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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The upgrade was pretty amazing! So special when you are simply not expecting it and then they just go and sprinkle pixie dust all over you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Glad you got the upgrade! and in a much better location! The walk to El Centro from Ranchos is a good ten minutes!
I normally don't mind a walk, especially in the morning when I'm on my coffee walk. But I have to admit, this location was just perfect with the boys in tow. They went off on their own a few times and getting to and from the bus/room was super easy for them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3dogknight
joining in for your trip. great upgrade to your room.
Thank you and . Hope you enjoy the ride!
I should have another installment up by the end of today!
Early morning is my absolute favorite time of day at WDW. Fresh, full of promise and, when you take a solo coffee walk, time to reflect and immerse yourself in the "being there." This day dawned no different in that regard, but we had no time to linger today! It was Morning EMH day at the Magic Kingdom, and since scheduled park opening was at 8:00, we would get in at 7:00!! And since it was nearly the end of Daylight Savings, it was still dark at 7am....! Freaky.
We had chatted as a family before bed the previous night and Buzz and I knew the boys wouldn't get getting up quite that early. But he and I were, and it didn't take long to get ourselves dressed and ready for the day (thank goodness those boys sleep hard! We tried to be quiet but I still felt bad, tiptoeing around them, Slinky especially). Because of the super early hour, I didn't head out ahead of time to get coffee, but rather we stopped at the Rix Cafe (this would become our favorite quick food stop for the weekend) and got them on our way to the bus stop. I will interject here that we opted not to get the refillable mugs this trip (the math didn't make it work in our favor; on longer trips we spend more time at the resort, but not for a 4-day trek). Also, I realize now this was some months ago, but when we were there, there were only the handle-less type. So we got our paper-cup coffees and headed out through the lobby to the main bus stop. We were the first to arrive there; I think it was about 6:15am at this point. A few more folks joined us but it was in no way crowded! The MK bus rolled around within 10 minutes and we were on our way!!
I've always thought the opening of the Magic Kingdom was indeed one of the most magical events in the World. And it is. But in the pre-dawn of a warm Florida morning, with all the lights sparkling, it takes on a whole new persona. We watched from the tree that's near the front, off to the left. Great viewing! Once inside we knew right where we were headed: 7 Dwarfs Mine Train! But we did stop for a PhotoPass op....
From there we kept on towards the castle and then ducked just to the right of it. This put us in Fantasyland with just a quick hook to the left to the Mine Train entrance. The wait was only listed at 15 minutes, and honestly so much of that was just winding back and forth through the looong queue space! We ended up in the first car, 2nd row (I thought that was cool until later in the trip when we rode in the very back.....!!!).
Our PP video and pic: (compare us in the 2nd row to the couple in the very front.... Clearly Buzz and I are having the time of our lives, but those two?! Maybe they were still asleep. He looks downright bored.)
This was our first-ever trip through the Mines and we LOVED IT!!! What a great ride. It was over too quickly, but such a blast!
From there we headed across to share in the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, took a flying ship to the second star to the right and straight on til morning, and I'm sure we did one more ride but for the life of me I can't recall what it was. I do know that by the time EMH was almost over, we had logged 4 attractions including the Mine Train and Peter Pan's Flight with little to no wait! And that, dear children, is why Morning EMH is the LegoMom's favorite park time (it used to be late night in the MK, but not this trip..... More on that as our weekend progresses).
About this time the boys texted that they were getting off the bus at the MK and would soon be entering the park. We headed down Main Street to wait by the Emporium.
Once inside and we met up with them, everyone was now quite hungry so we made our way to the Main Street Bakery/Starbucks. But first, I made a stop in the Emporium for this guy:
I have wanted a Monochrome Mickey for the last umpteen times I've been to the MK, and was not leaving without one this time!!
Anyway, on to breakfast. There was a line inside but it moved quickly. Don't recall what everyone got but I know it was all good! Buzz and I happily partook of our 2nd coffee of the day. From here we headed to Tomorrowland, since we had some time before our first FP at the Haunted Mansion. We rode Buzz Lightyear twice in a row (crowds still minimal), then they boys rode Space Mountain while Buzz and I took a more leisurely trip on the WEDway. From here we went to the Tomorrowland Speedway, and again, not a long wait at all. It was fun having everyone in their own car; last time the boys were still too small to drive!
(Here you can see how seriously I take my job of saving the Universe from the Evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz just seems to be staring out into space. Literally.)
(Slinky is clearly having the best day ever here....)
(I have no earthly idea re: the expression on Alien's face there in the middle..... Slinky, in the front, looks psyched. Alien, no so much!)
After this we continued through Fantasyland but by now the Mine Train was up to about a 70-minute wait so we decided to save it for another time. Our Haunted Mansion FP time had just opened up so we headed that way. This was the first time the guys had seen it since it's last update (i.e. the new ghosts that ride along at the end) so that was extra fun for them. It's Buzz's favorite ride in the MK.
