Searching for Sun and Fun Pre trip report - Update 5/7 Day 2 Added - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Roberta, your daughter is beautiful and she looks just like you! I can't wait to read more about your trip.
Suzie
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Disneyland 1969
WDW 1983-2004 Disney Village Resort,Fort Wilderness Trailer,CB, PO, Dixie Landings,ASS, ASM, ASMo, Contemporary, Polynesian,PORiverside,POP,AKL,Coronado Springs, Disney Village Resorts, Grovesnor, Lake Buena Vista Hilton, etc....
Feb.2005-AKL,Oct.2005-PopCentury,Feb.2006-
Contemporary,Aug.2006-POP,Dec.2006-POR,Feb.2007-POP,June 2007- POP,Dec. 2007- POP
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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The phone rang very loudly and I fumbled in the dark to answer. My heart was pounding since my sleep rattled mind thought I was receiving bad news in the middle of the night. Several rapid heartbeats later I remembered that I had placed a wake up call instead of figuring out the alarm clock. Stupidly (or maybe sleepily) I'm saying hello! Hello? No answer apparently Mickey wasn't awake enough yet to form words either.
I won't go into detail about the morning routine but I will confirm that POP Century does have new mugs. The mugs sport Goofy, Mickey, Minnie ,Daisy, Donald, Pluto, Chip and Dale in their fancy YOMAMD attire. (look for the Hidden Mickey!)
We got on the bus shortly after 8 for the 9 am opening. We were second in line behind some nice folks from Florida. Turns out this couple used to work for Disney. He did the Living with the Land boat tour when a live person gave the tour. He also told us that he had to lose 30 pounds before Disney would hire him. They measured your height and you had to be within 5 pounds the "ideal" weight so the uniform would fit you!
It was interesting to spend time talking to these folks and learn how Disney has changed over the years but also to see that they still find magic at WDW. He also reasssured me that only about a third of the waiting crowd would be heading to our first choice. Expedition Everest!
I have read many books on Everest climbs and I was really looking forward to seeing Everest up close since it was under construction on our last trip. We were walking quite briskly when we got through the gate but then slowed down at we saw the Tree of Life and realized we were going to waiting behind a rope. The Bare Necessities began playing and Rachel and I joined hands and began singing loudly, proudly and badly . As we approach the "next stop" I look over at a CM. I smile and say Good Morning. He says hello and waves us over and asks how many in our party.
"3? well please come with me?" So now my heart starts pounding with excitement and I start to duck under the rope. "Ma'am please come this way" He "opened" a rope just down from where we were standing but in my excitement , I missed that small detail .
He begins talking to Rachel and asks her what she is planning on seeing first. I blurt out EVEREST before she can form an E. " Really? he says looking only at Rachel now"
She bounces a bit on her toes and says Yes! " Well okay I can help you out with that"
This angel's name is Harry and he procedes to tell us that we will be the first family of the day on EE ! He walked us past the apes and explained kindly to Rachel that they were not monkeys since they had no tail. He was very lovely to Rachel asking her all kinds of questions. Then he told her that the cast of High School Musical had all come and had a ride on EE and now she would ride the same ride. I think for a minute she thought she'd actually get to see Troy but then realized Harry was talking in the past tense.
We stopped the the shrine and Harry took our picture. Then he proceded to lead us to the ride and through the line. He asked us if we wanted to ride up front . Oh YES PLEASE!! He told us to get in and said I'm coming too. I was thrilled and surprised "Oh you're coming too?" to which Harry smiles and says" Oh, yeah it's part of my job!"
Well we were off and then oh, oh no Tracks! Harry leaned forward and said look you can see Epcot and the MGM water tower. And we were off again ! It was a great ride! We all had great big grins! Rachel may have been a little unsure but my enthusiam was contagious! She laughed when she saw our ride photo. We all began to thank Harry for a great "Dream". He asked us if we could wait outside the shop for him for a few minutes. Wait a few minutes for our new best friend? SURE!
He came back and took us "backstage" to the control room with all the TV screens.
The CM inside was really sweet and explained what he was up to. They showed us several critical spots on the ride where they have cameras that people might be tempted to get out and climb the stairs. Not that it happens often but a few teenagers have given it a try. If they have to "push the big red button" it takes 45 minutes to reboot the computers and get the ride going again. There is also a piece of track that spins 90 degrees in about 6 seconds while you're distacted by that pesky Yeti the first time you see him. Technology that only WDW has folks! They load about 2000 people an hour on EE. After a few minutes we thanked the control room CM and we were on our way.
Harry took us to a quiet spot and began filling in a "dream card" for Rachel. He was very sweet and we were just delighted to have rode Everest and had the little tour. Then Harry was saying goodbye and then said maybe he could make our day just a little more special. He asked Rachel if she wanted to ride EE again and she (without any interference from her Mother) said YES! Harry nodded with great approval then presented her with 2 EE fast passes good anytime (exp APR 30) for 3 people each time. Then he filled out a little yellow slip that would allow us to FP any attraction at AK valid for that day only.
We enthusiastically thanked Harry and he gave us the all in a day's work response!
What Fun!
Now I still haven't figured out the posting of pics but hopefully I will get there before the end of this report. But I thought a "Dream team" member would be in some blue coloured golf shirt. Harry was wearing a sort of aqua blue Hawaiian shirt but instead of flowers it had sort of "Himalayan" type symbols on it. Not the best description but way different than I was expecting. I didn't notice any one else around Asia wearing the same type shirt but he wouldn't stick out in a crowd either.
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That's awesome! It sounds like the same dream that my family got in March. And yes, it was a normal EE cast member, not a dream team member that gave it to us.
I'm really enjoying your report and looking forward to more.
Oh how Cooool! FP's for the day? Can't wait to read more!
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
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No answer apparently Mickey wasn't awake enough yet to form words either. 
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