A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 do wonder if the rumour of the magic band coming to Disneyland will come true. It truly is strange to go back to the old ways when we've become so used to the new WDW ways!
That Diamond anniversary cake looks so good - wow!
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It was indeed a beautiful day. Too bad the temperature was so horrible. To have to stand in 2 different lines to simply activate a photo pass is ridiculous. That's not just pre-magic band slow! I don't recall WDW ever being that bad.
I do wonder if the rumour of the magic band coming to Disneyland will come true.
I'm sure it will one day, although it is a very different demographic there - as the vast majority of the visitors are all locals, so I don't think there's quite the demand there, if that makes sense?
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It truly is strange to go back to the old ways when we've become so used to the new WDW ways!
It is very odd - it's just like stepping back in time.
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That Diamond anniversary cake looks so good - wow!
All the Disney culinary creations are amazing, aren't they?
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It was indeed a beautiful day. Too bad the temperature was so horrible. To have to stand in 2 different lines to simply activate a photo pass is ridiculous. That's not just pre-magic band slow! I don't recall WDW ever being that bad.
Neither do I. I really don't know whether this was normal, or we just hit them at a really bad moment.
I'd think that locals might like Magic Bands - especially to have a personalized one that you can use each time? But as you said, the demographics are different. On the other hand, given the size of DL, it seems like that would be a perfect place to test new tech before moving it over to WDW....in my opinion, at least.
I'd think that locals might like Magic Bands - especially to have a personalized one that you can use each time? But as you said, the demographics are different. On the other hand, given the size of DL, it seems like that would be a perfect place to test new tech before moving it over to WDW....in my opinion, at least.
You make a really good point there. If something's going to go wrong with the tech, better it's in a smaller set of parks than WDW....
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I wonder if I can get someone to make me that Sleeping Beauty Castle cake for my birthday. Great pictures from Main Street. Can't wait to hear about Club 33!!
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I am loving walking back through DLR with your photos! Makes me happy all over again. I have to agree that it felt like stepping back in time with the lack of the newest technology at DLR, especially the procedure for getting your PhotoPlus+ lanyard. We got into the wrong line first so we ended up waiting in three lines before we had our lanyard in hand.
I am loving walking back through DLR with your photos! Makes me happy all over again.
Oh I am so happy to hear you say that!
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I have to agree that it felt like stepping back in time with the lack of the newest technology at DLR, especially the procedure for getting your PhotoPlus+ lanyard. We got into the wrong line first so we ended up waiting in three lines before we had our lanyard in hand.
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Tuesday 8 September – part eight: entering Club 33!
Here’s the entrance to Club 33:
We met Jeannie (dlandmom2) and her two kids, who’d been waiting to see us. I felt so bad for her, as we were running late, and in a bit of a panic, and we barely saw her for two minutes, if that. I am so sorry. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of her later in the trip…
Mari insisted that I ring the bell, which was very cool.
However, then nothing happened…. Is someone supposed to come down? Ok, this was a bit weird…
Mari headed off to another door (insider knowledge obviously ) and that’s where we were supposed to go in. I didn’t get a chance to take any photos as we entered, as we were meeting Jim and Dave for the first time, who are the member friends of Mari and Raleigh, and it seemed rude to be snapping away when you’re greeting people. They apparently met on a cruise in 2009, which is funny as that’s exactly how we met Mari and Raleigh – on a cruise in 2007! And that’s also how they met Deb (Wills of All Ears Net fame) and Linda too. Isn’t that cool?
Anyway, we headed into the courtyard inside, and again I got better photos as we left, so those will come up later…
It was at this point that one of the Cast Members discretely took Mark to one side to tell him that shorts weren’t permitted. Ok, we’d asked Mari what the dress code was, and she’d pretty much said there wasn’t one, apart from no flip-flops. She was mortified, as she didn’t even realise this was part of the dress code, but it’s Ok, Disney has a solution for little problems like this.
We headed up the stairs, to be greeted with this.
Now this is the reception area…
.. complete with Club 33 merchandise in one corner, available for purchase. I didn’t purchase anything, although shall we just say that I managed to leave with a souvenir? We’ll get to that in due course.
It was at this point that Mark was shown into a changing area to put some pants on instead of the shorts he’d arrived in, and again it was all very discretely done. I know he was concerned about this, as heck it’s not something you want to do, and you don’t want to feel uncomfortable in unfamiliar clothes. However, he did say they were very comfortable, and he even talked about finding out where Disney got them from, he was so impressed with them, although I don’t think he actually did. Here he is, all resplendent in the correct dress code!
Apparently this place underwent a massive refurbishment recently, and it was the first time Mari and Raleigh had seen it since then. They were very impressed, although I had a hard time believing it was anything else but breath taking, but that’s what they all told us – that it needed some serious work. It was closed for six months.
We were taken first into the bar area. This is the entrance corridor…
As you walk along it, there are booths on either side, four in total, and these are Haunted Mansion booths. They are just beautifully themed.
So exciting! Oops about the pants. Oh well. Clearly he's not the only one this has happened to!
It's looking really nice so far, can't wait to see the rest!
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I really don't know whether this was normal, or we just hit them at a really bad moment. 
Makes me happy all over again. 
We’ll get to that in due course. 
And great pictures from DL and Club 33 so far! 
Oh well. Clearly he's not the only one this has happened to!
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