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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 know that I am totally behind in my recap! It’s been almost two month since we went. However, this vacation was such an up and down ride that I couldn’t even think about it without becoming slightly mad or upset. However, I have finally calmed down enough to give my recap. I will be doing this all in one go, giving highlights of each day, then individual reviews. I can’t do a full trip report so I’m simply shortening it!
1/5/13
Our trip started off cold, with a wintery drive to the airport early in the morning. We landed quickly but we were exhausted from the trip. Luckily we got a room immediately and went to our Pirate Room at CBR!
The Best Thing Today: Saw wishes from CRT, at the front table with a great view
The Worst thing today: I got motion sick on the plane.
The Funniest thing today: Seeing John Stamos at park close.
Today we tried: Delta
And the result was: okay, very very tight seats
The Most magical Moment today: Getting into our pirate room!
CBR Pirate Room Review:
We loved it! The theming was spot on, each part of the room was better and better. The detailing was so complete that we couldn’t find one spot that wasn’t piracy! My favorite part was the bathroom, the mural in the shower was so detailed I spent a lot of time in the shower just pouring over. My DBF loved the little barrel that was the refrigerator. The beds were a little thin (it is just a mattress pad) but we were able to pile both mattress pads and sleep on one bed with two pads. It was actually too soft for me, but my DBF loved it. He said it was the most comfortable bed he had slept in at a hotel. I got to used to it very quickly and thought it wasn’t too bad.
CBR is a very large resort, and we made the mistake once to walk to the main building. The checkin person said it was a 10 minute walk, he was WAY off. From then on we took the buses every time. I did not feel it added a lot to our trip, and I also did not feel like it took away anything. I did feel like the ice was impossible to find, someone had to point it out for us! However, this was more than made up because we could see Illuminations from our beach, which was steps away from our room. We also had a basically private pool, we swam almost every day and usually had no one in the pool with us the whole time, maybe one other person.The Food Court is a little spicy though!
Overall CBR gets a great review from us. I would give it a 8/10, with the only complainants being the slightly big size and the hard to find ice.
Last edited by Kobeychiev; 03-02-2013 at 10:55 PM..
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1/6/13
Our second day was spent at the new Fantasy Land, which was extremely disappointing, to the point that I just wanted to leave. I will not go back here until they complete it, and even then I would only go for the Ariel ride, which was the only good part of this new land. It is horrible to have to walk in a large circle around the construction zone, it really takes away the magic. Also everything is SO spread out so you are really looking at the construction walls more than any theming. Also, the circus area seems really underdone, they could have added a lot more.
The Best Thing Today: Ariel’s Under the Sea Adventure (A great ride, I loved it!)
The Worst thing today: Be Our Guest (see review below)
The Funniest thing today:
Today we tried: Dish Washer Sheets (pour dish soap over paper towels and let dry)
And the result was: AMAZING! They worked so well! I could finally clean my cups!
The Most magical Moment today: Meeting Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
Review: Be Our Guest
We walked up to the castle about 20 minutes early because we were willing to wait by the beauty of the castle. The host said ‘you are very early why don't you come back’. We said no and he finally gave us pagers, which went off before we could even get across the bridge! We were shown to our seats and given a quick (as in don't stop and look just go) tour half in French, which I don't understand. We were seated in the ballroom, which was beautiful but all the tables faced one way so only half the table could see the beautiful outside, the other half stared at the walls which had no decoration other than molding. This could have easily been avoiding by rotating the tables 90 degrees so that they were sideways instead of up and down. I saw a lot of people craning over their necks to try to see the window.
