A Marriage proposal with a little help from Cinderella -Updated with Photopass pictures on 4/19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A Marriage proposal with a little help from Cinderella -Updated with Photopass pictures on 4/19
Ok, just a brief entry at the end of this amazing day. Some of you know that Smilechaser and I are engaged, but there was never an 'official' proposal by me. (Much to my chagrin I am remiss in this area from time to time). So here we are at Disney on a rather spontaneous long weekend trip, so I figure this will be the perfect time to make this right. We walk up to 1900 Park Faire at 4:30 with NO ADR. ( I told you it was a spur of the moment trip) and we get a table!!! Wooot! Wooot! Those of you who know me, know Cinderella is my favorite princess in the whole world, and yes I realize it is unusual for a 41-year old man to be this way, but I don't care. . For more on this, there is a trip report in here with Smilechaser and myself in it entitled, "Prince Charmings met his match".
So Cinderella comes up to our table, and kneels down on one knee and starts chatting with me. I talk to her explaining that she is my favorite princess, but she is a story book princess and we don't live in a story book, we live in real life, and in real life we have to find our own princesses. (By this time Smilechaser is no doubt looking to see which exit is closer because she has no idea where I'm going with this and my Cinderella issues have gotten me in a few close calls before.) I then explain to Cinderella that I wanted my favorite story book princess to be present when I asked my real life princess to marry me. Handed her the ring, then tears, outbursts, and massive picture taking ensued! Cinderella was the picture of poise and grace, recruiting another diner to take a picture of all of us, and wishing us well.
More of our trip and pictures later! It's truly been a magical day!
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Hey Guys! Its smilechaser here! I know, I know, I am logged in under disdadnmi's name, he (the wonderful man that he is!!) went out to get me breakfast while I am all warm and comfy in the room on the computer. What a man!
Last night was honestly the most magical day of my life! I still woke up this morning thinking "WOW!!!" Totally amazing! It could not have went more perfectly, it was flawless~~!!! I have to tell you, I did not think we were going to get into 1900 Park Fare and when we did I was thrilled since it holds a special significance for us. I had NO idea what Brent was planning. When he first started telling Cinderella this story about how she was his favorite storybook princess and she got down on her knees at our table I was really thinking........"Brent, what the heck are you doing......we can't get kicked out of WDW our first full day here!" LOL I was still totally clueless at this point. When he went on about finding our true life princesses I was getting curious and when I saw the ring I was soooooooooo surprised!!! For something like that to come off with no clue......just amazing. Cinderella was so full of grace. I jumped up and hugged her, crying, laughing all at once. And of couse babbleing, she looked at me with all seriousness and said "you did tell him yes, right?!?!?" Then she grabbed some customers to take pictures and lingered awhile with us. I felt like we were the only three people in the huge dining room. At this point it became very clear the attention we had drawn. Cameras were flashing and everybody was looking. I had sooooo blocked out the audience. I still can't believe how well orchestrated it all was!!!!! Nothing short of amazing and magical.
Ok, gotta run. Off to the studios and Epcot. Breakfast is over, Brent has chickened out of a very chilly morning swim and opted for a hot bath and I have to get ready. He has this thing about schedules and being there at opening.
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