Living the dream and remembering the Bagman UPDATED 3/21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Have a good visit with your family. We can wait for your updates.
I love your pictures from the air. It was very hot in Florida in September. My daughter compared it to the face of the sun.
I can understand that comparison!
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We walked around EPCOT the first day of the F&W Festival taking pictures, actually she took pictures, I just walked. We didn't think we'd make it.
Oh me too!
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I'm not sure about the Doctor's new companion, either. I'm hoping we'll learn to like her. I wasn't that fond of Clara at first and found her annoying at times.
Liz
That's true. I wasn't sure about Clara either, but quickly came to love her. Hopefully it will be the same time around.
Tuesday 20 September – part three: what great Disney service!
We set off from the airport, meeting a plane taxiing over the road, which was a bit surreal.
We were a bit thrown, as we came out of A side, and usually we exit from the B side. We ended up heading out towards I4, which is a major change for us. As Mark said, the last time we took this route was a few years ago, and we hit it in rush hour, and crawled along. Thank goodness we didn’t have that problem.
Soon we were seeing the Disney signs…
… and we noticed a lot of traffic coming the other way. Hopefully they were all clearing out the parks before we arrived!
Then we were on to property!
And almost immediately, we could see a lot of work taking place…
We were soon pulling up here, and were quickly in…
We left the luggage with bell services, hoping that they’d have a room ready for us, as we were exhausted and just wanted to drop for a while.
We were seen by Ann, who was very helpful, and tried her best to help us, but sadly the only room they had available was one that was being cleaned. They’d only just started to clean it, and they told us it could be another two hours before it was available!
She was so nice, and when she saw our faces, she offered to give us a lunch at the Mara. I thanked her, but said we wanted to head to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival booths, and she kindly put $40 credit on our account. What great Disney service!
We were basically left with no alternative but to head straight out. I can understand it, as it was just before midday, but we just needed a break, and we ended up having to ask bell services to be taken to our luggage. We found it immediately, and pulled out a couple of bits, including suntan lotion, which was my main concern, as I wanted to ensure I was fully lathered up with factor 100. I did not want to burn! I was fascinated to see that the luggage was on the same trolleys they bring up to your room, which was a clever way of doing it.
We headed out, and made our way over to Epcot, seeing more construction work on the way over here…
We also saw their new solar farms – I guess they get enough sun here to make it worthwhile having!
When we arrived at Epcot, we had to show our MagicBands, as Animal Kingdom Lodge is taking part in a testing system where you show that instead of having the paper on your dashboard. I get where Disney is going with this, but you know what? It’s actually a real pain at the moment, especially when your resort appears to be the only one on such a test. I suspect one day they’ll have a system a bit like the toll roads, where you’ll maybe have something in your own MagicBand, or maybe there’ll be one for the car, and sensors will let you through automatically at the parks or at your resort, but I’m guessing that’s a while off yet…
We parked up, having to explain to the guy there that we needed to park closer because of my chronic fatigue. I couldn’t do any longer outside in the heat than I absolutely had to, as I knew it would sap my strength.
Next: what do you mean, our MagicBands have no charging privileges.?
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It's so exciting to see the signs for Disney as you are approaching!
Too bad you couldn't get into a room though. Nice of the CM to give you a credit for F&WF, even though it didn't really solve the issue of you needing a place to rest.
Uh oh, no charging privileges? Something similar happened to us on our first day. Certainly not what you want to hear the first time you go to use it! :
Glad you have arrived at the AKL! Too bad your room is not ready! Great Disney magic bestowed on you by CM Ann! That's a bit of a pain as you said with the AK parking with your Magic Band. Hope this works out when it is fully implemented.
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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!
What a nice way for the CM to say sorry your room is not ready! Your descriptions of the heat brings back memories of our own trip. Luke is beginning to think we are magnets for heat at Disney parks. I don't like the sound of the next update.
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It is strange leaving MCO on the north exit, isn't it? I rarely go that way anymore but did last time too. The tolls are 25 cents less, so there's that.
Your bad luck/good luck continues with the hotels so far! Very nice of Ann to do that for you.
I didn't get a parking pass last summer from CSR either, magic band was scanned at the parks gates for parking. Is this a really long testing period?! Lol
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Too bad you weren't able to get in your room yet, as I'm sure a little rest would've helped gird you from the heat you were walking in to. Nice, though, to get a credit toward some goodies at Epcot.
I loved your arrival and i have to say landing from an internal flight is so much better. I'm not sure we will take a direct flight again.
We used Alamo last time and had direct to garage so we could walk straight from the carousel to the garage where we were told just take one from that row. Its good to see budget is equally fast
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Glad you made it to Florida and Disney property safely. Sorry AKL didn't have a room ready for you, but that was nice of the CM to put $40 on your account for you to enjoy the F&WF!!
Sorry you couldn't get into your room to rest, but that was really magical of the CM to give you a credit on your account. I can see the magic bands having the sensors to access parking, etc. They already have the long range sensors that attach ride photos to your account. I suspect something similar could work with the parking entrances. Uh, oh, no charging privileges--I've had that happen before as well.
I was so happy to see that you started your WDW portion of the TR!!! Sounds like the guy in front of you at the airport security line was a clueless idiot. Glad that you were able to get a front row seat on the plane for the extra leg room. I can't believe that the AKL check in front desk gave you a credit of $40 for lunch at the F&W since your room wasn't ready yet! We've never had that luck at WDW but that certainly is a nice bit of pixie dust to start your park day! Sounds like the heat was quite oppressive but hopefully you took advantage of some indoor attractions to get out of the heat and humidity.
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I was fascinated to see that the luggage was on the same trolleys they bring up to your room, which was a clever way of doing it. 
. You're at Disney World!!
Glad that you were able to get a front row seat on the plane for the extra leg room. I can't believe that the AKL check in front desk gave you a credit of $40 for lunch at the F&W since your room wasn't ready yet! We've never had that luck at WDW but that certainly is a nice bit of pixie dust to start your park day! Sounds like the heat was quite oppressive but hopefully you took advantage of some indoor attractions to get out of the heat and humidity.
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