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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I have read most of all your fantastic trip reports with all your great creative and fun writing styles. I tend to waffle on and just stick to facts so bare with me and just lets hope I don't put you all to sleep.
OK so here goes our trip report,
Along for the ride:
Me- Sharron
Husband David
Daughter - Jessica
Day 1
Thursday 13th May
We were all still recovering from our cold and chest infections but thanks to all the Pixies we seemed to be getting better.
Our UK flight time was 2:30pm with Virgin Atlantic 9 1/2 hours is a long time but with all the entertainment it should go quickly right........
No..... the entertainment system didn't work just on our section no tv or music, nothing but being positive we just kept thinking about Disney and what we would do once we got there. I purchased my yearly Elizabeth Arden eight hour rescue cream set which saved me £32 This is my desert island must have.
We arrived in Orlando at 6:30pm customs was pretty straight forward and bags were picked up within 5 minutes, how great was that.
We followed the signs to the Alamo counter the queue was very long but moved quickly, everyone before seemed to be getting quite long conversations about upgrading and extra insurance etc but when we got there we were given our paperwork for a compact car and as we had pre paid were told to go pick which car we wanted. On arrival at the pickup point there were no compact cars available and were told to just pick any car we wanted omg how good was that. Very good start to the holiday.
We took in the sights on the way from the airport to the French Quarter check in was painless and were allocated building 6 and were given a free upgrade to a water view room 6143 and a free one day voucher for world of sports (we never did use this but the cards had disney characters on them so home they came with us)
We arrived at the room about 8:30pm which was very clean and a lovely mickey towel on the bed and there was also a bounce back clock on the table yeyyyy. We plomped everything down and decided to pop out and explore the resort. We headed towards the main building via the river front which was beautiful at night and found sassalouga floatworks, purchased our disney mugs and then proceeded onto DTD on the river taxi boat we didn't last very long at DTD as tiredness quickly took effect as we had been awake over 23 hours by then and we decided to head back and call it a day.
Jess was a little hungry and picked up a packet of cheetos whilst we refilled our mugs back at POFQ, there didn't appear to be any prices around for the crisps but thought we are on holiday and how expensive can a bag of small crisps be at Disney anyway omg $2.97 let it go Shaz. We got back to the room at 11pm and before I knew it I was off in the land of nod. Zzzzzzzzzzzz very happy.
Wow - what a long day for you. Just the thought of doing that many hours makes me tired but I know if I had been in your shoes, 23 hours wouldn't have seemed like much because Disney was the result. Disney always makes a difference somehow doesn't it?
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Day Two
Alarm woke me up at 6:30am and we were out of the door by 8am got our coffee fix and we were off to Epcot.
We were a little late for the opening but never mind we had our voucher to exchange for our passes. Donna was lovely and she explained to us that our ticket could not be purchased in the US and we were lucky to have a 14 day park hopper with water park and and more option.
First attraction on our list was Soaring (sooo love this ride) we were given row 3, pity about being able to see peoples feet during the experience but love this ride wherever I am seated, the big fireworks explosion makes me and Jess jump every time. 25 minute wait.
We grabbed fast passes for later and as Living with the Land was only a 5 min wait we hopped on then went on to Test Track. Throughout the holiday I kept calling it Fast Track which made Jess laugh. Test Track wait time listed as 45 min but took us about 55 min this ride was the longest we waited in line the whole holiday. now here is where you see how much of a wimp I am. I was fine in the queue, I was fine when I got in the car but as soon as it set off I started to panic and at one point I really really wanted to get off and had to close my eyes and huddled up next to Jess but as soon as we got on the outside track I was able to open my eyes and enjoy the ride. I did mean to go back on the ride again at some point during the holiday but this never happened.
Mission space up next green option for me, wait time listed as 5 min but we walked straight on.
We had a walk from `Morocco to UK and then decided that we were a little hungry -now we love our pizza and on previous trips to Florida we found Cicci's Pizza and as we were on a budget they have Pizza, Salad, Pasta and Dessert for under $6.50 so this is where we headed as we needed to pick up a couple of essentials from Walmart.
After a quick detour offsite we headed back to Epcot to use our FP for Soaring, a stroll round WS and view Illuminations we managed to get a space on the border of UK and France but there are a lot of trees which blocked our view a little but not our enjoyment of the Fireworks. Up next was Space Ship Earth, If I remember right there used to be a big phone at the end of this ride which has been gone for some years now we always used to ring our family from here. Tonight was EMH but the queues were so long and the extra 3 hours went so quickly.
Tired and happy we returned to FQ our refilled mugs in tow. Jessica slipped off and got a birthday button from reception for her dad as his birthday was in a couple of days and kept it hidden well until the big day and got our heads down for our busy day tomorrow.
Wow - what a long day for you. Just the thought of doing that many hours makes me tired but I know if I had been in your shoes, 23 hours wouldn't have seemed like much because Disney was the result. Disney always makes a difference somehow doesn't it?
Disney is always worth the long travel and the wait.
We have just decided we are going back in May 2011 let the planning begin
We were up quite early but after yesterdays late night we were unable to make the extra magic hours for DHS (yes you were all right passporters). Jess was sooo tired so we left her in bed and had a stroll round and a coffee. We gave her an extra hour then went back to the room to roll her out of bed and eventually we made our way back and had a leisurely breakfast at the counter service at POFQ I really wanted to try the biegnettes before we left so we had those with sides of bacon and sausage.
I was really sad to leave POFQ I wish we had booked a few more nights but as this was our first stay at Disney we just wanted a taster. We loved it and would stay at POFQ any time.
