Pop and Legos on Our Annual Feb. Trip! - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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At this point we left the Lego Kingdoms area and walked through the Duplo Village area. It was very cute, DS ran over to get on the rides, but I convinced him they were too young for him!
We headed back into the Fun Town area to do the Factory Tour.
What a waste of time! I thought we were really going to learn how Legos are made! It was just a cartoon version of the process! I guess it is a big secret or something! Attached to the factory is a gift shop where you can buy individual Lego pieces. But the area at the DTD Lego Store has much more variety.
This is where DH found out the difference between Lego employees and Disney CMs. He tried to ask the workers in the Factory Store about when Lego came to America, etc. They had no idea and did not seem enthusiastic to talk to him at all. He knew Disney CMs are schooled in all things Disney before they start working! They don’t call it Disney University for nothing!
Next we decided to do the Island in the Sky in the Beginning area. This attraction was original to Cypress Gardens and is very cool, because you get a view of the Park, the Lake, and the surrounding area too. If you are scared of heights, skip it! But you are very secure and have to sit away from the edge, so it should be fine for most people.
This is what the ride looks like!
You can see the ski show arena, and a garden area that was reserved for a school group picnic when we were there.
The Parking Lot, you can see how empty it was!
This area looked like it used to have animals in it or something.
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
After that trip into the sky, I bought Apple Fries from the stand in Fun Town for all of us to share while we watched the ski show. They were yummy! You really have to try them! They are a LegoLand original creation. Cinnamon and sugar sprinkled deep-fried apples, with whipped cream for dipping, yeah, very yummy!
We did a little bit of shopping and looking at MiniLand on the way over to the Pirate’s Cove Water Ski Show. We went to the 2:45pm show. It was very cute! It mixes music, dancing, comedy action, adventure and water skiing. It amazes me how the people in the big Lego Minifig suits could water ski and ride a jet ski! I’m really glad LegoLand kept this element from Cypress Gardens.
The Pirate Ship for the water ski show
Princess someone who saves her ship from the pirates.
The soldiers helping to protect the ship from pirates.
This is blurry, sorry, but it shows the dressed up characters water skiing. Amazing!
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Right next to the ski show is the entrance to a preserved part of the Historical Cypress Gardens. So we meandered through there. It is really beautiful! We saw an alligator! And the southern belles made out of Legos are great! It is definitely worth a walk through here, just for nostalgia purposes. The shade would also be welcome on a really hot day I’m sure!
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
The Park closed at 5pm this day, so we decided that we better go explore MiniLand and do some shopping before we left. But first we checked the line for Wave Riders, but it was too long at this point! So we missed out on another fun ride.
The MiniLand area is just amazing! So much detail! You could spend tons of time there. It is just incredible! I’ll just let the pics do the talking here.
This is DH's favorite building in NYC
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
DH wanted me to ask you all about his pic above. It was in the San Francisco area of MiniLand, but we didn't know what it was supposed to represent. Alcatraz? We were stumped.
HollyWood!
Key West!
This was sooo clever, I didn't get it till DH explained it to me. This was in the Florida section, the fountain of youth. See how the people start out as old, shed their clothing and then become little crawling babies? DS thought it was hysterical that the people were naked!
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
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I really want to visit it, I'm just not sure how to fit it into our plans for our next trip... 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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