A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 catching up, and if I don't respond with each update, I'll not remember what I wanted to say at the end. Your entire meal at Via Napoli looks so delicious! So nice too that the sun decided to come out as you all finished lunch. I love the shops in Italy.
I so enjoy when you take so many pictures around WS as I feel I'm walking right along with you two. Interesting that the bottled wine can only be picked up at the gate. I had forgotten that the clock actually chimes as it has been years since we saw it do that. One of my memories of Norway is Luke and Stefanie always rushing to board the Viking ship. It is so sad that it is no longer there. All of your PP pictures are so good.
Great photo ops at AoA. It definitely is an eye catching, color popping resort! We were lucky to visit during the initial opening stages and they actually had rooms open in the Cars section to tour through.
Danielle
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Love your WS pictures!! I tried on this last trip to look for the details you capture in you pics since I was solo and I have to admit I did found quite a few!! It just takes a little slowing down and enjoying the sights and sounds of Disney.
One of my first memories of that Viking Ship was my son, Travis. He was 11 years old and he ran up to the ship and yelled, "Take my picture Mom, I'm a Viking!!" So sad it's gone.
Your comment "Pop Century on steroids" about AoA was kind of my thought also! However, even though I really like Pop, AoA was fantastic. The CM's are SO friendly and helpful.
Can't wait to read more!!
Great photo ops at AoA. It definitely is an eye catching, color popping resort! We were lucky to visit during the initial opening stages and they actually had rooms open in the Cars section to tour through.
Friday 7 December – part eight: it’s just as well we set the wake up call
Our final stop was to see the Cars section, especially as our nephew Oliver is such a Cars freak right now. Oh my goodness, he would absolutely be in heaven here! This was probably my favourite of the three areas we saw, and I just loved all the characters scattered around.
It was really fun looking around here, even if it did leave us totally exhausted. It’s been beautifully themed, and anyone who’s coming to Disney should have a look at this place, even if they’re not staying there.
When we got to the Beach Club, there was a massive line of about six cars to get in. My goodness, it’s popular at the moment! We headed for the key card entry, as obviously we had our room keys on us, but neither worked. Finally, the security guard came out, and let us in, but told us to go to front desk to let them know, so that they could re-programme our keys. When we did, they told us it was a “known problem”, to which I said “not to your security guard from what I saw”.
We headed back to the room, thoroughly exhausted.
When we walked in, we noticed a note from telecoms saying that the modem issue had been fixed, and sure enough it had!
We spent some time relaxing, and then got some much needed sleep. Thank goodness I set a wake-up call for 6:15pm. We went to “bed” at 5:00pm, and I think we were awake, just lying there for at least the next half hour or so, but we must’ve both drifted off, because the next thing we knew, the wake-up call was going off.
I grabbed a shower, and we headed out. I realised that I’d missed messages from Linda, who had been in Epcot earlier, but sadly we’d already left by the time we got her message.
We set off about 6:45pm, and walked over to Epcot, stopping to get some Photopass pics on the bridge between France and the United Kingdom. Oh my goodness, the photographer we had was classic! He was definitely a failed actor/character etc., as he was so entertaining.
We made our way over to France to meet up with Bruce and Marta for dinner, but before we got as far as meeting them, we found Linda waiting for us! I couldn’t believe she’d taken the trouble to come over to where we were eating to see us and I’m so glad we didn’t miss her after all. We got a quick Photopass pic taken, and then had to say goodbye, but it was great to see her even if it was just for a few minutes…
Marta was already in line for Chefs de France, and we were soon booked in. We then had about another 10-15 minute wait to be seated, having to listen very carefully to the announcement of every party’s name, as the guy doing it had a very strong French accent – and bear in mind, I’m used to strong French accents, as my grandmother was French.
Wow, the cars section of AoA looks amazing. I know it's very bright but it is right up my alley as far as theming is concerned! It looks so "real", like you jumped right into the movie
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Your entire meal at Via Napoli looks so delicious! So nice too that the sun decided to come out as you all finished lunch. I love the shops in Italy. 
Interesting that the bottled wine can only be picked up at the gate. I had forgotten that the clock actually chimes as it has been years since we saw it do that. One of my memories of Norway is Luke and Stefanie always rushing to board the Viking ship. It is so sad that it is no longer there. All of your PP pictures are so good. 
PassPorter Guide Author
We headed for the key card entry, as obviously we had our room keys on us, but neither worked. 
Finally, the security guard came out, and let us in, but told us to go to front desk to let them know, so that they could re-programme our keys. When we did, they told us it was a “known problem”, to which I said “not to your security guard from what I saw”. 
He was definitely a failed actor/character etc., as he was so entertaining. 
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