always fun!!
We really didn’t have the time we thought we would and only got to get a quick bite to eat at Burger King and no time for my pre-flight vacation Frappucino. But, we boarded right on time…on a very packed flight…and we were on our way.
The flight seemed to just fly by…no pun intended. We left on-time and landed an hour ahead of our scheduled arrival. Woo Hoo!! They must have built in a LOT of delay time. Coming in on Delta, we were on the right side of the building to head to DME without my getting us lost again. (which for those of you who didn’t know I shamefully got Craig and I lost when we came for our EE5K run ) We had our booklet so we were just sent to our BC line and the boys sat to watch some cartoons while waiting.
We did not have to wait long though and we were showed to our bus. The boys wanted to pick “good seats” to watch the video so we headed to the back of the bus. On the way, Jason made a new friend. A mother and her two boys in their Phillies shirts were sitting in the back and the little boy said Jason could sit with him…even with me in my Jeter t-shirt. They were dropped at the BW and then we were next to the BC.
I think I loved it from the minute we pulled up to that great white portico.
You would think they actually liked each other.
A valet came right over to help us with our bags and we went in to register. I had on-line registered, but we were met at the door by a greeter who was heading us to registration when she asked our name. Then she checked her little list and told us we had been upgraded. And Craig and I were saying “oh, that’s so nice!!” We had a standard view and though maybe we’d just get a better view. Nope…she told the girl at reception to “call up and tell them we are on our way”. Then she took us to the elevator and got in with us. At this point I’m wondering what is going on. Hmmmm... Then she asks us if we’ve ever stayed on concierge level before. Uh…NO!! But Yay!!! She told us our room key will let the elevator take us to the concierge level and we just needed to insert it into the elevator. We got out on the 5th floor and there were two desks there. One of the girls working the desk told me to sit down and the woman who brought us up brought Craig and the boys into the lounge and brought me out a glass of water. WOW!! I have never felt so special checking into a hotel before. It was amazing!! As she was checking us in, she said “I see you are celebrating your birthday”. I hadn’t mentioned that on the reservation and came to find out that Craig called Disney before we left to have it added to our reservation. He’s a keeper!! Once we were all checked in and I had my birthday button on, we got our cool goldish-yellow colored KTTW cards and I got the boys and we headed to our room. Well, the magic just got better once we walked in and saw our new view. This was the first view we had at night of SAB, YC, BW and Swan and Dolphin across Crescent Lake!
WOW!! After we took a few pictures and gawked a bit, we needed to find some food and check out the resort.
We headed down and asked around and found that we could eat at Hurricane Hannah’s near the pool. It took us a little bit to figure out how to get to HH’s in the SAB maze, but we sniffed out the food. I checked with the chef for allergies and then ordered grilled cheese for Jason, cheeseburger for Tyler, hot dog for Craig and a turkey sandwich for me. All good and what a nice place to sit by the pool and the lake. After some much needed food we took a walk out to the lighthouse and took some pics of the surrounding buildings.
The Boardwalk…
The Yacht Club…
And our new beloved Beach Club…
What a beautiful resort and amazing atmosphere around the lake.
Okay…disclaimer here…these used to be my adorable boys, but as you will see throughout this TR, they forgot how to smile like normal people in a year. I just found myself repeating for the entire trip..."I said smile...nice!"
After strolling around a bit and getting our bearings we headed back to the room to unpack and hit the sack. It was a busy day and we had MNSSHP the next day to look forward to.
Up next…Dinner for 12 and trick-or-treating please!
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Yay, I'm so glad your TR has begun! We were there the same week so I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your adventures. We arrived late Friday night and stayed the MCO Hyatt, which worked out great. But you just can't beat a concierge upgrade at Beach Club. How amazing!!! Congrats... and do share!
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Tyler and Jason raced to the fridge and took off the last 2 days of the calendar. As we would not be home for Halloween, they took that day off as well to reveal a Mickey-head pumpkin. 
We would be celebrating Halloween at MNSSHP the next day!! 
As soon as we got there, we dropped the car, the guys there took our luggage, put it on a small bus/shuttle thing, and we were on our way. We were with 2 other families with kids (one with a girl and one with 2 boys). The little girl and her family were on their way to Disney also, and the two boys and their family were going on a Disney cruise…no…I wasn’t jealous. 
The others on the bus were a little bit older couple on their way to Venice, Italy. Nice! So all the excited kids chatted about Disney and their favorite rides and then ooohed and aaahed when we started driving near the airport and close to the big jets. They dropped us off right at the Delta door, we checked our luggage and began the circus of removing shoes, folding the stroller, taking off jackets and herding the boys through security. Always fun!! 
But, we boarded right on time…on a very packed flight…and we were on our way.
They must have built in a LOT of delay time. Coming in on Delta, we were on the right side of the building to head to DME without my getting us lost again. (which for those of you who didn’t know I shamefully got Craig and I lost when we came for our EE5K run 
) We had our booklet so we were just sent to our BC line and the boys sat to watch some cartoons while waiting. 
We had a standard view and though maybe we’d just get a better view. Nope…she told the girl at reception to “call up and tell them we are on our way”. Then she took us to the elevator and got in with us. At this point I’m wondering what is going on. Hmmmm... 
Then she asks us if we’ve ever stayed on concierge level before. Uh…NO!! But Yay!!! 
I hadn’t mentioned that on the reservation and came to find out that Craig called Disney before we left to have it added to our reservation. He’s a keeper!! 
Once we were all checked in and I had my birthday button on, we got our cool goldish-yellow colored KTTW cards and I got the boys and we headed to our room. Well, the magic just got better once we walked in and saw our new view. 
This was the first view we had at night of SAB, YC, BW and Swan and Dolphin across Crescent Lake! 
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