Out waiter was slow and the table next to us, who had a different waiter and were seated after us were always ahead of us, sometimes by a lot. I had to ask three different people for bread, which then came after our appetizer. The entrees were very limited, but I tried the shrimp and puff pastry. It was horrid, it was so fishy I had to send it back and get the steak. That came back out in a reasonable time, while I asked for more bread. When the steak came out it was black on the outside, I had ordered medium. I cut it open and it was medium so I tried it. It tasted like charcoal so I had to send it back again and just eat the fries, which were soggy. Then they brought out another steak, less black but still burnt on the outside. By now I couldn't even eat anymore because I had eaten two bread baskets by myself. I had two bites of the burnt steak and left it. I was praying desert would be good. I was disappointed again. I got the chocolate, and it was okay. It was supposed to be triple chocolate, I'd say it was just chocolate. My boyfriend had the cheesecake, which had awesome frosting and so so cheesecake. Overall the meal was so disappointing and such a let down. We will not be going back. The service was slow and spotty. I had no choices to eat and the few that I did have were either messed up or inedible. I was so upset, I was nearly in tears as we left. I couldn’t even enjoy the view or anything. It was quite a disappointment.
Last edited by Kobeychiev; 03-02-2013 at 10:46 PM..
1/7/13
Today was our first EPCOT day and we spent it mostly in Future World, it was a wonderful day, our last before the vacation really took a down turn. We ate at Coral Reef and The Garden Grill. We also did the Behind the Seeds Tour (see review below)
The Best Thing Today: Coral Reef (always get good service and good food, plus the view is spectacular!)
The Worst thing today: Tiredness
The Funniest thing today: Jokes about the land tour
Today we tried: Garden Grill
And the result was: good, characters were great, very interactive. However, got a little nauseous from the spinning
The Most magical Moment today: Watching Illuminations from the beach hammocks together.
Behind the Seeds Tour:
We arrived early for our Behind the Seeds tour, and had a little mix up where they thought we were trying to get into a full tour, mostly because they had my name slightly wrong. However, after getting that cleared up and waiting for a little while we were all ready to go. We had a young man who was from Hawaii, he was quite knowledgeable about tomato’s and hydroponics, however he had an accent that was extremely hard to understand. He was also soft spoken so many of the things were lost on us. We loved all the hidden Mickey’s and I loved all the information I could catch. I am a total geek about learning so I loved this tour. My DBF tolerated it, but was not impressed. He prefers the rise. I would say that if you had children and wanted an education experience this would be perfect, but if you aren’t into learning on a vacation maybe you should skip.
Last edited by Kobeychiev; 03-02-2013 at 10:45 PM..
Today was the Downtown Disney, we slept late and then went to T-Rex (horrible) and then shopped and went to Disney Quest and had dinner at Fulton’s. It was a great day until we got back to resort and I became sick from food poisoning from T-Rex.
The Best Thing Today: Fulton’s, the service was incredible, the food was above par, and the atmosphere was great! (see review below)
The Worst thing today: T-Rex (see review below)
The Funniest thing today: Seeing Fireworks in the pool, it was such a surpise!
Today we tried: West Side shopping at Downtown Disney
And the Result was: not really worth it, quite disappointing
The Most magical Moment today: Disney Quest as a grand prize for my DBF scavenger hunt
T-Rex:
We were seated in the Geo-thermal section and got the worst service. Our waitress had no care for us; she barely bought us drinks or food. We received our appetizer and our meal at the same time, thirty minutes after we arrived and were seated. The food was horrible, I had the chicken and something was really off. I found out later, the chicken was bad because I had severe food poisoning all the next day. I was the only one sick and this was the only thing I didn't share (because it was nasty). The waitress ended the night being nearly completely absent, we saw her once in a forty minute window. The tables are extremely close together and every 20 minutes, loud booming of asteroids stops all conversation. It was a horrible experience that lead to even more pain and suffering as I had to miss out on two days of park time. We called and they said they couldn't do a thing for us. Overall it was a horrible time, and I will never go back.
Fultons:
Fulton’s was without the doubt the best restaurant I have ever been to. There was unparalleled service, food, and atmosphere. We were seated on the second floor, right by the water. Our server was Wayne, and he was the greatest server I have ever had the privilege of having. It sounds so cheesy, but both of us felt that way as we left. He was gracious, funny, very prompt, and not at all clingy or pushy. He even convinced my DBF to go to La Nouba in two minutes, I haven’t been able to do that in three years! He was the greatest server, I felt bad that I could only leave a 20% tip and not more! The food was also great! We both had the crab legs and lobster, and it was so good. It was fresh and tasty. I can not say enough good things about Fultons! We shared everything and loved it all! If you go, try to get Wayne, I know you will have a good time!
