The Young Commando Takes On The World Aug 15-20 **Updated 10/6** COMPLETE - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I love the Star Wars picture! You really managed to get alot done considering how late you got to DHS. Be grateful your son didn't request you kiss the boo-boo while you were waiting in line!
"You are going to have so much fun if the future reminding Andrew how he mooned half of TSMM!!" It will be fun to remind him. Too bad I was moving too quickly to avoid embarrassment to take a picture. "I know you don't think it's funny now but I laughed about your son mooning the TSM line - that's something Abby would do too. And when your son is older, it's somethink you'll get to torment him with. Remember when....?"
I actually thought it was funny as soon as we got off the ride. I'm just glad no one was really paying attention to us.
"Be grateful your son didn't request you kiss the boo-boo while you were waiting in line! "
Thankfully the boo boo kisses stopped working their magic about a year ago and they haven't been requested.
Love the picture of Andrew in the Star Wars gear. Great update. Glad your evening ended better than you thought at the Studios. Looking forward to more.
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They caught us all smiling and looking at the camera!!!
You got a lot done at the Studios despite the late hour. I love Andrew's Star Wars photo, but knowing nothing about the Star Wars characters, I have no idea who he's supposed to be. It looks though! And about him mooning the line at TSM. The line seems to move faster when entertainment is provided, so he provided a service to his fellow guests.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Just catching up. I know exactly what you mean about DHS. Although I love the park during the day, there is not much to do in the evening. Everything has stopped running and there aren't too many places to eat either. Also, we were there at the same time as you and had the same "gangster" on the GMR. We had never had a female before. She was a little annoying and I was trying to think who she reminded me of, but you got it dead on " Rosie ". We sat up front with her and the boys were scared of her, lol.
Love the Star Wars picture of Andrew. He is too cute. More please.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I had trouble waking Andrew up this morning after our late night. After some prodding and poking he got up and dressed. He finished his pizza from last night for breakfast. I had another pop tart.
We headed to the Magic Kingdom again this morning to conquer some rides we didn’t do Saturday.
Andrew had a great time saying hi to the MK greeters waving their Mickey hands. He would do this every morning and then tell me that I wasn’t allowed to say hi, only him.
Jimminy Cricket was out so I kind of shoved Andrew over to him. There was no line to meet him and I had never seen him out before. Andrew wanted to play photographer and insisted that I get my picture taken and have his autograph book signed.
We then hopped in a short line for Pinnochio and Gephetto.
Pinnochio had fun taking Andrew's hat away from him and trying it on. After that Andrew was done meeting characters for the morning and ready to hit the rides.
We went on Buzz first. It was a walk on. I don’t know what I hit but my score jumped up to six digits. At the end I was over 800,000 points. You’ll just have to take my word for it. The picture I tried to take didn’t come out. This was my best score ever. I usually don’t get anywhere near 5 digits. I should have bought the ride photo but I looked like a complete doofus.
We went to the Indy Speedway and got on with minimal wait. The CM was telling us to have a good ride and I joked that Andrew didn’t have a license to drive the car. She said she could fix that and came back with a driver’s license for Andrew. In Andrew’s mind this was the best thing that has ever happened and he talked about this license for the rest of the trip. I think this actually made him want to drive better because he took extra care not to ram into the metal rail that guides the car. My back and neck were very thankful.
After “winning” our Indy race we backtracked to the Laugh Floor. This was new for both of us. We waited in the pre-show area for about 10 minutes. The show was funny. They kept picking on some guy who was wearing a smiley face shirt. Let that be a warning to everyone. If you don’t want to get laughed at then don’t wear funny apparel in the Laugh Floor. They also made fun of a guy who was bald but had a beard. “Look, that guy has his hair on upside down.” OK that doesn't sound quite as funny now, but it was then. There were other jokes that were cute but they kept coming back to smiley face shirt guy.
Andrew had seen Stitch’s Great Escape and asked about going on it. I didn’t really want to go on and after I explained that it would be dark and loud Andrew lost interest in it too. (secretly doing the happy dance about that one)
I like how Andrew is pointing to the DVC sign. Perhaps he's trying to tell me something.
