Our trip of many firsts 10 year anniversary blowout - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Juan worked until 2am so I was up at 1:30 to go get him - after we got home I went back to bed for about another 2 hours and Juan never came to bed at all, he just dozed in the chair. We moved the bed into the kitchen so they could paint and wallpaper while we were gone and I finished my last minute packing.
My dad came to get us at 6:30 and after a coffee run for him we were off to Manchester regional airport. Security went smoothly and I went to Dunkin Donuts for iced tea and coffee, by the time I got back to the gate we were lined up ready to board.
Our flight was uneventful - I was so exhausted that I nodded in and out the whole flight and Juan played the Nintendo ds. We landed early and went straight to DME where we got right on a bus. There was a guy that kept asking the bus driver when we were leaving every 5 minutes - kind of annoying. He hopped off at okw and the lady behind me said I hope that he doesn’t have to wait for a bus to the parks for too long, apparently he was accosting the bus driver even before we got on the bus. Some people.
French Quarter was the last stop and I loved it the minute I stepped off the bus. I was almost floating to check-in. We picked out our beads- Juan got orange and black and I picked green and blue and our anniversary button. Our room was ready (yeah) so off we went - we were in building 4 - room 4319 - corner - (I was ecstatic) It was a great the king sized bed looked so inviting but we were starving, so after a quick change to the shorts that I had in my duffel bag (which ended up being a lifesaver let me tell you) off to the bus stop we went to catch the bus to the studios so we could hop the boat to the beach club as beaches and cream cheeseburgers were calling our names. We did not wait all that long for a bus which almost became the theme for the trip (just once but that comes later). After a quick wait we were on the boat and arriving at b&c. There was a couple in front of us who were told a ½ hour so we got our pager and decided to wait it out. As soon as we sat down it seemed our pager went off and we were led to our table. I got a single cheeseburger and Juan got a double cheeseburger we both got fries and cokes in the bottles. So yummy - a great first meal.
After Juan paid oop we left through the yacht club and made our way to the bus stop for downtown Disney. The dd buses were the longest waits we had this whole trip funny because of how close it is to the French quarter. I only bought one shirt on this trip over as we would be there later in the week and because we were both hot and tired. We got in line for the boat to go back to the quarter and in no time we were back and after buying our mugs we were back in the room. Our luggage was already there so I unpacked and we got into bed. It was really early but we were both so tired we just crashed. We did not use a wake up call this whole trip because we were in bed early every night except 2.
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Because of our going to bed so early the night before we were up at 4:30am and just stayed in bed talking - we were getting picked up by quicksilver at 8:30 to go to universal. We went down to eat breakfast at 6:30 but they did not start serving breakfast until 7 so we just hung out in the food court until then. Juan got the Creole platter and I got a side of bacon and the parfait with yogurt, raspberries and granola. Pretty good. After we were done we went to wait for our town car outside.
At 8:30 Juan spots an escalade with quicksilver plates and I don’t think anything of it because we reserved a town car. A few minutes later I walk over and it turns out it is for us - sweet an upgrade - yeah. What a great ride. We got to universal and I had to go to guest services to get my tickets and then I had to go to will call to get the paper for the dining plan that I had bought. By this time the park was already open so we headed in and right onto shrek - great as usual. From there we walked to the back of the park and by then the rest was open and we walked right onto men in black then over to the simpsons - sorry but I did not like this ride at all. Way too rough and not what I expected. Anyway - we walked over to see if et was open yet and it was not so we skipped it and walked to disaster- there was a show starting in 20 minutes so we waited. It was cute with Christopher walken and the rock. We were getting hungry so we went to mels to eat. The lady actually screwed up and gave us 2 sandwiches for Juan and 1 for me but with the meal deal we did not pay anyway. From there we went through the stores but did not find anything. From there we went across to Islands of adventure.
Once we got to Islands we went into some stores first to look around then we went onto spiderman. Then we went onto popeyes bilge raft barge and got more soaked then I EVER got on kali - every part of me was wet - I ended up getting a blister on my toe from having my wet socks on all day - it did feel good though on that hot day - the blister was so worth it.
We went to Poseidon fury next - I so love that still. By this time it was getting late so Juan went and bought some stuff that he found in the store that he wanted and from the we went to eat at circus mcgurkus and got the fried chicken. We sat for a while and just enjoyed the ac. From there we ended up going to the arcade from lunch and I racked up a lot of tickets playing deal or no deal.
It was getting on to 5 pm our pick up time so we left and went to wait for quicksilver. We got to pickup early and thank goodness he was early so we were on our way back to the quarter before 5.
We got back to the room and were just too wiped to do anything, after a while we got hungry so I went down to the food court to get food - I got fried chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy and corn for me and a hotdog with fries for Juan. I got beignets and a brownie for dessert. That fried chicken rocked - Juan even loved it. (Then again I think Juan was a chicken in a former life) - Those beignets were awesome too.
Juan and I both discussed and found universal to be lacking for us this time around. We won’t be going back for a while.
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Liz 
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Great start! 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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