Live, Laugh, Relax with Cam and Fam Completed 7/31 - Page 61 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 wonderfully relaxing morning. I really must stay at the BC at least once so I can try out the pool, it looks and sounds amazing. Glad you had such a great meal at Le Cellier and that you were able to get all your exchanges done.
I really love the backpack, glad the zipper is working much better this time around. It is really cute and I love the size.
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Sweet photos of Stefanie with Marie, and I also really like the one of her walking with Luke towards Epcot. That walkway is so peaceful. Just loved Luke's comment to you. What a guy, indeed!
Next: Mad Momma at the Pool and a Packed Hollywood Studios
My iPhone alarm went off this morning at 9:00, and I crawled out of bed about 10 minutes later. I checked e-mail and Facebook first, but by 9:35 I was prepped for the pool. I woke Luke and we were out of the room by 10:00. The sweet CM from Rhode Island who was giving out wrist bands today was really having trouble dealing with the heat. She said she couldn’t remember anything like this humidity back home. Poor thing!
We looked around and finally found some empty chairs right by where the slide dumps riders out. We set our towels and pool stuff up, and then Luke and Stefanie headed into the water while I took some pictures.
Taking her time to be sure the water is okay.
Her smiles says she’s enjoying it.
The sun is a bit bright for her. So she borrows Dad’s sunglasses while he gets his head wet.
Getting her hair wet the fun way
Luke then got out to take a picture of me with the monkey in the pool and I could cool off.
We had probably been at the pool maybe 15 – 20 minutes at this point. As Luke returned to the chairs to put up the camera, he was confronted by a woman who accused him of taking her spot and her towels. Luke is very soft spoken and his patience with people who are upset usually catches them off guard. He simply explained that the seats were entirely empty when we arrived. She claimed that she and her kids had just gone to the bathroom for a few minutes. She ended up plopping (literally) down at several chairs beside us, though I could tell she was still stewing. A lifeguard, who had overheard her talking to Luke, explained to me that if towels are left unoccupied for 30 minutes in the morning, a CM removes them to provide for folks who are actually at the pool. Later I was reading in my chair, which some folks think means you are deaf and dumb, when she points to me and tells her husband that I’m the one who stole her chairs. But she also mentioned to him that she had set the towels out and then returned to the their room to get ready. We were enjoying relaxing, so she was just a wee bitty bump in the morning.
Luke loved the waterslide, riding it twice and using the lifeguards advice to raise his rear had a faster ride the second time. I didn’t get pictures as I was holding Stefanie in the pool the whole time. I’m not sure she ever felt the sand herself as she is a clinger in the water. About the most we three can do in the sun is two hours, so at noon, we went back inside for lunch at the Marketplace. Stefanie and I shared a Flatbread Pepperoni Pizza. Luke and Stefanie also had Doritos to share. We didn’t get any dessert, which was fine because when we returned to our room we found a Mickey chocolate coated rice crispy treat had been delivered to our room, sent to us by Jen (tiggerbelle). She had missed the Illuminations meet on Wednesday. Jen, we missed you and the treat was absolutely wonderful! Maybe another year we can finally meet.
By 1:30 we were ready to head to a park, though in the process I had discovered that my new Star Wars Weekend t-shirt that I planned to wear since we were returning to DHS was way too small. So small I was feeling like it might not come back off! I made a quick change and pulled the receipt for an exchange, and we were off to DHS.
As we headed for the boat dock, I captured a picture of the butterfly topiary as we all three had been admiring it each time we left this way.
Lines (touringplans.com iPhone app) said the crowd level at DHS was a 7 – our opinion, it was a 10+, the most crowded park of any of our 11 trips. It was also extremely hot too and the folks who had already been there many hours were no longer in the best of moods. Think Grumpy dwarf magnified by thousands of big people. Just to give you a grasp of the crowd level. TSMM had a 160 minute stand by wait time. ToT had an 130 minute standby wait time. Backstage Tour even had a monstrous crowd that spilled way out in the walking areas.
