The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 2/25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Amazing photos! How do you do it? I'm assuming you used a fireworks setting, or did you use another setting?
Nope, I've tried the fireworks setting on my camera and frankly I don't think it works. It was the same on my last one too. I just stick with the basic setting - i.e. automatic.
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And how to you get your arms/hands so stable - a trash can? I've tried so many times for fireworks photos and they just don't turn out nearly as good as yours!
Well, in fairness, you don't see the appalling ones that I delete! I've just checked and I shot over 140 in total, but only kept 50 of those, so that gives you an idea...
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So glad you had such a great time with Ginger, and you're really kicking jet lag's butt!
I was very pleased with how we dealt with the jetlag this time, definitely the best we've ever managed with it.
Your fireworks pictures are beautiful. I'm glad to hear that you liked Happily ever after. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the fall when we go down.
I think you'll really enjoy it.
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I like the country bears and remember when they had a summer show and a Christmas one. They were all cute.
Oh we loved the Christmas show. I think it's a shame they don't do that one any longer.
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I wish they would leave Pirates alone. The story goes with the time period and making the redhead one of the pirates doesn't make sense to me but what do I know.
I'm with you. I wish they'd just leave it alone too. I didn't realise that's what they were going to do with the redhead - make her one of the pirates. Wow, that's going to be a shock to her!
Great evening in the MK with the HEA show and you captured rather well. I think you enjoyed the show and amazing how the castle looks all lit up with the fireworks going off above it!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Saturday 13 January – part one: what the heck was that?
I was awake at about 4:45am, but to be honest, I can live with that, given I’d had almost eight hours of straight and good sleep. I would’ve gone back to sleep, but I heard a helicopter go over and honestly, it was so low that I did wonder if it was going to hit the roof of the lodge.
I was a bit paranoid about airline check-in, never having done it before. When we’d asked yesterday, they hadn’t been overwhelmingly positive about whether we could use it to fly to Puerto Rico, so we got going and packed up the cases, so we could take them down to see if there were any issues. Thankfully there weren’t and our three cases were soon checked in and hopefully on their way and we’d paid for number three.
Once that was done, I checked if we needed to pre-book or anything for the Wonders of the Lodge tour at 9:00am, but we didn’t, so we made our way over to Geyser Point for breakfast. I really do love this place and even though it was cloudy and considerably cooler today (they have a cold front coming in), that only added to the setting for me. Because it was still early, I was able to get all the photos I wanted as we walked along.
We got to Geyser Point a little before 8:00am, which is when it now opens for breakfast. To me, that’s a shame, as I had hoped to eat here yesterday morning, but that was too late for our plans. I liked it when it opened at 6:30am, but in fairness, that was while they were still using it to sub for Roaring Forks, so I understand why they’ve made the changes.
As we stood there, waiting for them to open up, the geyser went off. It had done so last night as we walked back from the boat and it was almost as if it got stuck on auto, as it went on for ages. This morning, it wasn’t as long, so I wonder if someone left the switch on! I was finally able to get some photos of it, which was nice, as the last time we were here, it was under refurbishment.
By the time I’d finished photographing that, Geyser Point was open, so I headed back to Mark, who’d already given his order and I gave mine and we headed off to find a seat. Mark asked for “somewhere warm” only being in a T-shirt, but that can be a bit difficult here, given it’s quite open to the elements…
Now while we were waiting for our food, I wandered off to get these shots…
Just as I was taking one of them, I thought I saw a flicker of movement to one side of me, so I turned and caught something scurrying. I screamed, as I had no idea what it was. It was two little bunny rabbits! I suspect I scared the daylights out of Thumper’s friends, then again they were moving pretty quick to begin with, so it’s hard to tell. Sorry guys!
When I got back to the table, it wasn’t long before our food turned up. I went for the smoked salmon everything bialy. I had to check what that actually meant, as I wasn’t familiar with the term bialy, but it was meat free, so it was fine, and my goodness, it was tasty too and so much of it!
Mark went for the scrambled eggs with sausage and bacon served with potato hash.
We also shared the seasonal fruit platter between us without the apple it usually comes with and I was very impressed to see both of my plates with allergy markers in.
I do love the feel of WL. Breakfast looked delicious!
Bialy is a cousin to a bagel. No hole, usually an indentation with some seasoning and/or cheese in it. Hopefully yours was yummy. Looked like it would be.
What a nice morning at WL. I suspect this year, Muffin will finally get to stay there again. Great looking food as well and the geyser looks so pretty!!
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What a lovely setting for breakfast. Poor Thumper ... I love the bison topiaries and especially the footprints in the walkway. Thankyou Disney for tiny details Very early morning and very late night are my favorite times at WDW when its quieter and you can really take it all in. Problem is, if you enjoy one its tough to be awake for the other.
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Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow, for all you know, tomorrow, the dream that you wish will come true.
If a cold front came through, then WL is the place to be. Cooler temps in those northwest parts, so it just makes that much more sense! Resorts are so lovely in the morning when nobody is around to spoil the scenery.
Breakfast looked pretty darn good! I've never heard of a bialy either. I guess I learned something for today.
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Tanya
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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Well, this year is out, as we have a three week vacation already booked for September - back to back cruises on the Magic, westbound Transatlantic and then NYC to Quebec. Then we're going to Disneyland and Aulani in spring 2019. After that... well... we'll see. I want to get to China and visit Shanghai Disney, plus see Shanghai itself, Beijing, Xian and Chengdu (baby pandas! ), so if that comes off, that's no return to WDW until 2020 at the earliest.... [/QUOTE]
Wow, sounds so exciting all your plans! Well, when you finally do make it back to WDW, there will certainly be a lot to see between Toy Story Land, Star Wars Land and the new resorts! I'll look forward to any of your trip reports Cheryl!!!
I do love the feel of WL. Breakfast looked delicious!
Bialy is a cousin to a bagel. No hole, usually an indentation with some seasoning and/or cheese in it. Hopefully yours was yummy. Looked like it would be.
Ah, thanks for sharing. Now I know! It was very nice.
What a lovely setting for breakfast. Poor Thumper ...
I know - I did feel bad for him!
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I love the bison topiaries and especially the footprints in the walkway. Thankyou Disney for tiny details
That's one of the things I love so much about Disney!
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Very early morning and very late night are my favorite times at WDW when its quieter and you can really take it all in. Problem is, if you enjoy one its tough to be awake for the other.
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Amazing photos! How do you do it? I'm assuming you used a fireworks setting, or did you use another setting?
I've just checked and I shot over 140 in total, but only kept 50 of those, so that gives you an idea... 
Isn't it funny, I regularly see professional photos and look at them and think "I am so far off those".... 
I really liked the night photopass pics too because of the background lit up, very nice.
and we’d paid for number three. 
I was finally able to get some photos of it, which was nice, as the last time we were here, it was under refurbishment. 
I suspect I scared the daylights out of Thumper’s friends, then again they were moving pretty quick to begin with, so it’s hard to tell. Sorry guys! 
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