You can take the girl out of Disney, BUT……… - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Wait time says 35 minutes…..YUCK! It’s never that long…the queue was wrapped around outside…you know that outside area you usually walk right through…we had to wait and zigzag through all of that.
It became clear that the wait was going to be longer very soon, but we did keep moving. When we got close to the inside entrance we were standing against the building and there were doors there. The 2 boys behind me wondered where they went. We guessed that maybe it was a CM entrance, or went into some back room…..they thought they would be funny and knocked on the doors…and to our surprise we got a knock back. We all laughed about it. It totally shocked us.
Once we got in and queued around inside the building we came across those same doors. They just entered into the queue area….so of course I encouraged them to knock again and scare some people on the outside.
I took a few pictures while in line….but I didn’t have the good lens for dark pictures with me, so they are just blah pictures.
I think it took about 45 minutes before we actually got to board our boat
At one point in the ride there is a drunk pirate leaning off to the side with a bottle of rum and says “here kitty kitty kitty.” We just love that. Skips brother is a big rum drinker (way to much actually) and he has this fascination with cats. I kid you not when I say we have 70- 100 barn cats running around the place. Dave has a couple of favorites…usually the most disgusting ones…and he just loves them up and I swear he would sleep with them if his wife let him. So we wanted to get a picture of that guy, but I couldn’t. It was too dark and I couldn’t get a focus on it. But we laughed so hard…and Skip said it probably needed the audio anyways to make it better.
I just love this ride. It’s my all-time favorite. I feel like a little kid with big eyes going through it. I get that special Disney feeling when I ride it. I think it just always brings back my first trip to WDW when I was about 4 and it’s one of the few rides I remember riding.
We headed out through the gift shop looking at a few things as we went and saw Pirate Goofy signing, but Claire had no interest to wait in his line.
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Looking at the pirates in prison. Did they get rid of the one that looked like Sid Cesar? I didn't notice him in your shots - could just be a weird angle.
That's too funny about the drunk pirate and the kitty!!
It's so him....sadly
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Love the photos! If you love it that much, I have to say the one at Disneyland is even better.
I have heard that. I do hope to get out there some day. it's the flights that are the killer for us. Long and expensive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
great photos on Pirates.
Looking at the pirates in prison. Did they get rid of the one that looked like Sid Cesar? I didn't notice him in your shots - could just be a weird angle.
I'm not sure...but I noticed for the 1st time that the one pirate looks just like the guy from the movie...the one who hangs with the fake eye guy...I had never noticed that before.
We decided to see how long the line for Splash Mountain was.
It was 110 minutes…we’ll pass for now.
I took a shot of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as it was getting refurbed.
And then we got a treat.
And I made the decision to go over to Tom Sawyers Island. Something I hadn’t done since Michael and Paige were little and I thought it would be nice to take Claire over to check it out.
We boarded our raft and it was hot..and we were jammed packed on that little thing…and then we had to wait for the boat to go around before we could cross.
It was just so hot and sweaty and Claire’s ice-cream was melting fast. I think Skip finished it up. And we had a young couple who were all over each other. The girl was hanging on the guy like her life depended on it. It just really bugged me. She was just stroking his back with her fingernails and it was like a suggestive way…hard to describe…but it was more than I wanted to see and I couldn’t understand how they weren’t about to pass out from the heat. Probably because I was so hot and standing right up next to them is why it bothered me…any other time I might not have even noticed it.
We made it to the island…and I think it got 20 degrees hotter over there.
We just kind of wandered a bit.
Claire found a cave with some jewels.
And was very excited to run along the paths.
Skip and I found it boring pretty quickly on, but Claire did enjoy it, so we let her run around a bit….and I took some pictures.
You could get some different views of things from the island….that was nice.
We made our way to the fort and Claire took off exploring. Skip found a spot to sit…with many other adults. I was surprised how little they had available for sitting. Most parents were leaning on a wall or converting something to sit on….they need many more benches here. I explored too and took a few pictures.
I decided to try some artsy shots and have different focus points.
And a couple of more artsy shots.
I had some dirty looks from kids when I was waiting my turn to get to the gun and cannon. LOL
I actually lost Claire for a bit…and was scared. I asked Skip if he saw her and he said no…and I kept walking through the fort and couldn’t find her. She had been in there the whole time….we were just not in the same area at the same time and it kind of freaked me out a bit that it would be easy for kids to leave and no one would ever noticed.
We had had enough of the island…it was just too dang hot and though Claire liked it, I don’t like spending time at Disney doing this kind of run around play for too long. She got some energy out and that was good.
We had to wait for the raft again.
Another boat was coming around.
We loaded and we had a captain change too.
The lovey dovey couple were with us again on the return ride…this time I think the heat got to them as well and they weren’t so touchy feely. They are sitting right on the other side of this sign. And I’m sure they are a very nice couple…but it was hot and I hate being crammed up next to people.
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I went over to Tom Sawyer Island once...ONCE! I remember the one at Disneyland was sooo cool when I was a kid. I don't know if it's THAT different or I'm just THAT old. lol Seems like such a waste and that they could add some cooler stuff over there.
They really could do some neat sutff over there. Didn't DL turn theirs into a pirate Island. I thin kI remember talk of that a few years ago.
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We weren’t sure if they were training someone or just moving a raft around…but this empty one was off to the side of the main crossway.
And where did we go next……the smoking section.
I became real familiar with several of these areas on this day.
Claire and I then headed off to find a bathroom while Skip stopped to get a drink.
We then decided to ride Haunted mansion since it was right there. Again the line was fairly long, but it moved pretty fast.
We did skip the interactive queue. I am not sure how that works really. It seems like you lose your place in line when you go that way, while in the regular line you keep moving. Maybe I am missing something?
The ride was fun…we didn’t have switching heads in the hitchhiking ghost area like I did last summer. I forget actually what did happen, but we laughed and loved it….Maybe our heads got bigger?
Believe it or not…it was time for another smoke break. LOL. So off through Fantasyland we went.
And I kept moving. Skip then said “Jen, Quick take a picture of that”. So I looked up and this is what I saw….the newest, greatest Fantasyland ride.
I sure wish I had my telephoto lens for that. WE all were laughing and lots of jokes were made.
The smoking section is right near the castle, so I took several more shots.
And then we headed towards Pooh.
This is another shot I wish I had my telephoto lens as well. I actually cropped it down for the look I wanted, but it’s not sharp.
The people in front of us were kind of annoying. They kind of acted like the line was “theirs” and a little loud and annoying. It consisted mostly of adults and they were playing a little too rough with the interactive queue things.
Claire enjoyed running around and playing, but she would keep looking back at me to be sure she could see me still…..Skip did walk out there with her and kept a closer eye on her as well.
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I can't believe that wait for Splash! 
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