An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Originally Posted by my2girls Great photo's of your room and view! If memory serves me correctly, when we stayed at BC in 2008, there was a magnifying make-up mirror in the bathroom.
Your photo's of Stefanie with Scooby Doo and Curious George are priceless!
We had a magnifying mirror at BC, but we were staying Club Level. I want them in all deluxe rooms because I'm not always going to stay Club Level.
We didn't stay club level when we were there - it was just a regular room.
At 7:30 Luke’s iPhone alarm sounded and all three of us were awakened. I showered first while Stefanie got herself dressed. Then Luke had his turn. We just ate Fiber One Bars (oatmeal and peanut butter) for a light breakfast and headed out by 8:45.
A water taxi was pulling up as we arrived at the back of the line. The guy in front of me dropped a dime while getting his cell phone out of his pocket. His girlfriend pointed it out to him, and he said, “I’m not bending over for ten cents.” Luke will and pocketed the dime.
A short ride later, we were entering Universal Studios.
They do have photographers at the gate, but they are not aggressive and I didn’t really see anything photo worthy about the front gate, so we passed them by.
First order of business, Rip Ride Rockit for Luke only. We wanted him to get a chance at this one before the park got too full. While he was rocketed around the roller coaster track, Stefanie and I wandered the area in order to get some photos of the coaster as well as buildings. He thoroughly loved his ride!
A few of the buildings that Stefanie and I wandered by. A bit like Disney' Hollywood Studios, especially The Streets of America.
From Rip Ride Rockit, we moved back to Shrek 4-D. The theater seems much smaller than Disney’s 3-D theaters, but the whole theater seemed in newer condition than any at WDW. This was one of my favorite attractions here! I really wish Disney would refurbish Captain EO’s theater to make it more comfortable and modern looking.
Up Next: Meeting a Donkey, a few aliens, and some cartoon guys all before lunch
That looks like one crazy roller coaster! I'm enjoying reading your thoughts on US. I have not been there since 1994, and I know a lot has changed there since then. One of these days we'll venture out of WDW and give it another try.
That is a coaster I would be passing up as well, don't think my head handles all those twists and turns as well as they used too. Your pictures did remind me of the Streets of America over at DHS. I am really enjoying seeing and hearing some of your comparisons as well as differences between the parks.
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Whoa... that coaster looks way too intense for me! I do like the theming of the area, though. After all, Universal's back-lot theme park idea came before Disney and I guess they do it well!
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