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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cast - Me (mom), and 14 yo DS, John
Dates - September 13-21, 2008
Special events - My birthday and our first MNSSHP!
For those who may remember, in the days before our trip, I was having trouble deciding whether to drive over to Indy the night before our flight, or to get up early the next morning and drive over. Well, my oldest DS (he didn't go on the trip, not big on WDW , must have been switched at birth ) told me he would drive us over in the morning. Great! Save on hotel room and a week of parking fees!
Saturday, September 13 - 2:30AM
Our flight leaves at 7AM from Indy. It is about 2 hours to drive over. I get everyone up and we drag our tired bodies and suitcases to the car. I double check to make sure I have my ID, boarding passes, money, etc. It is 3AM and POURING rain!
I had not gone to sleep till close to midnight, so I only had about 2-1/2 hours sleep. I am glad I am not driving, especially in the rain. John quickly went to sleep in the backseat, Curtis and I talked. About half-way it stopped raining! Yay! I don't care to take-off in the rain. At 4:55AM, we pull up to the Southwest curbside check-in at the Indy airport. We say quick good-byes and Curtis heads back to Ohio, he has to be at work at 7. Good thing it is a short day.
After checking in curbside, we found our way to the food court and had our first expensive meal of the trip. $10 for a McDonald's breakfast that would have cost half as much at home! We took our time and watched people come and go. I saw so many people that I know had to be going to Disney, they had the Magical Express tags on their carry-on bags!
About 6AM we headed for security. It was a breeze and we were soon sitting at the gate. Airtran was at the gate next to us, headed for Orlando also. There was a family with 3 young boys, their first trip! We talked some and the dad was showing them pictures of WDW on his computer. I'm not sure if the boys were still asleep or if they didn't "get" where they were going because they were pretty passive about it all. I'm sure once they got there that it all changed.
About 6:40, they started boarding. I had checked us in online at exactly the 24 hour mark. We had A26 & A27 boarding numbers. There were only about 4 people in front of us when we boarded! We sat in the 3 row from the front. And we had the row to ourselves. That was great! We kept the empty seat between us. Shortly after take-off, I closed my eyes and caught a nap. I woke up about 20 minutes before we landed. We are almost there!!!
Here we are at the gate, waiting to board our plane to the Happiest Place on Earth!!
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After landing, we found our way over the Magical Express desk. There was no line and we were checked-in and walked straight on our bus! We sat and waited about 10 minutes, no more, for the bus to fill. It was going to Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, PORS and then POFQ. So we would be last off. I enjoyed getting to see OKW and Saratoga Springs, I had never seen them before. Then the bus went to POFQ next, so we weren't the last ones off. We were the only ones that got off at FQ though. There were quiet a few going to RS. It had been less than an hour since we landed.
We walked into the front lobby and straight up to check-in. It only took a couple of minutes and we were finished with that part. I had only purchased 1 day passes before arrival so I had to go to the concierge to add the rest of the days and Park Hopper to our passes. I just couldn't decide how many days I wanted before we got there. A very nice gentleman named George helped me. I told him how many days total I wanted (9) and that I wanted the Park Hopper option. He added the days and then added PH. When he added PH, the computer would say he owed ME $350 refund! Okay! So he started over, same thing. Again, same thing. He kept apologizing over and over. He got his manager. The manager walked him through it, same thing! Again. Again. Same thing. By this point we have been standing there for 30 minutes! I was not upset or anything. The manager kept apologizing. The CM kept apologizing. Finally, the manager said, "Add the days she wants and let her go. I will have to go in the back and add the Park Hopper. And for the delay and trouble it has caused you, we won't charge you for the upgrade to PH." Woo hoo!! Trouble me somemore! We headed out the back door of the lobby into the French Quarter! It was wonderful!
We were in building 7, the furthest from the lobby but not really that far. We were on the second floor, close to the elevators with a parking lot view. I was concerned that it might be noisy being so close to the elevators, but that was never a problem, as you will find out later in the trip.
We were only in our room about 10 minutes when Bell services showed up with all our luggage! We had not been on the ground 2 hours yet! I love Magical Express!! This is the second time we have used it and the service was great both times.
We unpacked, changed clothes and headed for the food court. We were both starving. We both got the bacon cheeseburger meal with fries. I got the chocolate cake for dessert and John got a chocolate shake. He said the shake was awful and threw 3/4 of it away. The cake was only so-so and besides, I was full and threw over half of it away. The burger was good, nothing exciting but not a disappointment either. With that out of the way, we headed for the buses. Hollywood Studios, here we come!
John wanted to ride RnRC and we were hoping to get on the new Toy Story ride. John ran to TS Mania to see if he could get Fast Passes, nope, they were all gone. So we went to RnRC and I went through the line with him. I don't do well on rides that flip, so I didn't ride. But it was neat to see the que and pre-show. After he rode it, he got back in the single rider line and rode again. Then we headed for TS Mania!
In line at the RnRC. The door behind John is all marbles.
TS Mania had a 45 minute wait, but actually only took about 30, so it wasn't too bad. Mom won! Ha! So much for all those hours of video games. He couldn't believe it.
These guys were playing games outside the ride.
Next, we rode The Great Movie Ride. I still love this ride. We were in the front row and John thought our guide was really cute. She was but she was also too old for him. After this we went to Sounds Dangerous. They need to change this show.
As we were leaving, this show came out a side gate to do their show.
We had ADRs for Ohana at the Poly. I wanted to freshen up so we headed back to our room. John went for a quick swim (aka, check out the girls) and I took a shower and cooled off. Something that really bothered me on this trip was the humidity. It was warm but the humidity was terrible.
We headed for the Magic Kingdom and then jumped on the Monorail and rode to the Poly. What a beautiful hotel! We had about a 10 minute wait. This was our first time to eat there and we were not disappointed! The food was out of this world! This is now a must-do on arrival day!
What a great start, the weather looks great and a free PH upgrade!
Except for the humidity, the weather was great the whole week. We only had rain one time. It was the day before we left, in the late afternoon and it only lasted about 20 minutes.
The free PH upgrade was great! It saved me $100. Just more for shopping!
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, must have been switched at birth 
) told me he would drive us over in the morning. Great! Save on hotel room and a week of parking fees!
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