An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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How cute are you?! I love how excited you got over the wand...you can really see the excitement on your face in the photos!
I missed the Harry Potter craze as I was about 20 when they became popular. Harry Potter just wasn't on my "to-do" list at that time in my life. I have not given them much thought, but it does seem like lots of adults are into them...maybe I'll read one! (Both of my babies are going to be in school this fall...I'll have LOTS of time on my hands!) It will be good prep for our trip to US that we now HAVE to take because of you!
Love it all! Love your shirt, the wand, WWOHP looks so cool! Thanks (again) for sharing this with all of us. It's a whole lot of fun "traveling" with your family!
How awesome that you got your very own wand. Your TR is making me think about a trip to US. I loved the Harry Potter books and I can only imagine how cool it is to see all of those buildings up close.
Cam I am finally gettin all caught up! My son made the All-Star baseball team so we left town for the weekend! Donkey sounded like alot of fun! Glad Stefanie got to see Shrek too! I would love to ride the Jaws ride, this is my fav. movie of all times! So far yalls day in IoA for WWoHP is goin great! And..............you got a wand...how cool is that! Great Pics too! Cant wait until the next update!
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Me and Cole in the Sears Tower Skydeck, 103 floors up, in a glass box hanging off the side!
Since I will be following in your footsteps in December, I would love to know the plan of attack for touring WWOHP. Was it the right thing to do to hit Ollivanders first? I want to try and tour the whole area in about 1/2 a day. Is that possible?
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Cam, can't wait for your thoughts on the ride. It's definitely an experience, isn't it??
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney0_0
Since I will be following in your footsteps in December, I would love to know the plan of attack for touring WWOHP. Was it the right thing to do to hit Ollivanders first? I want to try and tour the whole area in about 1/2 a day. Is that possible?
I can't answer this for December, but I can say that the first week of February, we did WWOHP in less than three hours, and that includes eating lunch at the Three Broomsticks. Hopefully someone here can speak to what Dec is like. I can say that we did hit Ollivander's first, and it was the right decision for us, no question.
Congrats on getting your wand! I've read all the HP books, but have not seen any of the movies. The theming looks just like Rowling described-- very cool! The words Stefanie makes up are so expressive, it makes you wonder why they're not in the dictionary. I mean, what could taste worse than "saddlecrap"?!
Her words really are perfect!
Quote:
Originally Posted by buckinghammr
Too fun! I want to see your wand though!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimros
Curse you, AP Language and Composition training!!! I want more updates!
So exciting to see you all there!! And happy to hear that Stefanie was cool with it, too. And most anxious to see your wand.
The wand will appear at the end of this day when I show pictures of all our purchases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbd
I am now officially bummed that I opted out of the trip my sisters are taking to US just for WWoHP. I didn't want to bring the kids, because I didn't think they would enjoy it and I didn't want to leave dh with the kids on his own.
Maybe I'll get my sisters to buy me a wand.
I definitely think they should buy you the wand!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
How dare you're training interfere with these updates...especially now that you're at the WWoHP. I can't wait to see your wand! I want to visit this park so bad when we go in November, but I don't think we'll have the time. Maybe I'll just have to figure it out somehow.
I think you'd really enjoy a day there that is if you can figure it out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennie622
I absolutely loved Stephanie's comment about not being normal. Normal is so boring!!!
You are absolutely right!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bee
phew all caught up! Love the updates I guess I should start reading the potter books.
Read them! They really are good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Well hopefully you'll get to leave by then. We're planning on May 29-June 6 right now. We'll see when I make reservations tomorrow.
So cool to read about your Ollivander experience. It's sounds so cool! Hope I can experience it someday too.
We can't make our reservations until November as we want to stay at BWV this time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ace_Athena
How you got your own wand! And I must say that I love your shirt!
Saddlecrap! I love it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Awesome picture so far from WWoHP!! Congrats on getting your own wand! And I your shirt!!
The shirt was a Christmas present from Luke in 2009, purchased through Warner Brothers website. I wore it our last day at WDW in June 2010 and got loads of compliments on it then. But I have not idea how many folks asked me where I got it and hoped that they could get it at WWoHP. That was sort of !
