Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Couple of really nice updates Cheryl. I haven't been to SW in about 20 years so it is so nice to see it all again. I love the sea lion otter show - did you get to that? I wonder have you noticed any changeing in things since the trainer accident? I thought the trainers were getting into the water with the animals during the shows.
We didn't this time, but we did see it on our last visit and it was excellent.
There are HUGE changes to the Shamu show since the trainer accident - no-one is allowed in the water with them at all and the One Ocean show is designed all around that idea.
Great pictures! Looks like a beautiful day too! We went to SeaWorld a few years ago (2004 I think), and must admit, did not enjoy it as much as thought we would. From your pics though, it might be worth revisiting the idea of going back in the future!
I think it's always worth going back to a park, as they're adding new attractions all the time.
Ol Chez thanks for coverin SeaWorld so good up to this point! We are headin down to SeaWorld Aug.10, 2011 and I am gettin so excited, I have been wantin to go every since I was a little girl, cant wait to read more about this day!
All caught up! The tour sounds amazing - shame it's not offered any longer. Glad to see good reviews of Via Napoli and YSH - we are eating at both of those places in October.
Okay, stay away from the computer for 4 days and am so behind. Great updates. I have never been to SW, although I am dying to go. Thanks for all the pictures, this will have to hold me over until I get there.
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The manatee exhibit is one of my favorite areas at Sea World. We didn't get to
see Blue Horizons on our last visit. I love the pictures of the manatees especially the close ups.
Liz
Then we headed first for the penguins and sat there for ages, watching them and chatting to the employee in there, learning more about the animals in here. She works one day a work at one of the shops on Main Street USA as well as being full-time at SeaWorld. She explained that people who come in the summer are often disappointed, as they keep the penguins on the same sunshine hours as the Antarctic and that means very short daylight hours during the summer, as that’s their winter. It’s how the penguins know when in the year to breed. All very interesting.
It was time for us to get our lunch and we headed over to the Antarctic Market and I got a veggie wrap, while Mark got the turkey sandwich, but he thinks it was labelled wrongly, as it appeared to be ham and cheese. We also shared a Caesar salad and some pineapple. The food wasn’t bad and there was far too much in my veggie wrap for one person.
Once we were all refilled, it was back out into the blistering sun again.
Our next stop was Pacific Point Preserve. There was a sea lion with her pup that was just six days old, so that was really neat to see.
They didn’t seem to be as active in general as we’ve seen them previously, but then there weren’t many people around to feed them and perhaps they didn’t enjoy the heat either!
While we were there, we found seats in the shade, so that we could re-apply sun tan lotion. It really was hot today and the sun was already starting to burn me, so I didn’t want to take any risks, not having got this far in the vacation with no sunburn..
Looks like you were really getting your moneys worth with all the great photos, interesting cast interactions and hardly any crowds.
Looking forward to tomorrows installment!
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We also shared a Caesar salad and some pineapple. The food wasn’t bad and there was far too much in my veggie wrap for one person. 
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