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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
What a great start to the birthday day I love that she was chatting away and didn't even notice they didn't understand her. My son could talk the ears off a brass monkey so I totally get it
You'll always be invited for Yak Attacks, Jill! Learning thst they a really good on a hot day is a good thing, though I will share that I had brain freeze the last time I had one. But it was worth it.
Sounds like a great start for MD's Birthday. I haven't eaten at Tusker House since they ruin... er, since they made it over into a Character Buffet. It may finally be time.
As planned, after our ride on KRR, we decided to move on to DHS. We waited at the bus stop about 15 minutes before a bus arrived and took us right to the studios (it was so nice not to make that obligatory BB stop ).
Once through the gates, we immediately grabbed FP’s for RnRC. The FP’s were for pretty late, so we knew this would be the last ride of the evening. ToT was showing a 30-minute wait, but we decided to go for it anyway and ended up walking right on and rode it twice in a row.
After our second ride, Mary Devall wanted to stop in the ToT gift shop and look for another vinylmation. This would be her third for the day since she had already purchased two at AK earlier in the day. There were two college intern CM’s at the counter and they were so sweet. Mary Devall already had the one that she bought, but they gave her unlimited chances to trade until she finally found a vinylmation that made her happy. Those two seemed to enjoy the entire thing as much as she did.
Although we were a little early for our ADR, we headed over to PTC and didn’t wait long at all before we were seated beside a nice family from Utah. We thoroughly enjoyed this meal since the food was outstanding and the waiter was nice and snarky. I started with Dad’s Electronic Lemonade which was so refreshing after a hot day and decided to go all out with A Sampling of Mom's Favorite Recipes (Crispy-fried Chicken, Fork Tender Pot Roast, and Traditional Meatloaf with all the fixings). For someone who likes to eat a little bit of everything, this was an absolutely perfect choice for me and I will definitely be ordering it again. It was a massive amount of food, but the cost of $20 was a downright bargain by Disney standards.
For her birthday dinner, Mary Devall went with chicken noodle soup and macaroni and cheese. She had chosen this restaurant for the fun and the macaroni and cheese option, so she was very happy with her choice.
I do not leave PTC without smores, but I also decided to have a white chocolate martini to go with it. The smores were delicious, but I have to give the upper hand to the martini. It came out looking like a glass of milk, so it was the perfect accompaniment for my smores. It had just enough kick to it to keep me from downing it in one big slurp.
When our server asked if Mary Devall wanted the sundae that came with her meal, I was a little embarrassed to have to say “Um . . . actually . . . she would just like her birthday cupcake.”
At least, I didn’t have to ask him to sing Happy Birthday to her. He was a good guy - - just a little frazzled. When he arrived with the cupcake, everyone in our little room gave her a rousing rendition of so we both left very happy.
On Thursday, the CM’s at The Writer’s Stop had told us that The Muppet Store might possibly have the comic books that Mary Devall wanted. We headed in that direction, but noticed that Phineaus and Ferb were out with a relatively short line. While I hopped in line, Mary Devall ran to check on the comic books in The Muppet Store, but came back empty handed.
The CM who was manning the line was absolutely hilarious. She cut up with us and three teenage girls in front of us the entire time, so the 30-minute wait passed quickly. We also called Thom and Maddie and my parents so that they could all wish Mary Devall a Happy Birthday. We were soon meeting Phineaus and Ferb who were most certainly worth the wait. Before we left the area, we got a picture with Mary Devall and the fantastic CM who had entertained us. She was tickled that we put her right up there with Phineaus and Ferb!
While we were in line, Meg had sent a text that she and the girls were in the park and riding TSMM. By the time, we finished with Phineaus and Ferb, she sent another text that they were off and that the girls wanted to drop a time or two. We headed right over to meet them and met their newest addition, Caleigh. It took no time at all for the three of them to pick off where Mary Devall and Angel had left the night before.
Which leads us to yet another . . . Mary Devall’s Top Ten Reasons (to Celebrate Turning at Disney): Making friends
Thus began our ToT adventure! We all went through the line the first time, but Meg and Jasmine left us when we boarded the elevator. The three girls had an absolute blast and wanted to go again as soon as it was over. Of course, I had no problem going again and Meg gave the okay as soon as they all looked at her with their puppy dog faces and said “please, please, please.”
To make for easier reading, you can just repeat the last paragraph about three more times. Our rapid riding stopped only long enough to drag Meg along with us when we came out and discovered that Jasmine had gone back to the room. Meg had been afraid that the drop would hurt her neck and, sure enough, it did so that was Meg’s only ride of the evening. The girls were still pleading to ride again, so we continued making the loop. I honestly cannot remember how many times we rode, but Mary Devall insists that it was nine.
This is how I know that . . . . Mary Devall’s Top Ten Reasons (to Celebrate Turning at Disney): Screamin’ on ToT 9 times in a row
One of my many attempts to capture those wild and crazy girls:
You can see Mary Devall and Caleigh on the front right. Angel is beside them and I'm on the other side of Angel, but we're glowing so you can't really make the two of us out.
At some point, Meg and I gave a “last ride” warning since Mary Devall and I needed to get in line at RnRC before park closing and Meg needed to get some tired girls back to the hotel. When our marathon had come to completion, we all exchanged and promises that we would do it all again next year for Mary Devall and Angel’s birthdays. And you can believe that both of those girls are going to hold Meg and me to it!
After one last wave , Mary Devall and I took off for the FP line at RnRC and went up and down and all around one more ride. The park was just about to close after our ride, so we grabbed water and frozen lemonade at Anaheim Produce and enjoyed them on our walk to the bus stop. Before long, we were back in our room with a much earlier bed time than the night before! My birthday girl had definitely made the most of every moment of her big day because we were worn out!
__________________
Sometimes words aren't needed . . .
Last edited by Jillybean; 10-31-2011 at 10:19 AM..
Angel said 9 times as well...guess the girls know best. And Angel has definitely not forgotten their birthday celebration, every time I mention putting plans together for next year her response is "well did you talk to Jill?"
Mary Devall has definitely taken some lessons from Princess Sharon. 9 times!!! Wow! Dinner sounded delicious too. Sounded like a great end to a birthday day!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Thanks for taking us along on MD's 10th birthday celebration!
Can't wait to read more!
__________________
Tina
2009 Feb Disneyland - offsite
2007 Aug WDW - offsite
2005 June DCL West Coast/DL & DCA
2002 April Disneyland - offsite
2000 September WDW/DCL - CBR/Wonder