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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
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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
I am all caught up - and love the kimono photo! Sounds like a fantastic trip so far! I laughed a bit at the gender question on the coaster... been there done that, too.
After a little MJ at Captain EO, it was almost time for our ADR at Tutto Italia. We took the boat back to Morocco, made the short walk to Italy and were soon sitting at a table for two.
Our server didn’t exactly rush us, but I felt like we sped through this meal. Mary Devall ordered penne pasta and I ordered the lasagna and both were out in 5 minutes - - no lie. Of course, neither required much preparation. But let’s talk about the lasagna . . . OMG! It was absolutely delicious and the homemade noodles just made the dish. Even my picky girl had a bite and loved it. It even outshined my glass of sangria!
For dessert, Mary Devall had chocolate mousse while I had the strongest espresso martini ever. This was actually a good thing since we were headed to MK for EMH later!
After our delicious meal, we took the Friendship boat in Germany back to Mexico and used our FP’s at TT.
The single rider who rode with us was a little boy who was probably about 7 or 8 and nowhere near ready to be riding by himself. Not only did he not crack a smile the entire time, but he looked down right miserable. At the seat belt check, he wouldn’t tug on his yellow strap, so I finally had to ask him to do it in my serious “mom” voice. Near the end of the ride, Mary Devall said that he finally spoke, but it was only to say that he hoped the ride didn’t go any faster. Poor little guy!
On our way out, we rode SE and then headed to MK via the monorail.
On the way into MK, we had a new and exciting experience: renting a locker for Mary Devall’s magic sticks and Maddie’s fluffie. After we had safely stowed our stuff, we slowly made our way through the firework crowd on Main Street and then veered off at TL. We made a quick stop at the Enchanted Grove for a frozen lemonade and then continued on through Fantasy Land.
Riding rides was not the only fun that we had planned tonight. I had discovered weeks before that Meg would be at Disney with her girls at the same time as us, so I immediately shot off a PM to her. Meg and I had met in April in NYC and we had been dying to get our girls together. This proved to be the perfect opportunity. We compared our plans and found a couple of times where they overlapped. Tonight was to be our first meeting.
I had been trading texts back and forth with Meg over the past couple of hours, so we knew that they were on HM and we planned to meet them across from PP. We found them easily and spent a few minutes making introductions. It took about 2 seconds for Mary Devall and Angel to begin chatting away.
Meg and I smiled at each other knowing that our hunch had been correct. Of course, Meg and I weren’t exactly shy either and picked up right where we had left off in April. Jasmine split her time between from our conversation, the Mary Devall/Angel conversation and her phone.
We decided to make Splash our first ride together and rode standby. It probably took less than 30 minutes and it gave us all a chance to chat and catch up.
Afterwards, Meg and I sent the three girls to ride BTMRR with Meg’s FP’s, but they returned after about 5 minutes because the ride was down. We moved on to HM where the chatterboxes rode together, Meg and I rode together (also known as chatterboxes ) and Jasmine rode with her phone so that she could text her friend that was not a boyfriend (but I think is now ). I had to laugh because Jasmine always volunteered to ride by herself!
We crossed over to TL and stopped for a drink (and Meg had a float also that looked delicious ). Mary Devall talked Angel into taking a picture in the store next door and they were both a little disappointed when neither Meg nor I would buy it. So they moved on to trying on Stitch paws.
Next we rode Winnie the Pooh and I believe that Mary Devall and Angel touched every single thing in the standby line! The ride stopped for a little while before we boarded and we figured out why when the overwhelming smell of throw up hit us in one of the rooms. Peee---yuuuuu!
We finally landed in TL for good and tried to ride TTA, but it was down also. We thought about grabbing FP’s for Space Mountain since the FP machines had opened back up at midnight with the start of EMH, but the lines were crazy long.
Instead, we headed for Buzz. While standing in line, we were in the middle of an altercation between a bunch of kids whose friends kept joining them in line and a man with his family behind us who finally got peeved. There were probably about 8 to 10 kids in total, so it wasn’t outrageous by any means.
The man started using non-Disney language and his family looked as if they wanted to blend into the background. The kids never lost their cool and just told the man that the friends had just caught up with each other. I know that people get agitated by this and, if it is a massive group, I do too, but these were good kids, they just wanted to ride together and we hadn't been waiting in line that long. The man finally said something to the CM at the front of the line and he just replied “They were all together” and just left it at that. The man finally hushed.
After our ride on Buzz, we were able to grab FP’s at Space Mountain. We then rode the race cars and then went back to SM to wait for our FP’s to ripen. Mary Devall had the idea that she and Angel could charm their way in early. We let them try, but the CM sent them right back to us. When the time finally did roll around, I took the two younger girls to ride while Meg and Jasmine waited for us. Talk about squealing and screaming!!!
