Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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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.
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11-26-2005, 07:15 PM
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#181
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Posts: 13,817
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Great updates Annabel. I hope your cold doesn't get too bad.
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11-26-2005, 09:45 PM
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#182
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Really enjoyed your updates Annabel! Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well...hope it didn't last long. Looking forward to your next installment! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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11-28-2005, 10:49 AM
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#183
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,960
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Great update! Hurry back with more, please!
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11-28-2005, 11:39 AM
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#184
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Robbinsdale, MN
Posts: 7,526
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
I hope you were able to get a photo with Figment later in the trip. Also hoping you felt better sooooooon! No fun being sick on vacation.
More, please!
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11-28-2005, 12:37 PM
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#185
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
More great updates Annabel [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]
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11-28-2005, 01:45 PM
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#186
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: San Mateo, CA
Posts: 2,490
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Mmmmm... Chili's... [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] Great updates Annabel! I hope you got better quickly. It's the worst to be sick at Disney! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/pout.gif[/img]
Karen
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11-28-2005, 02:57 PM
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#187
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PassPorter and WDW Addict
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Texas
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 12,489
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Just caught up on your TR! So sorry to hear you weren't feeling well!
Wow! Did you rack up on the movies at Wal-Mart!
Waiting patiently for more, please!
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11-28-2005, 05:21 PM
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#188
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Eileeeeeeen!™
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 28,861
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Annabel - you poor thing! You always seem to get a cold at Disney.... maybe you need to come to America more often to get accustomed to our germs! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Can't wait for more updates...
Eileen
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11-30-2005, 02:28 AM
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#189
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Community Rank: Trailblazer 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: South East London
Posts: 5,164
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 4 Part 1
<font color="purple">Day 4 – The One With the Very British Breakfast
A bright and bushy-tailed started to the day around 6.30am. Unfortunately, I was now the proud owner of a fully fledged cold and Andy had managed to pick up the beginnings of a nasty cough. Lovely [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img] It would be nice to have a holiday where I didn’t get ill in any way - still, if I'm going to get ill I know where I'd rather be ill but I digress! We went to the food court around 7am – I had a bagel with cream cheese and Andy had a croissant. We were due to have breakfast at 10.20 at 1900 Park Fayre but we couldn’t wait that long as we were both feeling hungry. After a few refills and a relax in the food court, we head to the Wal-Mart on the US27 via Sherberth Road. Neither of us can get over how huge this Wal-Mart is – we thought the other 2 we’d visited were big enough but compared to this one, they’re like Apu's mini-mart! We wandered around, picking up cough medicine and cold and flu tablets and Cinderella on 2-disc DVD. Andy bought himself another pair of navy blue shorts, identical to the pair he bought in the 192 branch but for some reason they were a dollar cheaper here, go figure. For the first time, we put our photos to CD. We were amazed at how easy it was to do and how cheap it was. We had 240 photos and the machine allowed us to put them all to 1 CD, at a cost of $2.82. The only downside was we were told to return for it between one and two hours. Ok then!
By 9am, we were heading back to Disney property [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] and were looking forward to our first proper look at the Grand Floridian Resort.
 
our first glimpse
After reading in a few trip reports about how good the breakfast was at 1900 Park Fayre, plus the great character interaction, I decided I had to try it. Unfortunately all the earlier slots were taken so we settled for 10.20am. We decided to push the boat out and valet park for a change. Andy couldn’t believe how far away the self parking was. We were still early so we wandered around the hotel. It is really beautiful and so grand. It made me feel like I could be in the movie Somewhere In Time.
 
 
 
We looked around the gift shop, where I bought a postcard of the hotel lit up in the evening and a long sleeved Happiest Celebration on Earth top (for anyone interested, I noticed they had up to a size 3X here).
By 10am, we were done wandering and all I wanted was a seat as I was feeling a little rough. We decided to check in early and sit and wait. We checked in and were given our beeper. As we went to sit down, who did we spy but Mary Poppins [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] There was no one with her and we watched her wiping the surface of the plant pot and inspecting her finger for dust. She really was in character [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Andy took a photo and she primped her hair and made sure her hat was on straight first.
I told Andy to go stand with her and she took his arm for the photo. We thanked Mary and went back to our bench.
Within a few minutes, our beeper went off [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] We were taken to our table which was close to the buffet.
 
