Holy Great Movie Ride (April 5 - 10)! TR Begins - COMPLETE!! 6/8 - Page 33 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Love the photos of John the Horse. The one where he's turning his head looks like he's saying, "oooh, get my good side!" Sounds like a fun last evening.
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Trail's End looks and sounds absolutely delightful! I might have to squeeze it into my plan somewhere. But don't worry. I won't tell anyone about your lunchtime secret
I am so bummed that we had to punt on our plans to go to Trail's End during our trip in Feb., but we were soaked to the bone from the driving rain storm and didn't feel like taking the boat over there from the MK. Maybe next time! Because it looks sooo good!
Can't wait to hear about your last day!
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Ben and I stayed at Fort Wilderness and we loved the Trail End Buffet Breakfast it was soooo good (and easy on the wallet) ...can't wait to try lunch or dinner now. Great Update!
Our last morning had arrived The wake up call came and Andy hopped in the shower. While he did that I went ahead and got up to do the dreaded inevitable… I started packing all our crap. Man we manage to increase our crap over the duration of the trip! I threw all the dirty clothes in the big suitcase, packed what was still clean in the smaller one, and got all our purchases together in shopping bags. Toiletries next (nicking the shampoo and soap of course) and by the time Andy was finished getting ready I had us all ready and packed and myself ready to go, too. It was quite impressive for me, one who hates mornings…
Andy loaded up the car while I went to check out and make sure everything was all in the clear. While I waited for him in the lobby I took a couple photos of the displays that hang in the lobby, depicting each decade…
Obviously I had to get the first one because it had some Beatles stuff in it…
I headed outside to meet Andy at the bus stop (that’s where we had agreed to meet) and he showed up right as an Epcot bus did… timing in life is everything my friend. Waiting to get on the bus…
I was impressed with the good time we had made this morning and we were at park before opening. They even let us in a bit early which was cool.
There was nobody around it seemed and I have a photo for my blog that shows this… I also posted a live photo on the Facebook Page for my blog that morning to show that the only person between the Land and Imagination was the Imagination CM.
We of course headed into the Land to get FPs for Soarin’ but since there was NOBODY here we just went ahead and walked right onto the ride. I can’t say enough how much I love this ride even though I was a big chicken about it at first because I hate the height thing… I have to close my eyes while we ascend but once we’re up, I’m good as gold. I just love the music and the scents… it totally makes me a little teary eyed…
After Soarin’ we made our way over to the other side of Future World and decided to ride Mission Space because it had no wait.
A blurry pic but I wanted you to see that there wasn’t a soul in line.
We were a bit hungry after this so we decided to grab some pastries from the little kiosk outside of Innoventions. We grabbed a bench, ate, and people watched… just relaxing, taking in our last morning. For the first time in many trips, I wasn’t letting it get me down to know that I was leaving today. I kept a nice, positive attitude AND I knew I’d be chillin’ at my best friends’ house that night anyway so it was all good
After breakfast we hit up Sum of all Thrills one more time We were trying so hard to outdo our last score, and Andy’s original monster kick your butt score, but alas, we did not succeed… but our ride was still fun
Andy let me hit up MouseGears next, in search of the big sister Tassle Tote for my big girl purse…. I’d talked about it all week, I still had a 20% off coupon good until noon because of eating at a CS… and I had saved $$ to get it on the last day. We walked ALL OVER MouseGears trying to see if they had them in there…. I had given up all hope and had resigned myself to getting just the mickey icecube tray I needed when Andy goes “you mean thoooose” pointing to the wall… and there they were, on a shelf behind the register…. Cue the angels!
They had 4 of the Tassle Totes I think, so I took my time dissecting each one, deciding exactly which one was the perfect one for me. And finally, I found it!
I loved this one because it had the Castle smack dab in the middle on the back.. and it had Mickey and Minnie on the front. It was perfect!
Andy and I headed over to the Seas next. After hunting for Nemo we just relaxed around the aquarium…sitting in my favorite little window seat, watching the dolphins.
Shortly after getting settled Andy called me over to the railing because down in the lower level they were doing a diver demonstration. I posted about this on my photoblog a couple of weeks ago but the diver was showing how the SCUBA equipment works and once the tank filled up, he communicated to folks with hand signals and the host explained the dangers of littering and such in the ocean to both people and animals. Here’s a different photo, not as good as the one on my blog I don’t think…
We headed downstairs and then got to see them feeding the eels. I also explained this process on the same blog post. Check it out The link is my signature.
But here they are trying to feed the snowflake eels by using the tubes so that the other eels can have a chance to eat, too.
Brandi called during this and let us know that she had arrived so we headed out to meet her. We all decided that if we wanted to hit DTD before going to their house that we’d go ahead and hit the road.
At DTD we hit up the Earl, the lovely lovely Earl. What I wouldn’t give for a ham and swiss or Hawaiian chicken right now……….
After lunch we all agreed Ghirardelli was a must so we got some shakes… pure chocolatey goodness.
Brandi took us back to Pop to get our car and then we followed her out to the boonies past the Chupacabra (inside joke) and to her house !
We got comfy and then all of us, including Pom, walked down to their lake and on the way spotted a bald eagle up in the tree and the huge nest he/she had built. It was pretty cool to see one in the wild as we’ve never seen one like that..
A few photos by the lake..
Me and my best! Me and my other best
After the trip to the lake we walked back up to the Bakers house, ordered some tasty pizza, made some drinks, and watched Lost from that week… Good times! And I say the TR isn’t complete with a little Lennon! Brandi’s new kitty baby
We had a great time with our friends and the next morning it was time to hit the road. Another trip in the books… but another soon to come! Thanks for reading along, and I have to say, not to brag, but I think I did pretty good this time in finishing in a timely manner.. timely for me anyway Two months has got to be a record!
WOW you finished in an extremely timely manner. YEAH for empty Epcot and BOO for vacation time to be over. With another coming up in a month, can't say my sympathy is overwhelming though
LOVE the matching tassle tote for your big girl purse. The castle on the back is absolutely perfect!! I have been looking at a different big purse style, but that one is really nice.
Since I need to live through everyone else's trips right now, I'm always so sad when I get to the end of a TR, but hoepfully you'll start a Pre TR for your birthday trip soon (hint, hint)
I love your tassel purse. Mine has the castle on the back also and I had to hunt to find one that did. Your lunch made me hungry! Sorry your trip is over but you will be back soon!
Great finish! What a great way to wrap-up your trip -- hanging out with best friends. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Looks like you have another trip coming up soon, so I'll look forward to reading your PTR soon!
What a fun last day. How great that Epcot was empty and you got to enjoy some last attractions. Love the tassle bag...and 20% off makes it even better.
Great pictures from the lake.
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*Melissa
The wake up call came and Andy hopped in the shower. While he did that I went ahead and got up to do the dreaded inevitable… I started packing all our crap. Man we manage to increase our crap over the duration of the trip! I threw all the dirty clothes in the big suitcase, packed what was still clean in the smaller one, and got all our purchases together in shopping bags. Toiletries next (nicking the shampoo and soap of course) and by the time Andy was finished getting ready I had us all ready and packed and myself ready to go, too. It was quite impressive for me, one who hates mornings…
!
Two months has got to be a record!
Aimee
Thanks for sharing your TR with us!
Susan
Deb
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