Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - THIS SECTION COMPLETED 12/27 - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wednesday 30 October – part five: our first view of the newest Disney villas!
We set off, with me frantically texting to and fro with various people, and also snapping away photos of the amazing sunset. I was hoping to see some in Hawaii, but we scored tonight in Florida.
We noticed a lot more building work was underway this time..
Soon we were arriving underneath everyone’s favourite sign, and we were home again.
Then we got our first glimpse of the Villas at the Grand Floridian, and wow what a magnificent sight they are.
We weren’t sure where to go, but you enter through the main entrance of the Grand Floridian, then you take the first right to go to the Villas. Mark pulled up, and got the luggage out, while I went inside to check in. It took ages, as we had to get our MagicBands, an our instructions on how to use them. Then the Cast Member made the mistake of asking me what I thought of My Disney Experience. Perhaps not the best question… She acknowledged there are still a lot of kinks in the system that need ironing out, and she did say that they as Cast Members are feeding all of this back, so fingers crossed, things will improve in the future.
We were handed our MagicBands, and our Key to the World keys, just in case there were any issues, which was good, having heard some of the issues other people have had. We also heard the story about some of the testing of the MagicBands. They told us that they don’t float, although you can swim in them and I said I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how they found that out, and I was told that I did, as it was a good story – and it was!
Apparently they took over Typhoon Lagoon for an hour and a half last winter (I assume during its annual shutdown) to test whether they’d come off in the water (they didn’t), but one manager wanted to test whether they floated or not, and they didn’t, so they had to go down to the bottom of the wave pool and retrieve it.
Once we were done with checking in, we walked through the lobby, which is absolutely beautiful.
The only thing I do think is missing here is a small shop, just catering more to DVC Members than anything, selling some snack items and grocery items. I thought it was a real missed opportunity not to have something like that here, as we were to find out later it is quite a hike over to the main building for that sort of thing.
We headed up in the elevators to the fourth floor, and wow what a view you get from up here!
The carpet up here
We both got the feeling that this was very much the “homely” side to the Grand Floridian, and rightly too, as home is such a key part of being a DVC Member. We’ve both always felt that the original Grand Floridian isn’t to our taste at all, as it’s just too ostentatious for us, but this felt a lot more down to earth, while still preserving the theming of the main building and the rest of the resort.
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Really interested to hear your thoughts of staying at GF villas, as we have felt the same the GF is not really our thing. So far it looks beautiful! That is a bummer that they do not have a small store in the DVC building, did they offer DVC items in the main gift store?
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Definitely a mis-step not to have a small store there. It's very pretty, but I still don't think I'd pay the extra points to stay there. Too much cold marble to my taste, and the location leaves a lot to be desired. The building looks great, though, and I'm sure the furnishings and views from the rooms are wonderful.
It's like the GF's cuter little brother. I can't believe it doesn't have a little store though! FL can get chilly at night, and it rains too. I know the walkway is covered, but that's not going to help when it's raining sideways and someone needs diapers.
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Tanya
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She acknowledged there are still a lot of kinks in the system that need ironing out, and she did say that they as Cast Members are feeding all of this back, so fingers crossed, things will improve in the future. 
Liz 
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