Making Lemonade out of Mousefest **Updated 2/18** COMPLETE - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Congrats on the new points. Your upcoming trips look great. You are making me envious with your plans. Love your TR, sorry I was going in different directions each day. Looks like hanging with you would have been a lot of fun. Not sure I could have kept up though.
Congratulations for your add-on Heather! SSR is our home and we really love it there. I am really impressed with how much you manage to do each day! Unfortunately, I just love sleep way too much I think.
Great updates. I love the PP pictures at the Lights. I wish I'd taken the time to get some taken by them. They did an excellent job.
And congrats on the addition. It started me thinking, but then I thought "Must RESIST the Force!" With my kids getting ready to leave home, I really don't need more points. I'll be able to go in the off season, and not on weekends, so my points will go further!
Great updates. I love the PP pictures at the Lights. I wish I'd taken the time to get some taken by them. They did an excellent job.
And congrats on the addition. It started me thinking, but then I thought "Must RESIST the Force!" With my kids getting ready to leave home, I really don't need more points. I'll be able to go in the off season, and not on weekends, so my points will go further!
Looking forward to more.
I don't HAVE any kids . . . AND I travel (mostly) during the week and I go in the off season . . . it just wasn't enough
this picture of Eileen and Scott. I ran into him on Tuesday as well (he may have thought our group was stalking him ) and he didn't remember me either until I mentioned Eileen's choice of under garments. Then he told me that he had shared that story numerous times with other CMs since it occured.
Oh. My. Gawd! I'm SO gonna end up on StupidGuestTricks.com with the Pluto Thong comments -- and Deb from the AK is gonna corroborate this story. The shame.... it kinda burns actually....
But, Heather... I have to say this:
purrrrr-fectly summarizes the PassPorter life at Mousefest. A frosty adult beverage and an open PassPorter Guide to the "memories" page for writing TR notes.
Oh. My. Gawd! I'm SO gonna end up on StupidGuestTricks.com with the Pluto Thong comments -- and Deb from the AK is gonna corroborate this story. The shame.... it kinda burns actually....
But, Heather... I have to say this:
purrrrr-fectly summarizes the PassPorter life at Mousefest. A frosty adult beverage and an open PassPorter Guide to the "memories" page for writing TR notes.
Heeeee!
Eileen
Thats funny . . . because thats exactly what I was doing!
An update . . . sadly its an update without pictures . . . why? I forgot my camera in the room where I had plugged it into the computer to upload photos. So I'm pretty sure there are no photos from my morning in Epcot.
I got up pretty early and drove my car over to Epcot. I made careful note of where I parked my car. I wrote down exactly what section and row I was in and about how far down I had parked. I was not having a repeat of the previous trip to Epcot. Especially since I wasn't planning on staying until the park closed and it would be A LOT harder to find my lost car in a crowded lot.
I arrived just after the park opened and went to get FPs for Soarin. I was successful there and on my way out of the Land I ran into Bob and Larry who were on their own FP mission. Me I was on my way to ride the one thing I knew would be absolutely empty at this hour. Journey into Imagination. Figment is one of my favorite Disney characters! I LOVED the original version of this ride with Dreamfinder as a kid. I believe it was my favorite after Mr Toad's Wild Ride.
Note to all WDW rides. If you should become Heather's favorite ride you will automatically be disassembled or rewritten IMMEDIATELY!
When I arrived at Imagination, there were no other guests to be seen, and the CMs looked a little peeved that they had to actually do some work for only one person. Like . . . turn on the ride.
After my solo ride on Journey I headed for Nemo, also no line, but let me tell you that queue is the longest walk EVA! Does that ride really get that busy? I'd never wait in line for more than 20 minutes to ride Nemo! It takes at least 15 minutes just to walk the queue. Okay maybe ten.
Following an almost solo ride on Nemo . . . there was a family in front of my of about 6, but no body else.
I headed over to Spaceship Earth for my next walk on attraction! I smiled pretty for my ride photo and emailed it to myself, but it never arrived in my in box . . . so I have no photo of my SE Boyfriend to show you, however if you are keeping up with my swinging girl friend Sharon's TR you will know that she STOLE my SE boyfriend on her most recent trip to Epcot . . . what's worse . . . WE'RE ROOMMATES!!! (Although we do have swinging parties with conga lines all the time . . . you can join the party too!)
I got off of MS and walked slam into Jill and Eileen and Lesley. We met up with Bob and Larry and Sharon and her lovely parents! We picked up more FP for Soarin and rode Mission Space in the standby line. We rode MORE INTENSE orange and I believe this was Jill's frist go round on that one as well!
Mabel choose to sit this one out and Sharon rode with her Dad, but on the way out Mabel was not on the appointed bench . . . we all know she snuck off for sweets! Eventually Sharon found Mom and we headed for Lunch at Sunshine Seasons. I ordered the kid's sweet and sour chicken, which came with broccoli and rice and picked up a side salad. My total bill was about $7 and I was FULL!
At the end of the meal Bob and Larry had to head back to the Yacht Club for their ride on DME. Eileen started singing . . . "Now its time to say goodbye . . ." Everyone either starting singing along or crying. It was a very touching moment. Good thing the mascara is waterproof!
We rode Livin with the Land right after lunch and then our Soaring FP were ready! So we took off over California. God I love this ride. I actually think I may have a serious Soarin addiction problem. I listen to the music at least once a day and I notice men whose cologne . . . smells like Soarin!
Then we rode Spaceship Earth . . . I rode with Sharon . . . you've heard about the wild parties and the margaritas and the boyfriend stealing . . . its all true.
Finally we headed over the the Mexico pavillion for what else? Margaritas! Sharon of all people abstained from Margarita Madness!
We walked slowly around WS because reaching the IG was going to be another goodbye! At the IG I said goodbye to Jill who was going to meet her DME bus as well as everyone else. Bye Eileen! Bye Sharon! Nice to meet you Sharon's parents! Bye Lesley!
This was the last time we would cross paths before I left the following afternoon. It was only midafternoon, but I was tired. It was time to take a break from everything. So I headed back to SSR.
I found my bathing suit in the pile of stuff I had thrown in my drawers. Yeah! it fits! (always a question mark) I gathered up all my dirty clothes and threw them in a bag. I started a load of laundry in the guest laundry area and I went down to the pool only to find three small children running around and jumping into the hot tub. No parents in sight. So I walked back over to the pool bar and ordered a Pina Colava complete with yummy raspberry puree. By this time my clothes needed to go in the dryer so I took care of that and by the time I got back the hot tub was child free.
I relaxed for a few minutes in the nice warm water until the three unsupervised children came back. I just ignored it . . . this was my relaxation period. I sat around for awhile trying to decide what to do with my last night. I had every intention of getting my act together and going over to the MK to see Wishes.
I folded my laundry. I yawned. I brought my laundry back to my room and hung my swim suit up to dry in the bathroom. I yawned. I decided NOT to go see Wishes. Istead I walked over to the Turf Club to see if they could seat me. No problem. I ordered a glass of white wine and began to peruse the menu. Okay looks good.
Up next! Dinner at the Turf Club and the What Attraction is Heather Riding Photo Contest! See you on Monday!
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this picture of Eileen and Scott. I ran into him on Tuesday as well (he may have thought our group was stalking him 
) and he didn't remember me either until I mentioned Eileen's choice of under garments. 
Then he told me that he had shared that story numerous times with other CMs since it occured. 
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