Don't Stop - Disney part 2 UPATED 5/5 - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Tuesday 22 December – part six: have we missed this in previous years?
When we got back to the American Adventure, we went inside to look at the gingerbread house in the Liberty Inn. I don’t know if this has been there in previous years, but if it has, then we have missed it each time. It’s really nice and it’s nice to see this sort of thing outside of the resorts.
People already in line for the first Candlelight Processional, about three hours before it was due to start
Here, we did see a Photopass photographer, but sadly, her camera wasn’t working, although she did take some shots with ours instead.
We headed next to Japan, where I got a Kaki Gori. I was a bit disappointed with it, as the flavouring didn’t go the whole way down, so I ended up throwing away the last bit of it.
In Morocco, we found Aladdin and Jasmine, who had just come out, so we were able to see them pretty quickly.
In France, we stopped for me to get a Grand Marnier Slush and Mark got a Grey Goose Slush – I think that’s the right name for it? I think he had brain freeze after drinking it. His face was a picture.
We managed to get some photos done as well:
We were interested to find that we weren’t allowed out of the place with our drinks, which was a new one to us, but then again, I don’t think we’d tried that before.
We headed back to the room and had some down time and a chance for us to enjoy another Jacuzzi bath. Just the thing to bring you back to life after a day at the parks and before you go into the evening.
Then we got changed and headed out to Downtown Disney for Cirque du Soleil. We were picking up our tickets at the box office and I pretty much walked up and got handed them, which was good.
We had time to browse the store, so we headed in there and into dangerous territory for us, as we love the Cirque du Soleil stuff. Mark managed to find two tops, one of which was reduced to just $15, so that was a bargain and I also found one for me, although sadly that wasn’t reduced.
With those purchases made, we headed upstairs and up to our seats in block 203, right by the most expensive seats, but about $40 cheaper, which was nice.
The show was just as good as always. We never cease to be amazed by how many changes we notice each time we see this. This time, there were additional bits of music in some of the acts to allow them to do more. All the time, they are adding new things in, which is perfect for return visitors, like us. It makes it all the more worthwhile, coming back each time. We have said that we could watch this time and time again. I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of seeing this.
All the acts were superb and I can’t single one out for praise, but we were pretty pleased to see the trapeze artists make that difficult final manoeuvre for the first time in a while, as they’ve missed it the last couple of times we’ve seen it.
Quite rightly, the cast got a standing ovation from the crowd and they seemed generally more enthused than some of the crowds we’ve seen recently.
When the show finished, we drove to the Grand Floridian and got subjected to the second degree by the security guard at the entrance. I hate how they want to see photo ID, as well as your room key, when you have a valid reason to be there and a parking permit that’s clearly valid and showing in your car windscreen.
We valet parked the car and walked into the lobby, taking photos as we went.