The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 2/25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I didn't even know WL had a chocolate display for Christmas!!
You learn something every day.
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All those little details at that hotel are incredible, and now you're hearing more. Great start to the tour, looking forward to more! And looking forward to taking this tour on my next trip.
It was so much fun. I can't believe it's taken us so long to do it.
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.
Your pictures really show the beauty of WL. The tour sounds really informative. My favorite picture was of the moose, he had a comic element that I liked.
Great photos around the WL and love all the little details that have been added over the last few years. I last stayed here back in 2012 and was my second stay here. Always love this resort as it was my very first in 2002. Your tour is off to a good start and looking forward to the rest.
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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!
We stayed in a 1 BR in the DVC in Sept 2013 (I think that is the right year). This is great place to stay especially if you are doing the MNSSHP or the MVMCP. Having the boat is really fun and fast. Your pix bring back a lot of memories. The main pool and the geyser was being rebuilt while we were there. Loved it. Thanks again for sharing.
Love the TR so far, can't wait to read more. Great photos. So sorry we couldn't get together when we were supposed to. I didn't get your email until we got home. I don't get on the computer while we are on vacation and I don't have a phone to check for emails either. I''m just glad that it was just something wrong with your phone and nothing worse. I called you that night and left a message which of course you could not have gotten because of your phone problem. Oh, well. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to meet again some day. No worries.
Great photos around the WL and love all the little details that have been added over the last few years. I last stayed here back in 2012 and was my second stay here. Always love this resort as it was my very first in 2002. Your tour is off to a good start and looking forward to the rest.
I think you always have fond memories of the first Disney resorts you stayed at. I know I do.
We stayed in a 1 BR in the DVC in Sept 2013 (I think that is the right year). This is great place to stay especially if you are doing the MNSSHP or the MVMCP. Having the boat is really fun and fast. Your pix bring back a lot of memories. The main pool and the geyser was being rebuilt while we were there. Loved it. Thanks again for sharing.
We stayed here when the geyser and main pool was being re-done, although I don't remember what year that was now, but it sounds like the same time...
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Love the TR so far, can't wait to read more. Great photos.
So glad you're enjoying it.
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So sorry we couldn't get together when we were supposed to. I didn't get your email until we got home. I don't get on the computer while we are on vacation and I don't have a phone to check for emails either. I''m just glad that it was just something wrong with your phone and nothing worse. I called you that night and left a message which of course you could not have gotten because of your phone problem. Oh, well. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to meet again some day. No worries.
Oh that darned phone - it drove me mad. I don't know what the heck was wrong with it. In the end, we never made it to Epcot that night, as the times for the fireworks had changed at the Studios - that will serve me right for not re-checking a few weeks before. We heard the fireworks go just as we got back to the Beach Club, so it definitely wasn't to be.
Saturday 13 January – part three: I’ve never noticed them
We went inside to the central atrium of Boulder Ridge Villas and learnt it was octagonal, because it was based on a railroad turntable. Neat! I am ashamed to say that he was busy pointing out all the various animals engraved into the wood here and I have never noticed them. As Mark cynically said, whenever we stay here, we’re wondering just how far they put us from the lobby!
Jack also talked about the mish-mash of furnishings here. It’s because in reality if people couldn’t pay for their stay in the early days, they’d pay by leaving furniture behind. Wow!
We then headed into the Carolwood Pacific Room and Jack talked a lot about Walt’s passion for trains, much of which I knew about already. However, yet again, I hadn’t seen some of the detail here, like this picture of Walt. Many of you will probably already know this, but the name of this room comes from the scaled down railroad Walt built in the back yard of his Los Angeles area home.
Two of the train carriages you can see on this picture are actually here as well. The Walt Disney Family Foundation have loaned a cattle car and a gondola car, along with a piece of authentic track.
You can’t see it in these shots, as I edited him out, but there was a guy sitting here, enjoying the peace and quiet – not while we were in here!
We headed back into the lobby and here Jack asked if anyone had been to the national parks of the north west. We said and when he asked where we stayed, we told him Old Faithful Lodge. He shook my hand with that! I guess that was the right answer?
He explained how the lobby of the lodge is based on a number of national park lodges, not just Old Faithfull. I don’t remember all the others now, but apparently one has a fireplace, albeit only 25 feet tall (the Wilderness Lodge one is 82 feet tall! ), which was neat to know. I must admit I’d assumed this was Disney’s idea, but apparently not.
These animals on the wood all have significance as well. Their height depends on how high they would usually got in reality, which was neat.
Talking of wood, it turns out that 85 trucks worth of wood were used on the hotel from Oregon and Montana, which would stretch 40 miles if placed end to end, but all of it was dead wood. He pointed out beetle holes in the wood we were standing by, which was fascinating. He also explained how the place was built of concrete and, as he spoke, I was standing there thinking how much I’d love to see photos of that.
Jack also talked about the importance of native American culture in this lobby, explaining that the head dresses they have here are replicas, because to have original ones could be considered disrespectful. They didn’t use eagle feathers, they used turkey feathers and dyed them! He also talked about the patterns on the floor and how these all relate to the native American culture, representing the symbol of unit amongst the four seasons, wildlife, man and the cosmos.
There are also reinforced log-bundle columns bordering the lobby and, as well as holding up the roof, in Native American legends, they “hold up the heavens”.
The furnishings here are inspired by the American Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 1900s.
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The lodge at Yosemite is the one with the fireplace I think? At least that’s what WL has always reminded me of. So cool to get a chance to hear about all those little details.
I'm finding all the information from your WL tour just fascinating Cheryl! I'm going to try to get signed up for this tour whenever we stay at WL again. It's truly one of my favorite lobbies at WDW just because of the details!
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Your tour is off to a good start and looking forward to the rest. 
In the end, we never made it to Epcot that night, as the times for the fireworks had changed at the Studios - that will serve me right for not re-checking a few weeks before. We heard the fireworks go just as we got back to the Beach Club, so it definitely wasn't to be. 
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