After the HM I made everyone go see the bathrooms at the Tangled rest area! They were suitably impressed. I like the apples with bites taken out of them. We still had time before our lunch ADR at Be Our Guest and they boys wanted to raft over to Tom Sawyer Island. So we did. They always loved it over there, and I like the little respite from the busyness of the rest of the park. We walked all the trails and explored the caves (last time there, our oldest son scared the living daylights out of Buzz by backtracking in one of the tunnels and coming back up behind him.... ). There was lots of sadness for me though when I looked out across the river and instead of seeing my favorite train whipping around the track, I saw scaffolding and workers... ::sigh:: No Big Thunder this trip.
(Pink-band Proof that Alien - who hates having his picture taken - was indeed on Tom Sawyer Island this day. )
(Monochrome Mickey Goes to TSI)
Before we knew it, the time for our lunch was coming up so we departed the Island to head back to Fantasyland!
*****
Next time: Day 1, Part 2 and the Best. Lunch. Ever.
Buzz Lightyear: Don't worry, Woody. In just a few hours you'll be sitting around a campfire with Andy making delicious hot Schmoes. Woody: They're called "S'mores", Buzz....
All of you had such a great time in the MK and you certainly covered a lot in the beginning of your day! I'm sure there will be much more coming up in the MK! I couldn't believe how early all of you were on your way to the MK at about 6:25 an for EMH! I've done these on occasion but more at night that in the morning. In my 12 trips to WDW, I've never been to the MK for opening but for Studios and Epcot and the latter this past October!
Your teens are enjoying the attractions and especially Slinky on Buzz! How did you son get that nickname out of curiosity?
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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!
What a cool start to your MK day with it still dark and all the building lit up! it You all made excellent use of that extra hour for attractions, too.
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It's so weird to see the parks in the dark when it's actually morning. You got a lot done this morning. My family actually enjoy evening EMH, as none of us are really morning people.
All of you had such a great time in the MK and you certainly covered a lot in the beginning of your day! I'm sure there will be much more coming up in the MK! I couldn't believe how early all of you were on your way to the MK at about 6:25 an for EMH! I've done these on occasion but more at night that in the morning. In my 12 trips to WDW, I've never been to the MK for opening but for Studios and Epcot and the latter this past October!
Your teens are enjoying the attractions and especially Slinky on Buzz! How did you son get that nickname out of curiosity?
I sort of "theme" my TRs and went with Toy Story for this one, and when I was choosing characters, I thought that Slinky Dog was a good choice for my youngest: he's down to earth, friendly and likes pretty much everyone, just a good pal to have. We don't call him that in everyday life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
What a cool start to your MK day with it still dark and all the building lit up! it You all made excellent use of that extra hour for attractions, too.
We really did! To have gotten on the Mine Train and PP's Flight with such a minimal wait, it was so worth it!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great time at MK. Love the pictures!!
Thanks! There are plenty more to come, stay tuned!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
It's so weird to see the parks in the dark when it's actually morning. You got a lot done this morning. My family actually enjoy evening EMH, as none of us are really morning people.
It really was strange! Somehow it's different than nighttime dark. I guess just because when it's dark, you think you should be seeing Wishes and not the opening parade!
Ok folks, last post for probably a couple of weeks -- we leave for the Left Coast on Saturday!! The next few days are going to be busy and the computer will be packed up, so I'm taking an intermission until we get settled in our new home.
Meanwhile, I ordered this the other day....
I am SO EXCITED to have a new park(s) to explore and learn all about!! It's almost like starting over with my Disney obsession. We'll be a mere 2 hour drive away, so getting up there before summer is high on my list of things to do!
Anyway, I hope you'll all come back and continue the journey when this TR resumes!
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We arrived safely in CA on Sat the 11th after a loooong drive across country! Jiminy Cricket I don't want to do that again. We are settling in and everyone loves it here, especially my sun-puddle-loving cats (omg moving with four cats was an adventure in itself!.... more on that next time).
The glitch has been getting Internet set up at the house, so I'm still without my computer (currently using a tablet with a neighbor's connection). But, I WILL be back to continue my TR as soon as we do!
And, as a little side note, I just booked a quick 2-day getaway for Disneyland for our 25th anniversary next month!! So excited!!!!
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Dinner looked very yummy! 
The walk to El Centro from Ranchos is a good ten minutes!
. Hope you enjoy the ride! 
)
I'm sure there will be much more coming up in the MK! 
it You all made excellent use of that extra hour for attractions, too. 
We are settling in and everyone loves it here, especially my sun-puddle-loving cats (omg moving with four cats was an adventure in itself!.... more on that next time).
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