From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 85 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 agree with you about the immersed theming of the tropics the minute you enter the lobby. I have always lived those hanging dolphins. I am really looking forward to reading your description of your recent visit because it has been nearly 10 years since our last visit. I loved that first group shot bc you were all still dry so I will have to remember to have a group shot taken.
I'm contemplating a visit on our next trip, with dolphin swim, so I'm really looking forward to reading and seeing all about Discovery Cove
I hope it helps you, although we didn't book a dolphin swim, having done it twice before. I will tell you that if you haven't done it, it is definitely worth doing.
A nice start to your day in Discovery Cove and looks very well themed! That is funny with the dolphins not exactly posing for photos. They got some nerve!
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I agree with you about the immersed theming of the tropics the minute you enter the lobby. I have always lived those hanging dolphins. I am really looking forward to reading your description of your recent visit because it has been nearly 10 years since our last visit. I loved that first group shot bc you were all still dry so I will have to remember to have a group shot taken.
Yes, it was a lovely touch wasn't it and you are so right, everyone is dry at that point. I guess maybe with cell phones and selfie sticks, they decided there was no point?
Finally got caught up again. Love all of your wildlife pictures of the birds. Looking forward to hearing more about your visit to Discovery Cove. I had never heard of it before.
Discovery Cove does look very beautiful and well-themed, but they don't seem totally customer friendly.
Not sure if things have changed since my last visit way back in 2007. But when we were there, the customer service we received that day and when we returned home, easily was second only to Disney. I really hope that it hasn't changed that much.
Finally got caught up again. Love all of your wildlife pictures of the birds. Looking forward to hearing more about your visit to Discovery Cove. I had never heard of it before.
I'm not surprised. I don't think they market it that much. I know it's marketed in the travel brochures in the UK, but I haven't seen much mention of it whenever we're in Orlando.
Not sure if things have changed since my last visit way back in 2007. But when we were there, the customer service we received that day and when we returned home, easily was second only to Disney. I really hope that it hasn't changed that much.
Because we didn't do the dolphin swim, I think it's hard for us to judge, as that's where a lot of the customer service comes in. The members of staff we spoke to on the day were very pleasant and helpful, as you'll see as the day goes on.
Saturday 4 March – part four: it’s all about perception
It was around this point that we bumped into one of the Discovery Cove employees, and we got talking to her. We told her we’d last visited in 2007, and she was talking us through all the changes since then. She told us that we wouldn’t believe the Grand Reef when we saw it, as that was an extension to the park, but apparently it was the same size as the Freshwater Oasis (what was the Grand Reef when we last visited). When we saw both, I could see what she meant. She said she looks at them every day, and thinks that’s wrong, but she’s constantly told it’s not, it’s all about perception.
As not all the private cabanas were taken today, we took the opportunity to have a look at some of them:
Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think they’re worth the price, as they start (start!) from $200…
They use this section for SeaVenture, an underwater walking tour where you wear a diving helmet, but you don’t need to be SCUBA certified to do it. This is why there are much bigger creatures in here, as opposed to the rest of the Grand Reef.
A couple of minutes later, we ran into a member of staff carrying a large circular black net. Mark helped her, by closing the gate she’d just come through, and we stopped to talk to her. Apparently it’s a stretcher for stingrays, and if they need to take them out of the water to do any work on them, they use them, but they also use it for feeding, so that when they turn up with it, they don’t freak out the ray, which is a wonderful idea. Here’s a guy in the water with one to give you an idea…
We headed back to the Laguna Grill, as we figured we’d get something to eat there…
… and look at the selection they had!
I went for the blackened tilapia, but I should’ve guessed this wasn’t going to work out, when the staff member told me it was salmon. Let’s just say the salmon had been standing for far too long under the heat lamp, and it was horribly dry, so I barely ate any of it. It was such a shame, as I remembered how good their previous meals here had been.
We got some shrimps to share, but they turned out to have a spicy sauce on them, so we ended up leaving most of them…
The salad was fine, but then again, if you manage to mess up a salad, you’ve got a really big problem.
Mark had the Laguna beach burger…
Now I didn’t think the burger looked bad, but it can’t have been great, as he told me the best part of the meal was his dessert, chocolate cake:
My dessert of pineapple cake was easily the best bit, and as I didn’t eat much of the rest of my meal, I actually went back and got a second one, it was that light to eat.
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Discovery Cove looks just so pretty. Sorry your food wasn't great.. I would never pay 200 bucks for a cabana either, but lots of people seem to like them! I prefer to explore rather than sit all day, but to each his own!
The Grand Reef certainly looks nice. They did a great job! $200 for a cabana? Wow, that's crazy.
Bummer the food wasn't so good, but glad the desserts made up for it.
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That is funny with the dolphins not exactly posing for photos. They got some nerve! 
Let’s just say the salmon had been standing for far too long under the heat lamp, and it was horribly dry, so I barely ate any of it. It was such a shame, as I remembered how good their previous meals here had been. 
And Discovery Cove! So beautiful and serene! Sorry your salmon was so dry! 
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