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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow. I had some catching up to do!! You guys are doing alot. That was quite a few trips on the safari!! Sorry to hear that your foot/knee was giving you problems.
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Wow, this is a birthday to remember for sure! I was also wondering what the people in the 2nd row of Dinosaur were looking at, but I also noticed the entire car was matchy-matchy!
I'm sorry your feet were giving you so much trouble, you're definitely a trooper for pushing through and covering so much ground.
Thanks! I am sure Emily would agree that this was a great birthday!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
Sounds like an amazing birthday morning so far, Sorry your leg/knee/ankle was bothering you
Thanks!! It was!
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAyers
WOW! So much packed into one day, just reading it made me tired! It looks like you ladies had a wonderful day. I could also ride the safari right over and over again. It's never the same! Just a mommy/daughter trip for her birthday seems like a great idea. My daughter is turning 16 next year, maybe I will surprise her with a trip and leave dad and brother at home!
Thanks! Sounds like a plan!!! Take her!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by travismom
What a great day for Emily's Birthday!!
I believe a cookie and iced coffee is a Great Birthday Breakfast!!!
I'm so sorry for your knee and foot. Hope it started feeling better.
Thanks! I will update the whole knee/foot thing at the end
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Monday, August 19, 2013 – Actual Birthday Continued…………….
After a short rest and change of shoes back at POP, we headed back out to catch the bus to DHS – they had EMH hours this evening, and Emily was on a mission!
We arrived at DHS a bit after 6pm and stopped for a few photopass photos:
Emily’s mission was to be able to ride the Great Movie Ride with the Western version, so our first stop was stopping there to check to see if the Western side was running…………..we stopped at the entrance and asked a CM, explaining that this was our 3rd time checking and we did not want to get in line if it was not running. The CM was fantastic and she had someone checking and she chatted with Emily while we were waiting – she was impressed with how many times Emily had been to WDW in her 14 years and that she was celebrating her actual birthday there today. After waiting for a bit, it was determined that the Western side had finished for the day ~ of course, Emily was really bummed – but completely understood. The CM had asked if we could come back first thing tomorrow morning – of course Emily looked at me, and I told her it was up to her, it was her trip . The CM stated that if we came in the morning, gave her name, she was going to leave instructions for the morning crew, with our name and that we would be let in through the FP entrance for the western side! Emily gave the CM a thank you card! Also – we were scheduled to have breakfast at Akershus in the morning at Epcot, but we called to cancel that as Emily was willing to forfeit that to have the Western version, and she had met the Princesses earlier today.
So then we headed over to the Studio Backlot Tour (another one of Em’s favorites ~ although I am starting to think that every ride/attraction at WDW is Em’s favorites…….well, except Tower of Terror! ). Don’t get me wrong, but this attraction just sucks up soooooo MUCH time, and they have not really changed it much over the years in my opinion, but it was her birthday – I was just following along!
We were getting hungry – and of all the choices in WDW – where does this kid want to eat her birthday dinner??? Toy Story Pizza Planet! Okay then! We ordered a cheese pizza and a meatball sub with side salads!
Next we headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid for the next showing! We always enjoy this, as Ariel is a favorite in our house!
We checked on Toy Story Mania, however, the line was too long – but we did find the Green Army Man!
Then we headed over to Star Tours – another “have to do” for Emily!
It was nearing closing time for the “public” and into the EMH hours, so we started making our way towards Rock ‘n Roller coaster (we knew that once EMH kicked in, the lines would not be so bad). Along the way, we caught some of the Monsters Homecoming Show!
Then we finally made it over to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster ~ trying out the single rider line here!
