WIZARDS, REAL AND AMAZING, CHRISTMAS PARTIES AND CANDLELIGHT-TR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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An extremely very cool day at Universal! The complex at Portofino just looks amazing and I'm all over it. I can't wait to see this on my trip and looking forward to the Royal Pacific as that is what I'm planning to book at this time! It may be more affordable as we speak as something happened today and I'll reveal it in my PTR, but unfortunately is several months away as I have an October trip!
Glad you enjoyed Universal and so much with the Harry Potter region. I was never much of a Harry Potter fan until a couple of years ago, when one of the cable nets ran several of the movies over Christmas weekend and I enjoyed them so much!
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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!
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Portofino Bay is my favorite resort, I hope I get to stay there again. The morning coffee walk there is incredible
Dinosaurs and margaritas sound like a dangerous combination.
Oh my goodness, that SeaWorld map just loves you, doesn't it?
We loved Hogsmeade, even though we're not Harry Potter fans (I know, sorry! ) I didn't think about going through the castle even if you're not doing the ride. We should've done that....
Beautiful photos from around the resort! What a gorgeous morning!
Love the photos of Harry Potter World. Someday, perhaps, we'll get there. It's not on the to-do list anytime soon, but it does look very cool!
We are huge Harry Potter fans and absolutely love the Wizarding World at Universal! So great to see all your photos. Butterbeers are awesome, aren't they?
Great photos all around US, but I enjoyed the ones of Wizarding World the most! I can't wait to go back just for that part of US/IOA.
Thanks, Cam!. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is awesome!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
An extremely very cool day at Universal! The complex at Portofino just looks amazing and I'm all over it. I can't wait to see this on my trip and looking forward to the Royal Pacific as that is what I'm planning to book at this time! It may be more affordable as we speak as something happened today and I'll reveal it in my PTR, but unfortunately is several months away as I have an October trip!
Glad you enjoyed Universal and so much with the Harry Potter region. I was never much of a Harry Potter fan until a couple of years ago, when one of the cable nets ran several of the movies over Christmas weekend and I enjoyed them so much!
Thanks, Dave!. We loved it!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
I'd love to get to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It does look exactly as you'd imagine.
It was awesome!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start to the day at Universal! Love all the HP pictures!
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Portofino Bay is my favorite resort, I hope I get to stay there again. The morning coffee walk there is incredible
Dinosaurs and margaritas sound like a dangerous combination.
We loved Portofino Bay!!. And I agree about the coffee walk!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness, that SeaWorld map just loves you, doesn't it?
We loved Hogsmeade, even though we're not Harry Potter fans (I know, sorry! ) I didn't think about going through the castle even if you're not doing the ride. We should've done that....
Hogsmeade rocked!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Beautiful photos from around the resort! What a gorgeous morning!
Love the photos of Harry Potter World. Someday, perhaps, we'll get there. It's not on the to-do list anytime soon, but it does look very cool!
Thanks, Donna!! It was extremely cool!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SharonK0527
We are huge Harry Potter fans and absolutely love the Wizarding World at Universal! So great to see all your photos. Butterbeers are awesome, aren't they?
December 4th. Day 2. Part 2. Dinosaurs and Margaritas!!!
Next we went to Jurassic World!!
We wound up getting in line for the Raptor Encounter. We had absolutely no idea what this was or what to expect but it sounded cool, so we though what the heck!
Oh my gosh, you guys!! This wound up being one of the best experiences we had at IOA!! We have a little video but I don’t know how to post it, so I will try to keep these photos in order because that is the best way to describe it!
I'm pretty sure you guys can see the point where I just knew that Raptor was going to lay his head on my shoulder and breathe in my ear!!
Next we went to the Jurassic Park River Adventure and once again, we made it out by the skin of our teeth!!.
The. We walked around Toon Lagoon and took some pictures:
I do not know this man either!
This one I know!
And then it was on to Skull Island for the Reign of Kong!! We hadn't done this attraction before and we both thought it was cool!!
After we befriended the beast, we then headed over to Super Hero Island and rode Spider-Man:
I rode the Hulk while Muffin browsed around.
We had really worked up an appetite and wanted to go to City Walk anyway so we headed out of the Park.
This is kinda hard to read but it says 'The Adventure Lives On':
We decided on Margaritaville and asked to be seated outside. Megan was our server and she was awesome!!
Our view:
The menu:
Megan:
I got a Perfect Margarita which deserves it's own photo:
and chicken Beach Tacos:
Muffin got a water a coke and a burger with fries. He refused to take a picture of his drinks and got very artsy with the burger and fries :
All was delish and the bill came to 57.79 including a tip.
We both had to use the restroom before leaving so I snapped a couple of pics while inside:
We had a delightful morning in IOA and a great lunch!!
We took the boat launch back to Portofino Bay as we planned to swim and relax before going back to the parks.
Next: the Macy's Day Parade and Mannheim Steamroller!!
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Last edited by Tara O'Hara; 12-21-2016 at 10:37 AM..
What an awesome more at IOA! I had seen the Raptor Encounter on the Today Show earlier this year, and Tamryn reacted very much as you did. I love the series of photos of your encounter. Lunch loved so delicious! I love Muffin's artsy fries and burger photos.
Oh my goodness, we did the Rapter Encounter too - we had no idea what it was and we had such a blast! I look just like you in the photos as well! I kept shying away from him as well.
What an awesome more at IOA! I had seen the Raptor Encounter on the Today Show earlier this year, and Tamryn reacted very much as you did. I love the series of photos of your encounter. Lunch loved so delicious! I love Muffin's artsy fries and burger photos.
It was awesome!! We loved that raptor!! Lunch rocked!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness, we did the Rapter Encounter too - we had no idea what it was and we had such a blast! I look just like you in the photos as well! I kept shying away from him as well.
Oh my gosh that was so fun!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great time at IOA! Lunch looks yummy! Glad you're having so much fun!
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I can't wait to see this on my trip and looking forward to the Royal Pacific as that is what I'm planning to book at this time! 
PassPorter Guide Author
) I didn't think about going through the castle even if you're not doing the ride. We should've done that....
We have a little video but I don’t know how to post it, so I will try to keep these photos in order because that is the best way to describe it!
I had seen the Raptor Encounter on the Today Show earlier this year, and Tamryn reacted very much as you did. I love the series of photos of your encounter. 
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