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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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maybe some of you already read our PTR.
We are a family of 4 celebrating the first visit of our 2 girls.
I try to post an update every night so its semi-live!
I mainly write the reports for the family back home so I try to explain things a lot. I know you know everything already but most of them never went!
us:
daddy: bob
stepmom: me
6 year old: Grace
3 year old: Chloe
March 25th
Today is finally THE day!
Funny thing: we had a calendar at home that said when we would be going to the first opening of a Disney park! Grace pulled one paper down every day and today it said "1 day to go". It was still a day to go since we were traveling today so when we woke the girls they were super excited about the surprise
At 11 we started and drove to Denver. First they were excited, especially Grace! But the long drive put a dimmer on her mood and she became quiet. We parked the car and took a bus to the aiport. The girls made friends with the airline personal who were checking our bag and gave them papers saying this:
The first flight went by surprisingly quick and the airline personal was amazingly friendly! After that we were stuck in Atlanta because we did not have a captain .. how does that happen? After waiting for over an hour we finally left.
When we arrived in Orlando and left the airplane a picture of Mickey was decorating the wall and this was the moment when Chloe realized that she really is going to Disney! She got soooo excited!
We took a Disney cruise bus to the hotel and checked into our room. We went to bed, the night was over way too soon!
We asked our hotel when the Magic Kingdom would open: 9! So we decided to eat breakfast at the hotel. Yay to our dining plan!!! Haha
Grace and Chloe started their vacation right: with MICKEY WAFFLES!!! Haha
After we finished we took our first Disney World Bus (Chloe loves them, they seem to be her favorite ride J ) and arrived at 8:30 or so at an already open Magic Kingdom!!! We were upset that we missed the opening ceremony! But shortly after entering the park we met our first Character! And what a special one she is!!! We weren't angry no more and Chloe bounced around in the line that had formed.
Shortly after that she was chatting away with snow white. We have a bunch of videos and filmed every meet with a character! But I wont upload them until after our vacation.
After that we walked towards the castle, took some photopass pictures (professional pics by Disney, will post them once we get them in a few weeks). We then met the Mayor of Main Street USA and a Lady fighting for womens rights. She lived in the year 1911 which confused the girls a bit as she talked like it was 1911.
Then we met the fairy godmother! .. all this within maybe 10 minutes … and she told Grace to let Cinderella know that she sends her love.
the 2 ladies chatted so much that Chloe lost her interest haha
We finally made it to a ride: it's a small world. The girls loved it! Especially Chloe was fascinated. After that we went to the haunted mansion which was a bit scary for the girls but then they enjoyed it and asked later in the day if we could do it again. After that we went to the pirates of the Caribbean ride and Chloe was in heaven!!
this show was going on after we left the ride. Mr Jack Sparrow
We were thirtsy, hot somewhat hungry and we tried something a lot of people love! A dole whip! It's a dairy free frozen treat. Grace had an orange one and Chloe pineapple. Bob and I had a pineapple dole whip float = pineapple juice and dole whip on top. We licked it but it was just too much!
After that we got in line again for the Princess story time and the girls met Aurora, Cinderella!! and Belle. Grace managed to tell Cinderella about her chat with the fairy godmother. Chloe fell in love with Belle right here
After that we climbed up the Swiss family Robinson Treehouse and Grace wanted to move in right away.
We were even more hungry now and we all split one Turkey Leg. Chloe kept talking about it all day long
Now it was time for Chloes favorite ride: the Disney world bus
the wait:
we went back to the hotel and jumped into the hippy dippy pool of our hotel! Oh boy was that awesome!!! Its sooooo warm here! We aren't used to that no more It was much easier dealing with it when we lived in NC.
After a shower and a hair drying marathon we went to another park: EPCOT! And we rode the finding Nemo ride and looked at the aquarium where daddy will swim soon. Kinda freaky seeing sharks and so on there …
After that we walked through a lot of countries at the world showcase, signed up for the Kim Possible Challenge and finally arrived in Germany!
