A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 51 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 finally watched Christopher Robin the other day! I ordered the DVD from Disney Movie Club and watched it while I was putting up our tree.
Then I watched it again later with Jeff. I enjoyed it both times!
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So great of Jaime to remember Mark and be so concerned about him! Glad you enjoyed the movie even more the second time as I'm sure you discovered more about it. Funny photo looking out on the seas with the sun beaming down, but they might want to consider cleaning these windows with so many dirty streaks!
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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!
I finally watched Christopher Robin the other day! I ordered the DVD from Disney Movie Club and watched it while I was putting up our tree.
Then I watched it again later with Jeff. I enjoyed it both times!
So great of Jaime to remember Mark and be so concerned about him! Glad you enjoyed the movie even more the second time as I'm sure you discovered more about it.
I think it is one of those movies where you'll spot new things with every viewing.
Quote:
Funny photo looking out on the seas with the sun beaming down, but they might want to consider cleaning these windows with so many dirty streaks!
We said about that a couple of times during the cruises.
Thursday 13 September – part three: gathering up the Members!
When we came out of watching Christopher Robin, we started to make our way down to the atrium, but I quickly noticed the princesses doing a meet and greet out there, so I knew it wouldn’t work so well to get our Disney Vacation Club photo done there. They were trying to gather as many Members as possible for a photo to make it into the quarterly magazine, Disney Files. We ended up gathering by the entrance to the Walt Disney Theatre…
…but then word came that the princesses were just about done and one of the Crew Members would take a photo of us back in the atrium, so we headed that way.
I have to say that, considering when we first showed up, there were only about 12 people, we ended up with a really good number – between 30 and 40 people I’d reckon. The DVC reps even showed up from deck four with member caps for everyone (it would give us a better chance of being featured apparently) and then they got in the photo as well! It turned out some of the photos were taken on one of the DVC reps’ phones, so I think we have even more chance if he sends them in.
It later transpired that a member of the Facebook group saw it happening and took this photo from above and shared it with everyone…
So, can you spot us? It took me a lot of work and I wasn’t sure if we were in it, but I promise we are!
That done and our photo release forms signed, we headed for the Walt Disney Theatre. They had just done an announcement to say that the Imagineering 101 talk by Gary Landrum was about to start, so I wanted to snag a seat. We lucked out again and got centre stage, halfway up just by the walkway.
I also managed to snag a load of photos before the presentation started, as they had a rotating introduction with lots of familiar Disney images…
Now here I need to put a disclaimer in here. There will be photos during this, but I did NOT shoot any of these during the presentation. Instead, it was repeated on the stateroom TV a couple of days later and I managed to get the shots from there, but I thought it would be neat to add some in here…
Gary Landrum turned out to be an amazing speaker and I could have happily listened to him for another hour or so. He started off by talking about Walt and why he wanted to build a theme park, before going on to talk about what Imagineering is. There was a mission statement, because as he said “everyone needs one”, but it went up and down so quickly, I could barely read it. I think that was the point. Instead they have a belief statement, something along the lines of “happy people make the world a better place”. I liked that!
Then he focused in on each park at Walt Disney World and spelt out their belief statements:
Magic Kingdom: Magic made Real
Epcot: Reality made Magic
Hollywood Studios: Magic of Entertainment
Animal Kingdom: Magic of Nature
The latter two have changed their belief statements over the years. Animal Kingdom used to be Magic from Animals originally. However, I really can’t remember what the original version of the Hollywood Studios was.
Then there was the one for the resorts – Staying in the Magic… and so on…
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Well, that sounds like a fascinating talk!
I think I can spot you guys in the photo...in the upper right. Mark has an orange shirt on, and I can see your camera strap around your neck. I saw Mark before you because you have your head down a bit which hides your face. Very fun idea, by the way! I hope you get in the magazine!
Took a bit, but found you guys in the photo!
Good start on Imagineering 101. I'm not sure what else DHS would be besides magic of entertainment... But I do think magic of nature definitely fits better for AK!
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Glad you enjoyed the movie even more the second time as I'm sure you discovered more about it. Funny photo looking out on the seas with the sun beaming down, but they might want to consider cleaning these windows with so many dirty streaks! 
But I do think magic of nature definitely fits better for AK!
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