Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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05-04-2005, 09:50 PM
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#31
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 2
Sounds like you all had a great day!!  |
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05-05-2005, 06:33 AM
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#32
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Newtown Square, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 23,859
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 2
Wow! What a great time you guys are having!  Can't wait to hear more! Your pictures are wonderful and your girls are so cute!!  |
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05-05-2005, 10:10 AM
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#33
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Community Rank: Trekker 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Killeen, TEXAS
Posts: 1,135
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 Animal Kingdom
Day 3 (Saturday)
Animal Kingdom EMH 8am
YAWN….6:30am?? Bugle call, everybody up! Muffins & juice plus a handful of fruit snacks in the bag and we’re off to catch the bus to AK. Brrr…it’s about 60 degrees out…We sit at the bus stop in front of the Neverland Club (not Neverland Ranch) and wait. Is it me but people aren’t very interested in small talk…hmmm, maybe they haven’t had their coffee. Anyway we get on the bus to AK and we aren’t to thrilled with the bus system…standing room only. We line up at AK and I go to the coffee bar thing and get muffins, a smoothie for the girls to share & 2 vanilla lattes  We get through the entry and see the bus with Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto welcoming us to the park…and look there’s Mickey at the Tree of Life! Whoa!
Okay, high-tail it to the Safari and wait probably 10 minutes for our truck –hey, I haven’t even finished my latte! Guzzle it down & hop in the truck…AMAZEMENT!!!
We arrived at one of the best times for the safari, every single animal is out this morning 
and the lion is walking up on the rocky hill just like in Lion King!
Cool! After the safari we go into the gift shop and spend some more money  We have our prized souvenirs sent back to the room (they won’t be there until after 1pm the NEXT day). Chris bought a cool safari hat 
As we are walking we spot an air-brush tattoo cart and decide that we are all going to get inked! Kirstin & Dad get tribal arm bands, Amanda a butterfly and I got Minnie's head on my ankle sorry no pics of that 
Then we happen to see Flick and the kids get their autographs and picture with him.
We walked around the Pagani Rainforest and saw practically all of the animals including 'Rufus' (the naked mole rats ) the gorillas were playing and the meerkats were too funny! Then we are just in time to see Flights of Wonder where Chris was ‘swooped’ twice by the birds! We passed by some cast members who said that we could make the showing of “Festival of the Lion King” so we raced down there and made it just in time to see the spectacular show. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. For me I think that was the BEST experience of the day! Then after that we waited at Camp Minnie Mickey to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald! The lines weren’t bad at all and we got some great pictures!
This was the first time we got a PhotoPass from the picture the cast member took of the girls with Minnie (it turned out pretty good!)One thing we were amazed about is vacationers from other countries don't know the concept of waiting in line and a few of us in line were grumbling because 2 sets of families just went up the exit row and got their visit with Mickey then went over to see Minnie 
One thing I wished we would have seen was "It's Tough to be a Bug" :sad: hey, that's why there's GOT to be a next time...right!!
We headed to Dinoland and tried to find a place to eat. While Chris stopped at the bathroom we got a FastPass at Dinosaur. We got in line at what we thought was a counter service place but turned out they only had popcorn & drinks like that…so we got drinks, yogurt, and popcorn. We rode Dinosaur and then took a look around Dinoland. After Dinosaur we were corralled into yet another shop and the girls got a Mr. Potato Head  it took some time to learn that you just stuff as many accessories you can into the Mr. Potato Head AND the box!
Brianna & I rode on the triceratops and Kirstin & Amanda were going to wait in the 45min line for Primeval Whirl but decided against it. We have already rode water rapids rides at our many trips to SeaWorld so we took a pass on the Kali River Ride. We were pooped, we went to wait for the bus ride back. We were going to go to the Rainforest Café but we had enough that day and we were grouchy. We got back to the room at 3:30pm and we were going to go to the Kona Café but they stop serving lunch at 2:45pm and don’t have dinner until 5pm so it was Captain Cook’s again!! Okay, this is getting boring eating at the snack place in the hotel so I went down and made a breakfast PS at Kona Café for 7:50am. We also read through the passporter & Birnbaums dining guide to see where we could eat lunch at in Epcot. We decided on Biergarten and I made the PS for the next day.