1/9/13
Today was a horrible day, I woke up very early and had the worst food poisoning of my life. It is without a doubt the worst thing to have on a vacation. There is not enough places to throw up, nor enough privacy. It was horrible for both myself and my DBF who took care of me. We had to cancel all our plans for the day and I basically slept and threw up all day. My DBF was able to get some pool time in, but it was mostly a TV day while I slept. I felt horrible all day, but by the next morning the worst had past and I was only severely dehydrated. We called T-Rex and they basically told us, oh well, we can report it to management but that doesn’t do anything. We missed DHS this vacation, and I have told everyone to stay away from T-Rex least this happen to them.
1/10/13
After the bout of food poisoning, I felt very weak and tired. I was very dehydrated but I had stopped throwing up and I did not want to miss another park day so off we went to EPCOT. We ended up having to get a ECV, so I could stay at the parks. There was a couple times we had to stop because I nearly fainted, but we pushed through and ended up having a good time.
The Best Thing Today: A picture with all the princess at Askerhus
The Worst thing today: San Angel Inn (see review)
The Funniest thing today: How I “shot like a rocket” around the parks on my scooter
Today we tried: A scooter for myself
And the Result was: Great to get me around, but annoying in general
The Most magical Moment today: Illuminations (despite people going RIGHT in front of my scooter)
San Angel Inn
At my best, I hate spicy food so why did I pick a Mexican restaurant you ask? For the atmosphere. In that arena, San Angel is wonderful. The volcano is great, the water is pretty, overall it is beautiful. However, the service stunk! I was sick so I tired to ask for plain chicken and tortillas. I got spicy green beans, spiced chicken, and tortillas. I had two bites of the chicken (after I scraped off the spice) and tortillas (which I only had half of one because I just couldn’t eat). My boyfriend ended up eating my meal because his was way way too spicy for him. He loved the green beans, everything else was not good. This could have been excused because neither of like Mexican food and we were both going for the atmosphere. However, our waitress was bad. We were squeezed between two big tables (as in the one lady leaned over and pointed to something on the menu she thought would be good for me), and were nearly completely ignored for the two bigger parties. I had to flag down the waitress five times, three times for drinks, once to take away plates (the table couldn’t even fit two plates), and finally for our check. I could not believe how poor the service was. She would literally skip over us from one large table to the other. It was very disappointing, and I would not recommend this for smaller parties, or anyone who doesn’t like Mexican.
1/11/13
Today was our last full day, and I still wasn’t recovered. I wasn’t eating (because the food was poor the day before, and CRT had spicy food too!) so I was quite unhappy. However, this was our last MK day so I was determined to make it through the day. It did not work out the way I thought. We had to cancel our lunch and our tea because I did not feel well enough to go after not eating. We ended the day at Narcossees, our favorite restaurant, but the magic just wasn’t there and I ended up being unhappy and I just wanted to go home. We left early and I was quite upset because I felt like being sick completely ruined the last part of my vacation.
The Best Thing Today: We did every ride in Tomorrow Land at least once
The Worst thing today: It was our last day!
The Funniest thing today: Trying to Find a mickey pretzel
Today we tried: Going on Ferry back to MK
And the Result was: it was cold and very long, the monorail is better
The Most magical Moment today: my DBF got galactic hero on Space Ranger Spin!
1/12/13
This was our last day, we had planned to get an early day at the park before leaving but we skipped it. We left and I was so depressed, not only because we were leaving but because I felt like the vacation had been ruined and I actually did not want to come back. I wanted to be home and cry because I could not believe how horrible it had been. The flight was uneventful and we got home in record time.
Overall thoughts:
This has been a great cathartic experience to write this. I feel better now, I want to go back and am currently putting together a trip for March 2014. It was completely unfortunate that I got food poisoning, but it happens. It is okay that the trip had some bumps, but there were some amazing parts to it. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. The next trip will be much better because of this trip. Thanks for reading! I hope you can learn from my experiences.
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