The Promise of Spring: F&GF 4.0 UPDATED: 5/11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Finally all caught up. You have some great ADRs and the plans for arrival day sound great. Sorry you've been feeling down lately. Many hugs for you Looking forward to hearing more about the plans.
I'm sorry you were feeling down. It happens to me around the anniversary of my husbands death and my best friend's.
You dinner plans sound good. I like that we're short one reservation thing.
The weather here has been crazy. The poor spring flowers are so confused. Tuesday we had high winds come through and now it's cold and snowy again.
Liz
I think birthdays and death dates bring back up the grief as we still miss these folks we love. We were supposed to get snow today, but it only got cold. There is another chance of snow Monday morning. Then I'm hoping we just move back into spring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
Your first day's plans sound wonderful!! What a nice relaxing way to start your adventure!!
We used to take a super early flight and then hit one of the parks almost immediately, but we'd be so worn out by evening that we'd struggle the next day. Now we try to relax and absorb the atmosphere and taking a later flight gives me a little more sleep the night before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Nice details for your flight plans and arrival in WDW! Great choice for a first night ADR and Morimoto! I dined there on my October trip and my take on it will come in my TR in time! Still 3 days away in my TR!
This will be our third time dining at Morimoto and I can't wait.
I will be dining at Morimoto Asia exactly one week before you! I saw Chef Morimoto on the View this week at Animal Kingdom, and it got me excited for my meal there!
I missed that episode of the View. Phooey! The episodes I saw got me so in the mood for our trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Great plans for your arrival day!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jandsdennis
Arrival day sounds like it will be relaxed with an excellent dinner at morimotos. We loved our lunch meal there. Haven't done a dinner yet.
We enjoy easing in to the vacation now and a good meal always helps.
Sorry to hear that you've been in pain both emotionally and physically. Never apologize for venting, though--we all need to do it. But you are strong and are an inspiration to so many of us here and IRL.
Great plans you have for your vacation--isn't it funny for those dining reservations just seem to add on sooo easily?
Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad we've got all the ADRs now, but too funny that we started with the idea of fewer for this trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Finally all caught up. You have some great ADRs and the plans for arrival day sound great. Sorry you've been feeling down lately. Many hugs for you Looking forward to hearing more about the plans.
Thanks! I'll have to get some more plan details up tomorrow.
I just love reading along your reports. As I mentioned before, I will be staying in a savanna studio in September as well and I know this seems silly, but I'm wondering what kind of coffee maker they have in the room. Tom and I are big coffee drinkers and I was planning to bring some special grounds from home to make in the morning while we sit on the balcony. Just wondering..
I just love reading along your reports. As I mentioned before, I will be staying in a savanna studio in September as well and I know this seems silly, but I'm wondering what kind of coffee maker they have in the room. Tom and I are big coffee drinkers and I was planning to bring some special grounds from home to make in the morning while we sit on the balcony. Just wondering..
I'm not sure about the studios at AKL villas, but our two-bedroom at OKW last fall had a Mr. Coffee style coffee maker. I don't drink coffee, but my DSis and DBiL used it every morning. I think all DVC units have the same coffee makers.
In the recent past we’ve tried to rotate our days between early and late starts when it was just the two of us, but for this trip we’re mainly doing early starts. Today will be a Magic Kingdom day. It just seemed right to begin with the original of the four parks. When making FastPass+ selections, I reminded Luke that I won’t be riding Space Mountain as it is brutal on my neck. Along with my shoulder, I’ve been getting some adjustments on my neck and I don’t want to waste all that money by messing it up again. So the plan is for Luke to head to Space Mountain soon after we arrive in the park. Though I don’t mind waiting for him, I really wish it had a single-rider line. I think I’ll head in to Starbucks for a chocolate croissant.
After that we’ll meet up in Tomorrowland as our first FP+ is for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I still enjoy this ride, but I also never seem to score as well as I did prior to Toy Story Midway Mania. Our window is 9:40 – 10:40.
Depending on how early in our window we ride Buzz Lightyear, we may also get to do Carousel of Progress and The Peoplemover/TTA while in the area. These two are classic favorites for us. Our next FP+ window is 10:40 – 11:40 when we’ll travel to Liberty Square for a ride on Haunted Mansion. There is a good chance on the way that we’ll stop for a ride aboard a boat in it’s a small world. We have a FP+ for Peter Pan on other day, so need to stop there.
From Liberty Square we’ll proceed to Frontierland for a ride on the wildest ride in the West, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was closed for refurbishment during our fall trip, so we’re anxious to see what all has been improved. The moment we enter the FastPass+ queue, I’ll have my phone out to select our fourth pass. No idea today what that will be, but Magic Kingdom seems to be the easiest park to book additional FP+ in.
We’ll stop for lunch wherever is convenient whenever we decided we’re hungry, but dinner is set for Be Our Guest at 7:25. Luke requested we eat here as it’s been three trips since we’ve eaten at BOG. That wasn’t for lack of trying. We simply couldn’t get an ADR on a day and time that worked for us. Thankfully, it worked out this time.
After dinner, we intend to take in Wishes, especially as we now know it will be gone by our fall trip. The change has me a little sad, only because we have so many memories of this fireworks show and Stefanie. Wishes was her favorite nighttime show. I am happy though that we’ll get to see it at least once more before it is gone. What I’ve seen and read about the new fireworks show looks wonderful, so I can’t be too sad about the change. By now I’m sure we’ll be tired and ready for our comfy bed at AKL with maybe a glimpse of the animals from our balcony right before bed.
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Thanks for the coffee maker info. Looks like I'll pack some premium grounds and filters. Fastpasses look good to me. Nice Planning. Do you go to the Hall of Presidents. For some reason I still love this one.
Looks like a busy day at MK. Hoping that timing and crowd levels work to your advantage so you can just take in the magic after dinner. Glad BOG timing worked for your schedule this trip.
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Looking forward to hearing more about the plans.
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