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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So, I was "told" by PP that they missed me as I haven't been posting recently, so I am going to rectify that situation posthaste! After all, it is New Year's Eve and I am doing...nothing. Well, I AM doing laundry, does that count? Here is what is happening at my house. We returned yesterday from a 7 day Norwegian cruise, and spent yesterday and today driving home. The kids were so homesick for their beloved internet, that I have not heard a peep out of them since we got here at about 3pm. I unloaded all the bags and started on the laundry. Hubby is in the basement playing video games. Try not to be jealous of my glamorous NYE plans!
I decided that since I never quite finished my October WDW tr, that I should at least summarize the two times I went in December. I had a girl's trip planned for 12/7-12/10 with four of my besties from school. We flew down Friday night late and stayed until Monday evening. We had a very nice stay at the A o A in an awesome Finding Nemo suite. The resort is fabulous and I can't wait to stay there again in March with the kids in a Little Mermaid room.
Saturday we got up early and spent most of the day at DHS. We did all the good stuff (TSMM, RnRC, ToT, ST, the Movie Ride...), but we also watched the Beauty and the Beast stage show again. I hadn't seen it in years and my friends had never seen it. I just love it so much! Makes me teary everytime. Anyway, we had a less than fantastic lunch experience at HBD. It was on the dream list and I decided to go since I only had to pay for myself this trip. The cobb salad had good flavor, but was waaayyy too "chopped" for my taste, kind of like a salad soup actually. Most of us made a lunch of appetizers, and the rest of them were really good, esp. the crab spring rolls...YUM! My one friend ordered the noodle bowl and actually had to send it back. It tasted like watered down ramen. Not happening for $28. Then we had to wait forever for her to get the spring rolls instead. We finished up with the grapefruit cake, which we all enjoyed. After a brief afternoon siesta, we returned that evening for the Osbourne Lights. Wow. That is all I can say. So amazing. What a perfect ending to a great day.
Sunday was set to be another day of firsts. We started out by doing the Keys to the Kingdom Tour with the incomparable Claire. She is a treasure trove of Disney information and fun facts. It was such a fascinating time. It included lunch at Columbia Harbour House, and some top secret behind the scenes visits.
Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the group at Kona Cafe (I didn't realize the tour included lunch when I made the reservation). No problem, I was really just there to try the wings and they were worth the visit. After another brief rest, we headed out to MVMCP. We all had our super awesome Christmas sweater vests and matching headbands on, and we looked great! We had so much fun at the party. The parade was so great and the fireworks were amazing, even when viewed from Fantasyland. We also got to ride the new Ariel attraction and it was magical of course! We closed down the park and headed back to our room.
Monday was our last day and the plan was to sleep in and then spend some time exploring Epcot. I got to finally take my friends on Soaring, and they LOVED it. They now know what the long line is all about. I also got to experience the new and improved TT and really enjoyed that as well. We ate in Morrocco. shopped around the WS (I got a new watch!), and then headed back to meet up with DME for the ride to the airport. It was a very fun (busy and exhausting) trip and we were all back at work the next morning.
Of course, I immediately started plotting to be able to take my kids next year. I knew they would just love the decorations and atmosphere at Christmas, especially the OL and the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. I was thinking I would have to take at least a three day weekend, and of course our APs will have expired by then. Hmmmm...what to do? The wheels were turning my friends! Here is what I came up with:
As I mentioned earlier, we were taking a cruise for Christmas. My plan had been to book a "park and cruise" package in Tampa for the night before our Sunday departure. Unfortunately, when I finally got around to calling, they were sold out. I got online and found a parking lot where we could park for $8 a day, so the parking part was solved. Then I asked my DH if he wanted to drive "all the way" to Tampa Saturday night, or did he maybe just want to stop in Orlando. Guess what? He said "Orlando"! Perfect! I quickly found a room at the Holiday Inn Express by DTD for only $75. I checked the calendar and found that DHS would be open until 10pm and MK until 1am. I could scarcely contain myself! Now we just had to get there at a decent hour. We drove to Lumberton NC on Friday night and should have easily made it to Orlando by 5pm or so right? Wrong! Traffic was AWFUL! It took us until 8pm to get there. We got checked in, but we couldn't get the keycards to work. I ran back down to the front desk and they sent a maintenance guy to let us in. The room was...not what I have come to expect from a HIE. I have stayed at quite a few and have never been disappointed. The bottom of the bathroom door was all torn up, the carpet was grungy, the bathroom decor was prison chic, but the final straw...the TV signal was crappy. DH was planning on watching football while we hit the parks, so back down to the front desk he went. The kids and I quickly changed into warmer clothes (it was in the forties...brrr!), and passed him in the lobby where he tossed us our new room key for a different room. We rushed out of there an hightailed it DHS. We got there around 9pm, were able to park right up front and headed to see the Osbourne Lights. We stopped at the Writer's Stop and grabbed a couple of sugar cookies to nibble on while we enjoyed the "show" It was great and the kids loved it. We had to head out of there quickly though, because I wanted to catch Wishes at MK at 10pm.
We walked onto Main Street at 9:45 and headed directly to Casey's for some corn dog nuggets and fries. The crowds were pretty big that night, so we ended up watching the fireworks with a "partially obscured" view from the big planter between the bridges to Frontierland and Liberty Square. Again, so awesome! After the fireworks, we were able to ride all of our faves. Unfortunately, Ariel was down with technical difficulties, but we will ride it in March. We were back to the hotel by about 12:30. It was a long day, but totally worth it! We got to use our APs for a very unexpected, although short, Christmas visit.
So, to recap our 2012 adventures:
Spring Break 2012-5 nights at POFQ, 6 park days
August trip-3 nights off site (Hilton Vacation Club SeaWorld), 3 park days, 1 waterpark day
October trip-5 nights off site (the Gaylord), 4 park days.
December (girl's only!) trip-AoA suite, 3 park days
Christmas "surprise"- 1 park night.
Upcoming:
Spring Break 2013
March 24-30
Art of Animation Standard room
7 park days
I believe that will be a total of 24 days on my AP! I would say that I definitely got my money's worth! Of course, I will be turning around in April and chaperoning my DD's chorus trip to the world, but our APs will expire on the 6th and we don't go until the 10th, so that one won't count! We are also hoping to get to DL next summer, but no firm plans have been made for that trip.
Well, thanks for reading along on my New Year's ramblings. I feel better for having "caught up"!
Happy 2013 everyone!
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). No problem, I was really just there to try the wings and they were worth the visit. After another brief rest, we headed out to MVMCP. We all had our super awesome Christmas sweater vests and matching headbands on, and we looked great! We had so much fun at the party. The parade was so great and the fireworks were amazing, even when viewed from Fantasyland. We also got to ride the new Ariel attraction and it was magical of course! We closed down the park and headed back to our room.
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Pixie Dust
back! Thanks for the recaps of your trips, too! You definitely got your money's worth out of the AP! 
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