2017: The Year of All the Disney Trips - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I remember from Facebook how much chaos you and your mom had getting your flights to Orlando. I hope the crowding issue doesn't become a theme for this whole trip.
sorry that i'm not responding to everyone's comments right now. i will, i promise. but for now i have maybe ten minutes so here's the conclusion of day 2:
you will recall that i had plans to maybe have dinner at citricos but then heather messaged me with a better idea. and that idea was...
*drumroll*
a progressive monorial bar dinner!
which was awesome. except it turned out to be not so much a monorail dinner. here's why:
as i was staying at the floridian, we decided to meet there and end our evening there. this meant that our first dining experience would be at the contemporary. so we got on the monorial, rode it two stops to the contemporary, and headed to the bar at the wave where we had a drink and shared a cheese plate. it was rather chill and very classy and felt like a bar in not-disney, which was very welcome.
and then we tried to leave. and the monorail was down, as it was repeatedly throughout my stay (i will have words on this later). thankfully the CM manning the monorail station was informative enough that we were able to make the decision to not wait for a likely-not-ever-arriving monorail and instead take an uber to the poly. which is ridiculous, but what can you do when the monorail is down?
we then shared pulled pork sliders at the bar outside of ohana, where we also made sort-of friends with a group from alabama who were there to watch the playoff game and cheering very loudly for the falcons. it was at this point that i realized that 1. football season was still happening (seriously i could not be less of a sports fan) and 2. heather can talk about football even with rabid fans from a southern state. this was very impressive to me.
also the alabama people made fun of my accent. MY accent? MY ACCENT?
a good time was had by all.
we then walked back to the floridian (you know, because no monorail) which was actually kind of lovely. and then managed to get a table at narcoossee's for our final plates of the day--she had the calamari and i had the shrimp and grits. neither were very good and both were insanely priced, but whatever.
i highly recommend doing a self-guided monorail bar appetizer crawl. even given our challenges, it was a great time. and each stop had a totally different vibe. i'd do it again. (but seriously, i do NOT have an accent!)
after our bar crawl, heather hung out with me in my (again) ridiculously-large one bedroom villa for a few hours before driving home. and then i went to sleep.
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Had to giggle about Alabamians making fun of YOUR accent.
Reminded me of a New England trip years ago where Bostonians I met kept telling me I had such a charming Southern accent. Admittedly, I lived close to Oklahoma then so had picked up some OK accent.
However, these were people with "pahk the cah" speech so profound we could barely communicate. Yet I who clearly articulate my "r's" was the one with an accent!
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
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.
We are hoping to do the same thing next we are there! Sounds fun. Sorry about the monorail. Seems like we are hearing that it's down more and more.
i highly recommend doing this! they've started offering it now as a dining package/event thing, but it is expensive--i believe something like $130/pp. we did the math and figured that we spent around $120 total for the two of us--including drinks--so there's no reason to do the disney-guided option.
also, if it isn't cold when you visit (it was cold when we were there), i'd exchange the ohana bar for the outdoor terrace bar near trader sam's. which is my favorite bar on property. and i believe they serve bar food.
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We originally saw it when it was offered by Disney. Pretty darn expensive and we figured we could do it cheaper. Thanks for the tip on the bar outside. We normally go for the food and wine festival in October so the weather is usually pretty nice.
Glad you had a good evening with Heather and you seemed to enjoy each others company!
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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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