Top & Bottom - Highlights & Disappointments from Aug. 2010 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Top & Bottom - Highlights & Disappointments from Aug. 2010
Highlights of our Aug. 2010 trip.
1. Animal Kingdom Lodge - We're DVC members and this was our first visit to AKL. We opted to stay at Jambo House. It was absolutely beautiful - even better than we expected. We'll definitely stay here again. Probably try Kidani Village next time.
2. Boma - Great dinner with lots of interesting foods to try.
3. 'Ohana Dinner - we've done this before but it was great again. Love all the food. Left so stuffed.
4. Anna a CM at Test Track who let DD ride twice in a row, twice in one day - Kudos to her for making my little girls day (It was her first time being able to do Test Track
5. Free Upgrade to Preferred Room at ASS. We only stayed one night so the upgrade really wasn't that beneficial, but we've never received an upgrade before so it made us feel special.
6. Seeing a Giraffe family at AKL.
7. Fantastic view of Illuminations from where we sat.
8. DH and Brother being picked to hold the limbo pole at 'Ohana - gave us a lot of laughs.
9. DD getting to make the elephant sound for everyone at Festival of the Lion King.
10. Kaitlyn and Michelle - 2 CMs at Fantasmic who kept us entertained while we waited for the show, which was delayed 20 mins. They danced with DD and were so friendly and funny.
Disappointments
1. Breakfast at Cinderella Castle - I'm glad we did this for DD this one time, but we'll never do it again. We did not get anywhere close to our money's worth. I was so disappointed in it. The CM who checked us in was barking at people and unsmiling - very gruff. The pic of DD with Cinderella was not great. I couldn't believe that for $37 I only got to choose from 3 breakfast options. I chose the stuffed French Toast which was soggy. DD hardly touched her breakfast as she doesn't care for eggs or bacon. My coffee was NEVER once refilled. Our waiter came to our table twice. The AC dripped on me the whole meal and we were told - oh yeah that just happens in here all the time. The princesses spent next to no time with DD. It was not the magical experience we'd hoped for. Akershus and 1900 Park Faire by far surpass this meal.
2. We were celebrating both mine and my brother's b-days (in fact it's the 3'rd time I've celebrated my b-day at Disney). I am always reading about how people sometimes receive a b-day card from Mickey or other treat in their rooms. As always, I was hopeful, but nothing yet again. I know there are no guarantees on this but I do wonder why some people get these things and others do not. Oh- well maybe in the future.
3. The parking lot CM at Epcot who got angry and kept waving at us and yelling at us to go down the row, when we were trying to show her our AAA diamond parking pass, and then told us to "Just park here, it's closer" when it was actually about 10 rows farther back. Definitely the rudest CM I've ever encountered.
4. The fact that so few CM's look for the red stroller as a wheelchair tag before telling you to park the stroller. I wish they would be better trained on this..
5. We took the raft over to Tom Sawyer Island for the first time with DD. Even though she was in a "wheelchair", nobody told us that it was not at all accessible over there. I dragged her up and down some steps, then abandoned hope. I wish they had at least mentioned to us that we probably wouldn't be able to get around over there.
6. The amount of people smoking as they walked around and not in the smoking areas. I always hate this. I want to shout at them - "My daughter already had cancer, she doesn't need to breathe that in."
7. On the same note - the fact that at ASS, the smoking area by the pool is on the handicap accessible ramp, also where anyone with strollers and babies are walking. Seems like a dumb place to put it to me.
All in all a fantastic vacation. We had so much fun and did a lot more relaxing than usual. We encountered some great CM's spreading the Disney magic.
6. The amount of people smoking as they walked around and not in the smoking areas. I always hate this. I want to shout at them - "My daughter already had cancer, she doesn't need to breathe that in."
That bothers me a lot too.
Thanks for sharing the ups and downs, I really enjoyed reading them. I'm so glad you met so many nice CMs who tried to share some extra magic with you.
6. The amount of people smoking as they walked around and not in the smoking areas. I always hate this. I want to shout at them - "My daughter already had cancer, she doesn't need to breathe that in."
sounds like more good then bad. thanks for sharing your review
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Glad the highlights outnumbered the lowlights!
And I'm on the list of those who think they just shouldn't let folks smoke at WDW! (harsh, I know - but if they can't obey the smoking areas, well...)
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Pixie Dust
for your reviews! Glad you had a great time in spite of few glitches. I'm with you on the poor placement of some of the smoking areas.
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