An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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The hotel and room look really nice. I totally agree about the lighting and mirrors in the rooms at WDW. They should all have those nice little make-up mirrors. I end up bringing a little handheld that I can use for my eye makeup or a quick brow tweezing. I also love the kiosks for your park tickets...very quick and easy!
So glad to hear you like the RPR, for obvious reasons. I'm planning on another trip to Universal this summer and haven't decided which resort I want. I love the Portofino, but I know my nephews would enjoy the Hard Rock (especially the pool). But I also haven't stayed at RPR, so I can't make up my mind. Maybe your TR will help me decide.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I just read your TR so far - great start! I love that your DD got to visit the cockpit and actually sit there! So cool. I know my DD would LOVE that. Can't wait to hear more!
I'm still jealous over Stephanie getting to hang out in the cockpit with that cute pilot!!
I think the park ticket kiosks are so cool but I imagine that if Disney did that, they'd would need twice as many and they'd probably be mobbed early in the day!
So cool Stefanie got to 'fly' the plane! I think I'll be making goodie bags for our trip now too for sure. With 8 of us on the flight together anything to get the crew in our good graces off the bat will probably be needed.
Love the laptop bag!
Can't wait to see WWoHP pics!!!
Very happy to see the rooms at the Royal Pacific as that is most likely where we will stay when we go to Universal.
And I like the ticket kiosks - nice!
What did you all think of the interaction of Universal characters verses Disney? I know we're probably going to be asking you to do lots of comparisons for us during this TR!
The Universal characters were fairly responsive, and we've had Disney characters that were less than stellar. In fact, I'll talk about one when we get to one of my June 9 updates. Overall, we had pretty decent interaction with Curious George and Scooby Doo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Ooo, I saw Luke holding a cool giraffe bag! Very CAM!
Thanks for the pictures of the room and your reviews of things. It's really going to help me for when I visit UH/IoA for the first time...hopefully next year!
That is my lime green giraffe laptop bag! it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shnewell
The room looks quite nice! And how cool that you can pick up your tix right there in the lobby.
Love, love, love the photos of Stefanie with Curious George and Scooby!!
I wonder if Mrs. Rogers ever found who she was looking for...
I'm not sure if Mrs. Rogers every got who she was wanted, but she did quit calling me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoraDoug
The room likes really nice there! I'm glad to hear Stephanie didn't miss out on the characters at dinner either. It's funny to hear about the slaw serving. We have a lot of seafood buffet restaurants here that do the same thing, serve it in these itty bitty little cups, like it's just a plate decoration and they don't really mean for you to eat it (and after having tasted some of them I agree)!
That's exactly what the cole slaw serving was like. Too funny! BTW -- I your new sig pic!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessie092408
I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the resort you stayed at. I was curious what they looked like, but we stayed in Disney and "commuted" to Universal, so I didn't get to see them last September.
I'm curious as to your opinion of crowd control at Universal and IOA. Can't wait to read more!
The crowd was a very manageable level the day we visited Universal and really wasn't bad at IoA, except in the WWoHP. It is just much smaller back there than anywhere else in the park, and since it is the most popular section, it just gets more crowded. They do have a limit on the number of folks back there, but we did not see anyone turned away while we were there. US has done a good job of filtering folks back to WWoHP with signs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Love the photos of Stefanie with George and Scooby! The hotel room does look very nice. I often wonder why Disney doesn't outfit its deluxe rooms like other hotels--guess they feel being on property is enough of a perk, but when I'm staying in a deluxe room (as opposed to a DVC property), as nice as the rooms are, they lack those extra touches.
I guess the more I go to WDW deluxe resorts the more I wish they would add some of those little touches that you can get at other non-Disney deluxe resorts because these places are my home and I want it to be the best.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
So glad that Steph got to meet the characters she was excited about!!!
I hear ya about food pics and being hungry ~ I sometimes forget too!!! Just dig right in!!
Okay- so spill ~ is that Giraffe bag a laptop case???? Where O Where did you get it????????
It is a laptop case and Luke bought it for me a year ago at Best Buy. it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by my2girls
Great photo's of your room and view! If memory serves me correctly, when we stayed at BC in 2008, there was a magnifying make-up mirror in the bathroom.
Your photo's of Stefanie with Scooby Doo and Curious George are priceless!
We had a magnifying mirror at BC, but we were staying Club Level. I want them in all deluxe rooms because I'm not always going to stay Club Level.
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
The hotel and room look really nice. I totally agree about the lighting and mirrors in the rooms at WDW. They should all have those nice little make-up mirrors. I end up bringing a little handheld that I can use for my eye makeup or a quick brow tweezing. I also love the kiosks for your park tickets...very quick and easy!
I have a handheld one that I planned to take, but couldn't find it. Then, wouldn't you know, as I was cleaning Stefanie's bathroom on Tuesday, I discovered it under her sink. Now to remember where it is for the next trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
So glad to hear you like the RPR, for obvious reasons. I'm planning on another trip to Universal this summer and haven't decided which resort I want. I love the Portofino, but I know my nephews would enjoy the Hard Rock (especially the pool). But I also haven't stayed at RPR, so I can't make up my mind. Maybe your TR will help me decide.
I didn't really check out the other resorts while there, but we did really enjoy the room, the service, and the amenities at RPR. I would definitely stay there again. We chose it because we were tacking three days on to our 12 day WDW vacation and needed to be economical. We got a great package from AAA for this portion of our trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennie622
I'm still jealous over Stephanie getting to hang out in the cockpit with that cute pilot!!
I think the park ticket kiosks are so cool but I imagine that if Disney did that, they'd would need twice as many and they'd probably be mobbed early in the day!
I had that same thought while standing at the kiosk and not another guest around. Compared to WDW, US and the resort often felt sparsely inhabited.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
So cool Stefanie got to 'fly' the plane! I think I'll be making goodie bags for our trip now too for sure. With 8 of us on the flight together anything to get the crew in our good graces off the bat will probably be needed.
Love the laptop bag!
Can't wait to see WWoHP pics!!!
with the goodie bags! And loads of with your group of 8 flying together.
Sounds like a pretty good start. Your resort looks lovely. One of these days I want to get over there, but I haven't been able to coax myself out of the bubble yet.
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