The happiest place on Earth for 28. (TR) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice photos and I too love Dole Whips as no WDW trip is complete without one!
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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!
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Nice photos and I too love Dole Whips as no WDW trip is complete without one!
I first tried one in 2011 at WDW and loved them as I really like pineapple. In WDW they have an orange one which is what DD got but in DL they only had pineapple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Good start to the day so far!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes it was nice once we got in the park, I enjoyed my time alone wandering.
Sounds like a good day so far despite the squabbling chaperones. The pics of the group are excellent! I loved the one of your group in front of the castle. Excellent shot without a lot of patrons strolling through the shot.
Crazy that sometimes adults can act worse than the kids! Luke says I turn on the "teacher look" with folks behaving badly. I'm loving all your photos as they are taking me right back to our vacation last October. Love DL!
Crazy that sometimes adults can act worse than the kids! Luke says I turn on the "teacher look" with folks behaving badly. I'm loving all your photos as they are taking me right back to our vacation last October. Love DL!
You are not necessarily turning on the teacher look but the common sense one!
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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!
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Sounds like a good day so far despite the squabbling chaperones. The pics of the group are excellent! I loved the one of your group in front of the castle. Excellent shot without a lot of patrons strolling through the shot.
I was really pleased with the castle shot, it turned out much better than I thought because there were a lot of people around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Crazy that sometimes adults can act worse than the kids! Luke says I turn on the "teacher look" with folks behaving badly. I'm loving all your photos as they are taking me right back to our vacation last October. Love DL!
Welcome home! I understand 'the look' , glad I could bring back good memories.
This post will be without pictures, sorry about that but no pictures were allowed backstage.
I found an empty bench to sit under the bridge to sit and wait until kids were done. There was another student group waiting for their turn to go in. I thought there was a door nearby and I would see my group soon. DD texted me that they were out but I didn't see her anywhere, I asked her Where are you? She told me they were in Toontown beside the fountain. I remembered seeing a fountain beside RR so off I went but they were not there. I texted DD again and asked what else she was by, she said Minnie's house so I turned around and headed in the other direction where I found everyone milling around.
I am going to insert what DD and our group experienced backstage here - before I move on.
The CM told them no pictures, no video, they walked though toontown and down a path to the right of Minnie Mouse's house, past a wall to see a 'sterotypical movie set' is how DD described it. There were people in sunglasses driving golf carts and other 'attractive' people standing around talking. They turned right and walked behind Toontown mountain. On the mountain's backside was spelled out Mickey in shades of green. Goofy was walking by and greeted students by waving and high fives to all both when they went in and came out of backstage. DD thought that was really cool.
They walked past a big warehouse and saw a CM from the waist down as Minnie but was herself on top taling to someone with a clipboard who had a scarf around his neck just like in the movies. There were cars, buses, and golf carts parked by a grey warehouse. When they got past the warehouse and turned towards its front it had a red metal awning and banners with Disney performing arts and sponsors names written on them. There was a Disney music playing. The front of the building was painted with 'broadway lights' is how DD described it. There were three doors and each door was labeled Studio A, B, and C. Another choir was leaving and DD saw a man in full tail coated suit, she thought was that groups conductor. CM, Ms. Z gave a 5 minute or so spiel about security and that the students were not allowed to talk about them (Disney CM's).
The CM then led them further past the awning, and DD said there were restrooms, vending machines, dressing rooms and just past the building were risers and beyond that a rolling gate that let in buses. They took a group photo then went into studio A. CM 'J' who DD described as 6'3" thin, wearing a white dress and was the happiest, gospel singing, soprano.
'J' greeting them "You're my kids today" then shook every person's hand. DD said the room had a large sound booth along one wall, there were rows of chairs and each had a binder underneath, a grand piano, 3 projector screens. The teacher and chaperones had to go sit in a corner with no talking. DD excitedly described the binders, the front had Disney Performing Arts in gold written on the front and contained 12-24 Disney songs each page laminated with actual music sheets with all the parts. If you can't tell, DD was nearly drooling. DD flipped through some of the pages and remembers seeing a song from these movies: Snow White, Lady and the Tramp, Junglebook, Beauty and the Beast, Nightmare before Christmas, Princess and the Frog, Lilo and Stitch and Toy Story. DD confided to me that she wanted to slip the binder under her shirt and bring it home.
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That sounds so amazing. I bet everyone was so excited. I would have been bursting. Many moons ago when was in school choir we did a mixed set of Disney Classics and I was over the moon with that - this is way beyond a dream come true - more like real life Fantasyland.
Oh my goodness, that sounds like such a wonderful experience!
I agree, DD knew it was a special experience that she will never forget.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cattailmarsh
That sounds so amazing. I bet everyone was so excited. I would have been bursting. Many moons ago when was in school choir we did a mixed set of Disney Classics and I was over the moon with that - this is way beyond a dream come true - more like real life Fantasyland.
Very true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
What an awesome experience! She did a great job describing everything to you and for us!
'J' introduced herself, telling them she had worked with the music end on Broadway, on TV songs, and Disney movies and was friends with the people who sang Circle of Life in the Lion King. She even had their numbers saved in her phone.
'J' led the students in warm-ups then said they would work on "We're Human Again" from Beauty and the Beast, the Christmas movie. They learned their sections, then 'J' said "let's record" and had them grab headphones. DD said she didn't see the headphones when she first arrived so someone must have put them out on the table while they were learning the song. 'J' told them to keep one ear off (headphones) then asked "who wants the solo?" and no one raised their hand so she said had them listen to a tiny bit of the audio but without any recognizable character then asked "who knows this movie?" DD raised her hand, 'J' told her to stand up, loud and proud and say the movie so DD did. 'J' said "wow, you must know lots of Disney facts". 'J' asked again who wanted the solo. DD said she raised her fingers a little on one hand and her friend standing next to her shoved her arm up in the air. 'J' said something like "Oh yeah, you, the Disney girl, come here." (I don't think these happened one right after the other its just the way DD told it to me).
DD went up to 'J' and there was a screen playing the movie with numbers running along it and Mrs. Potts on the screen, a mic, and a music sheet. The music for the song only played in DD's ears and when she's nervous she gets freaked out some so she messed up the first time singing a couple of Mrs. Potts lines. The next time 'J' was happy with it and DD returned to her seat.
'J' then explained how the technicians could make 20 people sound like 40 so they would do that and put everything all together and play the students version with the movie. The kids got to watch the movie clip and listen to them singing the song with DD's solo.
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I'm loving all your photos as they are taking me right back to our vacation last October. Love DL! 
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DD excitedly described the binders, the front had Disney Performing Arts in gold written on the front and contained 12-24 Disney songs each page laminated with actual music sheets with all the parts. If you can't tell, DD was nearly drooling
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