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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Every year there’s a ballot for tickets for the main show courts, Centre Court and No. 1 court at Wimbledon. I’ve applied before and never had any luck with the ballot, but this year was different – I scored two top priced tickets for the first Saturday on No. 1 court and immediately took them. That was back in February.
Fast forward to June. The weather forecast looks fine for that day…. until about three days beforehand, when they start talking about the wettest weekend of the summer. Great! Despite that, I was determined that we were going to go, as I hadn’t been to Wimbledon since 1996. We left early and were there by about 8.45. We went for a car park that was on part of a golf course, so it was quite weird to drive in over a golf course – and look at the mess the cars had already made of it!
The gates didn’t open until 10.30 and the heavens opened up not long after we got there, so we opted to stay in the car. Thank goodness I had printed off some trip reports to read, as that helped to make the time go by quicker! During that time, it rained for probably about 80% of the time, sometimes heavy and sometimes light. I just kept hoping that it was the last we’d see of the wet stuff for the day…
Eventually it was time to go in and I was very impressed with the security checks, exceptionally thorough and definitely something Disney could learn from. This was the scene as we entered:
It wasn’t exactly promising and I wasn’t surprised when the announcement came that there would be play on the outside courts until midday, when it was meant to have started at 11am. That didn’t worry me too much, as play on the show courts wasn’t due to start until 1pm anyway, so hopefully it would clear before then. We wandered round the grounds, taking photos as we went:
The new centre court. They’re currently in the middle of a major renovation programme, which will see a retractable roof fitted by 2009 – so rain worries will be a thing of the past for at least one court!
Busts to all the British winners at Wimbledon…
… and a close up of the most recent one, Virginia Wade, who won in 1977
The line up of matches we were due to see… if the rain held off
Number One court
What’s known as “Henman Hill” after British player Tim Henman. It’s where the crowds gather to watch the matches from the show courts and usually the biggest crowds were when he was in action, hence the name!
We were getting hungry, so stopped for some food. The pizza slices were £3.35, which was about the bargain of the day, as everything thing else appeared to be £5. We also had to get some famous strawberries and cream – they’re £2, which isn’t a bad price, as they were about £1.50 the last time I was at Wimbledon and apparently they’ve made a conscious effort to keep the prices down, which is good.
Oh boy, these are good!
Refreshed again, we continued to wander around, hitting the Wimbledon shop, where I did a lot of damage – two tops, an umbrella and a towel later, I was a lot poorer, but my goodness, I was going to be glad of that umbrella! Here’s Mark putting it to good use….
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Eventually, having seen all the ground, we decided to go in and see what our seats were like.
I thought this was a neat topiary just outside court Number One
A very appropriate photo – they were all around the corridors as we went in and there were some beautiful shots
The sight that greeted us!
“Is it ever going to dry up?”
“I’m going to make the best of this, even if it is raining!
Having fun with a self portrait!
And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down!
As we sat there, we kept hearing announcements about the time play would start – first no earlier than 1pm, then no earlier than 1.30pm and then look what we saw!
The cover is being deflated!
Getting the air of it!
Here comes the court!
Can you tell I was excited by this point?!
It was all going so well… then guess what happened next?
Fortunately the latest burst of rain didn’t last long and then they were getting the covers off again and this time it looked more promising, as we managed to get the umpire out…
Next the ballboys and ballgirls were out on court
… followed by the line judges…
… and finally the two we had been waiting for – number two seed Maria Sharapova and number 26 seed Ai Sugayama.
How cool Cheryl!! I'm glad you finally were able to get tickets! Ugh about the rain! But I'm glad to see it's starting
I have to share that I used to LOVE to watch all the tennis tournaments on tv when I was younger, and it would be during the summer when I was home alone. I thought it would be a good idea to play some tennis with the brick hearth wall in the living room... yeah... broke a lamp on the mantle....
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
How cool Cheryl!! I'm glad you finally were able to get tickets! Ugh about the rain! But I'm glad to see it's starting
I have to share that I used to LOVE to watch all the tennis tournaments on tv when I was younger, and it would be during the summer when I was home alone. I thought it would be a good idea to play some tennis with the brick hearth wall in the living room... yeah... broke a lamp on the mantle....
I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who played tennis inside the house - fortunately my mum threw me outside before I broke anything, but it did come close!
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Here’s Mark putting it to good use…. 
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for doing this TR it's very cool!
. Hope you got to see some good tennis!
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