Something cool along the way:
We entered the Biergarten and both girls got excited about the german band.
We emptied the buffet and Chloe kept telling me that she likes my cooking, she was confused as german food usually is made by me they both ate a bunch and had a blast. Just like in Germany we shared our table! A couple and their 2 kids joined us soon after we arrived. We did not talk too much with them but they were nice. Bob kept talking about how this is food is like at my moms house and how this food is different. So the husband of the couple asked where we are from etc. and I told him our story in short. The girls went and danced to the music and ate more and everyone had a blast! But when we wanted our check we were shocked! … the people next to us left already but apparently they had paid for our meal because he appreciated Bobs service in the army. This person easily paid over 100 dollars for our meal and we couldn't even say thank you! As Bob said; " I don't remember his name but he is a person ill never forget" …. Well now we have 4 more table meals on our dining plan and we plan on going to the 50s prime time restaurant in the Hollywood studios. The whole thing is a house from the 50s with all the decoration etc and everyone there is our uncle, aunt, cousin, etc. Its supposed to be fun and we want to try it!
After the meal we picked up the Kim possible phone and with that we joint the secret agents of Disney World Grace choose Germany as her destiny and did some pretzel related quest … it was quiet cheesy but she loved it and was so concentrated! It was pretty cool! The phone tells you to find things at different places and when you do things happen. Like Bier Steins suddenly start to sing! A train moves and other cool stuff. It was cool!
After this we went to test track but it was down L its one of my 2 favorite rides!! So we decided to go to the character spot and met a whole bunch of them!! First Mickey, then Pluto, Donald duck, Minnie Mouse and Goofy! The girls were sooooo excited! But there were sooo many people that we couldn't talk to them, just get their signature and take a picture. But tomorrow morning we get extra time with them!
When the girls were with Donald duck he moved Grace to a spot turns around to sign Chloes book. Grace being Grace moves and when Donald turns around and she is gone he pulls her back. She was soooo embarrassed! But its was so funny that ill actually upload that video! Haha
Then Bob wanted a whole group pic with goofy (thanks to the photo pass that's possible ) where I was standing Goofy couldn't see me. He gives Grace a hug then Chloe and as a joke one to Bob. We take a picture and Grace askes "GOOFY! Can you pleeeease give a hug to my stepmom too!" and I got an extra one. Grace was so sad for me that I didn't get one, it was quite cute J
After this Chloe and I sat down at an awesome spot for the fireworks while Bob and Grace organized MICKEY BARS! Yum!
Chloe and I soon found a new best friend who Chloe named "Cousin". He would just hang out right there in front of us and wouldn't get close to anyone else …
The fireworks were awesome and Chloe first loved them but then got scared because of the noise but with holding her ears shot she loved it again and fell asleep minutes later on my arm. We went back and after refilling our mugs at the hotel (we bought refillable mugs so we can now for free get Soda, Tee, hot chocolate, coffee, etc) and then the girls went to bed, as ill be soon too.
Tomorrow morning we will eat at chef mickeys with Mickey and friends. We have dinner with Winnie the pooh. Also we want to see if we can make it to one of the waterparks! I cant wait!
Sounds like a wonderful trip so far! What a nice surprise to have your meal paid for by someone grateful for your husband's service! Have a great trip and I look forward to hearing about your day today~
Glad to hear you are having a wonderful time... wow so much in one day. Tell us how long you are staying and what resort you are at. How wonderful t o have the meal paid for what a Magical Moment. What a wonderful family to do that for you. Have a Great time....
I only have a few minutes. we had breakfast at chef mickeys and then spent the day at animal kingdom until now. we had a blast. we are about to head out to typhoon lagoon, my favorite!!!
we are at pop century (or "Disney Pop World" as Chloe calls it ) and will stay 7 days
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Sounds like a great first day...
Dana
ANGIE
Previous trips: POFQ 2005 & 2007, Boardwalk 2008, BCV & AKLV 2009 (our honeymoon) & 2012, BCV & BLT 2011, BCV 2013, AKLV 2014
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