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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our First of Three Day 6
We started the day at Animal Kingdom. We went straight over to Dinosaur and then on to EE. It was just after noon and we were hungry. I thought about Yak n Yeti CS but didn't want to eat outside. I figured we could check out the AKL and have lunch at Mara. That didn't happen. We were passing Yak n Yeti tableservice and I asked if they had any openings since I didn't have an ADR. They said yes and we were seated right away. Wow... this place is great. Jessica had the half roast duck and I had the steak and shrimp.
After lunch we went back to the room to get ready for our dinner at 'Ohana. We got there very early and checked in. Our ADR was for 8:10 and we checked in at 6:45. Pager in hand we explored the Poly. We each got a new fluffy fleece lined sweatshirt to add to our layers for later in the evening. After watching the fireworks from the window at the Poly our pager went off and we were seated for a nice meal.
After dinner we headed over to MK for EMH. It was so cold but we managed to get in a few attractions. Near Small World there were 3 custodial CM's painting a Mickey head with water. That was so cool.
After that we headed back to the room for the night. We were frozen to the bone.
Up next: our last full day
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DD Jessica 18
Last edited by Disney4us2; 09-25-2011 at 12:48 PM..
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Day 7 Our last full day
This is our last full day at WDW. Last night Jessica fell asleep on the bus back to CBR. I cancelled out our early breakfast at Crystal Palace to let her sleep in a little longer. I was doing some packing so there wouldn't be as much later.
Once I got Jessica up we were on our way to Epcot. I needed my last speed fix. It seemed forever for an Epcot bus to come and when one did they couldn't get me on since it was already crowded. We took the first DHS bus and then took the walkway to get to Epcot. Once at the boardwalk we were hungry. We walked all around the boardwalk area and then found Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club Resort. Again, we were seated right away. We had a booth with a little juke box. Jessica had fun with that. We both had the cheeseburgers, mine with onion rings and hers with fries. She also had a giant chocolate shake. Everything was so good and I loved the decor.
We took the walkway to Epcot an were exploring France. Jessica has Thinking Day coming up soon with Girl Scouts and her toop's country this year is France. Needless to say, we bought a lot from France. We continued our tour and ended up at Test Track for my speed fix.
After walking around a bit and doing a lot of shopping at MouseGears we headed back to Japan for our dinner at Teppan Edo. Another fantastic meal there. This is one of our must do's.
With dinner done and being cold outside we headed back to the room to get ready for our last day at WDW for this trip. The final packing done. I don't know how I managed to get that giant red dragon and all the other things in our suitcases, but I did.
We were soon off to bed as we had a 7:30 bell services call for our luggage and scooter.
Up Next: our last partial day/departure/final thoughts.
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DD Jessica 18
Last edited by Disney4us2; 09-25-2011 at 12:48 PM..
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Our Departure Day and Final Thoughts
We awoke bright and early..... well at least early. Bell services was coming for our luggage and scooter at 7:30 AM. I had to have the scooter back by 8am or be charged for another day. They actually had a van for us, our luggage and walker to take us to the Custom House and RAC. Another person from bell services took the scooter.
Once we checked our bags we were off to the MK for our last partial day. We got there early and it was not busy. I finally got to ride POTC.... WDW version. Jessica didn't really feel like doing too many rides. We did manage to get in HM, People Mover, Barnstormer, and Mickeys Philharmagic. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays. I loved the fixings bar with the sautee mushrooms.... yummy. After lunch Jessica had some soft serve ice cream and we watch PUSH interact with the other guests. I love to watch their reactions when they hear a talking trash can.....lol
With that done, it was time to head back to the hotel and wait for DME. We got back early just to relax. We were able to board an earlier bus, which was fine for us. It gave us that much more time to get through TSA. They even had a special line there for strollers/disabled, which I thought was nice. I could move more at my pace and not hold up the line.
All in all, it was a great, but cold trip. I am now looking forward to our spring break trip at CSR.
Final thoughts:
ASMO: Our first resort for one night. I loved the location in the Toy Story section. Kind of wish we had stayed there the whole time. I like the way everything was close together in one building.
CBR: Our home away from home for the remainder of our trip. Loved the grounds. Pool was very nice and loved the hot tub (at least the one day we were able to use it). Liked the food court, but only ate there a couple of times. Did not like how the check in /check out at Custom House was not part of the main buildings. Would that stop me from staying there again....no.
The Parks: Loved going to the parks. The crowds were not that bad to me. (Don't forget, I am used to Disney crowds at Disneyland). We were able to do and see what we wanted to. We only went to DHS once for EMH to see the Osbourne Lights... amazing. Jessica rode RnR, we also went on TSMM. Boy oh boy WDW's queue sure blows Disneylands out of the water. I loved WDW's TSMM queue.
In gereral I tried not to compare the west coast and east coast...but I think certain rides are much better at Disneyland... POTC, HM....love the stretching room. Small World. WDW's just lacks without all the topiaries. I guess it is all what you are used to.
Dining: We tried a lot of new restaurants. DD's favorite was Tokyo Dining as was mine. We also really liked Kona Cafe, Yak & Yeti (one of our new must do's), and the Garden Grill, another new must do. We tried 'Ohana..... don't know what all the hype is about this place. The food was good, but I didn't think it was that great to wait almost an hour and a half for. I saw Jessica cringe when they brought one big dessert and two spoons. She is picky about that. Our server was kind enough to bring her a separate dessert. I was surprised he didn't bring two plates for our dessert.... Oh well. I ended up cancelling our ADR's at 'Ohana for our spring break trip, and going to Kona Cafe instead.
Transportation: We used Disney transportation. Didn't have to wait too long for the busses at CBR. I was always complimented by the bus drivers on how well I was able to park my scooter. I guess they see a lot of inexperienced ECV users.
DME: The return trip to the airport was a nice ride. Boarding is a free for all. Everyone just ran to be the first on the bus, which almost left DD and I sitting apart. Luckly some nice gentleman moved to another open seat so we could sit together. If that was not the case, I would just wait until the bus for our time came, 30 minutes later. Which by the time we were ready to depart, would have only been 10 minutes..
This was our long awaited trip and we both had a lot of fun and can't wait to do it all over again in April 2011
I think your trip seemed to be a great pace and you got in a lot of things without over doing it. I thought it was great how many times you went to Epcot and rode Test Track. Thanks for taking the time to share.
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Originally Posted by tdhc
I think your trip seemed to be a great pace and you got in a lot of things without over doing it. I thought it was great how many times you went to Epcot and rode Test Track. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Test Track is my favorite attraction and Epcot is my favorite park..... how could I miss. I still feel that need for speed. lol
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Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
Beaches and Cream! Glad you got to enjoy it on your way to Epcot! Teppan Edo is another of our favorites. In fact our best meal last June was here. 
Our Departure Day and Final Thoughts
I think certain rides are much better at Disneyland... POTC, HM....love the stretching room. Small World. WDW's just lacks without all the topiaries. I guess it is all what you are used to.
so much for sharing your adventure to WDW with us! Can't wait to hear all about your April trip, too! 
Dana
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