A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 99 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More great shots! I think Jese and I left after the fireworks and rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Ariel's Under Sea Adventure while the second parade was going on. I know we didn't have to wait for anything and called it a night after that--we were both worn out! It was such a fun night!
I know you headed off to do some rides. I'm glad you were able to get on some with no wait. I've heard during the parades at the Christmas Party is a great time to do that, but I've never tried it during the second parade, as we always opt to see that one, as the crowds are lighter than at the first one.
Wednesday 12 December – part one: please let the room be ready!
If I’m honest, I was awake far too early this morning – about 6:00am. I didn’t want to completely go back to sleep, as I had a lot I wanted to do this morning, making SeaWorld being one of those things, so I drifted back to sleep until about 6:45am, then got up, and set to work on the mammoth task of updating the trip report, and editing the mass of photos I took yesterday. My goodness, I took a lot!
We got going, and packed up all the cases. Fortunately, everything seemed to easily fit into the four cases, which is a good sign, although we didn’t yet have the kitchen purchases we’d made. We split our time, with Mark going to the Polynesian to pick up the car, and then the kitchen purchases, while I called bell services, and tidied up the room.
It took Mark forever to get to the Polynesian and back. I think, in total, he was gone something like 40 minutes, during which time I worked out there was absolutely no way we’d make it to SeaWorld today, not when we needed to be at the Studios for lunch at midday. Never mind, hopefully we could still fit it in at some point, and I could always find something else to do…..
Well, my plans went out of the window, as Mark obviously wasn’t well, and went to lie down on the bed, complaining of sinus. He’d felt fine when he got up, and said the problems had started when he got on the monorail, so maybe that’s what set his head off. Either way, he wasn’t in a good way.
I had to check what time check-out was, and thankfully it wasn’t until 11:00am, so at least we had another hour. I was about to go out, and get some photos around the resort, while he slept, but I went to put something back in my small carry-on case, and as I turned away from it, it decided to fall. I went to stop it, as I didn’t want it to wake Mark up, but I was too late. Not only did I miss it, but I managed to smack my head on the TV and bruise my arms quite badly. Of course, it also woke Mark up. That was it, I wasn’t going anywhere outside on my own, after hitting my head, just in case anything happened to me. Not a good start to the day…
The day did look up when we saw a guy out on the tennis courts. Honestly, he was a real fitness nut, doing sprints (back and forwards – sadly I wasn’t quite quick enough to get a shot of that), press-ups, star jumps, you name it… he was doing it!
There was also excitement out on the water:
Just before 11:00am, we headed out, with Mark managing to drive over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I would’ve offered to drive, but I know he’s not a good passenger at the best of times, and I figured if he was a passenger now, it would probably make his head much worse.
I asked if he wanted to cancel our lunch with Bruce and Marta, and he agreed, so I sent them a text, and Marta gave me a quick call back. I was upset we wouldn’t get to see them again this trip, but hopefully we’ll see them when we return – November with any luck.
Soon we arrived…
.. and headed inside to check in.
We were met by Peggy, who was an absolute star. I was amazed when she had a room that was ready. More than ever before, we really needed one.
We didn’t get very far though, as we stopped off in the lobby to get some photos, and there was a Photopass photographer there as well.
We got stopped again at the DVC booth, and chatted away to the representatives there for a couple of minutes, before we made our way further along, when the sight of animals outside on the savannah stopped me again…
Eventually, we made it upstairs to our room….
It was overlooking the Sunset Savannah, but with a view we’d never had before. Usually we’ve been looking back towards the Jambo House entrance, but this was a view straight towards Kidani Village. This was the sight that greeted us….
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What a tough start to the day. Poor Mark, with his sinus issues! I used to get sinus headaches and they were always worse when there was an air pressure shift, so maybe a front was moving in that day. Then you had to bump your head just to join him! I'm so glad the room was ready at AKL, and it looks like a nice, comforting room to rest in.
What a tough start to the day. Poor Mark, with his sinus issues! I used to get sinus headaches and they were always worse when there was an air pressure shift, so maybe a front was moving in that day.
That's a good point - I remember Wendy saying how her headaches always came on when a weather front came in.
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Then you had to bump your head just to join him!
I know - accident prone, that's me!
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I'm so glad the room was ready at AKL, and it looks like a nice, comforting room to rest in.
It was - the view outside was amazing, as you'll see over the next few instalments...
Poor Mark and his sinus problem Maybe he just inhaled too much Pixie dust the day before by hanging out so much with his Homeys
Love pics from AKV can't wait to see what kind of view we get in Nov
I am so excited to see your new location........................
however, not too excited how you got there - hope you were okay after that fall
and what a way to start the day for Mark -
hope you two were able to get some rest!!!
Can't wait to see more from AKL!!!
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What a great evening at Ohana, and the party! Loved the interactions with the dwarves!! I need to do one of the parties some day. Hoping once our kids are in college, we can do a lot more Disney trips! We've often remarked on the types of trips we could take had we not had kids. We'd have at least another $2000/month - that could finance some fun, don't you think?!
Love AKL, and so glad the room was ready with how you both felt.
What a shame you had to cancel your plans for Sea World, and your lunch date with friends I'm glad Mark was able to rest up a bit, I hope his sinus issues don't last too long!
Great pictures today! The ones of the girl on the water skis reminds me of the days they used to have goofy out there, I remember watching him on his wakeboard from the ferry when I was a kid Your room at AKL looks lovely, and you had a great view of the savannah!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Pressure changes with a headache, sinus or otherwise, are brutal. I'm prone to headaches, migraines included (though its been awhile) so I totally understand how Mark was feeling droopy. The 8th dwarf, Droopy.
So glad your room at AKL was ready though. And with such awesome views too. Score!
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Had a great time!
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Pixie Dust
Never mind, hopefully we could still fit it in at some point, and I could always find something else to do…..
Either way, he wasn’t in a good way. 
That was it, I wasn’t going anywhere outside on my own, after hitting my head, just in case anything happened to me. 
More than ever before, we really needed one. 
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