Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Claire looks so happy with her American Girl doll!
She was a very happy girl
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Love all the Christmas updates and especially the photos from Disney on Ice!
Thanks. We had a good time, meltdowns and all!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Love the pics from Disney on ice. Christmas looked fun! We have a Japanese restaurant we go to and love. Cool Mickey Mouse shaped rice! I can't believe how much Claire has grown up!
It was cool. He actually started with a hear but as he was tearing it apart, I said "hey it looks like a hidden Mickey" and then he fixed it real nice like a Mickey!
Claire just never stops growing. I am sure she will be taller than me and maybe her dad too.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I left off so long ago with Claire and I heading out front of the Lodge after exploring the Gift shop.
We sat down for a few minutes out front of the Lodge and Claire was ready for another swim. I told her I would give her 20 minutes and then we were going to go and ask about our room. I was at the point of starting to get a little mad that we hadn’t heard anything yet.
We headed out for the swim.
The only pictures I took that time were of Claire holding Flat Ben.
After about 20 minutes of swim time I told Claire we HAD to see if our room was ready. We needed to get changed soon to go to the Halloween party.
She reluctantly got out and we made our way to the front desk.
It was now 3 PM and when I went to the desk they said yes my room was ready and gave me my number. I was kind of mad that I never received a text and I did mention that fact that it never came and we had been waiting all day, but I got no response.
We headed off to our room, which was very far away from the lobby, but we figured that would be the case since I had booked a standard.
We walked in and Claire immediately had to see our view. Now I warned her that I didn’t book an “animal” view, so we may be looking at a lot of nothing. Well imagine our surprise. We went out to the balcony and this is what we saw.
Claire was so excited!
This was some sort of holding pen and animals were switched out every so often.
We were extremely happy with our view!
And you can see by the smile on her face that she was very pleased.
Back inside the room. As you can see, our luggage was already there, which led me to believe the room had been ready for some time now.
The bathroom door has a mirror on it.
The art on the wall, with a nice glare from the window.
This clock is not right. I have no idea why it says that time, but it was actually about 3:15 now. That could be displaying the time a message came though because we had a blinking light and a welcome message at 2 PM. That also irked me, because that meant our room has probably been ready since at least 2. That would’ve worked out perfect for a nice short little nap.
I definitely don't trust them when they say they'll text when the room is ready. That never seems to work out. I don't know why. Doesn't seem like it would be a difficult thing.
What a perfect view! It's maddening that they always say they'll send a text when the room is ready. I have yet to receive a text at Boardwalk. Very frustrating.
great pics of the room. Great view - bonus!! but what a hassle about the room not being ready.
I agree that Disney on ice is very expensive. I went years aga and thought the same thing. Plus the skating is not very challenging. I mean it would be for me but most of it is just them skating around and doing a single jump here and there. I had a rental car a year ago and my son declared it was the coolest car ever. It was this little tiny "speck" but he loved it because it had manual windows he could crank down himself. -Welcome to my childhood kid -
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I definitely don't trust them when they say they'll text when the room is ready. That never seems to work out. I don't know why. Doesn't seem like it would be a difficult thing.
I don't see why they even tell you they will if they only do it to about 25% of the people. I have heard from others to check, because they rarely usually text. I sure wish I would've checked earlier. I was having faith in Disnye I guess. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Beautiful room. Thanks for sharing the Disney on Ice pix. Very interesting trip.
Thanks. We were happy with our room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Beautiful room with a great view!
Thanks. We were excited about the view.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a great view from the room!
I know. Claire thought we were living the good life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a perfect view! It's maddening that they always say they'll send a text when the room is ready. I have yet to receive a text at Boardwalk. Very frustrating.
It really is. I told my sister right away not to expect one ...of course they actually texted her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
great pics of the room. Great view - bonus!! but what a hassle about the room not being ready.
I agree that Disney on ice is very expensive. I went years aga and thought the same thing. Plus the skating is not very challenging. I mean it would be for me but most of it is just them skating around and doing a single jump here and there. I had a rental car a year ago and my son declared it was the coolest car ever. It was this little tiny "speck" but he loved it because it had manual windows he could crank down himself. -Welcome to my childhood kid -
You are right about the skating. Year ...oh many many years ago when I was a kid, they seemed to do more tricks. Or maybe as a kid I thought they did. LOL.
The manual windows....yuck. LOL My last car actually had those. I think it was a 1996. I drove that thing till it practically fell apart. A Toyoto Tercel I bought brand new. And it was a stick shift. (though I loved stick shift cars) It became a farm car for awhile (Skip ev en backed into it with a tractor) and then we sold it on its last leg for like $200. LOL. And every so often we would see it zip around. I think its now in a junk yard though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Gorgeous photos!
I guess I've been lucky as we've actually gotten a text when our room was ready.
Still touring the room, I moved on to the bathroom area.
And back to the main part of the room.
I can’t remember if I have mentioned this yet or not, but our room is obviously a studio. I was using a friends points to stay here for one night.
Here you can see the box that was sent to me with a fellow Disers fish extender gifts.
Opening up the cabinet to see what’s inside.
It was now around 3:15ish. We needed to get ready for the Halloween party. I had wanted to arrive right at 4, but it was looking like that plan was not going to be followed. We had to sort out a few things, repack 2 backpacks and get ourselves situated.
A little before 4 we were ready to head out towards the bus stop.
Of course I took a few pictures on the way.
I just had to get a shot (or two) of Claire on the bridge.
I looked for the mailbox as I had a few postcards to mail out from “Mickey” to a few friends.
A walk through the lobby.
And then out to the bus stop. If I remember right, we did not wait too long at all and a bus arrived. Yay! We were so excited to be going to our first ever Halloween party at Disney!
I caught myself in the mirror.
And the time. We weren’t “too” far behind schedule.
I texted my Dis friend Carey to let her know we were running a bit behind. We had wanted to meet up kind of right away, and I sure didn’t want her waiting at the front for me. Good news, she’s a slacker too! They were running behind as well, so we should be arriving very close to the same time.
Our first sights of the Holiday décor.
Now it was a bit of a madhouse getting in. Lots of people coming and going. I had to go through bag check and so did Claire as we had to backpacks. Then I asked where to go in at, but was directed in the wrong direction, gave my party ticket and then they realized I needed to go to the far end to enter with that. Ok, I was trying to be patient, but we were just so excited.
We got in finally, and we did the boring thing ….stopped to get a locker. I knew this was driving Claire a bit mad, as it was doing the same for me, but there was no way I was carrying these 2 bags all day. We got our locker, put 1 bag in and emptied the other as much as possible so I only had to carry the minimal stuff and we were on our way to a PARTY!!!!!!!
Going in during this time of year, you just can’t help but gasp at the decorations.
There was a photopass set up right at the front and I wanted to do it, but Claire said no way was she waiting in that line. Darn it. This was the best I got from her.
But I did make her follow me around to take pictures of all the cute scarecrows.
Those were so cute. I tried again to get her to do the photopass op right there, but nope she wasn’t going to.
Carey and I were in contact and they had just gotten off the bus. Claire and I slowly made our way up main street as we waited for them.
I love all the pumpkins.
And we stopped for a photopass picture since there wasn’t a line.
He took one with my camera too. It was really dark, so I tried to lighten it.
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