From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 87 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Love the picture of Mark and his friends! Birds of a feather? Had that been Mike, the cap would have been soiled, he's a magnet for that. So not sure he'd agree to hold the food!
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LOL at Mark being the bird whisperer! (And the donkey whisperer :rofl ) My dd is like that-I don't think there's an animal out there that doesn't like her. She's all of our cats favorite human. It's a good thing she wants to be a vet tech.
That is Mark! Cats and dogs love him too... the only exception is probably cows, but that's probably because he often has a habit of making comments about steaks to them...
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Anyway, DC looks simply amazing! It's definitely on my bucket list.
It is well worth doing and the dolphin swim is something very magical.
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What a fun update!!. I must admit I was a little worried when you first started this day that I had made the right decision to come here but now it looks like you guys are having a ball!! I the photos of your very own bird whisperer!!
You're right, we did have a ball and amazingly it was the aviary that was the complete winner for us - fascinating given how you expect to come here for dolphins and other marine life.
Awww Mark! That's so cool. Well, not with Gareth, but with the birds!
Well, so long as he can get my adopted donkey over to talk to me, then I'm happy.
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And yes, I can't believe the two pool areas are the same size. What a difference between them! Glad they won't force you into a full body suit. No thank you!
I have bad memories of those from our last two visits. Ugh.
Love the picture of Mark and his friends! Birds of a feather? Had that been Mike, the cap would have been soiled, he's a magnet for that. So not sure he'd agree to hold the food!
Ah well, you wait and see what happens with the cap....
I got to tour Discovery Cove about 3 years ago. It is so beautiful and on my bucketlist. We just never have enough time and the cost is so high that I don't want to add it to our plans....but some day we will.
I loved the bird aviary too. It was absolutely amazing in there....and I just basically did a walk through with my guide.
I do remember them telling me about the wetsuits and you had to wear them in the water. It was because of the colors, etc, so they staff was trained to see people easily and if they were in trouble. I would have to go back and read my Trip report but I do think they offered life jackets too at that time.
I remember reading that report. My goodness, it wasn't three years ago already, was it?
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It is so beautiful and on my bucketlist. We just never have enough time and the cost is so high that I don't want to add it to our plans....but some day we will.
I loved the bird aviary too. It was absolutely amazing in there....and I just basically did a walk through with my guide.
I do remember them telling me about the wetsuits and you had to wear them in the water. It was because of the colors, etc, so they staff was trained to see people easily and if they were in trouble. I would have to go back and read my Trip report but I do think they offered life jackets too at that time.
Ah that makes more sense about the lifeguards being able to see people.
I can't believe your last visit was back in 2007 too. I have never had the desire for a full wet suit but I have done the vests and the short wet suit. Another thing to consider is the water temperature is for the comfort of the animals not us so the wet suits really help maintain our body temperature.
Nice photos from Discovery Cove. $200 is a bit much for those cabanas and I would never pay that. Too bad your meal was quite off with the salmon being so dry and everything else being sub par! Mark was certainly having a great time with the birds and looks like he has a knack for attracting them!
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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!
I can't believe your last visit was back in 2007 too. I have never had the desire for a full wet suit but I have done the vests and the short wet suit. Another thing to consider is the water temperature is for the comfort of the animals not us so the wet suits really help maintain our body temperature.
Yes that's true. When we were there in 2007, it was a cold day, so in fairness, we were glad of the wetsuits.
Once Mark got rid of his new feathered friend in the aviary, we continued walking, and were greeted by these beautiful guys:
We headed into the next portion of the aviary and found even more amazing species:
We also met a staff member with this macaw, which is trained to fly around, although today, because it was a bit windy, they were only allowing him to do it in here, which is fair enough. She also demonstrated him “talking” and “singing”, which was fascinating. We learnt that macaws can live to up to 80 years, so they try and educate people to say that getting them as a pet isn’t a good idea. I also asked her about the two I’d seen grooming each other earlier, and apparently just like donkeys, they can be best friends, and can groom each other. Cool!
We then got to see him fly, and wow what a spectacle that was!
There was a small third section to the aviary, and as soon as we walked in, look what happened! I tell you, the bird whisperer!
Now we didn’t notice it at the time, but look closely here… and what do you see? Yep, you got it – the bird, who was earlier threatened with a nasty end if he pooped on Mark’s DVC cap, had indeed done that – just as well he didn’t know that at the time…
Anyway, at some point, either here, or earlier on, one of the birds managed to have a bit of an accident on Mark… he noticed his shorts had been pooped on, so that was it, they’d have to go into the wash when we got back. Oh well, we were planning a wash anyway, so that’s something…
While Mark sorted himself out, I took the opportunity to get a few more photos…
Now we still hadn’t been in the water, and frankly we were both cool with that. We loved this section near the aviary, but there were no lockers/wetsuit facilities here, which was a real pain. We discussed whether to get changed and get in the water, but both decided we were cool with everything we’d seen, and didn’t feel the need to do that, so we ended up making our way out.
I suspect some of you reading this may be thinking “wow, what a waste”, but you know, we were happy, and at the end of the day, our ticket included admission to three other parks we were planning to visit anyway, and parking at each, which saved us $60, so we were happy with our decision.
Those birds are amazing!! All of them!! I can't believe the birds and Mark and the special relationship they have!! I hope the bird droppings came out of everything okay!! Just tell Mark it's good luck!
I completely understand the being happy with everything you'd seen and done/not swimming. Our Disney vacations are never jam packed, simply bc I physically can't. I'm sure to a lot of people the way we tour is a waste of money, but to us it's just right. The main thing for us is that we have fun, do our favorites, etc. What works for some won't work for others, but that's what makes life interesting.
Wow, that's a lot of birds. Our son would absolutely love this! I had no idea Discovery Cove had this at all. I thought it was all water animals!
I hope you guys were able to clean up Mark's hat. It's kind of funny though...
And, really, a pool is a pool is a pool. Yes there's the snorkeling option and whatever. But at the end of the day, it's still swimming in a pool. Totally understand that decision.
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It's a good thing she wants to be a vet tech. 
Cats and dogs love him too... the only exception is probably cows, but that's probably because he often has a habit of making comments about steaks to them... 
I 
the photos of your very own bird whisperer!!
Too bad your meal was quite off with the salmon being so dry and everything else being sub par! 
Mark was certainly having a great time with the birds and looks like he has a knack for attracting them! 
– just as well he didn’t know that at the time… 
I hope the bird droppings came out of everything okay!!
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