Now a confession......... on arrival at POFQ we had expected a safe in the room we looked every where but couldn't find one : but thought due to being given a free upgrade and we were only stopping two nights we could carry the passports and travellers cheques with us without having to ask reception for another room with an in room safe. Well as you can image as you are all probably shouting its behind the curtain we found it on the last day when I shut the curtain whilst changing my clothes. Oh well lesson learned.
We left POFQ knowing we would be back to visit again on this vacation.
As we were on a budget and we had points left on RCI we had used this to book The Hilton at Sea World for the next 14 days. We were pleasantly surprised the resort is beautiful and on looking at the itinerary there are a lot of activities including the dive in a Disney movie played at the main swimming pool every three evenings. We would definitely be trying that on our stay. We were allocated room 7111 which had a pool very close so we didn't have to keep walking to the main pool or we could also call reception and they would send a golf cart to pick us up / drop us back to the room if required. I was very impressed with the room and wouldn't hesitate to recommend here to anyone, for an off property stay. The rooms are very spaceous and even had our very own towel animals waiting for us which was a nice touch. We quickly divided our clothes up in our rooms and headed out to DHS around 12:30pm we managed to do the Back Lot Tour, The Great Movie Ride and Star Tours before hunting out a space for the Block Party Bash at 3:00pm.
The sun really seemed to effect me the most today it seemed really hot. I found a location where a couple with two small children in strollers had a bench under an umbrella quite close to the taped off area, most of the bench was covered with their bags and they were unwilling to move them and seemed more intent on making sure the children stayed in their strollers in the full heat of the sun so not to lose their place whilst they the adults sat in the shade with their bags.
My daughter and I tried to stand just under the umbrella for a little shade After the parade we took a look at the wait time for TSM but at 90 min it was a no from me.
We popped back to our room to freshen up before heading out for our reservation at Ohana. We arrived at the parking lot at 7:50pm for our reservation at 8:25pm the parking lot was full but a lovely CM told us to park in one of the special reserved bays as they are rarely used and they never tow away a car anyway. The queue at the podium was quite long and the poor CM seemed be quite stressed poor thing as people were obviously complaining. As I waited in line a family in front were very rude to her as she was unable to find their booking under their name and they had not brought their booking reference, they went away very unhappy. As we finally got to the front of the queue she apologised for the long wait I gave our name which came up on the system along with the note saying we were celebrating our anniversary, she had no pagers and again thanks us for our patience and promised we would be next in line to get the next available pager which we got within minutes and the pager went off within 5 minutes.
Our cousin came to welcome us and show us around and gave us our welcome pineapple bread and asked us to repeat after him I promise....... I will leave room for dessert. Soooooo funny.
We were walked around towards the back of the restaurant where I thought we were being seated but we were shown where the food is prepared and cooked then proceeded to show us to our table. OMG a table with a full view of the Magic Kingdom Castle, It dawned on me then that the fireworks were at 9pm and we would be able to see them from our table. This was such a special evening. I had, had no idea that the music would be piped in and that the fireworks could be seen from Ohanas. It was amazing I was mesmerised I think I watched it with my mouth open like a gold fish thankfully no photos of me looking this way. This was Jessica's favourite meal of our whole stay. Of our two cousins serving us one was very surly but the other more than made up for it. The food and service was fantastic, fresh pineapple bread, house salad, pot stickers and chicken wings for starters. Noodles, broccoli and fire roasted meats and shrimp brought to the table, we were sooooo stuffed but we had made the promise earlier on so we just had to eat the dessert. It was fantastic banana bread pudding with fosters sauce and vanilla ice cream it was to die for. A cupcake was also brought out for us for our anniversary and a lady gave us lays.
I had really wanted to try Ohanas on this trip and the first reservation I was able to get was for the following week at 9:40 a little late but beggars cant be choosers. A couple of days before we left home DH managed to get reservations for this evening the intention was to cancel the other when we got here but after the amazing evening we decided we would return again. As we were so full we decided to have a walk round the resort before heading off back to our room. The Poly is beautiful in the evening I hope we get to stay there one day.
Next Animal Kingdom and finally some pictures to upload
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Sounds like you're having a wonderful trip! We'll be staying at POFQ for the first time this year - I can't wait! We love 'Ohana for dinner -very yummy! What great timing you had to be able to see Wishes as you had your dinner! Can't wait to hear more!
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Disney is always worth the long travel and the wait.
: but thought due to being given a free upgrade and we were only stopping two nights we could carry the passports and travellers cheques with us without having to ask reception for another room with an in room safe. Well as you can image as you are all probably shouting its behind the curtain we found it on the last day when I shut the curtain whilst changing my clothes. 
Oh well lesson learned.
It dawned on me then that the fireworks were at 9pm and we would be able to see them from our table. This was such a special evening. I had, had no idea that the music would be piped in and that the fireworks could be seen from Ohanas. It was amazing I was mesmerised I think I watched it with my mouth open like a gold fish thankfully no photos of me looking this way. This was Jessica's favourite meal of our whole stay. Of our two cousins serving us one was very surly but the other more than made up for it. The food and service was fantastic, fresh pineapple bread, house salad, pot stickers and chicken wings for starters. Noodles, broccoli and fire roasted meats and shrimp brought to the table, we were sooooo stuffed but we had made the promise earlier on so we just had to eat the dessert. It was fantastic banana bread pudding with fosters sauce and vanilla ice cream it was to die for. A cupcake was also brought out for us for our anniversary and a lady gave us lays. 
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I can't begin to imagine how miserable the flight must've been without the entertainment system.... 
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