Going north, south, east and west! **Updated 1/25** - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
Oh please! Who did they discuss these changes with? Certainly not the public that is purchasing the passes to go there. Some of the 'old' is great...don't fix it if it ain't broke!
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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!
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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Tuesday 28 October – part five: who decided to close that?
All the others then headed back into Toy Story Mania. The heat was getting to me though and my head was a little muzzy, so I opted out. I didn’t want to make myself sick. It was the best thing I could’ve done, as just sitting there in the sun really helped to make me feel better. Mark, Mari and Raleigh were off before I knew it. I think from start to finish, I only waited 20 minutes for them, so they can’t have been in line long for it. Mark told me that he got a bad score and apparently that was because he didn’t have anyone to compete against. Well, I’m glad I knew that I’m good for something then.
We walked back through the park, through the Golden State Park area, which is beautiful. We thought about going on the Grizzly River Run, but despite how hot it was, we didn’t fancy being drenched to the skin, so we passed.
I decided that it would be a good idea to go and have a look in World of Disney before we had to be ready to check out in the morning. It was a good decision. We went in to look for scrapbooking stuff for me and I certainly found some, but Mark also found himself a new hat. This one was a Grumpy one and a new Grumpy T-shirt to go with it. Both would get their debuts at tonight’s party.
They could be brothers!
We then had to say goodbye to Mari and Raleigh. We had had a really fun day with them and I hope we get to see them again sometime soon.
We had a bit of downtime in the room and passed on our reservation at the Wine Country Trattoria, as we just weren’t that hungry and we were both pretty tired.
Eventually we set off for dinner and Mark suggested going to the Rainforest Café, as we had never eaten there. We looked at a couple of other options in Downtown Disney, but nothing appealed to us, so we headed over to the Rainforest Café, never figuring that we would get in, but we did. We were seated immediately and were really speeded through our dinner. I guess they want to turn their tables around really quickly here, but that worked for us, as we were in a hurry for Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party. The theming inside was a lot of fun, although I’m not sure about the idea of the raging thunderstorm, as all it seemed to do was scare the living daylights out of the kids in there.
As for the food, it was way better than I think either of us had expected. We shared the spinach and artichoke dip with nachos for appetiser, which was apparently a new dish on the menu and it was excellent, very tasty. For entrée, I had the roasted shrimp pizza, very unusual and full of flavour. It was the first pizza I had had since the deep dish pizza in Chicago, but actually it was good, because it’s so totally different to the deep dish. Mark had the Tuscan chicken and seemed equally impressed with his choice. We were done with the two courses in about 45 minutes, which put us on course to be at the opening of the party.
Rainforest Café:
Appetiser 9½ 9
Entrée 9 9
Service 9½ 9
Atmosphere 9 9½
Value for money 9½ 9
Average score: 9.20
We had a text from Sharon, suggesting that she meet us at the entrance into the park at the Grand Californian. Great idea, so that’s the way we headed.
The problem was when we got there, we found out that it was closed, so now we had to backtrack through Downtown Disney and got through the main entrance. Why they decided to close that entrance, I have no idea. We could’ve really done with that open tonight. We called Sharon to let her know what was going on and told her that we would just be a few minutes.
When we got there, the entrance was mobbed and trying to find anyone was a nightmare. A quick phone call later, when I told Sharon to look for Mark’s Scrooge McDuck hat that was all lit up and she found us fine.
My first impressions of the party was that it was crowded at the entrance and it was also very noisy. They had a disco and boy, that was loud. We walked around Sunshine Plaza and then headed down towards Hollywood Boulevard.
Everyone else seemed to have the same idea. We got some more photos and thought about getting in line to see the princesses, who were there. That was, until we saw how long the line was. It was mad and just seemed to stretch forever.
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I just got up with about 3 updates, Chez. . . . This one is a speedy TR. Based on your descriptions of the 'new' DCA, I'm not sure I'm fond of it either. It makes me a little sad that I won't get to see it again before it changes, but on the other hand, it will seem like a new park when we go back, I guess.
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Not even planned....great minds think alike!!!
What a nice refresher to a fabulous time in DCA!
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
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