The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 2/25 - Page 22 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Quite a fun time in the MK with a lot of experiences! Glad you were finally able to beat Mark's score on Buzz for once! Nice magic as you could bypass the standby line! I enjoy COP and People Mover as well. Almost impossible to get good photos inside of SM unless the ride is down and lights are on, which I've experienced before and quite amazing to see. Too funny with that duck on the gator on Jungle Cruise!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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It was so deserted back at Gaston's, even better that a little magic was sprinkled your way there. Truly amazing how much you all were getting done in such a short time.
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Sorry about Pirates; however, the rest of your day was really working for you. Glad your access card came to great use. Hope you found Pirates working before you had to leave the park.
Yes we did. I would've hated to have not ridden it.
Quite a fun time in the MK with a lot of experiences! Glad you were finally able to beat Mark's score on Buzz for once! Nice magic as you could bypass the standby line! I enjoy COP and People Mover as well. Almost impossible to get good photos inside of SM unless the ride is down and lights are on, which I've experienced before and quite amazing to see.
Yes, that's an amazing sight. Of course, it was the one time I was like "oh I won't get the camera out, I've seen everything on here and photographed everything", so it was in the backpack. By the time I got it out, we were out of Space Mountain. That's why I always have it out and with me now.
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Friday 12 January – part five: any rose gold ears?
We made our way over to Frontierland…
… and Splash Mountain was in a bit of a sorry state being in the middle of its scheduled refurb…
As we had a bit of time to kill before our Peter Pan Fastpass+ was ripe, we figured we’d take an entire loop of the railroad. However, that was not to be. Even though there was a train in the station, the station itself was roped off. Mark said as we walked away, he looked back and they were taking people off the train, so I guess there was something seriously wrong with the train…
We made our way over to Peter Pan and took a ride to Neverland. I did try and capture some photo on sports mode, but they came out far too dark.
We were heading rapidly towards lunchtime, so we thought about ducking into Mickey’s PhilharMagic and shocked the Cast Member when we came back out a few paces in. We’d seen the theatre empty a couple of minutes ago and I wasn’t convinced we’d get in straightaway and might have to wait until the next show, which would be cutting things far too tight for lunch.
Instead, we made our way past the castle like salmon swimming upstream. At times we had to dive into alcoves as massive tour groups pounded their way towards us. I figured discretion was the better part of valour, as they didn’t look like they were stopping for anyone!
Then look who we found!
Honestly, there was one other group in line for her, so we had no wait. Amazing to still be able to find characters like that these days with no-one around!
With that, we made our way down to Main Street USA and through the Emporium. I enquired about rose gold ears and was told they were out of stock until late January/early February. Ok, so I guess it just wasn’t to be then.
I didn’t think the selection in the Emporium was that great to be honest. We ended up going into the shops on the other side of the road to see what they had and watched the creation of Jiminy Cricket…
However, the only jewellery we could find was Pandora, which I wasn’t interested in. I was a lot more interested in the necklaces I’d seen yesterday in MouseGears with the castle on. Eventually, we gave up. We had a bit of time to kill, so we stopped in one of the little alcoves off Main Street USA, where we were able to hear various things like tap dance lessons and piano lessons, which was really fun. I just love little touches like this at Disney.
Eventually just before 11:00am, we stirred ourselves and walked up to the Plaza restaurant. It was a little late opening, but when it did, the huge group right outside were first to be seen. They didn’t have reservations, but lucked out and got in. Not bad for a group of eight! I guess it never hurts to ask at opening time…
We were given a pager and settled down to watch some of the Move It, Shake It, Dance and Play It! street party. We were quite far away, but I didn’t do badly with the shots from that distance…
We haven’t eaten at the Plaza in ages. So long ago I don’t think I can even remember when. Hope your meal was a good one.
I agree those little touches are so great to stumble upon. Harder and harder with the crowds these days, though. I wish we could go back in time to those days - lower crowd volumes, and more affordable tickets....would be nice, wouldn’t it? And raising prices doesn’t seem to do a thing with the crowd levels.
I love that it's starting to get so crowded, yet you guys already did so much that you can leisurely stroll, shop, rest for a bit, and then wait for your lunch table. That's awesome! Allows for time to soak up the details - like looking at those windows on Main St!! Still loving this day so far.
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Poor Splash, it looks so sad!
Glad you didn't get taken down by the tour groups.
I will have to find that little alcove with the tap and singing lessons. Never heard that.
We have never eaten at the Plaza. Is it good?
We haven’t eaten at the Plaza in ages. So long ago I don’t think I can even remember when. Hope your meal was a good one.
That was us too. I reckon it was back in 2005 or 2006 that we last ate there. I think it's one of those places that is easy to overlook.
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I agree those little touches are so great to stumble upon. Harder and harder with the crowds these days, though. I wish we could go back in time to those days - lower crowd volumes, and more affordable tickets....would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful?
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And raising prices doesn’t seem to do a thing with the crowd levels.
No, it doesn't and, for all the time it doesn't, Disney can happily continue to raise those prices.
I love that it's starting to get so crowded, yet you guys already did so much that you can leisurely stroll, shop, rest for a bit, and then wait for your lunch table. That's awesome! Allows for time to soak up the details - like looking at those windows on Main St!! Still loving this day so far.
I think we definitely found the bonus of jetlag... if you're going to be up super early, then make the best of it with Extra Magic Hours and get as much done as you can before everyone else gets up!
Oh it does. If a ride is completely inside, you never see what they're doing to it during a refurb. If it's outside, you can't really disguise that.
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Glad you didn't get taken down by the tour groups.
I will have to find that little alcove with the tap and singing lessons. Never heard that.
We have never eaten at the Plaza. Is it good?
You got to visit Mary! She's my favorite Really close up photos of the characters, you must have a telephoto lens. I bet watching Jiminy Cricket be made was interesting. Sounds like having a good day so far.
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Nice magic as you could bypass the standby line! 
I enjoy COP and People Mover as well. Almost impossible to get good photos inside of SM unless the ride is down and lights are on, which I've experienced before and quite amazing to see. 
Too funny with that duck on the gator on Jungle Cruise! 
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