Living the Dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 9/26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Looked like a great time on the Dark Side, but I will be interested in hearing whether you 'got it' not having read the books.
We enjoyed it, but I'm sure there was a heck of a lot we didn't get. Then again, you don't worry about what you don't know, if you understand my meaning?
Glad your flight was great. It's funny that I always fly Jet Blue and my flight from Orlando to Westchester has usually arrived from Buffalo, but different airline as you took SW.
Sorry, to hear about your check in problems at the AKL! Glad you had a nice meeting at the F&W Festival with Hidden Mickey, but sorry the heat and humidity were quite atrocious for you! It can be quite unbearable in this heat as so open to the elements! I was in Orlando in 2011(not in WDW but at Arnold Palmer's golf resort at Bay Hill) around the same time (9/19-22) and the heat and humidity were just crazy!) I will never come down to Florida again during this time. I'm glad I'll be there in mid October, which should be much better!
I hope so, but be prepared... we are hearing reports of appallingly hot heat for another month or so, well above seasonal averages.
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Looking forward to the revamped Soarin'! Some have said they don't like the new film variation, but I'm looking forward to it as I have a FP+ for it. I will take your take on it before most others as I always trust your critiques and we do think a lot in a plethora of ways!
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Ok, a very quick update, as we seem to be flat out with one thing and another....
We had a great time at Universal, loved Harry Potter - the theming is 100 times better than anything else at those parks, but in a way, that's a shame, as it makes the rest of the two parks look even more poor when it comes to theming, if that makes sense?
We got lots of photos, didn't get to ride much (bad timings on our part and Universal's...) but we enjoyed ourselves. We had a great lunch at Cowfish, then headed over to the Orlando Eye. We had a capsule to ourselves - superb views, really enjoyed it.
Did some shopping, then headed to Disney Springs, stopped off at Jock Lindsay's Hanger Bar and had dinner with Barb, Bob and Heather at Morimoto Asia - excellent food.
Today we moved over to the Poly to our waterfront bungalow and have just been enjoying the plunge pool, perfect in this insanely hot weather.
We went to Epcot for a bit today and had the most amazing lunch at Spice Road Table. I think it's our new favourite World Showcase restaurant.
Right... must go and work on the trip report before we head out again shortly....
I will definitely be trying Jocl Lindsay's next month and also looking forward to Morimoto's as well. I haven't tried Spice Road Table, but have heard so many good reviews on it. Perhaps, something to consider and maybe I can squeeze this one in somehow.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I will definitely be trying Jocl Lindsay's next month and also looking forward to Morimoto's as well. I haven't tried Spice Road Table, but have heard so many good reviews on it. Perhaps, something to consider and maybe I can squeeze this one in somehow.
Just had to let you know that I thought of you yesterday. We were shopping in our local Walmart and they had the cutest Eeyore dressed up as a Thanksgiving turkey. I said to myself that I wished you had a way to get it and take it home with you as I know you would love it. Hope you are having a wonderful time. Can't wait to read more.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. Jenn
Just had to let you know that I thought of you yesterday. We were shopping in our local Walmart and they had the cutest Eeyore dressed up as a Thanksgiving turkey. I said to myself that I wished you had a way to get it and take it home with you as I know you would love it. Hope you are having a wonderful time. Can't wait to read more.
Ok, a very short update, as I just don't seem to have much time at the moment.
We absolutely adored the Bora Bora bungalows at the Poly - I can see why they charge so much for them, as watching HalloWishes from the comfort of your veranda was very special and we just loved everything about them.
Ok, Thursday night was tough. It was the sunset photowalk in Bill's memory and we had about 30 of us there. It was the best sunset I think we've ever seen at Disney - he was looking out for us.
Then some of us went to see IllumiNations with Bill's family. I never mentioned it on the pre-trip report, as it was quite last minute, but it was so good to see Bill's widow Jan, even though it was under exceptionally difficult circumstances. All I'll say is we had waterworks by the end of the show and there was a real moment in it when we all said "that's Bill" and that's probably what finished us all off.
We didn't make it to the DVC Member event at Animal Kingdom, as we were just too tired. It's crazy hot and it's really knocking it out of us.
We spent yesterday at the Magic Kingdom, had a ball at the Crystal Palace - it wasn't just Mark upsetting Piglet this time and you wait until you see the photos, they are classic!
A small group of us met up for drinks at the Contemporary and then we headed to the Skipper Canteen and we ended up making two groups into one, which was a lot of fun. Very good food there, considering I'd heard mixed reviews of it.
Then last night was the Halloween Party. We didn't make the parade or the fireworks, as again we were shot and I wasn't feeling too great, but we still had a ball and felt as if we got our money's worth.
Somehow after that we crawled out of bed this morning in time for the 9:00am Kilimanjaro Safaris meet - 13 of us took a wonderful ride with loads of animal sightings. Again, I think Bill was watching over us. We then did the two animal trails and had some wonderful moments with them and got some great photos.
We've had lunch today at the Boathouse (awesome!) and explored Disney Springs a bit more and we're now at the Beach Club Villas.
Dinner tonight is now Tokyo Dining, we scrubbed Tiffin's, as we couldn't face going all the way back to Animal Kingdom. Can you tell the heat is really getting to us?
Sounds like you've had quite an adventure the last few days. That's so special that Jan was able to meet up with all for celebrating Bill's memory! Quite an emotional gathering to say the least! Glad you had many more great experiences in the parks and for dining!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 09-24-2016 at 09:30 PM..
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It's going to take me some time to get to the WDW section....
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Glad you had a nice meeting at the F&W Festival with Hidden Mickey, but sorry the heat and humidity were quite atrocious for you! 
It can be quite unbearable in this heat as so open to the elements! 
I was in Orlando in 2011(not in WDW but at Arnold Palmer's golf resort at Bay Hill) around the same time (9/19-22) and the heat and humidity were just crazy!
I will take your take on it before most others as I always trust your critiques and we do think a lot in a plethora of ways! 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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