Nineteen nights of MouseFest, Disney and Christmas - THREAD 2 - UPDATED 2/1 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So sorry you weren't feeling well Cheryl! The tour sounded so interesting. Could you let us in on what Bruce said about why they no longer run the Skyway? I've heard so many rumors over the years and I've always wondered what the real reason was for it's demise. It was a favorite of mine years ago.
I'm sorry you still weren't feeling well, Cheryl. the tour sounds really interesting. Sorry you couldn't finish it. I'd like to know why they stopped running the skylift, too.
Liz
So sorry you weren't feeling well Cheryl! The tour sounded so interesting. Could you let us in on what Bruce said about why they no longer run the Skyway? I've heard so many rumors over the years and I've always wondered what the real reason was for it's demise. It was a favorite of mine years ago.
I didn't write down at the time what Bruce said, so I'm doing this from memory. Essentially it was due to close anyway when there was the awful accident - that wasn't the reason it closed. It was partially to do with accessibility issues and also safety issues, such as concerns about guests throwing things out of the cars and the problems with getting to guests if the thing broke down.
Great pictures, sorry your feeling so bad this trip. Bruce sounds like a walking book of knowledge, I'm certainly going to be hunting the giant the next time we're there.
Your tour sounded wonderful, I'm sorry you had to cut it short and I'm hoping that the coming days find you feeling better. Fabulous pictures as usual too!
Essentially it was due to close anyway when there was the awful accident - that wasn't the reason it closed.
We arrived the day after that awful accident happened. I remember walking through the MK with DS(who was 6 at the time), my mom & my aunt, while my aunt told the story. Very sad. I often wondered if that was the reason why the ride was closed.
Great update! Your photos are great, as usual. I understand your problem with the heat. I find that the older I get, the more the heat bothers me. Hope you're feeling better soon! Can't wait to hear more
Wednesday 12 December – part four: feeding time on the savannah
Once we were refreshed and ready to go again, we headed out for a look around the savannah to see what we could find and we were in luck. We saw so many animals, so we managed to catch feeding time and we were able to get some great photos. As if it hadn’t been already, it made staying here worthwhile.
Remember that the last time we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in 2004, we didn’t have a stellar experience? A lot of it was to do with the terrible insect bits I got during my stay, so I was a little nervous about coming back here. We needn’t have been. It was such a good stay and we loved pretty much everything about it. Animal Kingdom Lodge is a great addition to the Disney Vacation Club family and if you get the chance, you should stay here at least once.
We finally dragged ourselves away from animals and headed over to the All Stars resorts to get some photos of the three different resorts. I found Sports and Music to be very similar, but somehow Movies was head and shoulders better than the other two, to me at least. They are a lot of fun, but they are just not my cup of tea. I think I’ve been spoilt by deluxe resorts now.
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glad you went to the All Stars and checked them out! Seriously, they're great hotels, but once you get spoiled by staying deluxe and then DVC, it's hard to even think about that small of a room!
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The tour sounded so interesting. Could you let us in on what Bruce said about why they no longer run the Skyway? I've heard so many rumors over the years and I've always wondered what the real reason was for it's demise. It was a favorite of mine years ago.
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Glad you were feeling better 
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