We had done pretty much all that we had wanted to tonight and Emily had a special gift card from Daddy that she wanted to use – so we headed into the shops. To explain a bit here – when we had been here in July Emily had seen a Sully pillow pet, however, she had already purchased a pillow pet during that trip – and we have a strict rule of ONE stuffie per trip! So Scott had given her a gift card for this trip to be able to purchase the Sully pillow pet ~ we had checked everywhere over the last few days for the Sully Pillow Pet and he was nowhere to be found!!! Another CM was incredibly helpful at the larger gift shop in DHS (name of it is escaping me) and she actually called someone and checked all of WDW property for the Sully Pillow Pet and he was not sold anywhere other than in CA!!! So in the meantime, Emily had been looking around the store and found a giant Stitch that she fell in love with ~ she called Daddy and explained that Sully was in CA and not in FL and asked him if she could use the money for Stitch instead, of course Daddy said yes! This birthday girl was BEYOND EXCITED!!! She loves her Stitch!!!! I kept kidding her that she was going to have to purchase an extra airplane ticket for Stitch!!!
Here is Emily with Stitch courtesy of Photopass!
With Stitch is the loving arms of Emily it was time to call it a night and head back to POP!
This next picture sums up the whole day for me – although to many it may seem elaborate that we were spending her birthday in WDW, but for me, it was simple – there were no major expensive dinners, cakes, etc. It was simply spending the day in her favorite place, then being able to fall asleep on her new favorite stuffie ~ she will always be my baby girl, no matter how many years have gone by and how much taller than me she gets!!! I just look at this photo and it warms my heart!
Up next: Our last day, is there really a Western side???
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Love all of the safari pictures and who could get tired of them. Seem like it was such a good day and wow you got to ride it 4 times. Glad you were not in MK with those thunder storms.
Her birthday seemed to be a real magical one and loved the matching t-shirts that you guys had on.
It's funny-- I think I've actually seen the Western version of GMR more than the Gangster. Maybe it has to do with where they load the people in the wheelchair line? This trip does seem to be more about the rides than the character meals-- another breakfast cancelled! You're getting off cheap! I love that big Stitch, but more than that I love the look on Emily's face as she hugs him. I guess little girls never outgrow their stuffies. I think Juliana will be just the same!
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Sounds like a great birthday! I have a Duffy that is about the size of Stitch. I got him one year and the next time we went back - he wasn't there (in that size) anymore. Anyhow - great times even with your aches and pains and no Western side.
You guys are having rotten luck with the western side! I much prefer it but had never thought to ask for it! Pizza planet looked so good too, getting about breakfast time over here and I just want pizza what a great find with that stitch! Such precious pics after too
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What a great finish to Em's birthday! I can't think of a better way to spend the day than at WDW. Sorry you didn't get to see the Western version, but I'm crossing my fingers you'll get to see it in the morning. And that picture of Stitch and Emily is just precious!
Great updates. Isn't it funny how Emily is the one who likes some of the older / slower rides. It seems she just really enjoys soaking up the atmosphere.
An incredible birthday! You can tell Emily had a great day!
I have those Mickey shoes too - and they are quite comfy! Even kept me dry in one of those FL downpours once! I'm with you on the one stuffie/trip. We're already overflowing and the boys are only 3 & 6!
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– but completely understood. The CM had asked if we could come back first thing tomorrow morning – of course Emily looked at me, and I told her it was up to her, it was her trip 
. The CM stated that if we came in the morning, gave her name, she was going to leave instructions for the morning crew, with our name and that we would be let in through the FP entrance for the western side! 
Emily gave the CM a thank you card! Also – we were scheduled to have breakfast at Akershus in the morning at Epcot, but we called to cancel that as Emily was willing to forfeit that to have the Western version, and she had met the Princesses earlier today. 
). Don’t get me wrong, but this attraction just sucks up soooooo MUCH time, and they have not really changed it much over the years in my opinion, but it was her birthday – I was just following along!
We ordered a cheese pizza and a meatball sub with side salads! 
with ~ she called Daddy and explained that Sully was in CA and not in FL and asked him if she could use the money for Stitch instead, of course Daddy said yes! This birthday girl was BEYOND EXCITED!!! She loves her Stitch!!!! I kept kidding her that she was going to have to purchase an extra airplane ticket for Stitch!!! 
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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