A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise! TR August 21-31 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I love the story of your daughter tossing you her pins during the storm!!
I'd been waiting for the full frog story after getting just the teaser in your PTR. I really like frogs, but still would probably have shrieked if I'd seen one in the kitchen. Then maybe I'd have kissed it.... too bad this didn't happen at POFQ!
I probably would have had the same reaction as you about the frog, though my girls probably would have loved it! I'm sure they would have wanted to bring it home to our pet Leapord Frog, Jumpy I wonder how he got inside of your room
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Just catching up... the reveal had me cracking up - first they were so calm and then after it sunk in, they were so excited! Very cute! Sorry the lightning storm ruined your pool time. And I would've had about the same reaction as you to finding a frog in my room. Yikes!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sc507
Up next: Dining with royalty (no, not Princess Sharon....)
Aww, man. And I'm hungry!
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Never would have expected a frog in your sink! Great time at CM!
I never expected it either!!!!!!! LOL! Still gives me the heebie-jeebies!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness - that's a new one on me, a frog in a room! So you didn't kiss it in case it was a prince then... This is Disney after all!
I don't think I could bring myself to go near a frog - even in Disney!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I love the story of your daughter tossing you her pins during the storm!!
I'd been waiting for the full frog story after getting just the teaser in your PTR. I really like frogs, but still would probably have shrieked if I'd seen one in the kitchen. Then maybe I'd have kissed it.... too bad this didn't happen at POFQ!
Okay, maybe at POFQ I would have smooched it a bit....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you had a great time at CMs! Great pics! Yikes about the frog!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
I probably would have had the same reaction as you about the frog, though my girls probably would have loved it! I'm sure they would have wanted to bring it home to our pet Leapord Frog, Jumpy I wonder how he got inside of your room
A pet frog? No thanks! And I really would love to know how it got there - we were on the 5th floor for crying out loud!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
We had a surprise visitor as well. A gecko! He jumped and we never found him again so we didn't call the desk. DH said it meant good luck.
Good luck or not, I would have been running for the hills if we couldn't find it! All I'd be able to think about would be waking up with it on my head!!!!!! I seem to have bad luck with wildlife in hotels - it's happened to us in Jamaica and in Mexico - both times geckos. Yuck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great meal at CM!! I would have screamed too if I had seen that frog!
Glad someone shares my fear
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Originally Posted by Hugmonster
Hey it's just the "wild" in Wilderness Lodge
That's what the front desk told me! Oddly enough, even though we were at WL - we are NOT fans of the Wilderness
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Yikes, I can't believe there was a frog in your bathroom.
Yikes is right!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Just catching up... the reveal had me cracking up - first they were so calm and then after it sunk in, they were so excited! Very cute! Sorry the lightning storm ruined your pool time. And I would've had about the same reaction as you to finding a frog in my room. Yikes!
Thanks Sharon! And thank you for sharing in my frog fear as well
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Aww, man. And I'm hungry!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
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We woke up today at 6:45, with Alex answering the phone to hear Stitch and Mickey waking us up. We got ready quickly and were out the door at 7:15 and had a bit of a wait for the bus. After a stop at Fort Wilderness, we arrived at Epcot at 7:55. We hightailed it to Norway where we were meeting Dana and her clan for breakfast. They were already there - so proud of them getting their way around easily on the first day
We were seated quickly and helped ourselves to the cold item buffet; we requested Mickey waffles with our hot items and the kids were super excited to chow down on them (okay, so was I!). The princesses were sweet and Dana's son had the dream meeting of his life; he is 'in love' with Ariel and when she came by, he actually blushed when she talked to him - it was too cute.
When Cinderella arrived, Dana's kids told her they were going to be dining at her castle in a few days. She was excited to have them at her 'house' and mentioned that maybe one day she could visit theirs. At this point, my Alex invites her to our house, yelling out our exact address rather loudly (and I do mean loud!). Cinderella was amused by this
We finished up, left the restaurant and sun screened up the kids. Once that rather lengthy chore was done, we headed to Soarin', stopping for some pictures of the Phineas and Ferb topiaries. When we got to FL, it was 9:30, so there was a 45 min wait already so we grabbed FPs and walked over to Nemo.
Turtle Talk was almost ready to start, so we grabbed a seat towards the back and sent the kids to the front. Crush had an interesting conversation with a lady - when he asked how many kids she had, she replied "2", but then she apparently felt the need to clarify that they were both with same father? Ummmm...okay. Don't think anyone needed to know or that it even matters!
We spent some time exploring the tanks next. We saw the manatees, which was new to us. The CM explained that they are being rehabilitated as they were both struck by a boat. When they are healthy, they will be re-released.
We also watched the feeding of the fish and the ray - so cool! We spoke with a nice CM who gave us lots of interesting tidbits. The ray is trained to touch its nose to the PVC pipe that the diver holds, then it is fed. She said this helps when they need to examine the rays for medical purposes and to socialize them bit.
We asked about the sharks and how they don't eat the fish in there with them. They are fed three times a week at Epcot and on average only once a month in the wild, so they stay full. Also, they feed them other kinds of fish so they get used to that taste instead of the fish that are there. I really enjoyed this encounter and the kids learned something, so that's always a bonus.
At this point, we left Dana; this was their only day here and they were on a character mission (and succeeded I might add - they met everybody here! I trained her well....) We headed to Mission Space Green, where we were slightly worried when we saw barf bags, but it was definitely very mild and we all loved it!
We wandered over to Club Cool, checking the wait time for Sum of All Thrills on our way (50 min - no thanks! ), then we made our way back to Soarin' for our ride over California.
Alex was chomping at the bit to head to the Gran Fiesta ride; he absolutely LOVES this ride. Why? I have NO idea We made a pit stop at the Kidcot station so the kids could get a Duffy bear to colour. It was really crowded, so they started off colouring on the floor, then grabbed a seat at the table.
We pulled them away from here with the promise of a snack somewhere soon and headed to Norway to ride Maelstrom, which Alex has decided (quite adamantly I might add!) that he does NOT like this ride. We exited into the gift shop and had some fun with the Viking wear and of course, the kids spotted the Kidcot station and had to colour a bit more of their bears.
Up Next: That sky looks bad - really bad!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
Great morning! Glad your friends soaked up your training and had a successful day-- it doesn't always work out that way! Great photos of the kids with the Princesses.
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Yikes about the frog! 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
And I'm hungry!
Never would have expected a frog in your sink! Great time at CM! 
So you didn't kiss it in case it was a prince then... 
This is Disney after all! 
PassPorter Guide Author
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