Now that I dodged the SGE bullet we were off to Mickey’s Toon Town next. We rode Goofy’s barnstormer 3 or 4 times and then headed to tour Minnie and Mickey’s houses.
Andrew basically zoomed through Minnie’s house because he wanted to get to the kitchen. We did stop for a minute to be nosy and listen to her messages on the answering machine. After popping popcorn and baking a cake a few dozen times he was ready to move on.
Mickey’s house was next. I think they should change this up a little bit every so often. How come Mickey is always winning the ping pong tournament?
Andrew wanted to wait in line to see Mickey in his tent. Thank goodness they have cartoons playing while waiting in line. This kept Andrew entertained. Soon enough it was our turn to go into the room and to our surprise Minnie was there too.
Mickey kept pointing to the Ninja Turtles on Andrew’s shirt trying to get Andrew to tell him who they were. I guess Andrew doesn’t do well with interpreting characters who don’t talk because he just stood there smiling waiting for someone to take his picture.
Mickey trying to figure out who's on Andrew's shirt
Once done with Mickey and Minnie Andrew was begging to buy something. He tried on several silly hats which was followed by an argument that it was too hot to wear something like that and he would never wear it again once we got it home. This conversation took place after each and every hat he tried. We finally agreed on a roll of life savers to buy.
I was actually going to edit the people in the background out of the picture, but does anyone else think that it's dangerous to let a child ride on the floor of the scooter like that?
Our big purchase was made and we decided on a trip on the train. I didn’t think life savers really counted as “eating” on the train so I let Andrew have them. We rode the train to Frontier Land with thoughts of going on Splash and Big Thunder. We got FP for Splash and then had to decide what to do while waiting for our time which was only an hour away.
We just missed the Liberty Belle Riverboat which would have been nice to relax on. The Haunted Mansion didn’t have much of a line so we headed in there. Andrew did much better on this than he did last year. He didn’t hide his head at all. I love all the new updates. Upon exiting Andrew declared that “this ride isn’t scary”.
Next we headed for the riverboat. Andrew went up and down the stairs a few times to look for the perfect place to stand or sit. I thought he was finally settled when he noticed Splash mountain across the water. I made the mistake of telling him when we were done on the Riverboat our Fast Passes would be good and we could go ride. He started having a bit of a tantrum about getting off the boat now. Once I finally gave in to him to get him quiet it was too late to get off the boat. All h&^% broke loose and Andrew had a total melt down during the entire ride. This was the longest ride ever and I couldn’t wait for it to end. I got a lot of sympathy looks from people once the ride was over.
Once we were able to escape the river boat we went over to Splash Mountain, but first we grabbed fast passes for BTMRR. Andrew became the “keeper” of the fast passes while we were in line and felt very proud to be the one to hand them to the CM. Andrew also became quite the expert in telling the CMs that we had two people in our party. He actually did this by holding up two fingers and not actually saying anything to the CM. He probably caught me doing this at some of the louder attractions, like the Indy Speedway, when the CM couldn’t possibly hear me just say how many were in our party.
We didn’t bother with ponchos this time and only got sprayed by a little water again. I didn’t buy the photo again. We were in the last row and although you could see more of Andrew than last time it just wasn’t that great of a picture. I think I just have issues with having strangers in my pictures.
Andrew had managed to rip his shirt so we stopped in the store for a new one. The selection of youth shirts in the SM gift shop is limited so I was glad he liked the one style that was available. Although he had no problems with the shirt for the rest of the day he now won’t wear it because he says it’s too big.
After shopping and making visits to the rest rooms our fast passes for BTMRR were good to go. We had to push through some people milling about waiting for their fast pass time to roll around. Why do they stand at the entrance blocking other people’s path? Isn’t the purpose of a fast pass so you can go do something besides stand in line or make some other better use of your time than becoming a permanent fixture in the pavement?
Andrew was getting brave and held his hands up for part of the ride. When we were done here I decided it was time to leave the MK.
coming up: How wet will I get and it has nothing to do with the rain.
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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Andrew looks adorable in those hats! Sorry about the riverboat ride to he**. It never fails that when a total meltdown happens, it'll be someplace that you can't escape from quickly.
Yeah meltdowns always seem to happen when there are alot of other people around watching (imho!) But Andrew did take a great picture of you and Jiminy Cricket!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.