Our Island Hopping, Rain Dropping, Champagne Popping Adventure - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our Island Hopping, Rain Dropping, Champagne Popping Adventure
In this crazy, crazy world, one thing is certain. Come the end of school and summertime, the Koenigs are going to be doing something “Disney.” Until this year, it’s been straight Disney World, but when we found out that our buddies, Monica, Charlie and Macy, were going to be cruising again, we knew that it was time to add a little Disney Dream to our summer.
By the time that we put a stake in the sand and decided to ask Monica about joining them on their cruise, it was already fall. Monica immediately sent me back an email saying that they would love to have us join them and provided us with their date which was the last week in May and their room category. I immediately set about finding a cabin for us, but was having a hard time finding one for four people anywhere near Monica.
Monica and I went back and forth for a couple of days before Monica finally suggested that we push back our departure by a week to June 1st. They were thinking of bringing a friend for Macy, so they would be in need of a cabin for four also. Before we knew it, we had connecting cabins on Deck 8 for a 5-night cruise booked!
As we usually do when we cruise, we figured that we would stop by Disney World on our way home for a few days. I wanted to wait until AP rates came out before I booked anything, but we did know that we wanted to stay at the Poly. We had promised Mary Devall that we would stay onsite this time after staying offsite at a Hilton property on our last two family vacations and we even let her choose the resort.
A few months went by before we hit a bump in the road. When I was selected for Grand Jury duty in January, we were given a list of the dates each month when we would meet. The last month of jury duty in June (well . . . it was “supposed” to be my last month of jury duty but I was lucky enough to be pulled for the next 6 months the day after our cruise ) began the day that our ship returned. I was allowed to miss that day, but I would need to be present the next day. There would be no Disney World for us after the cruise, but . . . there was no reason why we couldn’t go a few days before the cruise. Look at me being all flexible.
The months passed by ever so slowly, but there were little bright spots along the way . . . mainly in the form of emails from Monica! She essentially handled all of the planning on the cruise portion of our trip - - making sure that we had the dining rotation that we wanted, a reservation at Palo, tickets for our day at Atlantis and even a place to stay the night before the cruise. She was all over it!
Once AP rates were released for our dates, I booked our 3-night stay at the Poly online. We had stayed club level the first and only time that we had ever stayed at the Poly and had loved it. The food was delicious and filling and the lounge was a perfect place to relax - - and you just can’t beat that view of the castle. We decided to splurge a little and treat ourselves (although we were a little budget minded and went with the garden view ). My trip with Sharon in April at the Poly only confirmed every decision we had made.
When just the four of us stay club level at Disney, we try to “maximize our value” (as my friend, Karen, has taught me ) by eating breakfast and a light dinner in the lounge. We eat our big meal of the day while we’re at a park each day and then return to the hotel in the early evening for dinner and a break. I usually just book our ADRs myself online, but this time I sent our requests to IPO since we did have one special event planned.
Since we were staying at the Poly, I suggested to my family that we try out the Spirit of Aloha luau. If I’m honest, I have to say that I wasn’t terribly excited about this event due to the mixed reviews that I had read about it, but I wanted the girls to experience it and the time seemed right. The girls were excited about the idea (although Thom was about at my same excitement level ), so I sent a request in for a category one 8 p.m. seating. When I received confirmation from IPO that our ADR’s were booked, I called to give them my credit card and Tables in Wonderland information for the luau. The savings from TiW for the luau pretty much paid for the card itself!
Thom had earned several free nights at a Hilton property with all of his travel and still had one remaining that we had to use by the summer. Of course, my first thought was to add on an extra day to the front of our trip and I even knew the perfect place. Ever since I spent one night in St. Augustine a couple of years ago with my girlfriends, I have been wanting Thom and the girls to experience it. Why not leave a day early and break up our trip with a stop in St. Augustine! A couple of weeks before we left, Thom hopped on the phone and made it happen.
The great thing about leaving on a Sunday was that we had the entire weekend to get ourselves together. I literally did not pack a thing until Saturday and by that afternoon I was done. We took my dad out to dinner that night and then returned home to finish up. It was an easy breezy process.
We were so excited . . . about St. Augustine . . . the Poly . . . Disney World . . . the Dream . . . and seeing the Mitchells . It had been way too long . . . but we were about to make up for that in a big Disney way!
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Sounds like it was a wonderful trip, I staying at the Poly. Can't wait to hear about everything, especially the Dream. We are sailing on it for the first time in November.
Another Jillybean & family adventure...so excited to see your post. Love how everything worked out in the end (even with jury duty getting in the way). Looking forward to more
About This Page: 
Come the end of school and summertime, the Koenigs are going to be doing something “Disney.” 
Until this year, it’s been straight Disney World, but when we found out that our buddies, Monica, Charlie and Macy, were going to be cruising again, we knew that it was time to add a little Disney Dream to our summer. 
and provided us with their date which was the last week in May and their room category. I immediately set about finding a cabin for us, but was having a hard time finding one for four people anywhere near Monica. 
) began the day that our ship returned. I was allowed to miss that day, but I would need to be present the next day. There would be no Disney World for us after the cruise, but . . . there was no reason why we couldn’t go a few days before the cruise. Look at me being all flexible. 
We decided to splurge a little and treat ourselves (although we were a little budget minded and went with the garden view 
). My trip with Sharon in April at the Poly only confirmed every decision we had made. 
), so I sent a request in for a category one 8 p.m. seating. When I received confirmation from IPO that our ADR’s were booked, I called to give them my credit card and Tables in Wonderland information for the luau. The savings from TiW for the luau pretty much paid for the card itself! 
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Aimee
Sounds like you have a great trip planned!
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