Our server was Dennis and he brought us coffee and poured us a glass of juice each. Unfortunately this was the last time he properly served us and we were left disappointed. He kept rushing by us to serve other tables, despite our best efforts to get his attention. At one stage, I managed to get his attention with a very loud cough and he poured me a glass of juice. He didn’t have half a glass for Andy and he left, supposedly to get more but that was the last time we saw him until he chucked our bill on the table in passing about half an hour later [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] Despite the awful service, I have to say that the food was outstanding [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] and there was a lot of choice. Andy was disappointed that his corned beef hash had mushrooms in it and he kept passing them to me. My favourite was the western style scrambled eggs, they were delicious. For some reason I thought the cheese blintzes would have savoury cheese in them not sweet, so that was a bit of a shock – they were still nice though [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] The banana bread was also excellent. We also enjoyed Mickey waffles, hash browns and pecan swirls.
We met Alice, who was really wonderful and totally in character. She asked if us where we from in England and told us she was from Oxford and could she have a photo taken with us so naturally we obliged.
The Mad Hatter didn’t make it to our table as he was pulled in for a break and when he came back out, he started at the other end of the restaurant but that was ok. We also got to pose with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.
 
Pooh and Tigger met halfway and ended up giving each other a hug, which was really cute.
awwww!
Breakfast was incredibly busy, and I’m sure at quieter times the interaction is a lot better. We used our Disney Dining Experience card here and saved about $8. As we’d had such awful service, Andy decided he didn't want to leave a tip. Our server took the bill away after Andy had signed everything, I saw him look at it. He hung around while we were being silly with Tigger again and to our astonishment, as soon as Tigger moved on he came back and said to Andy “Sir, did you realise that service was not included?” I just stared open-mouthed at him [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] Andy said “yes” and the server said thank you and disappeared. We just sat there looking at each other – why on earth should we pay for service when we didn’t have any? We always tip well when we’ve had good service, this was the first time we hadn’t actually left any tip at all. One drink was all we’d gotten and we never saw him for dust. I’m sorry but that just doesn’t warrant a tip in my book. We were both pretty steamed after this but the smiles reappeared when we decided to take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for our first glimpse of the castle, woohoo – well, sort of.
Part 2: and the rain rain rain came down down down [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rain.gif[/img]
</font>
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11-30-2005, 05:44 AM
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#190
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 4 Part 1
I'm sorry you had poor service Annabel [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] but glad you still enjoyed the meal! Great pictures too!
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11-30-2005, 08:07 AM
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#191
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Posts: 13,817
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 4 Part 1
I'm sorry to hear you have both got colds - I hate getting sick on vacation. Gotta love bargains at Walmart!
I [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] the movie Somewhere In Time. Sorry to hear about the service at Park Fare. The meal sounds [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/facelick.gif[/img]! What a nervy waiter. I would have told him I didn't pay for service because I didn't get any service!
Looking forward to your next insallment even though it's [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rain.gif[/img].
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11-30-2005, 08:45 AM
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#192
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Eileeeeeeen!™
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 28,861
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 4 Part 1
Wow! What cheek of that server to even mention the lack of a tip. It should've been obvious that you weren't satisfied with his performance....
[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zcry.gif[/img] Unfortunately, this is the last installment I'll be able to read until next week, but I promise to pick up the thread of your story the minute I'm back from Mousefest. Wish you and Andy were going too!
C Ya,
Eileen
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11-30-2005, 10:10 AM
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#193
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Manchester NH
Concierge Level: 4
Posts: 12,514
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 4 Part 1
I can't believe it only cost $2.82 to have your pics downloaded. I think I paid $12 in MK last time. Great update
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11-30-2005, 01:18 PM
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#194
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But why is the rum gone?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Needville, Texas
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 12,286
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Great update Annabel!! Sorry you had a bad server.
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11-30-2005, 02:35 PM
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#195
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Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio Football Hall Of Fame
Posts: 42,304
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Re: The Freeman Not So Scary October Trip - Updated Day 3 Part 2
Great updates Annabel!! I love your pictures from your breakfast!! Sorry your service was so bad, I wouldn't have left a tip either. Can't wait to read more of your great report!!
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