Merry, Magical, and Bright: Late Fall Adventures of Cam & Luke Updated 3/12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I loved all your characters photos especially the one with Chewie! Sorry you're having such an issue with Photopass and Flickr. I hope you don't have anymore issues with the rest of your TR. Hope you're feeling back to normal for Christmas!
We had a great character day our first day. I think I might have gotten both sites figured out, and I'm double checking as I write the updates that photos are in the correct order before I post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezie
Such great character interactions! I loved all the PP photos.
Glad you’re both starting to feel a bit better.
Thanks! We got some terrific PhotoPass photos over the course of this trip.
So many great character interactions! That Olaf cupcake looked delicious
That cupcake was yummy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
All caught up now!
Wow! What a travel day for you guys! Glad you were able to get your ADR moved and still got to enjoy dinner.
I am so excited about all of the Christmas décor at DHS. It is so great! They really out did themselves this year.
I love your Porg! I have to get one! We still have not seen the new Star Wars, probably will Christmas Day.
I am loving all your pictures! Keep them coming!
Thanks for joining in! We won't get back during the Christmas season until 2019, but I already can't wait to see DHS decorated again.
NEXT: The Sun Is Out! Let’s See How the Decorations Look Now!
After visiting with Olaf, we came back out into a sunny afternoon at Studios. WooHoo! The wait time had tripled in the time we had been inside, too. I looked at Luke and asked if we could return to the lagoon and see what the Christmas decorations looked like in the sunshine. I began my photo shoot with Gertie who did look incredible with the sun out.
Earlier in the day we had stopped a Christmas kiosk to check out the wares, but it was small, and the selection was quite limited. The CM manning the booth told us that there was another larger Christmas Shoppe near the Indiana Jones attraction. When I finished taking photos of the tree, we climbed the steps to check this shop out. It had a considerably larger selection of items. Initially, I wasn’t finding anything and then right behind the checkout area, I noticed a long sleeve, hooded t-shirt for Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! that I really liked. I asked about the price, and was immediately told by the two CMs that is was for Annual Pass Holders only. Well, I do have one of those, and they informed me that right now this was the only place to get one. So, I bought it and Luke got the Goofy Vinylmation he had liked earlier in a shop on Sunset Boulevard. I even purchased a reusable Christmas shopping bag to hold our goodies. Photos will come later.
From here we wandered down to Hollywood Boulevard to check out the shops there. I don’t know how many times Luke and I have been by this shop, but we neither one had ever noticed that Mickey’s wand moves.
I loved the dancing Minnie ornaments in the store windows. In fact, we received a Christmas card from a PassPorter with these ornaments on it. So cool!
We walked through the shops on the right side of the street. Keystone Clothiers is usually one of my favorite shops. I did find a Mickey Sport long-sleeve tee that I purchased and added to my new shopping bag. But there won’t be a photo because after I tried it on back in the room, I decided it just wasn’t my style, just a little too blingy with all the gold. Skipping ahead a few days, I took it back our next DHS day.
Now that my brain is less foggy and I have reread my own notes, it is time for Luke’s two rides on Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. After our third FastPass, we had made a fourth for RnRC, and since I don’t ride it, that meant he had two back-to-back FPs. I sat down outside to take notes and check e-mails. The first time he got off, he commented that it was excellent in every way. He also told me a story about a mother and daughter. The mom turned to her daughter as they got in the car and kept saying “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh” over and over. That is until the car launched and then she screamed the entire ride. The second time her rode, I took a restroom break. He returned declaring this ride excellent, too.
After his second excellent ride, Luke and I returned to the stores from this morning, picking up some of the merchandise we’d checked out earlier. Our purchases included: a Chip and Dale Christmas pin,; sadly, the BB-8 pin was sold out; the WDW fridge magnet and car magnet seen in an earlier photo; a pair of Grumpy/Dopey socks and a pair of Mickey Mouse socks (I told you I had a thing for socks this trip and it has just begun.); a raglan long-sleeve t-shirt; a Santa crewneck lounge top and matching Christmas plaid lounge pants; and the super soft plaid Christmas blanket. We also picked up our second of the reusable Christmas bag to easily haul everything.
Next, we headed back down Hollywood Boulevard on the opposite side, mainly because I was looking for a postcard for my great-niece. At the Celebrity 5 and 10, we found the postcard plus set of Mickey Mouse head multi-colored lights that are now strung on our Christmas wreath. At check out I asked about exclusive and limited addition pins. The CM showed me one that I knew I immediately had to buy, a Kilimanjaro Safari limited edition pin that included a sliver of a sign that used to be on the trucks. When we got home, I laid at the pins we’d purchased on the kitchen table. A day later I discovered that the little bubble holding the sliver on the pin had fallen off. Thankfully, the metal piece was also on the table. Luke used Gorilla superglue to reattach it and all is now good.
Since the Trolley Car Café was nearby, we headed in to purchase Luke’s Studios Starbucks mug. See earlier photo. Souvenir shopping for today was done.
As we exited the Trolley Car Café, we noticed a PhotoPass photographer who was currently photographing another couple, but had no line. I recognized him as one who had taken our photo back in May and even knew where Owensboro was because he has friend who lives here unless he’s dead. His words, not mine. His photos are great until he moves in close on my face, just too much me for me.
Guess what we did next??? We returned to the lagoon because now it was dusk, and everything might look different. In fact, there were some changes. Gertie’s eyes were lit up. In case, you’re not sure. I was in love with the Christmas décor of Studios.
Quite the successful shopping day!
And silly, but I cracked up over the idea of using Gorilla Glue on an AK pin. What else would you use!? (It May Be time for me to head home.....)
I loved those floating ornaments in the lagoon!
I'm not surprise you were in love with the Studio Christmas decorations. I think they look fantastic, the best they've been in many years.
You are exactly right! Best in years! it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
The tree by Gertie is truly beautiful!
Sounds like great batch of souvenirs purchased.
I was so pleased with the new location for the Studios Christmas tree. Perfect in the lagoon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Quite the successful shopping day!
And silly, but I cracked up over the idea of using Gorilla Glue on an AK pin. What else would you use!? (It May Be time for me to head home.....)
I loved those floating ornaments in the lagoon!
Actually, we had the same thought when I showed Luke and he grinned really big and said he'd get the Gorilla glue.
The floating ornaments were pretty every time of the time we stopped by.
Good time in Studios with some nice PP photos of the two of you! Glad Luke enjoys RNRRC so much as one of my faves too! Love the Christmas decor and especially around Echo Lake and Gertie! They are probably doing more with the decorations here since they discontinued the Osborne Lights!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I can understand why you took so many pictures of the lagoon it is very well decorated. I love Disney socks, our store in Winnipeg doesn’t carry them very often but I am happy when they do. Your trip report is really making me want to go for the holidays one year.
Great pictures and great finds. Now I have been to Disney many times and obviously am on these boards and I never knew that Gertie blew smoke or her eyes lit up. Thanks for sharing!
It sounds like you were able to find a lot of souvenirs to your liking on this trip! I totally agree with you about the Christmas decorations at DHS this year. I couldn't get enough of them myself. When we were there in October, there was so much construction around the lake area that you couldn't enjoy it in the same way but in November I was just in awe of it all!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.