10 for 10 in 2010 – Our Joyous January Journey Pre-Trip Report - UPDATED 1/20 - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We're back from our adventures in NYC! We started off the day at American Girl Place, but that's a whole 'nother story, so I'll begin at the start of the Disney portion of the day. We walked over to World of Disney, which is all decked out for the holidays. Here's a look at the front window:
They were running a big sale -- 40% off all WoD NYC logo merchandise. We had mixed feelings about the one sale, on the one had there were great bargains to be had but on the other hand it was sad knowing that the sale meant that WoD's closure is getting closer--we're going to miss it. We picked up a few souveniers -- a Statue of Liberty Minnie, a magnet and fleeces for DH and me. I never got around to ordering the ones I saw online, which is a good thing because the ones we ended up getting were really nice and a great deal (mine was only $18 because I was able to get a kids' XL). Here's a look:
We had to wrap up our shopping because we were within 30 minutes of show time for The Princess and the Frog showing. We walked to the theater, which is just a couple of blocks from WoD.
Everything ran very smoothly--the CMs outside were issueing wrist bands then inside there were CMs organizing the collection of cameras, which were not allowed in the theater.
Before we went in to get our seats I took a quick trip to the ladies' and told DH to grab a snack for DD. When I came back out I found them at the register and noticed that the display said "$14.04"--that was for a small popcorn, a soda and a bottle of water. I was like, "what the???" and DH explained that he did the sucker purchase of the special cup with the little plastic Princess Tiana doll on top, sigh. Oh well, what can 'ya do?
We made our way into the theater and were surprised to see that it wasn't too crowded. We had opted for open seating tickets and got seats at the end of the second row of the balcony (the first row was blocked out -- they were marked as reserved seats but the whole row was covered with a black cloth so they must not have sold those tickets for our showing). Our seats were great, we had no one in front of, behind or next to us. The movie was fantastic! But I wont get into that because I don't want to spoil the fun for others.
Once the movie was over we headed to the camera claim area then walked a few blocks over to the ballroom where the Ultimate Disney Experience was taking place.
When we walked into the ballroom it was like mecca for princess lovers! Tiana was up on a stage in the middle then each of the other princesses were in little circus train-like cars around the ballroom. This shot from the balcony gives you an idea of the set-up:
The line to meet Princess Tiana was very short so we figured we better hit that first. Here she is--her gown is so pretty!
Here's another shot from a distance so you can see the cool background they had for her:
We started making our way around the room meeting the other princesses. The lines weren't bad at all--I think the longest we waited was under 10 minutes for Ariel. Some of the princesses had no line at all. Here are a couple more shots of the princesses:
DD decided to take a break from the princesses when she spotted the bayou play area. It was really cute -- made to look like a swamp with blue foam pieces (filled up like ball pit) and lilypads for jumping. There was also a slide area and tire swings. I think she would've been happy to stay in there all day but we finally got her to come out and venture over to the crafts area.
This was the bar, which they converted into an arts and crafts area where kids could make crowns and masks.
After about an hour or so we were starting to get hungry (and hot -- it was very warm in there), so I took a quick run through the upstairs to see the memorabilia and to get our picture taken on the green screen (they then impose your family on a scene from the movie and you can download the pic for free from home -- very cool). On the way out we stopped at the gift shop, which was really pretty thin on merchandise. Just costumes and stuffed frogs. No Tiana dolls at all. Not sure if they were just running low on inventory or if that's all they carry. Not complaining though because it got us out of buying something for DD.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
. We walked over to World of Disney, which is all decked out for the holidays. Here's a look at the front window:
We picked up a few souveniers -- a Statue of Liberty Minnie, a magnet and fleeces for DH and me. I never got around to ordering the ones I saw online, which is a good thing because the ones we ended up getting were really nice and a great deal (mine was only $18 because I was able to get a kids' XL). Here's a look:
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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