Just call us Holly, Heidi and Honey - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great update. it's been years since I ate at MM. I'll have to try it again. You guys have really gotten a lot done in one day. I don't remember the last time I got the cowboy scene on GMR. It had to be back when we went in the summertime so DD won't miss school.
Liz
Another great day (but no surprise, Carol and Romana had a great travel planner ). Your lunch at MM sounded delish, one of those places I have never gotten to but really want to try. I just love all the character photos and interaction you having, the pictures say it all....you are all definitely having a great time.
You did a great job at DHS! I love the photopass shot of you guys infront of ToT, so cute!!
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We had a 9 a.m. ADR at 1900 Park Fare so we had to get going a bit earlier this morning. We were at the bus stop by 8:15 and lucked out with a MK bus showing up soon afterwards. We also lucked out when the GF/Poly boat pulled up to MK just as we walked by. We hopped on it and were soon docking at GF.
I checked us into 1900 Park Fare and then we waited about 10 minutes for our table. Carol and Ramona both loved the food, but the characters were hit or miss (literally ). Pooh and Tigger came by pretty quickly, but Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter were so slow in visiting us that we finally just left. The poor family beside us was stuck because their little girl was dressed like Alice that morning.
I noticed that Carol and Ramona seemed to like the "cuddly" characters better so they didn't seem to care that we missed the face characters. We had a great time with those two!
We did a little shopping upstairs at the GF before we boarding a waiting monorail. The bag check and gates were a breeze, so we were soon on Main Street. The one thing that Ramona wanted to do on this trip (other than ride Soarin’ as many times possible ) was to meet Tiana.
As soon as we walked through the gates, I grabbed a Times guide and saw that Tiana greeted people at Liberty Square. With a little help from a CM at the River Boat, we found a pretty long line of people waiting for her in the courtyard behind the Liberty Bell. While Ramona and Carol hopped in line, I went ahead and ran for some PP FP’s. Tiana was not due to come back out until 11:15, so Ramona told Carol and me to head off and ride BTMRR since she wasn’t going to ride it anyway.
The standby time was only listed as 10 minutes and it really wasn’t much more than that. We squealed and laughed through the entire ride.
When we saw that Splash only had a 10 minute wait also, we hopped in that line. While we waited, Carol called Ramona who told her that Tiana had just come out and she was still waiting. Carol teased her asking if she wanted to join us in line at Splash - - um . . . !
Carol and I ended up in the front row, so I pulled out the disposable ponchos that I had been carrying in my purse all week. We didn’t put them on, but held them in our laps just in case. When we went around the first bend, we saw several people get soaked two boats ahead of us from the splash from the big drop. We figured that our number was up, so at the last minute we both covered our heads with the ponchos. Sure enough, a wave of water dumped on us. Our shorts got wet but our heads were dry. We would have been sopping wet if not for covering our heads.
A man and his son in the boat ahead of us turned around and called us cheaters. Every time we went down a drop, they turned around and gave us for not using our ponchos. We did get sprayed in the face on the big drop, but it was hilarious. It was probably hours later before my shorts dried out completely. For the first time ever, I did hold my arms up on the way down - - now that is a totally different sensation.
We veered by the PotC shop afterwards so that Carol could pick up a shirt for her husband. After that, we headed back and found Ramona waiting for us on a bench. She had just finished her meet and greet and was so thrilled. She had THE best time meeting Tiana and Naveen and the photos definitely show it. You'll notice that Ramona even gave them an accessory of hers to wear. Now aren't they ?
While we were in the area, we spotted a great photo op.
Ramona was thirsty and liked the sound of the frozen lemonade that I had told her about earlier in the week, so we walked over to the Enchanted Grove and used our first 3 snack credits of the trip (we had planned to save them all for the F&W festival, but that just hadn’t worked out so far). They loved their drinks.
We had just bought our drinks when the White Rabbit walked up and began taking pictures right beside us. When an opportunity presents itself . . .
We were heading back to Fantasy Land, so we took the path that runs beside the castle. As we walked by the old Storytime with Belle, we saw the characters from Tangled posing. They were about to leave so we didn’t bother getting into the line. I think that the long wait for Tiana was enough of a line wait for Ramona for one day.
We then rode Snow White, Mickey’s Philharmagic, PP and IaSW in quick succession. We were halfway through the ride in IaSW when the boats stopped and the lights came on. Yes, we were stuck on this ride.
Thankfully, we started slowly moving after only about 10 minutes, but they never dimmed the lights again. I believe at this point that the boats were just pushing each other around.
Next we rode HM and once again the ride stopped right before Ramona and I got on (Carol had just sat in a doom buggy) and then once again right before we turned backwards about 5 minutes each time. Thankfully that was the last ride that we broke that day. Our final attraction was CBJ which is always such a hoot.
As we walked back down Main Street, we stopped for a daylight castle photo (or two).
We did a little bit of shopping on Main Street (I was having a time trying to find a pink Disney collar for Heidi ) before we hopped on the T&TC monorail and then walked right over to a waiting Epcot monorail. It was about 3 p.m. by this time, but Carol and Ramona wanted to check and see if there were any Soarin’ FP’s available.
We had the dessert party at 7 p.m., so I seriously doubted if we would be able to ride Soarin’ today without waiting in the standby line (but I didn’t want to be a Debbie Downer by saying so ). We had planned to have a little lupper (lunch/supper ) at Sunshine Seasons anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to head in that direction. Imagine my shock when I saw that the FP time was currently 6:15! The parks hadn’t been crazy crowded, but not exactly empty either so the fact that FP’s were available on Soarin’ for three hours from now was downright !
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Pixie Dust
I'm glad you were able to fit everything in at DHS.
Previous trips: POFQ 2005 & 2007, Boardwalk 2008, BCV & AKLV 2009 (our honeymoon) & 2012, BCV & BLT 2011, BCV 2013, AKLV 2014
). Your lunch at MM sounded delish, one of those places I have never gotten to but really want to try. I just love all the character photos and interaction you having, the pictures say it all....you are all definitely having a great time.
PassPorter Guide Author
but the characters were hit or miss (literally 
). Pooh and Tigger came by pretty quickly, but Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter were so slow in visiting us that we finally just left. The poor family beside us was stuck because their little girl was dressed like Alice that morning. 
!
Our shorts got wet but our heads were dry. We would have been sopping wet if not for covering our heads. 
?
(Carol had just sat in a doom buggy) and then once again right before we turned backwards about 5 minutes each time. Thankfully that was the last ride that we broke that day. 
) before we hopped on the T&TC monorail and then walked right over to a waiting Epcot monorail. It was about 3 p.m. by this time, but Carol and Ramona wanted to check and see if there were any Soarin’ FP’s available. 
The parks hadn’t been crazy crowded, but not exactly empty either so the fact that FP’s were available on Soarin’ for three hours from now was downright 
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