2 New Jobs, Mom's Turning 50 & A Partridge In A Pear Tree - A PTR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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2 New Jobs, Mom's Turning 50 & A Partridge In A Pear Tree - A PTR
Dates
Saturday, December 4, 2010 – Saturday, December 11, 2010
The Cast
Me 27, DW 25, and Mom 49 (turning 50 on this trip). This will be her 2nd trip to the world and the 7th trip for DW & I. This trip has been somewhat last minute, and by last minute I mean we decided in July to go and to take mom to the World for her big 5-0 (I know it’s not really last minute, but for us it is)!! Since then, DW & I have gotten new jobs too, so besides it just being the Christmas season , we’ve got a lot to celebrate and be thankful for.
How It Happened
Well we had decided that we wanted to take a small trip to Disney this year and got a “pin code” at the beginning of the year for 40% off a stay at a Deluxe resort but at that time didn’t know when or for how many days we wanted to go, so by the time we decided on something the choices were slim pickings. We were all disappointed because we wanted to stay at WL, but that was going to be a no-go this time .
Pixie Dust Coming Our Way?!?!?!?!?
Well with the “pin code” expired we were not sure that we were going to make it to the World this year and that was a huge disappointment. I will preface the rest of this by saying that we, for some weird reason, have received a total of 4 “pin codes” this year. Just when we’re about to hang up the PassPorter for this year, I received some Mickey e-mail that had a “pin code” for free dining for several dates during fall and winter. As good as the free dining promotion is for families, it sometimes doesn’t make as much sense savings-wise for just 2 people with the various offers we’ve had, so we don’t usually take advantage of it (I know, gasp!). As I looked through the prices of the resorts and compared them to the cost without the “pin code,” it was actually going to save us tons of money. So we decide that we would be able to use the code for free dining and get to see Mickey for a 7th time and the 4th time at Christmas
Still to come....Surprising Mom!!!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
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.
Surprise!!!!
Now time to see if we could surprise Mom with a trip. Could we possibly get her to Florida (or at least the airport) without letting the secret slip that she was on her way to Disney? We thought this over for several days and tried to think of ways to tell her that she needed those days off, then how would we tell her that she needed to pack for Disney. We had hoped that this would be a surprise of a life time. Well after much planning and thinking we came to the conclusion that this was not going to be possible and we would have to tell her. To say the least, when we told her that we were taking her for her 50th birthday she was excited, but didn’t think that she really deserved to go on such a big trip on our dime. We had to tell her that she is a mother (the BEST, DW thinks so too, and actually just refers to her as her mother, not her MIL) and deserves a nice gift! HOORAY for Birthdays!!!! Let the planning begin.
Still to come....Can we get any ADRs?!?!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
Planning Gets Underway But Are We Too Late For Dinner?
Even having been to Disney six times prior, this would be the first time for us planning in less than 6 months—how would we get all this planning in since we were both starting new jobs!!! Well since we consider ourselves to have a decent level of expertise about the World, we knew that we needed to get some dining ressies situated. Our concern was would we be able to get some good ressies since we were well within the 180 day mark of our trip? Since we’re taking part in free dining and have the DxDDp (for the first time, pretty excited!) we decided that we would try and have a nice breakfast in the morning to get our day off to a great start then have a nice meal for dinner to end on a good note. As we started looking at possibilities for dinners we were quite surprised when we got all of the top priority dinners we wanted; the only other places we considered that weren’t available wereRose and Crown and Garden Grill, but they weren’t must eats. I know everyone is curious about what ressies we got but that will come later on, the main thing at this point was to make sure we could eat!!!
Where Will We Sleep?
When picking out a place to stay we always consider what is going on in the World and noticed that POP Warner is going on the week that we are going to be in town so we wanted to avoid the Value resorts and some of the Moderates where they would most likely be, so I called to see which resorts were available and we were happy to see that POFQ was available. The last two trips that we took we stayed at POR and love the resort but thought this would be a nice change as we have not stayed here before.
Still to come....How the heck are we getting there?!?!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
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Feeling Like I Am In Vegas
Now we have never been to Vegas but when it comes to the airlines you feel like you are in Vegas taking a chance. We fly Southwest 99% of the time because they offer great rates and non-stop flights from our home airport but am always willing to use another airline if the rate is better. Looking every day for several weeks to check rates I hit the JACKPOT with a one-way ticket to Orlando for $84.00, the only bad thing is that it was not a non-stop, but that is AOK for $84.00 I will let them stop. If I wanted a non-stop it would have been $20.00 more per ticket and that was not worth it, especially since I would save $120.00!!! The best part about $84.00 per ticket is that just the week before it had been $203.00 per ticket. Just like Vegas you never know when you will hit a jackpot!!!!
Still to come....Getting In the Spirit!!!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
About This Page: 
. This will be her 2nd trip to the world and the 7th trip for DW & I. This trip has been somewhat last minute, and by last minute I mean we decided in July to go and to take mom to the World for her big 5-0 (I know it’s not really last minute, but for us it is)!! Since then, DW & I have gotten new jobs too, so besides it just being the Christmas season 
, we’ve got a lot to celebrate and be thankful for.
. 
. I will preface the rest of this by saying that we, for some weird reason, have received a total of 4 “pin codes” this year. Just when we’re about to hang up the PassPorter for this year, I received some Mickey e-mail that had a “pin code” for free dining for several dates during fall and winter. As good as the free dining promotion is for families, it sometimes doesn’t make as much sense savings-wise for just 2 people with the various offers we’ve had, so we don’t usually take advantage of it (I know, gasp!). As I looked through the prices of the resorts and compared them to the cost without the “pin code,” it was actually going to save us tons of money. So we decide that we would be able to use the code for free dining and get to see Mickey for a 7th time and the 4th time at Christmas 
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Pixie Dust
and deserves a nice gift! HOORAY for Birthdays!!!! Let the planning begin. 
TinkBrat
PassPorter Guide Author
Cassie
Hybrid Mode
