The Surviving Deployment Trip Report, Updated 10/18 COMPLETE!! - Page 31 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Laura - that's just too weird. We were just leaving Cosmic Ray's when it began to rain - and you all were just sitting down to eat! Funny to think we were there at the same time and didn't know it.
Loving all your photos - they tell the story so well. And I know exactly what you mean about the humidity. But the funny thing is, both you and Victoria look cool and fresh. Like true southern ladies, you don't sweat - you glisten.
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Great updates!! I love your costumes!! And I love that the characters are so into the sketchbook. Is Victoria going to do some more for your next trip?
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Laura - that's just too weird. We were just leaving Cosmic Ray's when it began to rain - and you all were just sitting down to eat! Funny to think we were there at the same time and didn't know it.
Loving all your photos - they tell the story so well. And I know exactly what you mean about the humidity. But the funny thing is, both you and Victoria look cool and fresh. Like true southern ladies, you don't sweat - you glisten.
Too funny about Cosmic Ray's. I'm glad we looked fresh. I sure didn't feel it though, and I think the rain made the humidity worse.
I know what you mean about the temp and humidity. We felt the same way. I can't stand to feel sweat going down my back. It was yucky. September is definitely not for me.
Hope the rain stopped for MNSSHP. The only one I have been to was a rainy one. One day I will get to do it again and get to see the parade.
What a wonderful time at the Magic Kingdom - with a superb Jungle Cruise and some great character interaction. It looks like you guys are having such a fun time.
Just catching up, Laura. Love your night shots of Pop! But sorry about the housekeeping issue there - yuck! Hopefully that's the last of it. Love your t-shirt. How great of the CM to make a new shirt for you when you noticed the misspelling. It looked great (corrected ). And what a great time you're having at MNSSHP. You've gotten so much done already and you're just getting dinner! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the night!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Day 2, part 4
We finished up our meal. The burgers were just so-so, and they were so big we couldn't finish them. We really should have split one. Oh well. We know for next time. We couldn't eat our chocolate cake, so I put them in the backpack and hoped they wouldn't get squished.
The rain had let up some, but it was still raining a little. I couldn't believe I hadn't brought our ponchos or our umbrellas. We decided to brave it. We walked out of Cosmic Rays towards Fantasyland. It was party time, and Victoria really wanted to ride the Tea Cups since she was Alice. As we approached the TC, we saw my favorite blue donkey and the chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff. I had to get in line. They were under a canopy next to the Pooh ride. We tried our best to stay under little awnings here and there so we wouldn't get too wet. We decided not to pull out Victoria's sketchbook for fear it would get wet, so we didn't get autographs. Eeyore looked so cute!!! (You can see how wet we had gotten. You can really see it on Victoria's dress.)
The CM said they would be out just a few more minutes and would be replaced with Tigger and Piglet. Score! Instead of getting back in the line in the rain, we decided to ride the Tea Cups. There was no line at all, and we walked right on. It was fun riding with Alice!
As you can see, Michael was a big help in turning the cup. (We had taken his stetson off so it wouldn't get wet.)
We left the tea cups and got in the line again for Pooh and Eeyore. We actually moved under the canopy with another family who was waiting for Tigger and Piglet. Tigger and Piglet came out right away, and we were second in line. Once again, we didn't get autographs. (I haven't mentioned the heat, but you can see how wet my back was....and that wasn't from rain. UG!)
They looked so cute! I loved them dressed up in their costumes. I really wanted to know where to find Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so I asked a CM. They were actually going to be right next to the Tea Cups, and a line was already there for them. The rain had delayed their appearance. At least we knew where to find them.
We walked next door and rode the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Once again, it was a walk on.
We left the ride, and saw Snow White and the gang. The line for them was incredibly long. I asked a CM when they were expected back after they took a break, and he said around 8:30 p.m. So, Victoria and I decided to go to ToonTown and come back to see about seeing Snow White. Thankfully, the rain had completely let up by this time.
We went to Minnie's House and saw a line for Minnie so we got in line. I was looking forward to seeing how she was dressed. We waited and waited. Minnie never came out. People left the line. I really didn't want to waste any more time, so we left, too. We never saw her. I don't know if she was dressed up or not. We decided not to try to see Mickey either and headed back towards Snow White. We stopped by a Trick-or-Treat station on the way. This was our first time trick-or-treating.
SW and the dwarves were taking a break and the line had gone down considerably. It was about 8 p.m. I got in line and told Victoria to go ride something while I waited. She went straight to the tea cups. I started talking to a family in front of me from Dallas. They were so nice. We chatted the entire wait, and it really helped the time to fly by.
Victoria checked in with me and said it was weird riding the tea cups alone. She said a little girl saw her and told her parents she wanted to ride with Alice. How cute! Victoria rode the tea cups again and then rode Pooh. Now, the Alice and Wonderland gang were doing a meet-n-greet next to the tea cups. I could see them from where I was standing in line. It was the White Rabbit, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Alice had been out there previously, but we missed her and never saw her again. Anyway, as Victoria was leaving the Pooh ride, a CM who was with the AIW gang said, "Alice! You're late! You're late! For a very important date!" He was pointing to his watch and to the character meet-n-greet. Victoria said she didn't know what to do. He thought she was the real Alice. Then the CM said, "No time to say hello. Goodbye!" And Victoria yelled back, "I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" and ran away in the opposite direction towards me in the SW line. That is so funny! The poor CM had to be so confused. It was dark, and he wasn't real close to Victoria. He saw "Alice" and just assumed she was the real deal. I wish I had gotten to see it.
On a side note, I got many comments about my hat. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "Did you know you have a bird on your head?" I would simply reply, "It's a mallet." Some got it. Some didn't. Really people! I'm walking around with Alice in a t-shirt that says, "Do you play croquet?" My flamingo is a mallet. Anyway, I got many comments about how much people liked my hat. A lot of CMs said they had never seen the flamingo hat at Disney before. So, I was pleased with my choice of costume.
While we were waiting in line for SW, a CM came up to me and said I was supposed to be with the Queen. I told him I was headed there next. He said she was just going to love me. We'll see!
We finally got to see Snow White. The Dwarves were so cute and personable. Sneezy sneezed. Sleepy yawned. They got into their characters. It was so sweet.
I hope the PP picture turns out better. Mine is a little dark.
UP NEXT: The Alice in Wonderland gang meet my Alice! And, my very first PP meet.
What a great party. I love all the characters in different costumes you saw. We've never seen SW and the dwarves. That is so cool. Your pics are really good. Looking forward to more. Hurry back.
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Like true southern ladies, you don't sweat - you glisten. 
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Love the sketches as well! Sorry about the rain! 
Liz 
PassPorter Guide Author
). And what a great time you're having at MNSSHP. You've gotten so much done already and you're just getting dinner! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the night!
We decided to brave it. We walked out of Cosmic Rays towards Fantasyland. It was party time, and Victoria really wanted to ride the Tea Cups since she was Alice. As we approached the TC, we saw my favorite blue donkey and the chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff. 
That is so funny! The poor CM had to be so confused. It was dark, and he wasn't real close to Victoria. He saw "Alice" and just assumed she was the real deal. 
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