Thank You Disney Movie Rewards TR (November 16-22, 2014) - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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What a great time meeting Thor! The pictures with the alpaca smiles were funny.
It was so hard not to laugh while doing the alpaca smiles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
A great time, even if it did make for a long, tiring day! I absolutely love the story about Hunter and the hammer, and then the very, very funny exchange about Apollo.
We didn't realize until after the meet that Hunter picking up the hammer was not what was suppose to happen. A CM told me after that it had never happened.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
I love the story about Thor and the Alpaca, you're smiles are too funny!
It was the best meet & greet we have ever had. I don't know how Thor stayed in character the whole time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
What a great interaction with Thor!! Maybe I'll have to watch some of the Marvel movies before we go to Disneyland.
I would it was a fun meet & greet and well worth it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nanajoyx2
Quick question. If Shanna loves Captain America, why did you have to bribe her to meet him?
I should have mentioned that, she loves Captain America but she doesn't want anyone to know and is totally embarrassed anytime we mention his name.
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I love the Thor & alpaca story. Hunter had a full day, no wonder he was so tuckered out. Oh and I noticed all of his Angry Birds gear. I can see Hunter and Sean getting along quite well.
Sounds like a ton of fun with the Superheros! Blue Bayou was very slow when we went as well Such a bummer!
The superheroes were such a blast! Totally unexpected. I don't know why they were so slow, it was close to closing and you would think they would have wanted to get the last few tables out of there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Your family will always remember the meeting with Thor, and I bet he will remember the Alpaca smile for s long time, too!
We will not forget that meeting at all! We walk around when feeding the alpacas saying "What is an alpaca?" I wish sometimes I could be a fly on the wall after some of these meet and greets and see what the CM's say afterwards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
That's a really classic meeting with Thor!
It was such a fun meet and greet, totally unscripted that's for sure!
Quote:
Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
I love the Thor & alpaca story. Hunter had a full day, no wonder he was so tuckered out. Oh and I noticed all of his Angry Birds gear. I can see Hunter and Sean getting along quite well.
Thor and the alpaca was so funny, we still laugh about it. Hunter did have a full day, I was surprised he just crashed like that, he never does that. Yes, Hunter loves Angry Birds! I think he would get along well with Sean.
Today's Update: Our First Time to Carsland! (November 18, 2014)
I woke up this morning at about 5am with a major headache and some aches and pains. I took some Advil and went back to sleep. Thankfully, it worked and I woke up at 7am feeling better. Pat was already in the shower and when he finished I got my shower. Hunter also got a quick shower since he had missed his the night before. We ate some breakfast in the room.
Here is what Hunter had for breakfast:
I figure it's kind of like a chocolate chip pancake, right??
We went downstairs at about 9 to the Grand Californian entrance to DCA. We had to wait about 30 minutes and I was a little annoyed at one point. We were about the 4th people in line and they started letting people in and as we got up to the bag check a manager type person came up and asked if we had dining reservations, we said no. He started snapping at all the CM's that no one could go in without dining, but I know that people in front of us didn't have them either. Then people just started saying that they had them, but they weren't checking anything to verify that. I was a bit annoyed.
Once they let us in a whopping 5 minutes later :roll eyes:, Pat and the kids headed off toward Paradise Pier and I headed in the direction of Radiator Springs. We both had to wait at the ropes in our locations. I asked Pat if there were crowds where he was and he said no like two other families. I told him that's good, they are all where I was!
Once the rope dropped I made my way quickly to get FP's for Radiator Springs Racers and got 10:50-11:50, this worked really well with our plans. I made my way to Paradise Pier and found Pat and the kids riding the Golden Zephyr, I guess they had ridden twice.
Then the kids went to ride Goofy's Sky School. The CM's kept letting them go again without stopping, which was fine, but I'm not sure the kids would have ever got off. So, I went up the exit a little and was able to tell them going by to go one more time. I think they rode 4 times in a row.
Then we were off to the Silly Swings, which they also rode twice without getting off.
Then it was time for me to fulfill my part of the bargain with Shana. I honestly think she got off easy on this one. We went to Mickey's Wheel of Death and the kids drug me on a "swinging car", otherwise known as a car that pretends that it is going to plummet to your death!!! You know the stupidest thing is there is absolutely nothing to hold onto in these stupid cars! The only way to brace yourself is to put your feet on the seat opposite and stick your fingers through the grates.
It does have nice views!
These are from Pat's phone safely on the ground!
After I finally got off the Wheel of Death, we grabbed some turkey legs and snacked until our DAS time for Toy Story Mania was ready (Pat had gotten that done while I was screaming on the Wheel of Death). We rode TSMM which is always a favorite, but we were pushing our FP time for Radiator Springs Racers so we booked it over to Radiator Springs. I stopped at the kiosk on the way and got a DAS return time for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.
Radiator Springs Racers was a huge favorite of all of ours. It is really a fun ride! Hunter was thrilled that our car "won", as was I because losing can cause meltdowns. Hunter was really cute though and went up to all the people in the "losing" car and told them "good race".
We didn't buy any of our ride photos, so you have to deal with pictures of the screen.
I'm not sure how we didn't have any single riders in the car, but we didn't.
When we got done we walked around the corner and Lightning McQueen was coming down the street.
We then did a little shopping and I got a t-shirt and I got Hunter this hat.
Then we went and rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. Pat thought this one looked a little stupid, as did I, but the kids wanted to ride it. The kids decided to ride together and let me tell you, two adults can get those cars swinging! After that we went to ride Luigi's Flying Tires. I'm a little sad that these are leaving, but they were a slow loading ride and it took a lot of work to get moving around. But we had fun on them.
After Luigi's we decided to get something to eat. We stopped at the Cozy Cone and I got a Chicken Verde Cone, Pat got the Bacon Mac n' Cheese Cone and the kids each got ice cream cones.
Next Update: It All Should Have Started with a Rabbit!
Great update! I definitely plan on riding Mickey's Wheel of Death . I'm surprised you didn't have single riders on such a popular ride as RSR! I hope the ride operators are doing all they can to fill in all available seats and keep the line moving!
You guys certainly packed in the rides! I too was surprised not to see any single riders with you on Radiator Springs Racers and I was so sad to see Luigi's Flying Tires, as I really enjoyed that. I can't believe it's going.
I'm totally with you on your name for the "fun" wheel! In fact, I think everything you've all ridden so far is off my "fun" list. I love that the kids were able to ride and ride and ride and ride!