Swimming until 7pm even through the rain showers I think I love the hotel more than the parks!
<u>Most Magical thing ever:</u>  When we were in the pool we met a couple, Mark & Colleen, we got to talking about kids and the parks. They were really nice and it was nice to talk to some experienced WDW guests. Somehow we got on the topic that Chris had just came back from being deployed and they asked where he had been. He told them it was in Baghdad and a little about that experience. Then we got to talking about the hotel and kids and stuff. After we finally got out of the pool, Chris took the younger two girls back to the room and Kirstin & I went to make the PS’s at the Guest service desk & get refills. When we got back to the room Chris looked like he was about to cry…I asked him what’s up and he said that we were delivered a gift! It was a NEW Pal Mickey with a card Thanking Chris for his service  and wishing us a great vacation from …. Mark & Colleen!!! WOW, that was so nice…we were speechless!  We had never had anything like that happen to us. We spent the rest of the vacation hoping to see them and thank them for their kindness.
Well bed time…what day is it?! Tomorrow we conquer Epcot…or at least try!
Good-night! |
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05-05-2005, 10:21 AM
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#34
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Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio Football Hall Of Fame
Posts: 42,304
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 Animal Kingdom
What a nice gift for your husband, he deserves that and more!! Sound slike you had a pretty good day at Animal Kingdom. Hurry back with more!! YOur kids are so cute!!!! |
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05-05-2005, 10:27 AM
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#35
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Newtown Square, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 23,859
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Wow! I the part about Mark and Colleen!! That is incredibly amazing!! |
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05-05-2005, 10:35 AM
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#36
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Killeen, TEXAS
Posts: 1,135
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Thanks for the compliments on the girls we have our hands full!
I was hoping that Mark or Colleen were a member on the boards and we could find them -but I know we'll see them again at the Poly some day
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Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
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05-05-2005, 10:39 AM
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#37
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Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 751
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Love this TR...so detailed! It's great what Mark and Colleen did...it's nice to see people sharing the magic.
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05-05-2005, 11:24 AM
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#38
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
WOW...I got goosebumps when I read about the gift from Mark and Colleen. What a magical moment! Great report so far!!
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05-05-2005, 12:42 PM
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#39
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Manchester NH
Concierge Level: 4
Posts: 12,514
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Your trip report is great and the pictures of your girls are wonderful...can't wait to read about Epcot
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05-05-2005, 01:54 PM
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#40
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Columbia, SC
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,014
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
I love that photo of your precious girls sleeping! You guys had a fantastic day at AK (I love the Festival of the Lion King also) !
What a fantastic gift from Mark & Colleen!
Jill |
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05-05-2005, 02:21 PM
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#41
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Community Rank: Trailblazer 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: South East London
Posts: 5,164
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
What a great time you are having And what a wonderful gift from Mark and Colleen - a great way to spread the magic Can't wait to read more. |
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05-05-2005, 09:20 PM
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#42
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
What a wonderful gift! |
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*
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Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
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05-09-2005, 08:22 AM
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#43
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Killeen, TEXAS
Posts: 1,135
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Epcot Day 4 is coming soon!!!
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05-09-2005, 02:28 PM
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#44
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,357
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
I'm just catching up with your TR and am having such fun reading it!! You're pictures are wonderful and it sounds like you are having a really magical first trip to WDW. You must have "the bug" already since you already mentioned wanting another trip!
And how wonderful to meet such a nice couple and receive such a thoughtful gift - truly a magical moment!! |
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05-09-2005, 09:17 PM
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#45
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 27,691
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Re: First Dose of WDW magic...Day 3 (updated 5/5)
Wow, that is so cool about receiving that new Pal Mickey. Very nice and definitely well deserved by your dh (and your entire family) Nice report so far |
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