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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After lunch, Brent and Liz had some time and so we all traipsed down to the Hollywood Hotel where I normally have the penthouse suite – but apparently there was a problem with the elevator. We all kept our boas on and enjoyed the ride, and when I got home I put our photo into my special ToT frame:
We also stopped frequently because the paparazzi would not leave Marilyn and Gloria alone – and Liz and Brent were such good sports, sharing us with the rest of our adoring fans.
Talk about joie de Disney! Don't all four of us have it in spades?!?
I wonder what Lou would have said at Brent's insistence that we carry him around. Actually, this was Liz's idea -- and a mighty fun one!
And for amateurs, Brent and Liz did quite well in this terrorized bit:
Then Marilyn and Gloria waved goodbye to Liz and Brent, who had an afternoon appointment with Princess Cinderella (go figure ). Au revoir, mes amies! (Brent, that means "later, dudes!")
Since everyone was demanding we pose for , Sheri and I graciously agreed. It's exhausting, being a star. You have NO idea!
We discovered we HAVE NO BAD SIDES.
Oh, and I must mention that Sheri met a Cast Member somewhere along the way whose name is also Sheri -- and they "sher" a middle name as well. So of course the two had to start dancing in the street. (You see a pattern here, right? )
And then we cried, "Enough! Leave us alone! We're on vacation, for crying out loud!" And we used our Fast Passes for TSMM and had to take photos of OURSELVES while waiting in line. (Did I mention how exhausting it is, being a star? Oh yes, I think I did say that a time or two earlier. )
And then we rode ToT again, and went to see the Muppets (because we adore Miss Piggy, of course ).
And it's always thrilling to notice something for the very first time -- especially considering how many times I've seen the Muppets. This sign was a revelation to me, dahling!
And then we decided to go see ourselves:
And this remains my favorite movie of all time, even though I should have gotten Ingrid's role. . . . but I'm not bitter, no I rise above that sort of thing.
We happened upon the Brown Derby around 5:30 and noticed the lobby was fairly empty, so I inquired about moving our 6:15 ressie up. The hostess had her eyes on her screen as she said, "I can seat you right now" and I replied ", we must get RRRRRReady!" and she looked up and RECOGNIZED ME.
And while Sheri (I mean Marilyn) and I turned toward the restrooms, I replied, "Honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet! This time I've got costumes!" And I asked her to make sure we got a server who would appreciate our fabulousness, and she assured me she would.
So Marilyn and Gloria reapplied their makeup, adjusted their hats, fluffed out their stole/boa, freshened up their cigarette holders, and proceeded to play the roles of their careers, dahling! And everyone inside the Brown Derby was in for a treat! (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. )
And of course they led us to a table festooned with pixie dust and gave us the RRRRRRRoyal treatment!
And of course I (Gloria) was celebrating my upcoming 21st birthday! (Marilyn kept coughing every time a reference came up regarding that, for some reason. )
And we both ordered a Derby Mojito for the occasion
And so many of the servers came over to tell me they’d caught my “act” in December, including Joshua who would be our server this evening. “Really?” I asked him. He said, “Yes, I was serving the two ladies at the table next to you.” I hadn’t even seen him look at me that night, but now he assured me he was cracking up every time he went around the corner from our tables. So he knew the ladies had asked me for my autograph and we both at the memory.
Of course I asked him to pose with me for a picture, and he put on a decidedly Hollywood face for this:
And people were looking at us from all over the restaurant, and we were too, too fabu for WORDS, my dears! People would walk by and say “Great ” but what they meant was “I cannot believe that Marilyn DeVille and Gloria Grant are here!”
Of course, we decided to split the famous Cobb Salad, which this delightful Cast Member tossed for our pleasure.
Marilyn had the Charred Filet of Beef, which you see on the right (glazed with a red wine reduction topped with Cabernet and Roasted shallot butter, over white truffle forest mushroom whipped potatoes) and Gloria had the Sterling Silver Pork-seared Tenderloin (herb and four-cheese spaetzle with applewood smoked bacon, shallots, sweet peppers, braised red cabbage and an apple cider jus) – and I honestly don’t know which entrée was better. I adored them both!
And this is our favorite pic of the two of us, and Marilyn is using it for her Facebook photo. Aren’t we simply MAHVELOUS!
We had some hilarious exchanges with other diners as they would stop by our table on their way out. There was a big group of mostly older gentlemen that kept looking our way, and when they got up to leave I whispered, “Pick up your cigarette holder, dahling, some fans are coming our way.” One of the men “glared” at me and said, “I thought I told you not to flirt with me from across the room when my wife is with me!” and while his buddies laughed I replied, “Oh, that was your wife? That’s not who you brought in here LAST week!” and they laughed even harder.
An extended family group on the other side of the restaurant was clearly there to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday, so after they finished singing "Happy Birthday" to him, Marilyn suggested sashaying over there to give our own best wishes. We left our cameras on our table so have nothing to show, but if you track down any of a dozen people from that family, I bet they’ve got some great shots of us – Marilyn on one side of Grandpa, Gloria on the other. We ended our visit with both of us planting a kiss on Grandpa’s face.
But we DO have a photo to share with this last story from our night at the Brown Derby. There was a family of four in the booth next to ours. All we can assume is that Mom and Dad talked us up to their boys, who kept peering around Mom’s shoulder to get better looks at us throughout the meal. As they exited, they paused at our table. Dad said, “May our son take your picture?” and we replied, “Of COURSE, and then they must scoot in here with us for another photo.” So here we are with two of our youngest and most star-struck fans!
And then we headed out into the darkness, but of course we couldn't get away from the
We did it!
As we headed toward the front gate, we saw a line of street-sweepers (what does Disney call them) waiting to close, and we chatted with them all and thanked them for their service. They were all at our finery, let me tell you! Wish I'd thought to take a picture of them -- oh well, next time dahlings!
And so our exhausting day as celebrities had drawn to a close. It had been even more than I'd hoped it would be. Dear Sheri, for being such a Disney Diva with me!
Goodnight from the Hollywood Studios, dear fans! Goodnight!
Wow! I just read through this entire TR! I can see you are truly crazy! It works! I love it! All your AKL and AK/TOL pics are fabulous. I adore AKL and AK! But your antics in DHS are over the top! Way ! I love it when people like to play. But see - you can't claim the castle if DHS is your fav. Just sayin'
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I love the story about the TV crew - classic!
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Pixie Dust
Love all the pictures! 
Your joie de Disney is infectious! 
We all kept our boas on and enjoyed the ride, and when I got home I put our photo into my special ToT frame:
Actually, this was Liz's idea -- and a mighty fun one! 
)
)
I hadn’t even seen him look at me that night, but now he assured me he was cracking up every time he went around the corner from our tables. So he knew the ladies had asked me for my autograph and we both 
than I'd hoped it would be. Dear Sheri, 
for being such a Disney Diva with me!
It works! I love it! All your AKL and AK/TOL pics are fabulous. I adore AKL and AK! But your antics in DHS are over the top! Way 
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