Living the dream and remembering the Bagman UPDATED 3/21 - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
The theming in Harry Pooter is just amazing snd Universal obliously took Disney's lead in this area! The Hogwart's Express looks like so much fun and looking forward to this in October! Just the detail of the building and all else is something they did so well here and hope they can do with the rest of the park eventually!
I had never seen the Harry Potter movies until a couple of years ago and I watched several of them on one of the holiday weekends (I think Christmas) and really enjoyed all of them. Will help me be familiar with this when I visit!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
The theming in Harry Pooter is just amazing snd Universal obliously took Disney's lead in this area! The Hogwart's Express looks like so much fun and looking forward to this in October! Just the detail of the building and all else is something they did so well here and hope they can do with the rest of the park eventually!
That would be truly amazing if they could, as I'd love to see how they could apply what they've learnt from this elsewhere in the parks.
Quote:
I had never seen the Harry Potter movies until a couple of years ago and I watched several of them on one of the holiday weekends (I think Christmas) and really enjoyed all of them. Will help me be familiar with this when I visit!
We watched one and didn't really get into it. We still have the other ones left to watch, but after number one, we just don't have the interest. I'd describe it for us as good, but nothing special. I know a lot of other people love them, but sadly we didn't.
Wednesday 21 September – part five: meeting a raptor!
We stopped to get some water and melon, and then made our way out, being totally wowed by the sight of Hogsmeade Castle. I love that you get that element of surprise in terms of seeing it when you come this way. It was nicely done, and wow what a wonderful surprise it was too!
Once we were done with our food and drink, we made our way over here…
We found something we hadn’t heard of before, which is called Raptor Encounter. It’s an animatronic encounter with a raptor, and is very much based around the latest movie. Apparently it opened about the same time as that film debuted in cinemas last year. The guy who works with the raptor is brilliant about “quietening it down” in between photos. As you can see, we had a ball with it!
We explored more of this part of the park…
Mark found a hat, but somehow I didn’t think it was him.
We made our way over to this…
… which is the park’s newest attraction. I wasn’t going to ride it, but someone on Facebook kind of talked me into it, and Mark wanted to ride it, so imagine how frustrating it was to get there and discover it was down. This was not going to be our day for rides. We asked about when it might be back up again, and all we got was “hopefully later in the day”, which didn’t fill us with confidence.
We carried on walking, and headed through Toon Lagoon, which is certainly very visual, and is packed with gags. It’s a fun area of the park, but again, it’s just not my sort of thing. I prefer the immersive places, like Jurassic Park, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
By now, the sun was really burning down. It wasn’t humid, so much as just full on hot, so we tried our best to keep in the shadows and take advantage of any air conditioning along the way. At one point, we ducked into the Comic Strip Café….
Beautiful photos of Hogsmeade and the castle!! Oh my gosh!!! That raptor!!!!! that guy!!!!!!! I agree about Toon Lagoon. Nice photo ops but not much to do there. What a fun day you guys are having!!.
Unless you want to get soaked. Toon Lagoon is the perfect place for that. Somehow even when we bring extra socks we wind up buying socks. That raptor looks like such fun!
I don't recall the raptor encounter. Hmmmm... I guess I'll have to go back! Toon Lagoon is pretty cute. But man - you are striking out with the rides!
__________________
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
We had a similar Raptor encounter in Universal studios in Singapore - except she was 4 years old, called Doris, and was in the back of a truck. She was amazing! She kept roaring, and trying to bite anyone who got too close. The CM gave a really interesting talk about Raptors, and told people to keep small children back as it was nearly lunchtime and 'Doris' was looking for a snack! We stood in front of her for a photo, and the CM was a bit worried about DH as he is tall and she thought he might lose the top of his head, particularly as the Raptor was sniffing the back of it ....... ! Such a lot of fun.
__________________
Silvercat
(Enjoy reading trip reports? Why not try my books, "Tiggerific Travels Parts 1, 2, 3 & the new volume 4" - available now as e-books)
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.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
The Hogwart's Express looks like so much fun and looking forward to this in October! 
Just the detail of the building and all else is something they did so well here and hope they can do with the rest of the park eventually!
PassPorter Guide Author
I'd describe it for us as good, but nothing special. I know a lot of other people love them, but sadly we didn't.
I prefer the immersive places, like Jurassic Park, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 
that guy!!!!!!! I agree about Toon Lagoon. Nice photo ops but not much to do there. What a fun day you guys are having!!
<--- Disney Fantasy 2016!
Linear Mode
