From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Most definitely a park in transition. We did not even visit DHS while we were down there this time. We felt like there was no point as we had seen the Launch Bay already and there are only 2 rides we would go on. So sad.
I can understand you doing that. Had it not been for wanting to see Olaf and visit the Star Wars Launch Bay, I may well have made the same decision, certainly for a daytime visit, as we were already booked to see the Star Wars fireworks later on in our vacation.
The Studios have always been my least favourite park, as there's not much that I enjoy there, compared to the other parks, but I'm hoping once all the work is completed there, there'll be more for me to appreciate.
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I have to agree about the socks, we totally thought they were ties at first and were very disappointed that they were socks. Disney is completely missing out on that one. Had they been ties we would have bought one or two. The CM's we mentioned that to said the same, many people would rather have ties then socks. They need to pass that on.
Wow, they really do. I'm so glad I'm not alone on that.
Sunday 26 February – part five: a surprise meet… to you guys anyway!
We walked back to the car, and headed out. We ran into some traffic along the way, and we were getting a bit worried we wouldn’t make it in time. Now where we were going? Well, this is something completely new that kind of came up just as we were leaving. For those of you who’ve been on the boards for some time, you may remember Lorie (MinnieLor) and her husband Glenn (clayshooter). We tragically lost both of them in the Joplin tornado in 2011. It was an even tougher loss in that they’d only just come home from Disney, and they flew back a couple of hours before it hit. Trust me, I (and I’m sure a lot of others) spent a lot of time reflecting on that fact, and saying “what if?”… I lost count of how many times Mark and I said “if only their flight had been delayed, they’d still be with us”.
Anyway, after her death, through the magic of Facebook, a lot of us got to know Lorie’s sister Kristie, and we’ve all stayed in touch over the years, although we’ve never met. Well, Kristie let a group of us know (people she knew would be in Orlando) that she and her husband Steve would be in Orlando for a conference, and inviting us to meet up.
None of the times she gave us originally worked out for us, but I really wanted to find a way to meet her, and I suggested that we could get over to meet them about 11:00am at their resort. I knew they had to leave around 11:30am, so we were desperate to make it in time. Thankfully, the traffic cleared, and we did.
They were staying at the Rosen Shingle Creek and my goodness, look at the place – it is amazing!
We parked up, and headed inside and immediately Kristie waved at us. It was so good to finally meet her in person, although I had to confess to her later that I couldn’t stop staring at her. It was like looking at Lorie and it took me back to 2009, the last time we saw her. She said I’m not alone, and a lot of people still call her Lorie’s name, which must be very difficult for her.
We also met up with Angela, and her daughter Amy, who we met through the boards many years ago, and we haven’t seen for years, so it was lovely to catch up with them. Angela had messaged us to ask if we could meet up, but it was impossible to sort anything out with the time constraints they had, so it was great that this worked out.
We must’ve stood there chatting for the best part of the hour, because Angela had said she’d take Kristie and Steve to the airport, which gave them a bit more time. I cannot tell you how special this time was to us, and I’m quite sure Lorie and Glen were both watching down, marvelling at how something so terrible has brought complete strangers together.
Left to right: Kristie, Mark, Angela, me and Amy
Eventually they had to go, but we took a wander around the resort, as it is unbelievable, and heck, we’d had to pay $18 parking (yep, we’re doing well with parking fees this trip! ), so we might as well make the best of it…
When we came out of there, we headed along a road that felt as if it was on the edge of the current development in Orlando. Trust me, I bet it will be all developed in a few years’ time…
We passed the Orlando Eye, which we went on last year:
On the way, we went past the former Wet ‘n’ Wild, which was a bit surreal. I guess they’ll start to rip it down eventually…
I remember how shocked I was at the news of Lorie and Glenn. We had been in touch because she had just signed up (or was about to) for her first Disney Half Marathon the following January. I saw that news and just prayed she was Ok. So sweet of you guys to stay in touch with her sister!
Wow that is a beautiful resort! I've often wondered what it's like as I see it come up in hotel searches all the time. Very nice. Definitely a possibility!
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The Rosen Shingle Creek resort is beautiful! I totally get you on the parking fees. I would have made the most of it as well. Years ago we were at Disney for the Christmas holiday and we went to the Gaylord Palms Resort for the ICE exhibit and I believe then the parking fee was 12 to 15 dollars. Well after we went and experienced ICE we decided since it cost so much to park that we were going to explore the entire resort to get our money's worth.
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I remember how shocked I was at the news of Lorie and Glenn. We had been in touch because she had just signed up (or was about to) for her first Disney Half Marathon the following January. I saw that news and just prayed she was Ok. So sweet of you guys to stay in touch with her sister!
Oh wow, I did not know that she was contemplating her first Disney half marathon.
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Wow that is a beautiful resort! I've often wondered what it's like as I see it come up in hotel searches all the time. Very nice. Definitely a possibility!
The Rosen Shingle Creek resort is beautiful! I totally get you on the parking fees. I would have made the most of it as well. Years ago we were at Disney for the Christmas holiday and we went to the Gaylord Palms Resort for the ICE exhibit and I believe then the parking fee was 12 to 15 dollars. Well after we went and experienced ICE we decided since it cost so much to park that we were going to explore the entire resort to get our money's worth.
Oh my goodness, I remember how much the parking was when we went to see ICE and I want to say it was more than $12-$15. About $20 rings a bell and that was also quite a few years ago too.
That must have been surreal! I must confess, I didn't even know Wet & Wild had closed.
It closed to make way for Volcano Bay, which opens at the end of May. I can understand that. Wet 'n' Wild was old anyway and it would hardly have been able to compete with a brand new water park.
I enjoyed the March of the First Order on my Fall trip and thought it was well done and especially with the movie clips and music! That was a nice meet you had with everyone, but it must have been tough with the circumstances. That's a beautiful hotel.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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), so we might as well make the best of it… 
We had been in touch because she had just signed up (or was about to) for her first Disney Half Marathon the following January. I saw that news and just prayed she was Ok. 
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That was a nice meet you had with everyone, but it must have been tough with the circumstances. That's a beautiful hotel. 
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