Quote:
Originally Posted by emilyandlogansmom
How cute are you?! I love how excited you got over the wand...you can really see the excitement on your face in the photos!
I missed the Harry Potter craze as I was about 20 when they became popular. Harry Potter just wasn't on my "to-do" list at that time in my life. I have not given them much thought, but it does seem like lots of adults are into them...maybe I'll read one! (Both of my babies are going to be in school this fall...I'll have LOTS of time on my hands!) It will be good prep for our trip to US that we now HAVE to take because of you!
Can't wait to read more!
If you think you've seen my face excited, just wait until the picture that Luke took of me once we were inside the castle. It's priceless!
Quote:
Originally Posted by goofysdtr
Love it all! Love your shirt, the wand, WWOHP looks so cool! Thanks (again) for sharing this with all of us. It's a whole lot of fun "traveling" with your family!
You all keep me from quitting so that I get this all written out in a final form that will remind my family forever of the fun and adventures we've had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by omd
How awesome that you got your very own wand. Your TR is making me think about a trip to US. I loved the Harry Potter books and I can only imagine how cool it is to see all of those buildings up close.
It is positively unbelievable how much I felt immersed in the world of the books.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MGW
I love your Muggle shirt! Did you get it at Universal? Hope the wand shop first tip worked out for you, it was certainly true the day we were there.
Luke purchased my shirt back in the fall of 2009 through Warner Brothers website. I've not checked it lately, so I don't know if it is still available or not. He got it on sale for around $10 - 15. It really got me all kinds of interaction while at WWoHP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney0_0
Since I will be following in your footsteps in December, I would love to know the plan of attack for touring WWOHP. Was it the right thing to do to hit Ollivanders first? I want to try and tour the whole area in about 1/2 a day. Is that possible?
I think it took us about 3 hours in the morning to see most of the WWoHP. We didn't get through the shops that line the left side of the road as you enter the are until we returned in the evening.
What a great start at WWOHP!!! How cool that you got your own wand! I definitely would love to do that when I finally get there! (My sister has Hermione's wand and I have Sirius' from the Noble Collection, so I could just add to the collection!) Wonderful start to the day! Can't wait to hear more! The park looks wonderful! Definitely on my to-do list!
Oh, and that picture you said your hair was doing something funky...I looked at it carefully and it's the lady behind you! Your hair is perfect!
Good luck with everything this week & hurry back to us!!!
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Amanda =)
Living out a childhood dream during my summer 2015 trip to WDW. Is it time to go back yet?
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." –Walt Disney
How cool that you got a wand. My Birthday is in July too, (actually July 15th, so guess what we are doing that day?!!!!) so maybe my wand would be the same as yours.
Can't wait to see more pictures of WWOHP! That is definately a place I want to visit!
Cam, I was looking for you guys too but I know what you mean, we were very laid back and "go with the flow" on this trip, other than our ADRs. On Saturday the 18th (our last day) Dean was on a client call at Epcot he couldn't avoid and we were walking ahead of him, in WS. He came into the bakery in France where we were eating a late breakfast and said he thought he might have seen you guys but wasn't sure. I asked if he'd seen Stefanie and he said he had thought he'd seen Luke but was distracted by his conversation. I walked out and looked around but didn't see you (it had been at least maybe 10 mins so I wasn't surprised) but the rest of the day I kept looking and never did see you, so not sure if it was you guys or not! Maybe next year we will have the good fortune of connecting with you guys and fellow PPs.
Anxiously awaiting the rest!
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15 total family trips with stays at the Poly, AKL, Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club, Swan, Dolphin, POFQ, Pop Century, All Star Music, Movies & Sports, and Coronado Springs.
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I love how excited you got over the wand...you can really see the excitement on your face in the photos!
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I want to try and tour the whole area in about 1/2 a day. Is that possible? 
that you were able to get the wand! Definitely something that both of my kids would be fascinated by!! Can't wait to hear more
your shirt!!
Your hair is perfect! 
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