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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi, everyone! My sister and I returned from our "Sisters Only" trip and I've spent the last day and a half writing up my TR.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
The players:
Sharon (my sister): Turning 45 on 9/10. 2 kids ages 14 and 16
Deanna (me): 42 years old with 1 child who is 20 and a darling husband who supports my Disney addiction.
We have never been on a trip together without everyone in tow. This trip was going to be very different, and we were really afraid that we would feel too guilty to go without the family.
As it turns out... we were fine!
Half the fun is getting there, right? 9/9/10
My sister and I got up at 1:00 am. Not because we had to leave that early, we were both just too excited to sleep! We planned to leave the house around 3:00 am, but ended up walking out of the house around 2:30. A quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for Coffee, and we were off to the airport!
The drive to Baltimore/Washington Airport was nice. It’s about 1.5 hours from my house. With no traffic in the wee hours of the morning – it was smooth sailing.
We used a service called Park ‘N Fly. It was AWESOME! We had paid ahead of time, so we saved about 25-30% on parking. Here’s how it worked for us. We arrived at the Pre-Flight parking lot at about 4:00 am. We were told where to park and they gave us a neon green slip of paper that had our space circled on it, and directions for being picked up after vacation. They also gave us a stamped parking slip – if you use this service, be sure to hang onto both pieces of paper (more on that later).
Before opening the gate and letting us in, the attendant called the bus and sent him directly to our parking space. The driver hopped out and grabbed our bags out of the trunk for us, loaded them on the bus and we took off for a short bus ride to the airport. Once there, he unloaded our bags directly at the airport entrance, and we tipped him a few dollars per bag for all of his help.
Sharon and I made it through security easily (BWI has, but was not using, the newer “strip searching” technology – It’s my guess that they saw me coming and quickly turned off those machines in consideration of their co-workers who would have to see me virtually naked)! LOL
Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:00 a.m., so we had time to relax, eat breakfast, take one last bathroom break, and get ready to board. I must say, I really enjoyed AirTran. The seating was adequate and soft, the seatbelts were long enough (I had about 5-6” of belt to spare, and I’m no little bitty thing). I had the aisle seat, and my sister was in the middle. I left both armrests up, and did not feel stuffed into my seat at all, nor did I get run over by the beverage cart! (Thanks to all of you who reassured me that I would not have any problems.)
We took off right on time, and as a matter of fact, arrived approximately 15 minutes early!
(I promise that pics are coming... I just don't have any of this part of the trip!)
Great TR so far! I can't wait to read more! It seems like everyone, including myself, have a really hard time sleeping the night before. I am always too excited
So glad to see you're writing a TR! I hope you had a great trip; I told you there would be no problem with the seatbelt!!
And I always take a benadyl or a sleeper the night before vacation-I'm always too excited to sleep!!
Yes - you were definitely one of the people I was thinking about when I said that! Your reassurance really helped my confidence, along with several others who reassured me that I was worried about nothing! That's why I love this forum!!!
I have to be honest - locating Disney’s Magical Express gate is a little less than magical. What a hike! They also did not have anyone directing us where to go. It’s been 3 years since I was there, so I couldn’t remember which way to go – yes, we made it, but it was a little stressful.
Once we found the area, a kind gentleman at the first podium took a look at our passes and told us to proceed to Podium A. We went through the rope “maze” and did not see a podium marked “A”. It was then that a Magical Express employee (we will call her Helga, since I didn’t catch her name – no offense to any Helga’s out there, but that name does stir up a certain image for me). Anyway - Helga nearly tackled me, and demanded that I come back to podium A. I was scolded like a child, and really confused about where I was supposed to have gone, since I never saw any podiums marked with an A. Not such a great welcome! It was then I realized that a few passengers had been standing in front of the podium and covering up the “A” which appeared on the front of the podium. This is why I missed it. Silly me, I left my x-ray vision at home… Back off, Helga, I’m on vacation!!!
Still, I’m not going to let it get to me – I’m determined to have fun!
The rest of the ME experience was very nice. We were first in line for the bus, so I could get a seat with a view out the window (which helps with my motion sickness). We stopped at Fort Wilderness, and Old Key West before finally arriving at POFQ. I believe our bus also went on to Saratoga Springs after dropping us off.
We had done the online check-in 10 days prior, and there was zero wait to get to the online check-in counter. I had sent a fax which contained my room request about 4 days prior to our arrival.
I was so happy when they said that they could accommodate our wish for a first floor room near the food court and transportation, but our room was not available yet. No biggie, we were there early so we didn't expect to get a room right away. We took our carry-on bags to bell services, and gave the front desk our telephone number so they could give us our room number when it was ready.
We headed to Epcot and had a blast! We rode Space Ship Earth with zero wait. I just loved the new additions to the ride. We laughed really hard at the ending!!! I wished I had a video camera ready, but I had no clue they had changed it so much! I won’t spoil it for anyone else – but let’s just say that we were both delighted and surprised. We also rode Test Track for the first time (loved it), and Soarin’ (always love it!).
After we practically walked onto those rides (no waiting!), we decided to explore the countries the “right” way – without the kids nagging us to keep moving! We were actually taking our time! For this morning, we decided to explore the countries on the right side of the park (Canada and UK) until time for our lunch at LeCellier.
(More pics of that in my next post, but for now here are some random pics of Epcot - Oh, and that's me on the left, and Sharon on the right. I'm not too good at the self-portrait picture taking!)
Here are a few shots of the Canadian Pavillion. It's probably the most beautiful landscaping I've ever seen in Epcot.
The sad part is, I have been to Disney 5 times with children, and this is the first time I've ever seen this area! It was so different to tour without children.
I took soooooo many pics of it, but here are a few of the best ones. (Sharon wanted to LIVE in that little cottage!)
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Great start so far. I too fly out of BWI, mostly on AirTran, so I know exactly where you were at the airport. I will have to check into that parking option you mentioned, hopefully it will save us some money.
It's truly amazing how much more we get to see once we are minus the little ones. I am glad mine are older now, they even like to take pictures of the scenery and such just as much as I do. And they also like to point out pretty views as well.
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Your reassurance really helped my confidence, along with several others who reassured me that I was worried about nothing! That's why I love this forum!!!
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