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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Your resort is very nice and your suite looks quite spacious. Nice place to call home for the week.
It was a very nice place
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
That Marriott looks really nice! The room is spacious, and I like the pool area. Which Marriott resort is it? My Aunt has a timeshare at the Marriott Harbour Lake, where we sometimes stay when going to Disney. She can use her points at other Marriotts too though, I'll add this one to the list in case her home resort is sold out!
It is the Grand Vista. It's very nice and very close to Sea World...yet not in a super built up area either, so a bit quieter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
We love the No Way Jose! Your resort looks beautiful!
I do too!
It was very nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
The resort looks really nice! It's great to have all that space.
It was nice to have all that space...we didn't stay at the hotel too long though each day, so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we could've. And Claire and I were mostly in our room area for the most part just because we left early many days and got back late.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a lovely resort you've got there. Glad you were able to find it in the end.
It's a very nice place!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Love the nighttime pics of DHS.
The resort looks lovely!
Glad you found it okay.
It was nice to be able to just pop over to DHS....we are really liking to hop more now that Claire is older.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Glad it wasn't too difficult to navigate your way to the Marriott, looks great! Love the movie by the pool
I just wonder how my parents found their way there....though they have stayed there a few times over the years they can't navigate the best on their own.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAyers
Love the pictures! The resort/pool look lovely!
it had a fabulous pool! I think I have more pictures of it....but I still haven't even goine through all of my trip pictures yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
That looks like a really nice resort! Your bed looks super comfy!
I do love Marriott beds. The pillows are kind of crappy, but the beds are great.
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It is the Grand Vista. It's very nice and very close to Sea World...yet not in a super built up area either, so a bit quieter.
Thanks! Now that you mention the name, and looking back at the pics, I've been to that resort for a tour We did the timeshare schpiel to get some gift cards, but I remember it being really nice and in a great area.
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I'm trying to memorize this so this is what I can say around my kids. I love it. Now that I am following a program and lifting, (and doing squats) OMG has become 'Oh My Glutes!'
As I always do, I woke up way too early. I headed outside and took a little walk. I met a lady today and we got to talking. She was there with her husband and son who was close to Claire’s age. They were doing Disney and Universal I believe. We had a nice chat and soon it was time to head back to the room to get showered and ready for our day. I woke Claire and she got moving, but slowly. But at least she was moving. We all had a breakfast ADR this morning and we were meeting up with my cousin Katie, who was also at the world. I believe this was her last full day here and would be heading home tomorrow, so we thought it would be nice to have breakfast with her and her family since our trips overlapped. You may remember Katie from my 2012 Nov. trip report. Her family cruised with us…..Thad, and her 2 boys, Jude and Luke. Even though we don’t live too far from each other, we don’t see each other very often.
I programmed Siri and Mom and Dad were going to follow us over to the Poly. Of course when we came to the MK gates, I couldn’t remember which way to enter and entered on the wrong side. I told the gate CM that the car behind me was also going to the Poly and then we made the crazy dash across all the lanes and luckily we were not killed, nor did we kill others…though I am sure someone probably cussed us out at some point……SORRY!!!!
Now the Poly is under construction and it was quite the mess there, but we had our bands checked as we entered…I told them once again the car behind us was part of our ADR and we found our parking, which was kind of far out, but not too bad.
We did have a little bit of a walk up to the resort, but it wasn’t awful.
Once we were about to enter, Dad realized he left his hat in the car. So he headed back to get that and we went inside. He is a hat fanatic and has to wear one while outside.
I believe this is now gone. I probably was there right before they started work in here.
We actually were early, but looked around for Katie and family.
We headed upstairs and still no sign of Katie yet.
Dad made it back and found us and Katie finally arrived as well. However, Thad didn’t make it….he was sick. I think both of her boys had been sick over the week as well. I know Luke was sick the day before they left, but I think he popped back to health pretty fast, but then Jude got sick one day while they were there and I think they even skipped a park day because of it. Thad took ill today and she was hoping he would feel a bit better later in the day to join them.
I went and checked us all in and Claire and I were the only takers on the photo op…..ok, it was mostly me and I made Claire join me.
We had a little wait before we were called back. The boys were getting antsy, and I could tell Katie was getting tired. They had a full week so they were wired…..oh and Katie was expecting as well….and she just had a little girl about 2 weeks ago.
Then a funny thing happened. Katie pulled out a bag of candy…I think it was skittles or something like that….and tells Jude he can only have like 3 as the rest are for Luke. She goes on to explain that Luke refuses to eat pretty much all real food and this is practically the only thing she can get him to eat….and she’s a pediatrician!!! I thought that was funny. And Luke must be surviving as he looks healthy. She says she tries to shove food in his mouth when she can, but she isn’t very successful.
She also told us since Thad wasn’t joining us, that we could use one of their dining credits….they did deluxe dining …..and she didn’t want to lose the credit. We decided that we would put Dad on her bill.
After a bit of waiting, we were called back….thank goodness as we were all starving now.
We had bread on the table, but I am one of the few that is not fond of it…because their famous bread has coconut in it and I can’t stand coconut….I tried it again and it was still icky!
I did nibble at the other kind, but that has raisins in it, which I also don’t like, so I had to pick those out.
Last time we ate here in 2012 it was just OK. Nothing special and we had a poor waitress, which probably made us not care for it so much. This time we had a great waitress and plenty of food and refills on drinks. The food tasted better too. We did tell the waitress how to split the bills and of course Dad starts up with…”I’m not with them, I’m with her”….UGH…we tell him to just be quiet and go with the flow.
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all caught up. That was one long and exhausting day. Epcot sure was crowded. I keep wondering why? was this a Holiday week or something?
Yes...it was Spring Break time....and though we still had a few weeks before Easter...this was a week that had a lot of schools off....and this past Spring Break was really busy for Disney for Several weeks this year. I actually know someone who went closer to Easter and had less crowds!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Thanks! Now that you mention the name, and looking back at the pics, I've been to that resort for a tour We did the timeshare schpiel to get some gift cards, but I remember it being really nice and in a great area.
thats how my parents ended up buying there....they went on the tour for Sea World tickets.
Wow, it sounds like the Poly's undergone some major changes. I knew about the lobby area, but I didn't realise they were doing away with the bit outside as well. My goodness, we're going to notice some huge differences when we go back there next year...
Claire is wearing the perfect shirt for this breakfast! It warms my heart to hear that a pediatrician has trouble getting her kids to eat healthy, too!
We exchanged into the Grande Vista while we were members of II. It is a great resort. We are now RCI World Points members and they only exchange through II.
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Your resort looks beautiful! 
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Liz 
PassPorter Guide Author
~ Jenn 
your shirt Jen! Cheshire is one of my favs! 
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