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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Awww! Nolan!! It sounds like you guys had an awesome but packed week!!! Good luck with Chef Mickey's brunch!!! I thought about that too, but I already added the Boathouse and then we had to change more stuff around for that. We did our online reservations too!! Now I just have to wait until Monday to check Mike and Gabby in and we'll be set!!
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Last edited by Tara O'Hara; 05-20-2015 at 04:04 PM..
10?! Oh my! I can't believe Dylan's last day of first grade is tomorrow!!!! Time does go quick!
Glad you got FP+ and good luck with brunch at Chef Mickey's - I want to try that sometime too!
First of all, Disney planning takes priority. �� great job juggling it all. We are almost there!!!
SOOOO close! One of my students brought me a Mickey rice krispie from her trip (she returned to school today)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Congrats to Nolan! Good luck surviving the week! I'm exhausted just reading what you have to do!
I'm hitting the "I'm soooo ready to collapse" but I need to "keep swimming". At least my parents will be here tomorrow and will arrive with dinner for the boys so it's one less thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Nolan - sounds like he had a great birthday!
Congrats on getting your FP+ selections and I hope you're able to get into Chef Mickey's for brunch.
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by taylan1
You are crazy busy! I thought I had a lot to do getting ready to leave for WDW in a few days but you are so much more busier than I am. Whew! I hope your weekend in much calmer.
I was so glad that you were able to navigate the FP+ system and get what you wanted. Remember you can still tweak it anytime.
Lots of pixie dust that you get your Chef Mickey's brunch!
"tweak it anytime"
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Happy Birthday to Nolan! What a cool experience, singing on the field and being on the scoreboard. Congrats also for being MVP! Your life is crazy-busy. The schools here don't get out until late June.
I'm thankful we get out a bit early here - next year, my district will be out before Memorial Day (sooo....maybe a Star Wars Weekend trip might happen - so long as we don't have too many snow days ). Of course, with the early spring release, comes an early August start.
Quote:
Originally Posted by benchley
Well done for getting your FP+ selections. Did it go OK on the site, or any glitches I can avoid when doing mine?
I actually had an easy-breazy time. Taylan1 (Kim) walked me through what the screen would look like. You'll pick your park, pick your three then a screen with tabs opens up. It gives you four preset choices that you can choose from - and you can continue tweaking things from there. For our first park day, it gave us all 3 FP+ right around our ADR, but I was able to go back and "tweak" the times to fit our plan ideas better. The whole process took less than 30 minutes to schedule 6 days worth of Fp+
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Awww! Nolan!! It sounds like you guys had an awesome but packed week!!! Good luck with Chef Mickey's brunch!!! I thought about that too, but I already added the Boathouse and then we had to change more stuff around for that. We did our online reservations too!! Now I just have to wait until Monday to check Mike and Gabby in and we'll be set!!
It seems SOOOOO close now, doesn't it? I can't wait to hear about the Boathouse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
10?! Oh my! I can't believe Dylan's last day of first grade is tomorrow!!!! Time does go quick!
Glad you got FP+ and good luck with brunch at Chef Mickey's - I want to try that sometime too!
As of next Thursday afternoon, we'll both have 2nd graders. Doesn't that sound old? I can't believe how fast this year has gone - it seems like we were just talking about them starting 1st grade!
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I am enjoying your trip report as much for the updates about your day to day life as your plans.
Kids grow so quickly. I remember when my first turned 10 (22 years ago). It seemed so old. But they not only get older they get better.
I remember those days when trying to plan for three kids activities. And what seems overwhelming at the time seems so wonderful in retrospect. Enjoy those boys.
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I am enjoying your trip report as much for the updates about your day to day life as your plans.
Kids grow so quickly. I remember when my first turned 10 (22 years ago). It seemed so old. But they not only get older they get better.
I remember those days when trying to plan for three kids activities. And what seems overwhelming at the time seems so wonderful in retrospect. Enjoy those boys.
Thank you! I try not to be too chatty, but sometimes it just happens . I adore my boys, and while it drives me batty to have weeks like this one, I wouldn't trade it for anything
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Nolan!!!
Thank you!
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My goodness, your family stays very busy! , Nolan! Enjoy year 10! Your plans are looking great, and I can't wait to see out they all finally panned out.
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My goodness, your family stays very busy! , Nolan! Enjoy year 10! Your plans are looking great, and I can't wait to see out they all finally panned out.
