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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My husband & I were in the city that day too and it was so hot!! I think it was like the 4th or 5th day in a row with record breaking temperatures. We took the train in and saw a lot of Steeler fans (and Bear fans) too!
Your dinner looks divine--you hit two very good ones on your trip.
Thank you!,. That is wonderful to hear from a native!! We love your city!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Too bad you had such a hard time sleeping! There's nothing like you're bed at home and some hotel beds are just not cooperative or to your liking! Glad you enjoyed Hamilton and better in a small theater. Nice photos along the river front and the skyline. Dinner sounded really good at Sullivan's and the staff certainly took care of you for your anniversary. The bar looks incredible there as well as the Big Bar after dinner. The latter reminds me of the outdoor bar at Paradiso 37 in DS.
Thanks, Dave!! It was a terrific day!!:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
What an awesome anniversary celebration! Glad you all enjoyed Hamilton and an excellent meal. BTW -- I'd rather have champagne, too.
Thanks, Cam!! . Champagne rocks!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Looks like a great time so far! Your meals look amazing!
It was and they honestly were!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Sorry the bed at the hotel wasn't great, but apart from that what a great day. I'm shocked by the temperatures - that late in the year, wow!
The show sounds very neat and as for dinner, well it sounds pretty much perfect.
I'm loving all your photos of Chicago and, despite the heat, it's so lovely to see so much beautiful blue sky.
Thanks, Cheryl! It was a wonderful day! We loved that it was at least sunny. We just weren’t prepared for the heat. Chicago is a city that begs to be photographed!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great Anniversary day! Sorry you didn't sleep well but it looks like that didn't slow you down at all!
Thanks!. I caught up eventually and it surely did not slow me down!
Well I'm supposed to be catching up on TR's I was already subscribed to (well, actually, I'm supposed to be WORKING ), but when I saw the title of this one, I had to read it. Written by one of my fave PP'rs, about my FAVE city in the world (said the homesick Chicagoan).
Too bad about the cruise. I love the different river cruises. But as you said, gives you something for the next trip.
You hit homeruns on both your dinners! Cubs must have been rubbing off on you!
Your Anniversary seemed practically perfect in every way!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
It really was!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Well I'm supposed to be catching up on TR's I was already subscribed to (well, actually, I'm supposed to be WORKING ), but when I saw the title of this one, I had to read it. Written by one of my fave PP'rs, about my FAVE city in the world (said the homesick Chicagoan).
Too bad about the cruise. I love the different river cruises. But as you said, gives you something for the next trip.
You hit homeruns on both your dinners! Cubs must have been rubbing off on you!
For our last day in Chicago, Muffin had to work. We rented a car for the next few days which was very convenient as the Hyatt Place had a Hertz rental station right in the hotel. We packed up the car and I just took what I needed for the day and Muffin took off.
The first thing I did on my own was take a nice jog along the Riverfront. When I came back, I got a shower and got changed and decided to skip the lounge breakfast and instead walked to Yolk.
Yolk is one of our favorite Chicago breakfast eateries. Having the club in the morning was nice, but of course we did not get a chance to eat at Yolk this trip so I had to fix that! I had a wonderful waitress who told me to get the strawberry orange juice and the special of the day, which was lemon blueberry pancakes. Oh my goodness, I am so glad that I listened to her!!
I will definitely try concocting the juice at home and the pancakes were about as fluffy and light as you can get. They had a lemon curd filling, blueberries in the pancakes and the most delicious lemon syrup that I have ever tasted. My whole breakfast came to 12 bucks and it was well worth it!!
Yolk
Even the water bottles are cool here! And the strawberry orange juice was to die for!
Lemon Blueberry pancakes
When I was finished every drop of juice and licking my pancake plate, I decided that I needed to walk some more.. The Art Institute opened at 10:30 this morning and it was now about 10:15. It would definitely take me at least 15 minutes to walk there so that was perfect!!
I walked past the Bean and the cool Crown Fountain. It was already hot and there were tons of kids playing on the park:
The Art Institute is right on the other side of Millennium Park and I went in through Pritzker Garden at the Art Institute:
I adore art and these were some of my favorite paintings and other mediums:
I bought a really nice Van Gogh print:
I will have to get it framed and hang it in my office!
I spent about two hours here and I was starting to get hungry again so I went on Open Table to see what was around for lunch. Oh my gosh, there were so many places to eat that I couldn’t decide so I wound up going back to Howell’s and Hood! I know this is not very exciting, but I had to meet Muffin back at the Hyatt, which was across the street, and there are lots of shops and stuff to do while I was waiting in this area.
I wound up having a great time and a great lunch here!! The restaurant was pretty crowded but the hostess told me if I wanted to sit at the bar I could order food there, so I took her up on it. There was only one other person at the bar and, Eddy, the bartender, was a fantastic bar host! He went back and forth between the two of us and was very entertaining. We talked sports, beer and travel.
Also, my lunch was delicious and I had a fabulous IPA with it:
Howell’s and Hood Cobb Salad
Citradelic IPA
By this time, it was 2:00 PM and Muffin was picking me up in an hour. I thanked Eddy for his company, paid the bill and left a generous tip and then walked back to the Hyatt. I was able to sit at the hotel bar and just order a water. I passed the time writing trip notes and messing around on my iPad. It went very quickly!
Hotel Bar:
Muffin pulled up in a Nissan SUV(which I can’t remember the name of), we used the restrooms and started off on our journey to Joliet. It took about an hour to get to our hotel.
We checked in, unpacked and it was then that I realized that I had left my iPad at the Hyatt in Chicago! I called them immediately and fortunately someone had turned it in. Muffin said that we could swing back that way tomorrow on our way to Ft. Wayne to pick it up and the security people just told me to go to the front desk and someone would bring it to me. That settled, we chilled out for a little bit.
Hampton Inn, Joliet:
See the swan guy?!
And my favorite touch which is now sitting on my office.
Then we headed out for dinner. We ate Red Lobster:
When we got back, we were pretty beat so we watched a little TV and turned in for the night.
The Art Institute is definitely one of my favorite places. I love the Tiffany windows. And, of course, Sunday on the Isle of Grand Jatte!
Glad someone turned in your iPad! Don’t I recall that being a fairly new one that you got from Mufifn after breaking an older one?
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BTW -- I'd rather have champagne, too. 
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I'm shocked by the temperatures - that late in the year, wow! 
There's nothing like you're bed at home and some hotel beds are just not cooperative or to your liking! Glad you enjoyed Hamilton and better in a small theater. 
Nice photos along the river front and the skyline. Dinner sounded really good at Sullivan's and the staff certainly took care of you for your anniversary. 
), but when I saw the title of this one, I had to read it. Written by one of my fave PP'rs, about my FAVE city in the world (said the homesick Chicagoan).
I know this is not very exciting, but I had to meet Muffin back at the Hyatt, which was across the street, and there are lots of shops and stuff to do while I was waiting in this area.
I called them immediately and fortunately someone had turned it in. Muffin said that we could swing back that way tomorrow on our way to Ft. Wayne to pick it up and the security people just told me to go to the front desk and someone would bring it to me. That settled, we chilled out for a little bit.
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