Chicago during Memorial Day Weekend - Tell me I'm not crazy! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Chicago during Memorial Day Weekend - Tell me I'm not crazy!
DH and I decided to go to see the Broadway musical Avenue Q while it's in Chicago in May. To avoid the headache of driving & parking, we're taking Amtrak from Lafayette IN up to Union Station, catching the Saturday matinee & staying downtown, then heading back home Sunday.
The hotel we wanted to stay at (DH prefers Holiday Inn Express) wasn't available the second weekend of the show, so we're heading up Memorial Day weekend. I'm hoping the train won't be terribly busy & more concerned about traffic & taxi availability - Will probably get a taxi from Union Station to the hotel - we *might* walk to the theater from there - it's about a mile away & depends on what shoes I'll be wearing
We'll have most of the day Sunday to sight-see... will downtown be packed with tourists, or does most everyone head out of town for the holiday? The hotel is on Wabash & Erie ... what is within reasonable walking distance? (around 2 miles one way)
You're so close to Navy Pier, you've got to go there.
No, you're not totally nuts. Not completely sane, but still with-in bounds for normal mental accuity!
Contact the Chicago visitors bureau to see what's going on that weekend - there will be TONS of stuff within easy walking!
I caution you, don't depend on the arrival time for the train too much. I took the train from INdy to Chicago one time - it took FOREVER! Amtrak doesn't actually own the tracks (the conductor came on the PA and explained this my entire trip), and sometimes has to wait while another train uses the tracks. Certain trains take precedence. Can you call Amtrak and ask how often the train is delayed, and by how much?
Don't get me wrong - it was a fun way to travel, and it was nice to sit back and relax. But, I had a 12 yr. old, and a 2 yr. old with me -and my mother! We planned on what ever time it says the train will take, and I didn't take enough to occupy any of us.
One thing I've done when we travel is to pinpoint one place on the map (your hotel would work well), and determine how far we're willing to walk or drive. Adjust a compass for that length of space (if 2 miles, and 1/4 in on the map is a mile, then adjusting the compass 1/2 inch will give you a 2 mile radius), and draw a circle on the map. Then, highlight the places that sound fun, and look them up on-line (I do love the search engines!)
I just returned from spring break in Chicago. I took my dd's to see Wicked, we walked from the American Girl Place on Chicago Ave to Randolph to see Wicked and it was an easy walk, a bit long but we took it slow and shopped along the way and stopped to rest and play in Millenium Park before seeing the musical. My dd's are 13 and 8 and neither complained about the distance, of course they were fascinated with the city sites.
I highly suggest visiting the Field Museum but its not within walking distance. Its a favorite of ours. We also just enjoy wandering Michigan Ave, The American Girl Place, the Hersheys Chocolate World and the Disney Store are some of our favorite stops.
I imagine that it will be busy but not terrible, also the free trolley system will probably be running in full scale and you can hop on and ride around to most of the major attractions for free.
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