And just to underscore what a great time Mary Devall was having, we have another . . . Mary Devall’s Top Ten Reasons (to Celebrate Turning at Disney): Riding Space Mountain with Angel
I have decided that way too much of my upper body sticks out on SM. Between getting jerked around and my stomach hitting the bar with every drop, that ride really takes a toll on me. Wonder if they would consider redesigning it just for me?
I actually had no lingering side effects from the ride because I think my body was in sleep mode since it was almost 2 a.m.! After meeting back up with Meg and Jasmine, we meandered back down Main Street looking in a few of the stores and then stopped by to get our belongings out of the locker. We said goodnight to the ladies at the bus stop and caught the bus back to WL.
We got back to the room a little after 2 a.m. and Mary Devall immediately went to sleep. I, on the other hand, had a little business to take care of. We had a 9:30 ADR at Tusker House for Mary Devall’s birthday breakfast, but on the ride to WL we discussed cancelling it. Mary Devall didn’t think she could wake up early enough for it after our late night. After she went to sleep, I drug out my laptop, hooked it up and was able to cancel our ADR and book another one for 10:30. Thank goodness I had brought my laptop with us!
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Such a great trip! I love taking my DD on birthday trips (even if they don't fall on her b-day). Mary Devall is taking full advantage of this trip with you and looks to be having a ball!
Your father and mother are a hoot. I can't believe they wanted to keep your from driving. You aren't a bad driver are you? I've done the 9 1/2 hours from our house in one day as the only driver a few times. Not great fun, but when a trip to WDW is at the end, so worth it.
Mary Devall getting you seated at SCiFi was a great tip! I'd never have thought of it.
Looking forward to more of your fun! Thanks for sharing your trip with us, again!
Great update! How cool that you got to meet up with Meg and her daughters and enjoy time together in Magic Kingdom!
Your lunch at Tutto sounds delicious. I love lasagna but rarely get to eat it because my family hates it so I don't make it anymore . I wish I had one of Tutto's Italian Margaritas right now
What a great time at Epcot - I so wanted to try that lasagna when we ate there on our last day, it was just too hot.
Spending time with Mary Devall was the top highlight of Angel's trip as well (and one of mine too, I so enjoyed our continued conversation, which of course I will have no problem continuing again some time )
And the update...the friend who was not a boyfriend who then was is now history....
Jasmine has now discovered there is a whole selection of eligible men in college...she needs to keep her options open
"I have decided that way too much of my upper body sticks out on SM. Between getting jerked around and my stomach hitting the bar with every drop, that ride really takes a toll on me. Wonder if they would consider redesigning it just for me? "
I have to totally thank you for being the one to bear this ride with the girls....I have often felt the same way, I likd it much better when I remember my first trip on it at 12, I was smaller then more of me stayed in the ride. I would be the first one on that petition to redesign the cars for comfort
Love the update..really glad you were able to meet up with some friends..and looks like MD is even happier about the meet. Looking forward to more updates to come!
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That sounded like a really fun evening - night! I'm glad you could meet up with PP friends and make a great night of it. And even better - being able to change your breakfast! I'm guessing you guys would be reeeaaallly tired the next morning....
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Knowing Mary Devall and Angel the way I do, I'm not a bit surprised that they hit it off so well. Sounds like it was a fun, but late, night! Glad you were able to reschedule your ADR!
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We took the boat back to Morocco, made the short walk to Italy and were soon sitting at a table for two. 
Of course, neither required much preparation. But let’s talk about the lasagna . . . OMG! It was absolutely delicious and the homemade noodles just made the dish. 
Even my picky girl had a bite and loved it. It even outshined my glass of sangria! 
Not only did he not crack a smile the entire time, but he looked down right miserable. 
At the seat belt check, he wouldn’t tug on his yellow strap, so I finally had to ask him to do it in my serious “mom” voice. 
Near the end of the ride, Mary Devall said that he finally spoke, but it was only to say that he hoped the ride didn’t go any faster. Poor little guy! 
After we had safely stowed our stuff, we slowly made our way through the firework crowd on Main Street and then veered off at TL. We made a quick stop at the Enchanted Grove for a frozen lemonade and then continued on through Fantasy Land.
and his family looked as if they wanted to blend into the background. 
The kids never lost their cool and just told the man that the friends had just caught up with each other. I know that people get agitated by this and, if it is a massive group, I do too, but these were good kids, they just wanted to ride together and we hadn't been waiting in line that long. The man finally said something to the CM at the front of the line and he just replied “They were all together” and just left it at that. The man finally hushed. 
Mary Devall’s Top Ten Reasons (to Celebrate Turning at Disney): Riding Space Mountain with Angel
After meeting back up with Meg and Jasmine, we meandered back down Main Street looking in a few of the stores and then stopped by to get our belongings out of the locker. We said goodnight 
to the ladies at the bus stop and caught the bus back to WL. 
I've done the 9 1/2 hours from our house in one day as the only driver a few times. Not great fun, but when a trip to WDW is at the end, so worth it.
that you got to meet up with Meg and her daughters and enjoy time together in Magic Kingdom! 
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