Going north, south, east and west! **Updated 1/25** - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great pictures - my favorite is the one with the reflection of all the rides in the water. Thanks for the concept art pics, Joshua would go nuts for Cars Land! Sounds like you are having a great morning.
looks like, to me, anyway, that on Screamin' that the mickey head is gone and replaced by something else. I don't remember them talking about that? Do you?
Mari
One thing I meant to mention was about the Halloween decorations. I am seeing a lot of new decorations from when I was there 2 years ago...all for the better! Disney!
looks like, to me, anyway, that on Screamin' that the mickey head is gone and replaced by something else. I don't remember them talking about that? Do you?
Mari
One thing I meant to mention was about the Halloween decorations. I am seeing a lot of new decorations from when I was there 2 years ago...all for the better! Disney!
I love it when Disney increase the number of decs, it really adds to the atmosphere, doesn't it?
Tuesday 28 October – part four: you’re a pest to those characters!
Boy we had fun with the characters there. There were so many there that and many we hadn’t seen for many years as well, which was excellent. It was lovely to see the Queen of Hearts and Mark had a lot of fun with her. He really took the Mickey out of her. As Mari said, he was a real “pest”! he is when it comes to characters!
Anyone think he’s in trouble? Someone doing a bit of posing!
Now when he saw Governor Radcliffe – you watch, he’s saying something to him in one of these shots and it’s about the size of his nose... then look at the reaction he gets!
We also found a great Photopass photographer and had a ball with him. He just didn’t want to let us go, he had more and more ideas for us to do and we were all happy to oblige!
Our next stop after all the characters was Monsters Inc. It was so weird to walk in here, after the 60 + minute waits that we had seen on our last visit in 2006, not long after it opened. In a way, it’s sad the way that some attractions just die after their initial popularity, but for me, whatever the attraction is, these days with Fastpass, I’m not going to wait an hour. It’s not worth it. Fastpass has officially spoilt me!
We headed next to the Animation area and with Turtle Talk With Crush just seven minutes away, we had to go in there. Mari kept telling Mark that he should put his hand up for a question and he didn’t need telling twice! The funny thing was he did get picked (he asked Crush whether it was true that you could tell how old turtles were by the rings on their shells. By the way, it’s not true and Crush is 150 years old) and there was Mari with a question of her own (“where’s Dory?”) and she never got picked to ask it.
When we came out, we learned more about the Toy Story zoetrope,which was fascinating to see. They explained the principle behind it and then you watch the result and it’s quite something.
From there, we walked over to the Animation Academy. I have always wanted to do this, but the lines have always been too long at Walt Disney World, but there was no line here and the next show was only a few minutes away. We ended up drawing Minnie and I don’t think I did too badly. I really surprised myself, as I’m not an artist, but I carefully followed the instructions from the animator leading us and didn’t do badly. I really want to do this again in WDW, as I really enjoyed it. As for Mark, well, I think the less said about that, the better!
We came out of there and looked for more characters for Mark to persecute, but either they knew he was coming or the heat had driven them in, as there were none to be seen. A word about the weather. Oh my goodness, it was so hot today. I deliberately planned this, so that none of our destinations would be too hot for us, but southern California was having unseasonably hot weather with temperatures, we later learnt in the 90’s. It was pretty unbearable, although at least you didn’t have the humidity of Florida, just the intense burning heat. It meant that doing much outside was a real trial and we did think about giving up and heading back to the room, but we wanted to enjoy the time we had with Mari and Raleigh, so we kept going and just took it very slowly and made sure to drink lots on the way.
We wandered into a Bug’s Land and decided to watch It’s Tough To Be A Bug, which Raleigh had never seen before. I know he enjoyed it and I’m not surprised. This is so much fun and it was good to catch it here, as we just never got round to seeing at WDW.
We kept walking slowly and came across the Boudin Bakery Tour that was about to start and fortunately the Cast Member let us in. It was more interesting than I thought it would be. I mean how much is there to learn about bread? Well, quite a bit, it turned out, as there’s a lot of work goes into creating sour dough bread.
From there, it was into the Mission Tortilla Factory. That’s just open and you walk through how they create tortillas, before they give you a sample. Yes, that’s right, free food at Disney! It doesn’t happen very often, so when it’s on offer, it’s best to take advantage of it.
Great update, again. We didn't get to see the Mission Tortilla tour when we were there. They were closed for some reason. Oh well. Something to look forward to next time.
Too bad about the hot temps. Phew! I have to take it easy, too, in hot weather.
Ever notice that the 'boys' are wearing red and we 'ladies' are wearing blue? Not even planned....great minds think alike!!! What a nice refresher to a fabulous time in DCA!
Great update! So to hear about the heat, but glad it was a dry heat without the ugly humidity! Looks like you had great fun creating those PhotoPass photos! Looking forward to more
Regarding MM on Screamin' and the ferris wheel. The CM we talked to in Dec said the Screamin' MM will come down because he does not fit the theme of "classic" Mickey which is what will be put on the Sun Wheel (it'll always be the Sun Wheel to me). So, two "clashing" Mickeys that close would be bad.....
I don't think they said what would replace it (if anything), but that's the reason it's going.
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he is when it comes to characters! 
And that bread looks so yummy!! 
Not even planned....great minds think alike!!!
What a nice refresher to a fabulous time in DCA!
to hear about the heat, but glad it was a dry heat without the ugly humidity! Looks like you had great fun creating those PhotoPass photos! Looking forward to more
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