Thanks Cam! We do stay busy, but I demanded (and received) a pretty quiet weekend for the holiday
Stay tuned
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Phew - it's soooo nice to be able to just "be" after our super hectic week
First, Nolan's school choir performed at the Dayton Dragon's Game on Monday night. They team played the Lake Erie Loons from Michigan (and the Dragons won).
I was very impressed - they did an amazing job and our choir filled the screen! Nolan is in the front row even, but this picture is very hard to see him in.
Our school also "rented" one of the concession stands and 10% of the proceeds went to their youth activity funds (think elementary football, basketball etc). Nolan's enjoying his after performance DipNDots:
The week then packed in a few more things, like final soccer games for the boys' and my 2 grad classes. I'm getting my certification to teach AP English and I'm taking one grad level English class in literature so I can teach the new CC+ courses the state is offering through high schools (College Credit + High School Carnegie Unit classes on the campus of our high school building). I'm already employed to teach at the college level, but need the class to meet the requirement for CC+
Friday rolled around and Patrick had his 1st grade performance. He was a scarecrow and Miss. W (music teacher) managed to coordinate 75 1st graders in a square dance!!!! She's amazing. Patrick is wearing the black hat and plaid shirt:
Friday also saw Cullen's Pre-K graduation (seriously, how is he this old already?)
Yesterday, the boys and I decided to just play. We also walked up town to the library and stopped to check out this summer's sculpture:
Today? We're back to Disney talk
Brian and I went over the FP+ that I'd made in the haze of the early morning last weekend and we need to try to tweak a few times, but we're essentially happy with what we've reserved, as of right now.
We did make a slight change in our ADR's - we added a brunch at Chef Mickey's. I'm really excited to try this out!!!!
So, I am going to review our itinerary and add in our ADR and FP+ - by the wall, all these acronumys make me feel like I'm talking about work (PARCC, OTES, SLO, YEE, PRE, etc. )
July 16th: Arrive at the Poly, check in, explore the resort and swim. We can't wait to see the updated pool and the new kid's splash area. Coach is looking forward to sitting on the beach with a FAB after a long drive and I just want to "be in the bubble"
July 17th: We'll be up EARLY. We are heading to the AK and will more than likely drive (my idea because the buses from the Monorail resorts are soooo crowded and take so long because they share with several resorts). This was our least favorite aspect of staying at the Contemporary - the multiple resort buses. I plan to arrive at the AK before park opening so we can head right for the Safari. We kept our 10:10 Tusker House ADR. (*New for us)
Our FP+ (right now)
12-1:00 Meet favorite Pals at the Outpost
2:15-3:15 Dinosaur
4:05 - 5:05 Kilamanjaro.
*Of the FP+, the Outpost and Dinosaur are new for everyone
*The Outpost might be swapped for Expedition Everest for some are all in the family - right now the boys keep wavering.
after the final Kilamanjaro ride, we're going to head to AK to have dinner at the QS and just explore the lobby, etc.
If the boys are up for it, we'll have an evening swim when we return to our resort.
July 18th (My b-day)
We start with a pre-park opening ADR for Breakfast at BoG (new - it was just being built on our last trip)
After breakfast, we plan on heading straight for the 7D Mine train for ride #1 of the trip. This is also new for us.
I scheduled our Fp+ for a bit later knowing we've always had luck with lines in the early hours after park opening.
FP+
12:25-1:25 Tomorrowland Speedway (A great use of a FP+ as this line tends to be really loooong). It's a favorite of the boys.
1:35-2:35 Buzz lightyear (another favorite)
3:20-4:20 Mickey @Town Square (A First as we didn't do any character greets last trip - Cullen was not willing). This is actually Cullen's request this time
As of right now, we have a 6:30 ADR for 1900 Park Fare though I'm not 100% sure we're going to keep it. I may just want to give them time to just hang out at the resort, knowing the next night is going to be a later night.
Next update:
Adding a side trip?
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As of right now, we have a 6:30 ADR for 1900 Park Fare though I'm not 100% sure we're going to keep it. I may just want to give them time to just hang out at the resort, knowing the next night is going to be a later night.
Well, if you do keep it, I must come over and wish you a !! We have ADRs at Citrico's right around the same time.
Your plans look great.....................again................... .my sister
You AK day sounds great. I am still wavering between 1900 Park Fare dinner or breakfast. I would give up BOG dinner. So much to think about. I have it all reserved right now. I know the side trip...
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Nolan!! It sounds like you guys had an awesome but packed week!!! 
Good luck with Chef Mickey's brunch!!! I thought about that too, but I already added the Boathouse and then we had to change more stuff around for that. 
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