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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Those Arabian coast pictures are fantastic. And the floats on the water are fabulous!! What great pictures of everything. Each update I read moves Tokyo Disney and DisneySea up on my list of things I MUST see!!
I am so sad this is coming to an end it has been amazing!!
No problema--the pictures will keep, but the plants won't without their drink! I could send some of our rain over to you--we've plenty to spare since it's been rainy every day for a month here--no exageration!
Thank for the great update--Was it real crab on the pasta or the surimi stuff? And how was the wine once you got what you wanted?
Cool photos of the seahorses!
You're right about the plants! It seemed to be real crab and the wine was very nice.
Friday 10 April part seven: this feels like home
We headed over to the American Waterfront area, as Mark had noticed a really cool effect on the Tower of Terror and wanted to film it. Just before each lift crashed to the ground, lightning in green appeared to strike the building and would then filter down to the lift. I couldnt get decent photos of it, but at least Mark managed to vide it and no, its not on You Tube. One day, Ill work out how to upload video to there
We then got some strawberry popcorn (Im addicted to this stuff now!)
Next we got the DisneySea Electric Railway over to Port Discovery to see what that looked like at night. The answer was very cool. Mark wanted to go on Aquatopia, but I didnt feel like it. I was starting to get tired and my bad ankle was starting to hurt, so we took a few photos.
Then we headed into Mysterious Island. Wow, if this place looked good during the day (and it did! ) then it looked even better at night. It was very eerie after dark and I loved it. This really is the best themed land at Tokyo DisneySea and thats saying something, as theyre all superb.
Sadly, it was at about this point that my ankle started to really hurt. I managed to make it through the Fortress Exploration area and along Ponte Vecchio bridge, getting some great shots on the way.
Then I had to give in and, fortunately I had a bandage with me, so I could strap my ankle, which did help a bit, but not much. I think I know what the problem was. I was in my posh shoes, as of course, we had been hoping to eat at Oceano tonight and dressed accordingly. Those shoes gave me no support at all and I was really feeling that now. Every step was agony and it was just like stepping back in time a few years to when I had all my problems before with my ankle.
Then it was into the shops to find the tops I had seen earlier on today heck, I had to have something to cheer myself up! I ended up getting two, both of which said Tokyo Disney on them and they were the only ones that I had seen, but at least now I had T-shirts from every Disney park in the world, which was my aim. The clothes sizes here are very small and I got a large, which I figured would just about be OK, but Mark decided against getting any.
Instead, he got a couple of hats, but youll have to come down and join us at the PassPorter gathering in December if you want to know what those were. Im sworn to secrecy!
We also got a few other presents for ourselves and others and then headed out to the front of the park to take some photos of the globe at the entrance.
While there, the tears that had been threatening for the last couple of hours finally came. I couldnt believe how beautiful this park looked and I really didnt want to leave. I vowed there and then that we would come back here again, as one visit to Tokyo Disney just isnt enough. : Mark, for all his apprehension before we flew out here, immediately agreed with me.
As we walked back through towards the hotel, I made a statement I really thought I would never make about anywhere else, apart from Walt Disney World this feels like home and indeed it did. If ever the DVC announce plans for a property out there, especially at the MiraCosta, then watch out, maybe it will become our home for real.
I wanted a drink, so we went into the bakery nearby and got some croissants for breakfast tomorrow, but no orange juice, so Mark volunteered to go and get some from the next door counter service place for me, as my ankle was still really sore. I hobbled back to the hotel and went upstairs to go and buy MiraCosta Minnie that I had had my eye on for some time. That quickly done, I went out to wait for Mark and to enjoy the lobby. Just as I was thinking that I had misunderstood and that maybe we were meeting back at the room, he came out of the lift, carrying my orange juice and another bag with a present for me. So thats what took him so long then
We went back to the room, where I opened my present, a spoon and fork set that I had looked at the day before. Its a wedding set and I had said that we should get it for our 10th anniversary and now I did have it. How lovely. Hes such as keeper.
We did a bit more packing, but a lot of it was left until the morning, as neither of us felt up to it. All I wanted to do was collapse on the bed and rest my ankle and hope that it was OK for tomorrows flight home.
Today we walked 6.73 miles The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 70s. The best thing today was having another day to enjoy Tokyo DisneySea. The worst thing today was the problems with my ankle in the evening. The funniest thing today was Mark on the flying machine. Today we tried watching BraviSEAmo And the result was it was very good, but not as long as we thought it would be. The most magical moment today was seeing Mysterious Island at night.
You sure do seem to have time this trip right. Cherry blossoms and a full moon, too.
I've already asked my dh if he would mind if I went to Japan without him. Say, sometime around 2013?
This picture struck me so much I had to quote it!
The night shots are very cool. I'll bet Aquatopia would have been a lot of fun at night and I think I might just get addicted to strawberry popcorn, too. I'm sorry your ankle flared up and put a damper on your last night. DisneySea looks and sounds like a really fun park, and I would like to be able to see it someday.
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Great updates!! But No Way would Tokyo be your new home. It needs to be Florida(Celebration) so that it'll be easier for me to come visit. No way Tokyo
Great updates!! But No Way would Tokyo be your new home. It needs to be Florida(Celebration) so that it'll be easier for me to come visit. No way Tokyo
Tokyo's just too far away!
How sweet of Mark to get you that spoon and fork set
Sorry your ankle was giving you trouble. Glad you found a t-shirt you liked. And how sweet of Mark to surprise you! I'm so sorry this is coming to an end.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What beautiful photos! I can't wait to see it in person. I agree about Mark, he's a keeper. I would've been in tears having to leave DisneySea early than I was ready and knowing that the next day I was going home. Not sure that I want to read the next installment. So glad that you have a plan to go back. That always dulls the pain.
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Fantastic night shots! I have truly enjoyed this TR and so sad that it's coming to an end. What great memories you have though! I doubt my family will be able to make it to Tokyo anytime in the distant future, but I feel like I have been there through your story. Love, Love, Love the pics of the globe at night. Truly magical!
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It seemed to be real crab and the wine was very nice. 
) then it looked even better at night. It was very eerie after dark and I loved it. This really is the best themed land at Tokyo DisneySea and thats saying something, as theyre all superb. 
: Mark, for all his apprehension before we flew out here, immediately agreed with me. 
Tokyo's just too far away! 
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