An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - Page 55 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a great day at the Magic Kingdom! So glad to see that the magic is back for you! (Minus a few crazy kids in Boma? What's up with that?! My goodness...good for you for telling them off! ) I loved the character encounters, especially with Cinderella and Mickey and Minnie! I can't get enough of that excited look on Stef's face whenever she hugs a character. I believe that's how I look as well. Loved the "Yes, my mom!" answer to the mouse question. Too cute!
I also love all the purchases you made! I'm making a Disney shopping list in my head as I read your TR...
All your photos are amazing as well---as usual!!! I especially love those of AKL! I have never been there, and now I know I have to at least visit, if not stay there! It's beautiful! And I'm totally with you on the giraffes, they're some of my favorites and I love all the awesome pictures you got of them!
I can't wait to hear more!
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Ooh! I love the new backdrops for photos with the princesses and Mickey & Minnie! The Photopass borders are great too!
I very clearly remember meeting Cinderella on our first trip and her saying to my daughter, "Oh, what a lovely dress. Did your mice friends help you make that?" I thought it was so clever and just adorable the way she carried it off.
I also must say that you are a VERY brave woman! Who wears white shorts to WDW?! I'd have those stained in no time. Murphy's law states that I'd sit down on the seat where some kid just had his dirty shoe.
Sounds like your day is off to a great start! Can't wait to hear more!
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Cinderella asked Stefanie if she had any mice at home to help her with stuff. Stefanie’s replied, “Yes, my Mom!” So Cinderella asked if Stefanie’s Mice would like to be in the picture, too. That’s my kid!
That is adorable!!! Looks like you all had some wonderful character interaction as soon as you entered the park!
What a great day at the Magic Kingdom! So glad to see that the magic is back for you! (Minus a few crazy kids in Boma? What's up with that?! My goodness...good for you for telling them off! ) I loved the character encounters, especially with Cinderella and Mickey and Minnie! I can't get enough of that excited look on Stef's face whenever she hugs a character. I believe that's how I look as well. Loved the "Yes, my mom!" answer to the mouse question. Too cute!
I also love all the purchases you made! I'm making a Disney shopping list in my head as I read your TR...
All your photos are amazing as well---as usual!!! I especially love those of AKL! I have never been there, and now I know I have to at least visit, if not stay there! It's beautiful! And I'm totally with you on the giraffes, they're some of my favorites and I love all the awesome pictures you got of them!
I can't wait to hear more!
I was ordering my last batch (hopefully) of prints last night and I wanted to get some of the animals that I actually photographed from our balcony at Kidani. I had to chuckle at myself for all the pictures I took of giraffes. Someone will look at my photo files in the future and wonder about my giraffe obsession.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emilyandlogansmom
Ooh! I love the new backdrops for photos with the princesses and Mickey & Minnie! The Photopass borders are great too!
I very clearly remember meeting Cinderella on our first trip and her saying to my daughter, "Oh, what a lovely dress. Did your mice friends help you make that?" I thought it was so clever and just adorable the way she carried it off.
I also must say that you are a VERY brave woman! Who wears white shorts to WDW?! I'd have those stained in no time. Murphy's law states that I'd sit down on the seat where some kid just had his dirty shoe.
Sounds like your day is off to a great start! Can't wait to hear more!
The white shorts are still white. My bad luck is with white shirts, which I love as they will go with anything. But the minute I wear one, I become a klutz with my food or drink. Later in an update I'll have a stain story for you all though!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
That is adorable!!! Looks like you all had some wonderful character interaction as soon as you entered the park!
Stefanie loved moving right to character interactions at the start. And I love that they were in the A/C.
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There is a drop down menu at one point to be specific about your e-mail. I chose one that involved concerns about my recent vacation.
9 points at AKL for the time we were there is about 70% of the points value of one night's stay at club level. Tuesday's stay was costing us 13 points, but that was whittled down to 4 points by this return. Pretty nice!
I'm way behind, but I caught up finally! So sorry to hear about the check-in fiasco. My goodness how frustrating! I'm glad they took your complaint seriously and phoned you, though.
Those kids in the restroom... unbelieveable - good for you for speaking up. They should have been ashamed of themselves, my gosh! They were old enough to know better - and frankly the mother shouldn't have even considered sending a boy that age into the women's room.
As for the kid at Boma... I have to admit, I laughed - because it's something I could see Meredith doing. Not out of rudeness, so much as because I drill into her certain things - one of them being "don't cut in front of people in a line - patiently wait your turn." So therefore, my bossy, micro-managing daughter takes those rules very much to heart, and seems to think that it is her God-given duty to impart her wisdom and rules to everyone she runs into that isn't following the exact set of rules that she is, at the exact time that she is. It's a constant work in progress to drill into her that our rules are OUR rules, and that she must not worry about the behavior of others quite so much. It's also hard to explain that rules are ever-changing depending on situations (buffets, for example, vs. lines for a ride or a cashier).
LOVE the photos with the princesses! I am so excited for our October trip!! The photos are just getting me super hopped up about it all! Looking forward to more and more and more!
Your pictures with the Princesses and Mickey and Minnie are priceless...and made me realize that I completely forgot about the new meet & greet areas while we were there! I'm glad to hear Disney took your comments to heart and even tried to compensate you for the hassle.
Kudos to Eli! I'm so glad he took care of your situation for you! I've never seen AKL before so I think this year DH and I will make a visit after we get done with the park. Looking forward to more!
Congrats on getting some points back! I think Eli's conduct is what we expect of Disney. We all know things can go wrong at times, but it's nice to know that Disney usually will take the high road and try to make things better.
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Finally catching up, Cam. Wonderful pics... and more great stories! So nice to hear that Disney took your complaint seriously and refunded your points. I'm sure that makes you feel a little better about your experience.
Whew.............all caught up............as you know I was away for my "bubble time"!
what a yucky check in - glad that they took care of it in Disney fashion for you!
Now......my recent Disney withdrawls are even higher looking at all your photos!!! guess I have to get started on my TR soon to re-live it all over again!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports