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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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When E.T. was in production, they made a bunch of little E.T. statues for the actors to work with. When the film was finished, Steven Spielberg had all of them destroyed. This is the only one left.
We got back on the tram with the other group following us and made our way to our next destination.
I love all these plants and lampposts and stuff waiting to be placed somewhere
Last time I visited Universal, this was being rebuilt after the fire
Then we made our way into a set. This particular set was for a TV show that was in the works and supposed to be debuting soon, but I don’t think it ever made it to air. It was a doctor show, which aren’t my favorite, so it’s possible I just could be out of the loop. Still, getting to walk the set was pretty cool.
That was pretty much the end of the tour. Joe walked us to the Simpsons ride a 3-D/simulator and we were able to ride (using our front-of-line lanyards). While I enjoyed the tour a lot, I felt the VIP tour at Warner Bros. studios that I took back in 2010 was much more of an insider experience. This was kind of a way to do the entire park in one day and get a couple of up-close looks at things.
Up Next: On my own
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Oh wow, that VIP tour really was something! Do you mind me asking how much it cost? It certainly looked as if you got value for money from it.
I absolutely adored all the photos from the "tram tour" - it was so cool especially to see Wisteria Lane, as normally I see these sets and I have no idea what TV show they're from, but I knew those houses straight away!
That was quite an extensive tour and you certainly got to see a lot with so much of it I recognize! I'm sure this brings back a lot of great memories from your childhood! Great coverage with the photos!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Oh wow, that VIP tour really was something! Do you mind me asking how much it cost? It certainly looked as if you got value for money from it.
I absolutely adored all the photos from the "tram tour" - it was so cool especially to see Wisteria Lane, as normally I see these sets and I have no idea what TV show they're from, but I knew those houses straight away!
The VIP tour was $299, which included park admission, lunch (also a light breakfast before the tour begins), free valet parking, and front-of-line access for all the attractions once the tour ended. I felt like it was a very good value, particularly because I really wanted to get as much done in one day as possible. It was a Saturday, so the park was quite busy with waits of 45 minutes or more for the major attractions.
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Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Great tour! So fun to see all the props and sets!
That's the best part of the tour, in my opinion!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great tour!! Love all the pictures you got.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
That was quite an extensive tour and you certainly got to see a lot with so much of it I recognize! I'm sure this brings back a lot of great memories from your childhood! Great coverage with the photos!
Thanks! I did enjoy the tour!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
This tour does look like a great way to cover the park in a day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
I loved seeing all the movie props and the set from Desperate Housewives!!! Thanks for sharing that with us
I used to live on Wisteria Lane (well, Wisteria Circle to be exact), so I always used to get comments from fans of the show when I had to tell them my address!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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I’ve already mentioned my love for The Simpsons, so I really enjoy all the little gags in the ride and the little mini Springfield area.
Good thing DN Isaiah wasn’t with me – he finds it physically impossible to pass up a basketball game without playing, even if there's a lame prize he doesn't even want. At least he usually wins!
Once I’d done the ride (which was fun as always), I took all the pictures I wanted. In case I was too subtle there, that was a warning.
I went into the Kwik-E-Mart, which was actually a gift shop.
Before Joe left us, he told us we’d have time to catch the last Waterworld show, which is the only attraction we hadn’t done. I was dawdling so long taking pictures that I had to hurry over to make it, so I had to sit with the plebeians in the regular section instead of front-of-line access.
This is a stunt show on water, so not really my thing, but I thought it was well done. Although there was not much of a story line, there was plenty of action!
There was a special effects show that I watched.
I remember thinking it didn’t really reveal much, and it didn’t make much of an impression on me because that’s all I remember.
I spotted this while making my way back through Springfield.
So here’s the one thing (and it truly is the only thing ) I have in common with Homer Simpson: I used to work in a nuclear power plant! My workstation did not look like this one. True story!
I saw another dinosaur at large.
I’m not one to spoil the magic, but I will say that this dinosaur was not animatronic.
There wasn’t much food wise that appealed to me, so I decided to eat at Krusty Burger. My years of watching The Simpsons should have told me this was a bad idea. I had a pretty lousy burger. So I guess it was true to the show. Yay?
I decided to do the Simpsons ride again since I was right there. I took more pictures, too. What?!?!
I really wish my front-of-line pass worked for character meets
I stopped to watch some fun street performers for a bit.
Generally, I just walked around. I was planning to head from the park directly to the airport for my 10:55 flight home, so I just enjoyed my last few minutes of California.
I got on the road for the airport. It was a little tricky finding the rental car return, but I returned the car without much problem. I’d prepaid for the gas and used about 3/4 of the tank, so I was happy I made that choice. Frankly, I always consider prepaying for gas simply because I hate pumping gas so much! There’s usually an inner struggle for trips when I don’t drive much.
A shuttle to the airport was waiting and left only a couple minutes after I boarded. There were only 3 others aboard, but I guess they run often, even later in the day (it was about 8:30 PM).
At that time of the evening, LAX was pretty empty and I practically sailed through the airport. I sat at my gate until boarding and then took my exit row seat. I slept through almost the entire flight (I put my little blanket over my head and I slept quite soundly using this method). The plane landed in New York the next morning and I was feeling quite refreshed. I would definitely do the red eye flight again.
Up Next: Final Thoughts and Ramblings
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Glad you were able to get some sleep on your flight! I never sleep in the airplane. If I were on that flight, people would be scared when I got off the plane thinking I was from the Walking Dead or something.
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Do you mind me asking how much it cost? It certainly looked as if you got value for money from it. 
I'm sure this brings back a lot of great memories from your childhood! 
Great coverage with the photos! 
So I guess it was true to the show. Yay?
I would definitely do the red eye flight again. 
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