The First Thing you need is a Pumpkin, (and the right Princess!) Trip report. Jan26-31. - UPDATED 3/9 with more PhotoPass Pics!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Great start! We are flying out of Detroit in March and I might try to convince DH to stay down at that hotel for the night before. Thanks so much for the tip.
Location: Physically stuck in Michigan while my heart and soul reside in Disney.....
Posts: 2,680
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 16
Likes (Received): 11
Thanks (Given): 14
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by courtines
Great start! We are flying out of Detroit in March and I might try to convince DH to stay down at that hotel for the night before. Thanks so much for the tip.
Hey Courtney! I just glanced at your location! PORT HURON!!!!! Wow! I grew up and graduated from Marlette, moved to Sandusky and was there appx 20 years. I did most of my shopping in Port Huron! Oh and ate at Cheap Charlies, my girls loved that place! Ya know, the old Chi Chi's? I just moved to Battle Creek a few years ago when I married 'toll booth boy'. What a coincidence!!!
We usually flew out of Flint when I lived there unless we had an incredibly better deal from Detroit. It was so easy to get around Flint.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Thursday Jan 27, 2011, Magic Kingdom EMH and 1900 Park Faire for dinner.
I awoke this morning very excited as it was our first morning here. I know it sounds silly but a big part of what I enjoy about being on vacation in Disney is getting up at 6 am to go the food court, get my coffee and walk around the resort. It is so peaceful and calm and the grounds are always so beautiful it really makes me feel like I am on vacation. That and I just love Florida in the early morning. With my morning coffee quota satisfied I came back to the room with a breakfast platter to share with Liz, then we were off to the Magic Kingdom! I thought about an early morning swim, but it was just a little too chilly. I should stop here to point out something I made for Liz and myself before we left. I went to Snapfish.com and made a couple photo books . These books contained pictures of our character encounters from our previous Disney vacations. As you can probably imagine mine wound up being a little heavy on pictures of myself and the glass slippered one. In all fairness, Liz’s had more Tinkerbell pictures than you could shake a stick at. So here we are for morning extra magic at the Magic Kingdom. We walk down Main Street for a photopass shot:
Love it in the early morning when you can walk down main street and it’s so uncrowded. We rode Peter Pan, It’s a Small World, and Dumbo all before the park opened for normal visitors. Here’s a few pictures over the construction wall at Dumbo. Interesting how it’s taking shape. Can’t wait til it’s open.
Then we rode Snow White one last time as it’s being removed for the Fantasyland expansion. We probably won’t make it back here before it goes under the knife. After Snow White it was time to head over to ToonTown for it’s opening to see Tink and the Princesses. I was really getting excited at this point. I got a few comments and compliments on my sweatshirt and shoes from the Cast Members holding the rope, then it was time to see Tink. We got in to see her and only her and Videa were there. Tink was pretty spirited here. She shot a couple barbs at me. I don’t remember most of them. I think I have mental block where Tink is concerned. Liz will probably fill you in later anyway. I do remember tink liked the necklace around my neck with Cinderella sitting on a bell, and her saying how I’m good at shrinking things down. Something like that. She was pretty sassy to me. Here are some pictures:
I wish we had our photopass CD because there are some really good ones of her giving me attitude. I’ll revisit this and post those when we get the CD. Hopefully late next week. Videa was happy to see us. She could tell Tink and I didn’t really mesh well so she was eager to come to my side. She proudly told us that her wings are bigger than Tink and she was faster. Hmmmm a little healthy competition among pixies? Liz, please jump in here with more comments cuz I really don’t have many notes on this. The mental block thing.
Next up the princesses! I must admit here, this next event is where the title of our trip report came from. I am embarrassed to admit I get a little nervous before our first princess meeting of every trip. I don’t know why, but I get all fidgety and nervous. Liz says she thinks its adorable and I look like a schoolboy. I think it’s just cuz I get so anxious after waiting so long to see them since our last visit and Cinderella holds such a special place in my heart and in our relationship I just get all flustered. This is quite unusual for me because most of the time I am very steady and unflappable, right Liz? Well anyway, first up was Princess Aurora, - Briar Rose herself – and I start talking with her trying to play it all cool. She sees my Cinderella shirt, and signs my book, and all is well.
She comments on how I have so many lines from her story as captions in my photo book, such as “Hail to the Princess Aurora. All her subjects adore her” And “I know it’s true, Visions are seldom all they seem, I knew you once upon a dream”.
I reply, trying to be all smooth and such: “ Well the first thing you need is a pumpkin!” Now you gotta understand I know my Disney Princess stories probably better than any other 43-year old man alive. For me to mix up an element from Cinderella’s story with Sleeping Beauty is quite the mess up for me. Princess Aurora says “Well, maybe my friend Cinderella would like to know about that, Tee hee”. Ahhhhh I got lit up and shot down! I used the line on the wrong Princess! Anyway she was nice enough to pose for a picture with me.
Liz seem to get quite a chuckle out of this. I don’t know why she would enjoy seeing her man struggle like that though, do you? On to Cinderella, even though I was still dousing the flames. She was great as usual.
I showed her my shoes and she showed me hers.
Liz claims she asked me several questions about my shoes like were they magic like hers, and did the fairy godmother make them for me too. You know, material that usually I am all over and could respond with a sharp comment and make the moment even funnier, but this time I just had nothing. Whew rough princess meeting. Next it was on to Belle. Again I don’t remember much about this but I’m sure Belle made fun of me too. She always does!
Forgot to mention the best thing about this meeting though. Do you guys remember Beverly, the cast member that works with the princesses , from our earlier princess meeting encounters in our other trip reports? She was the one who arranged for all the princesses to pose together with us. She was working and she remembered us! She went and found her manager and introduced us to him and invited us to go see Mickey and Minnie with Beverly so we could spend a few minutes with her and chat. So we did just that! We were so impressed that she remembered us. (Are we that unforgettable?) She even said she was thinking about us a few weeks ago and wishes she had a way to get in touch with us to tell us about all the changes coming to Toontown soon because she knew that we enjoyed meeting the princesses so much. We were genuinely touched. Here is a picture of her with us with Mickey and Minnie. Just too cool to see her again!
I meant to include the whole day in this update but it has already run a bit long. Sorry guys, but I’ll have to finish the afternoon of this remarkable day a bit later. We see the Main Street Electrical Parade for the first time and have dinner at 1900 Park Fair. Don’t want to spill the beans but I get a stern warning from Prince Charming but still have one of the most memorable Cinderella moments of the trip. What happened at 1900 Park Faire was just amazing for me!
A little sneak peek:
Stay Tuned!
Brent
__________________
Last edited by Disdadnmi; 02-05-2011 at 09:56 PM..
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Courtney 
Sammi
the new set of ears!
Cassie
PassPorter Guide Author
Fascinating photos of the construction.
Linear Mode
