The "If we are already going to be in the state of Florida..." Trip Report - UPDATED 10/3 - Complete/Final Thoughts - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We came back home yesterday evening....well rested from a few days at the beach following WDW. Any trip to WDW is a good trip although I am glad we went with loose plans because we had to scale back our touring! I will update in a day or two.
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
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Welcome Home!! Looking forward to a virtual Disney vacation.....
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Tanya
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Now, before I started this TR, I thought to myself…perhaps I shouldn’t write one. After all, it is only a four day trip and school will be starting up as soon as we head home (and all the craziness that goes along with the first few weeks of school). But, I figured…hey I am smart and organized, I can manage….Note to self: you are not nearly as smart and organized as you seem to think!
August 26th….
Anyway, so not to bore you with the details, suffice it to say we awoke without a problem, (except DS who was complaining of a slight headache)drove to BWI, and had a fairly uneventful flight to Orlando. We must have been carrying some extra travel pixies because the airport was very quiet and by the time I waited for the stroller to come off the plane, DH had already picked up our car from Dollar. Now, I have to stop hear and say how much I love Dollar. The Express line takes all of two minutes and the membership is free. Since we were hooking up with my parents on the second leg of the trip, we rented a Chrysler Pacifica for the week. It had leather, satellite radio…which made the kids very happy to listen to radio Disney wherever we drove…and a third row of seats….all for $200 for the week, inclusive of taxes.
In under an hour, we were approaching the famous sign and entering the bubble! We pulled up to the GF and were met by a lovely CM named Katina. We passed Richard (who is the Art of the GF) and paused to say a quick hello. We made our way upstairs and into the newly refurbished halls and eventually our room. The new décor is definitely more subtle and easier on the eyes! The rooms have the new flat screen tvs, new rugs, new spreads and curtains, new desks, dressers, and an upgraded sofa/daybed combo. The desk was kind of cool because it had a nesting table under it which could be moved around anywhere you like. We all decided it was a nice improvement! I tried to get some pics before my crew messed up the joint but to no avail. Here are some pics I snapped throughout our stay. We were lucky to have great views from our balcony...the castle ahead, the monorail to the left and the pool to the right.
We took all of about three minutes to throw our clothes into the draws and then headed out for the MK. It was hot but not melt your sneakers to the pavement (yup…stealing Eileen’s phrase). The kids requested we hit the Laugh Floor so we proceeded there first. The waiting area is nicely air-conditioned which made the short 10 minutes wait even more pleasant. As we were waiting, Andrew texted a joke to Mike and his crew. “Why was Cinderella such a bad athlete? Cause her coach was a pumpkin. Yes, anyone with Pal Mickey should be familiar with that one…. Just as he pressed send, the doors opened up and we found our seats. Now, I digress here slightly. We have seen the Laugh Floor at least 10 times as my kids seem to LOVE this show. We were kind of disappointed this time because they made some larger changes and one of our favorite sequences was changed. On the upside, though, was Andrew’s joke and his name were announced during the show which put a smile on his face!
We headed to Buzz next and found another very short wait…was everyone else swimming this afternoon or wait. The kids rode together and DH and I battled it out…in the end he beat me by a lousy 100 points! From there, we hopped on the TTA for a little tour. I was again amazed to see that Space Mountain with a wait on 30 minutes…not bad for a Sunday in August! We had promised Andrew he could spend lots of time at VMK as it is closing down in a couple of weeks. He and I headed there while Izzy and DH shopped the Emporium for a bit.
It was getting close to our ADR so we grabbed the boat back to the GF. As we enjoyed the short ride, I noticed some very large, very ominous looking clouds ahead…..
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
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Pixie Dust
Can't wait to hear all about your trip 
How great Andrew's joke was part of the show 
and that he got to spend some time with VMK!! Can't wait to hear about dinner 
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