Holy Great Movie Ride (April 5 - 10)! TR Begins - COMPLETE!! 6/8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We're in Kingsland, watching Celebrity Apprentice to get any sort of sneak peek at HP Wizarding World we can. Leaving in the morning around 6... can't wait!! See you later
Didn't the men's team (especially the governor) crack you up? It was totally obvious that they were clueless about Harry Potter.
Well, we’re back And some of us (aka Me and Brandi) are in total denial that we’re back at work We’re kicking off the last nine weeks of school. And I agree with Brandi, Spring Break really just ticks me off b/c it means summer isn’t here yet..
So, let’s get down to business, shall we?
We started Sunday off at my parents house for Easter lunch. Nothing like shoving yourself full of mama and grandmama’s good home cooking before a 6 hour drive We made our drive to Kingsland and for some reason, it felt like FOREVER But after a chat with Brandi on the phone, some McD’s dinner in the car, and the first hour and a half of Harry Potter on the iPhone we were there. We made good time, arriving just in time to catch Celebrity Apprentice with my cutie Curtis Stone We relaxed and watched and then got some zzz’s. The alarm was set for early the next morning and we were READY!
We stuck to our schedule and at 6am Monday morning, we were out the door and on the road. Andy heard on the news before we left that the shuttle would be launching at 6:20 that morning, but me in my early morning not so friendly state didn’t really pay much attention to it. That is until we were driving through JAX and actually saw it on it’s takeoff This was the first time we’ve ever seen a shuttle launch and for it to be a dark one, that was even cooler. That little bright spot in the sky is it. I took this with my iPhone b/c my camera was packed in the back of the car. Finally it disappeared into the sky and all of a sudden you could see it, in space, it looked like a star with a massive trail of light behind it. I was amazed at how far the trail stretched. Amazing. And it left this little gaseous blue spot in the sky where it broke through. I tried to take a pic of it, too.
The rest of the ride was uneventful until we hit Orlando. We showed our uber nerdom when we both got super excited about being able to see the top of Hogwarts Castle off I-4 And then, we were in the bubble ! We made great time and arrived in the Epcot parking lot a few minutes after 9.
First on the agenda was to head to the Land and grab some FPs for Soarin’. Our return time was like noon which worked out good. We went ahead and rode Living with the Land, which we love.
By now we were feeling like we could eat a bite so we stopped by Sunshine Seasons in hopes of getting the egg and cheese croissant, but it wasn’t on the menu anymore Why does Mickey keep taking away all our favorite things??? Instead, they had some breakfast panini on this massive bread with ham, egg, and cheese. There was no way I could eat all of that, and it just didn’t look as good as my croissant would have, so I passed.
We headed over to Innoventions and created our own roller coaster at Sum of All Thrills. We didn’t have the best score so we made a plan to go back at some point and try to do better. I mean, it’s all about math and science, but with only 4 minutes to do it, how much math and science can one elementary educator do?
We stopped and checked out the Rafiki and Lion King topiaries located behind SSE this year. I have pictures of the topiaries but I’m saving them for my photoblog. The weekends will be dedicated to the Flower and Garden Festival, so be sure to check it out.
We checked out SSE but it was too crowded for our liking. Instead we opted to go visit Stitch. How many pictures can I have of Stitch pointing to my boob?? This time he was admiring my diamond pendant that Andy gave me back for our 5th wedding anniversary in 2008. We had a bit of a sign language based discussion about it.
Then a couple of normal shots.
Next up was The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We boarded our clam-mobile and went off in search of Nemo. I told Andy that at some point Marlin needs to give Nemo a good lecture and/or a whooping… I mean, how many times can Nemo go off missing on his own, and think it’s funny?? After what happened to him the first time?? Geez Nemo. Way to be respectful to your family and friends
We meandered around the Seas for a bit. It’s our favorite place to just relax. We visited the manatees and met the new fella, Jasper. Jasper has been rescued due to cold stress and is a little fella compared to ole Lou. Speaking of Lou. That boy has fattened up since the last time we saw him. He’s over 1400 lbs. now!
We took a moment to sit in our favorite window seat and dolphin watch. After a bit I realized they were doing some sort of training session with the dolphins. In the walk through bit of the aquarium the trainers were doing a show that involved holding up rings in the window and having the dolphins swim over and interact based on those rings. Sorry for the nonscientific explanation, we walked up too late to really catch it. Anyway, I have some video I will post later of it as well as this crappy pic:
Our plan was to head to Beaches and Cream for lunch and to meet the Bakers there. We texted them to let them know that we were heading in that direction and they let us know that they were on their way. We took our time walking back towards the backdoor of Epcot, and I took some photos you will see on the photoblog… including possibly this one: Andy really liked those yellow trees and he read what they were at some point during the trip. I don’t remember what they were called, but maybe he does…..
We stopped at one of the kiosks set up with merch for the F&GF. I bought a beautiful welcome sign carved from driftwood for my mother for her birthday. The artist was there to sign it as well, which was neat. We chatted with her about seeing the shuttle that morning and our trip down. I meant to go back and get one of those for myself, but I went overboard shopping anyway, so it’s okay
I stopped and took a few more photos leaving Epcot….
Again, some of these will be seen on the photoblog
Coming up: How many milkshake cups can we get on this tiny table???
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Pixie Dust
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Aimee
little babies. 
Susan
We’re kicking off the last nine weeks of school. And I agree with Brandi, Spring Break really just ticks me off b/c it means summer isn’t here yet.. 
We made our drive to Kingsland and for some reason, it felt like FOREVER 
But after a chat with Brandi on the phone, some McD’s dinner in the car, and the first hour and a half of Harry Potter on the iPhone we were there. We made good time, arriving just in time to catch Celebrity Apprentice with my cutie Curtis Stone 
This was the first time we’ve ever seen a shuttle launch and for it to be a dark one, that was even cooler.
And then, we were in the bubble 
! We made great time and arrived in the Epcot parking lot a few minutes after 9. 
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