Our First Christmas in the World - COMPLETED 3/26 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I also got in the long line outside Via Napoli, only to realize a couple of minutes later that check-in was actually inside.
Great PP pictures! I love the one in front of China.
Great morning at AK so far! I have to make it a priority of mine to find those kangaroos.
Yeah, that line at Via Napoli is a little confusing. Luckily a CM came along and was asking people how many in their party and ended up telling us that people with ADRs could check in inside.
I'm glad I found your TR, as I always enjoy your adventures and your pictures. You both look so relaxed and happy in your photopass pictures. Being DVC members must be really agreeing with you.
I know what you mean by taking advantage of Photopass or not being in any pictures. On one family vacation, when we rturned home I realized I had hundreds of pictures of DH and the kids but not one of me.
Glad you are joining in! Well, that's interesting that you should say we look so relaxed. There has been a lot of stuff going on in our life and it felt so good to get away. I guess it really did help! photopass works out really well for us!
What a great morning so far! I love all the photos of the Tree of Life.
It was really interesting to see all the different animals. We'd never really explored the trails before - only the ones you see on the way in and out of "It's tough to be a bug" - so that was all new to us.
We’d never seen Finding Nemo: The Musical before, so that was next on the list of things to do. We arrived 10 minutes before the 12:00 show, and got a good seat in the upper level, near the exit (always looking ahead to making a quick get-away!) We both enjoyed it, though not as much as FOLK which we’d seen on our last trip.
Then we headed over to ride Dinosaur with no wait
After that we were hungry for lunch. Restaurantosaurus was near-by and also takes the TiW card, so that was our choice. I had the BLT salad and Jeff had a burger. The bill, including one lychee lemonade was $19.75.
After lunch we headed over to the Pooh meet and greet for some pics.
Then we went back to Asia for Flights of Wonder. And then on to Africa to ride KS. On the way we encountered DeVine. Always a pleasure!
Then on to KS. For the most part, I just let Jeff have the camera while I enjoyed the ride.
We were getting tired, so we decided to head back to BLT for a rest. On the way out we stopped at the tree for some pictures
Then we caught the bus back to BLT.
When we got back to the resort I stopped in the Community Room to see about getting a couple DVDs for later. It’s a nice perk that I hadn’t known about and I wasn’t really sure how it worked, but the CM at the desk explained the procedure and I ended up getting 2 movies: “Mystery, Alaska” and “War Horse”.
Lunch looks delicious -- I'm going to remember that salad as it looks like a great lunch. Great safari pictures! The AK Christmas tree is my very favorite.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Lunch looks delicious -- I'm going to remember that salad as it looks like a great lunch. Great safari pictures! The AK Christmas tree is my very favorite.
Lunch at Restaurantosaurus was great! And, if I'm not mistaken, they had a topping bar, which is always a plus.
The AK tree is so unique with all the animal ornaments.
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I used to have a pet tortoise.............not that large of course!!
photopass works out really well for us!
I love all the photos of the Tree of Life.
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