Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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01-23-2006, 11:34 PM
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#1
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Near a Tower of Terror at the moment...
Posts: 13,884
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Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
We are thinking of making a road trip to MN this fall to correspond with a certain AWESOME Passporter meet [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I'm thinking of us staying at the Grand Rios water park resort in Minneapolis so DH and DDs can play while I'm off playing! Also, we're going to go up to Ely and stay at the Grand Ely Lodge and visit SIL/BIL. Has anyone heard anything about either of these? We're looking at Disney prices, so I'd like to get some Disney-esque quality!
[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] for any info!
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01-25-2006, 06:36 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 10,351
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
I've heard that Grand Rios is supposed to be nice. However did you know that they are building a brand new indoor water park right across the street from the Mall of America? I think it is supposed to open this summer and it will be the largest indoor water park apparently to coincide with the largest indoor mall right next door. Grand Rios is probably a 25 minute drive from Mall of America as it is in one of the northern suburbs. Just something to think about... [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/questionicon.gif[/img]
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01-25-2006, 10:05 PM
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#3
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Oklahoma City, OK
Posts: 217
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
I have family in Ely too! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img]
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01-25-2006, 11:35 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Near a Tower of Terror at the moment...
Posts: 13,884
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
Ooooh...Vicky, thanks for that heads up! I'll have to keep my eyes opened for that one!
and dahuffy..."it's a small world after all"! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] My SIL/BIL [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] it there!
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01-28-2006, 11:54 PM
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#5
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 10,351
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
Dawn, I found the website for the new hotel/waterpark by the Mall of America. Here it is: WaterPark of America I've driven by it as they have been building it, and it looks really nice. It kind of has a northwoods lodge look to it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] According to the website, it will be opening in May, so it will be open in time for this year's PP meet. It looks a lot larger than Grand Rios and it would be much more convenient. Have fun planning! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] |
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01-29-2006, 03:20 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Scout 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,613
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
We've never stayed at Grand Rios but have been to the waterpark. I think if your girls are used to water parks, they may find Grand Rios will not live up to it. We spent 5 hours there, but my kids aren't big slide riders. It seemed to me like there was only about 4 slides. They played in the part with the dumping/squirting things and did the lazy river, mostly, and were content.
I checked into the internet rates at Grand Rios, because we were thinking about staying one night on a weekend, vs. driving home. It was 279.00 for the weekend and 79.00 on a Thursday night. (Both prices included 4 water park passes.) 279.00 seemed like a lot, although I've never been in the rooms, the diagram looked pretty basic.
I agree with Vicky that the new water park would be something to look into. I looked at that website, too. It would certainly be nice not to have to drive back after scrapping til midnight! I'll keep ya in mind if we stay there before Oct. Glad to hear you're thinking about coming to PP meet again!
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*
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Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
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02-01-2006, 07:39 PM
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#7
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Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 570
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
Ooohhhh this is right at my front door. Alrighty. First off. Grand Rios, big, sweet, fun, and did I say SWEET. Indoor water slides, pretty new, and yea did I mention indoor water slides. You can't beat that place. It is definitely one of the coolest places for indoor water stuff along with The Depot. As for Ely, well...we stayed at the Grand Ely lodge this summer. Our room was pretty neat. There was a door that led out to the back area. You can see some pretty awesome views. They also have a lake (well duh), but if you are staying at the resort you can get canoe rentals, boat rentals, etc. Definitely an awesome place. There is even a path you can walk to town across the street by the old mining thingy. Neat view and the walk is like...1/2 to 1 mile. The Wolf Center is another place I recommend. It is very small, but seeing the wolves is the neatest thing ever. They also have special tour options in the evenings. My brother and I did the Wolf Howling tour. It was a great experience to go and howl without a care. We didn't catch any wolves, so we howled to their resident pack. Sweet!
The shops are all fun and there are some great places to eat around there!! Have a great time.
That new resort they are building across from the mall looks really neat. There are all kinds of slides going outside that are really neat looking, of course they aren't attached to the building yet so my friend decided that you had to run and hope you make it to get into them, sorry...went off on a tangent.
You have great resort choices!!!!! Both are GREAT!!!
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02-09-2006, 02:41 AM
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#8
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Near a Tower of Terror at the moment...
Posts: 13,884
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Re: Minesota People...need to know if you\'re familiar with these resorts!
Thanks everyone for the reviews and feedback! I'm not sure we'll be able to swing it this year since we've had to buy a new car (which was NOT in the plan!), but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
It doesn't help that there is a Creating Keepsakes Convention in Tulsa (where my family is) *ON* my Dad's b-day, and a CKU-M in Boston a few weeks after that. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] I could just spend my whole life travelling and scrapping in a Winnebago, KWIM??? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img]
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