Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 30 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm all caught up on my reading of this TR and can't wait for more. I can see why you were both so tired Saturday afternoon -- by then, you'd both experienced a lot of stuff! Love the pics you took of Illuminations and all your villa pics. Thanks for sharing -- looking forward to more!
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for the review of Sanaa! I really can't wait to eat here in less than a month. Kidani Village looks so beautiful from all your pictures, especially those bathrooms.
Just got all caught up with your TR!
Fort Wilderness is one of our favorite resorts and seeing your photos brought back alot of memories!
Your room and view at the Contemporary are FANTASTIC! I've never been impressed with the Contemporary too much, but seeing the rooms sure could make a girl change her mind!
Thanks for the review of Sanaa, (and the photos). I can't wait to try it in December.
Ya'll's spa treatment sounds SOOO relaxing. What a way to spend a few hours during the day.
Can't wait for more....!!
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Whew Spend a few days away from the boards and you miss way too much! All caught up with this excellent tag team TR! Thanks for all the pics of everything, especially your dinner and those of the studio and one bedroom villas.
What a lovely meal....even with the dry rice it sounds like everyone enjoyed the meal and the service sounded amazing. The rooms were beautiful, loved getting to see the studio and the one bedroom, definitely looks like a beautiful resort.
Friday 1 May – part seven: am I ever going to make IllumiNations?
It was 8.00 when we left Kidani Village and I opted to go and meet up with Sue and Angie, who were going to Epcot, while Wendy went back to the room. We saw a Downtown Disney, two Studios buses and an Animal Kingdom bus, before an Epcot one finally rolled up. I know Wendy had an even longer wait for a Magic Kingdom bus, especially as I saw another Epcot bus following us when we got to Jambo House. That’s the way the bus route works here – Kidani Village first, then Jambo House and then off to the parks, which is worth knowing.
As we set off from Jambo House, I began to worry that we wouldn’t make IllumiNations, but I got to Epcot at around 8.35 and my goodness, the bus stop for Animal Kingdom Lodge has to be one of the furthest away from the entrance to the park. I felt like I had walked miles just to get to the bag check and, wouldn’t you know it, for once they were being really thorough with the bag searches, just when I’m in a hurry. Finally I was in and I power walked my way over to Germany, which is where Sue and Angie were. When they had texted to tell me that, I did text back that they couldn’t have chosen a spot further away from the entrance! I got into the park at around 8.40 and was meeting them about 10 minutes later. I didn’t think that was bad going, especially as I was in my nice shoes, not my usual tennis shoes.
We stood and watched IllumiNations, although we were a fair way back, so didn’t have a great view.
Once that was done, we slowly made our way back around World Showcase. Angie wanted to get some food and had her heart set on something from the counter service place in China, the Lotus Blossom Café, but when she got there, they had slimmed the menu down. Sadly, that seems to be an all too familiar story now.
We ended up at the Cantina in Mexico, Sue with FAB in hand:
We sat and chatted with Sue getting almost non-stop text messages and videos from Steve the whole time. It was so funny. I think one complained that she wasn’t sending enough photos through to him – hmmm…. Could be something to do with she hasn’t got time in between all the text messages she was getting!
Soon food was done and I was getting tired, so we walked back through Future World.
I said goodbye to the girls at Spaceship Earth, which they went to ride. I’d loved to have gone on it with them, as it is one of my favourites, but it was getting late and bed was calling me.
I found a Photopass photographer on the way out of the park and got my photo done and then it was off to the monorail. As I walked up to it, I had the most surreal experience, as the announcer was singing happy birthday to someone. It’s that sort of thing that only tends to happen late at night that I love. I still remember the incident from one of my family vacations when, late at night, one of the trams out to the Studios parking lot, was all about having a traffic cone on your head. Classic.
It was a nice, quiet journey over to the Ticket and Transportation Centre and then around the resort monorail, until we got to the Magic Kingdom. Let’s just say by then, I was very glad that mine was the next stop…
I headed back to the room and managed not to wake Wendy, which was a bonus. It had been a long, but very fun, day and the fun was only just beginning…
Today I walked 7.17 miles The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was dinner at Sanaa. The worst thing today was the mess with the luggage. The funniest thing today was the happy birthday song by the monorail announcer. Today we tried dinner at Sanaa And the result was it was a great evening with some superb food. The most magical moment today was seeing Sue and Angie.