My "first" trip to WDW!! (1/25-2/1) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Aw I think they are totally cute pictures. And I must say I am so glad that you ride the carousel as well. My DH laughs as he takes my picture but I climb on one of those horses every trip!
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No I haven't forgotten this trip report! I've just been so busy this week! The Wolrd Figure Skating Championships were this week in Moscow, so I've been watching live before work and then the replays when I get home, so I haven't had too much free time! (and add in the final preparation for a trip with 8 teenage girls to NYC and yah! LOL!!!)
I have another long weekend this week, as tomorrow is election day so our school is closed as it's used as a polling station! And it's suppose to be sunny and warm today, not so much tomorrow, but I have a bunch of messages to do, so it's okay!
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Great updates! I think all your pictures are great, too!
Thank you!!
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
I don't think you look weird..........I think you look like you are having a GREAT time and taking in every magical moment!!!
Thanks, I was definitely having a great time! I can't wait to go back and not rush around so much, and be able to take everything in! Excepcially some of the queues...
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Originally Posted by southerngirl1014
Aw I think they are totally cute pictures. And I must say I am so glad that you ride the carousel as well. My DH laughs as he takes my picture but I climb on one of those horses every trip!
LOL!! Awesome! I love the carrousel! A couple of summers ago when I was still working at sleepaway camp, on session break a bunch of us counsellors spent the day at our local Six Flags. The carrousel is right as you walk in and all the girls ran over to ride it, while the boys were like "No thanks!!"
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Originally Posted by mojjo
I think you photos are great and I'm really enjoying your TR.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Great updates and photos!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great updates and pictures! Glad you had a great time at CRT!!
Thank you! Im glad you're all enjoying reading it! I'm having a lot of fun re-telling the story! Everytime I write a bit I know I've forgotten something and I go back and add it before posting it here!!
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Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG
Great pics! Yall look like your havin a great time! The food looked sooo yummy!
We had an amazing time!! Everything was perfect, it was really a magical experience! I know people have complained about the food, but none of us had any problems or complaints! One of the best meals!
As we left the castle, we stopped to take some pictures of the mosaics inside. It was dark now, and it was so cool to see the castle all lit up! It was about 7:15 by now, and people had already starting finding a spot for nighttime shows, so we stopped to take a few pictures of the castle before heading a bit further down Main Street to find a spot. We also took a photopass picture with the castle all lit up. We found a good spot, and we ended up chatting with some older couples from Calgary to help pass the time. First up was the Magic, the Memories and You! Originally when they first talked about the idea, I thought it sounded ridiculous but obviously there was a lot of tweaking from their original plan because it was a great show! The lighting effects and projections were amazing and so creative, and I loved how they tied in all aspects of the part. My only complaint was that, being a bit further back you really couldn’t see the pictures very clearly, they were quite small. Overall though VERY cool! Finally it was time for Wishes! This was maybe the one thing I hadn’t watched a video of beforehand because I wanted to be surprised (although I knew about Tink flying). Wow, I don’t think I’ll be able to watch our local Canada Day fireworks the same ever again! It was amazing... seriously there are no words. The song itself and the message it tells is so moving, but throw in the fireworks and wow. I could seriously watch those everyday if I had the chance! I took a bunch of pictures which actually some came our great, and I took a short video too! LOL I am looking at my dad’s notes and he wrote “Really good”. Haha. Anyway, after the fireworks we joined the masses and headed on out. The line for ASSp was long because there was a tour group there (but it was not just teenagers, it was mostly families) but about 2-3 minutes later two buses pull up, so most of the tour group got on one bus and we got on the other. I think this is where we ended up chatting with a family from Ottawa, but it may have been another day, but I seem to remember it being on a bus home from MK! Anyway, we got back to the hotel in no time and headed off to bed almost immediately!
One of the murals inside the castle halls
Probably one of my favorite pictures of the castle!
I couldn't agree more about the Magic, Memories and You - I thought it sounded crazy when they first announced it, but actually it's a really neat show.
Great pictures! Your scrapbook pages look terrific, too!
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Originally Posted by mojjo
Love your scrapbook page!!!!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great night! Love the pictures!
Thanks!! I am just starting to scrapbook, so I'm still learning. I've had to stop temporarily as my photo printer died. Well it was 4 years ago (and when I bought it it was "last years model".)so I guess it's time. It was printing light grey lines in the picture. Tried cleaning it and all that jazz, but I think it's just dead. LOL I found a nice one online, so I might buy that if I can't find one in the stores.
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Originally Posted by chezp
I couldn't agree more about the Magic, Memories and You - I thought it sounded crazy when they first announced it, but actually it's a really neat show.
It is a cool show! I think if I'm ever there when they do it again (or something similar), I'll try and go closer so I can actually see the pictures and then maybe move further back for Wishes!
I probably sound like a broken record but I am so sorry for the lack of updates. This week has been crazy, a bunch of work things are making me It's not really stressfull but it's exhausting by the end of the day. I had my two girl guide meetings this week, and a retirement party. It's just been one of those weeks where I got home from work, and relaxed for a bit until I looked at the clock and was like "How did it get to be 10pm already?!?!" Next week is going to be long I know, it'll be our first five day week since the first week in April! I will try and add another update in the next few days!!!
Today was to be our first trip to Animal Kingdom and I was really excited! I love animals and all that so I was really looking forward to it! We got up about 7-7:30 or so and did the normal morning routine thing! Breakfast was Mickey Waffles this time though instead of pancakes, hehe! At some point I was watching TV and turned to one of the WDE channel, and they were going park to park and showing all the cool things and they were on AK, when I saw the souvenir I wanted to buy: A safari hat with Mickey ears! We just missed an AK bus LOL But it wasn’t long until the next one, although it meant missing Rope Drop. There was a lady in a wheelchair getting on, with the cutest Eeyore Ears on!, so it took a few extra minutes (this bus driver was a bit slow, he didn’t seem to know exactly what to do LOL)
Soon we were off to the AK and about 30 seconds after the welcome announcement was made the AK announcement was made! LOL I knew it was close, but it took no time! We got off the bus and headed towards the exit (ugh it was sooo far), and went through bag check which took forever, our guard was a bit grumpy and was taking his sweet time. While I had no problem with bag check, I think it’s slightly pointless. Someone could easily hide something under their clothes and walk right in though the no bag entry...just saying. Okay rant off We went through the ticket gate and once again my dad’s ticket didn’t work! the CM was easily able to rest it after we were like “ugh not again, this happens all the time”, and soon we were on our way to Africa. I was on a mission to get to the Safari and didn’t really stop to look at everything, but we had the chance later in the day/week to do so. It didn’t take long once we got to Africa , walk through the line for the safari and had made a 5 minute wait for our jeep.
I loved the safari! We saw lots of animals, and I love the story line. My parents couldn’t believe how bumpy it was (and we were in the back, haha). The best part was actually when we stopped for about 10 minutes because we were right between one of the elephants and a mandrill. The mandrill was hysterical, it was like he was putting on a show for us. He would pose and dance, LOL It was histerical! I got a video, I’ll see if I can post it later. Our CM took the time to tell us a lot of information about the two animals which was really cool. Maybe in another life I’ll be some sort of zoo keeper or something. We continued on our journey and the rest of the safari went off without a hitch! I wish we could have done it again later in the day, but I’ll save it for another trip!
First glance of the Tree Of Life
In the safari queue, good advice IMO!!
Can you spot the giraffe?
Posing/dancing Monkey! (I tried to crop it on Photobucket, but it wasn't working)