We headed to Bobba’s Bounty to commence the shirt exchange. Unfortunately, no women’s blue tees were left in any size, but the adult black tees were still available and even half off. I scored 2 tees for less than the original had cost me. Luke captured my long wait on film.
Cecilia, the CM who finally got to wait on me, seemed a bit confused about exchanges and at first asked if I wouldn’t rather go to the Darkside Depot where I MIGHT be able to swap for the exact tee. I had waited 15 minutes and wasn’t even sure I wanted the blue tee as it was designed tighter than I like in a tee. She was a bit flustered that I wasn’t going away , so the kid next to her helped her some and finally a manager came over and took over the exchange. We got $4.25 back on our Visa and 2 tees instead of one.
Next, we attempted to see Sully, but the line had just been closed. We were already feeling dehydrated, so off to the Coke Bottle for two Cokes. At this point we decided we would not be able to enjoy ourselves here and began walking toward the front.
We did stop for a PhotoPass shot with the hat that turned out nicely.
But then we were waylaid by the Block Party Bash. We didn’t have the best view, but we were in the shade where it had to be 10 – 15 degrees cooler. Buzz was visible the whole time plus Woody and Buzz for some of the time. So we enjoyed ourselves. Stefanie even got another ball, blue this time, to go with the red one from a week earlier.
Once the party moved up to the hat, we crossed the street over to Keystone Clothiers to 1. Get to the A/C, 2. To check for an orange t-shirt for Luke (no luck), and 3. To walk in a less crowded environment to the front. It was not a good day to be at DHS, so Epcot here we come!
Next : Some fun with the chipmunks and what to do for the evening?
Stefanie looks so adorable in the pool! What a great way to cool off.
And you know what... I find, in general, that Disney's fitted tee-shirts run very small. I've had to exchange a couple of them so far. For some reason, they never look quite so small until you get them on!
Sorry for the grumpy crowds at DHS. Hope you have better luck at Epcot!
Hi Cam! All caught up again. We had our first meal at Le Cellier this summer and that mushroom filet was to die for . I know some people say the quality there has gone down but I certainly did not think so. I cleaned my plate! We also had the delicious soup and were happy to note that the recipe we had used from All Ears was very close to the original, so we'll be making that at home again.
Arrgh! The nerve of some people! Especially since there were no towels on the chair when you took them and she'd gone back to the room to get ready. Funny how she didn't seem to understand in the least bit that what she'd done was equally rude to someone stealing a chair (which of course you guys did NOT).
Sorry HS was so crowded, but that's what I love about being an AP holder and knowing we'll be coming back. It gives you the freedom to bail out when the parks get crazy!
Can't wait to hear more!
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15 total family trips with stays at the Poly, AKL, Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club, Swan, Dolphin, POFQ, Pop Century, All Star Music, Movies & Sports, and Coronado Springs.
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about the rude woman at the pool! I am sure Luke's mild manner made her even a bit more ouchy!
I have found that DHS seems to get really crazy crowded in the afternoons! I am sorry that things didn't work out for you that day!
I hope Epcot treated you better!
Congrats on the great deal with the t-shirts!
Another fun morning in the pool. So sorry to hear you encountered that rude woman at the pool. She's the guilty one for that, not the 3 of you. So sorry to hear DHS was so crouded and you encountered a bunch of Grumpy people there. Glad you were able to get your shirt exchanged after all that confusion. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day at Epcot.
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We were enjoying relaxing, so she was just a wee bitty bump in the morning.
Maybe another year we can finally meet. 
I made a quick change and pulled the receipt for an exchange, and we were off to DHS. 
Aimee
. I know some people say the quality there has gone down but I certainly did not think so. I cleaned my plate! We also had the delicious soup and were happy to note that the recipe we had used from All Ears was very close to the original, so we'll be making that at home again. 
(which of course you guys did NOT). 
about the rude woman at the pool! I am sure Luke's mild manner made her even a bit more ouchy! 
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