What a Bummer! Good-bye Summer –One Last Hurrah at the Beach Club. - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a Bummer! Good-bye Summer –One Last Hurrah at the Beach Club.
We’re going to Disney World in two days!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who are “we”? Without further ado here’s:
The Cast
Me (Holly) 45: Teacher, Mom, and late-to-the-party Disney nut.
I took my first trip to WDW during exam week the semester I was student teaching (May 1995). I absolutely loved it but I didn’t get back again until 10 years later (Oct. 2005). That first trip, I did no planning what-so-ever and you won’t believe the stuff I missed (like, uh…..Splash Mountain ….pretty much all the fireworks except for those on Pleasure Island ….it makes me shudder to think of all that I walked right past never knowing it was there … oblivious).
DS Josh 11: Josh will be entering 6th grade in just a week and a half.
He’s a super smart kid , he tends to be a bit shy and more than a bit cautious. He’s so tall that he’ll be towering over me in not too much time . Seriously. People often forget that he is only an 11 year old kid (his father and I included ). I ran into a friend at Teacher Appreciation Day at Staples this morning and she put it well, “He’s like a little man.”
This will be Josh’s 6th trip to WDW. He’s been at 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10. Lucky kid ! He likes WDW but last summer we went on our first Disney Cruise and boy did he love that! “Mom, I’m happy to be going to Disney World, but why do we have to wait so long between cruises? I’m super excited for our next cruise!”
If you read my Jambo TR , you’ll notice there is a cast member missing. DH Ted (4 previous trips) will be staying home for this one. Why you ask? Two reasons: 1. He is never-ever-ever going to Disney World in August again. Not ever!!! 2. He does not get the kind of time off that Josh and I get and he has this thing about wanting to save some of his personal days to go fishing . Silly man.
When: Monday, August 20 thru Friday, August 24.
Where: Beach Club Villas
Why: Well, I was wondering how easy it would be to book the Beach Club at my 7 month window so I was playing around on the DVC Member website . I wasn’t really positive Josh and I would take a trip but I booked a studio for the end of August (with a waitlist for one of the days). I had the reservation for just a short time, knowing I had plenty of time to cancel it if need be, when Southwest came out with their summer prices. I checked out our dates and came up with a reasonable airfare. Hmmm . We had the DVC points (a mere 68 for this short trip), and we could buy APs during our April trip making park admission a real deal.
A friend from work who is also a frequent Disney traveler (I’ve had 3 of her 5 kids in my classes over the years –we’ve been talking Disney for a long time) gave me some wise advice. Take the time to do a Mother and Son trip now . They grow up too fast, and soon he won’t want to just hang out with Mom . Thanks, Kimberly! It’s good advice and I’m heeding it. While I hope Josh will still want to hang out with me for years to come, it is good to seize the opportunity rather than regret letting it pass
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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but I didn’t get back again until 10 years later (Oct. 2005). That first trip, I did no planning what-so-ever 
and you won’t believe the stuff I missed (like, uh…..Splash Mountain 
….pretty much all the fireworks except for those on Pleasure Island 
….it makes me shudder to think of all that I walked right past never knowing it was there 
… oblivious). 
, he tends to be a bit shy and more than a bit cautious. He’s so tall that he’ll be towering over me in not too much time 
. Seriously. People often forget that he is only an 11 year old kid (his father and I included 
). I ran into a friend at Teacher Appreciation Day at Staples this morning and she put it well, “He’s like a little man.” 
! He likes WDW but last summer we went on our first Disney Cruise and boy did he love that! “Mom, I’m happy to be going to Disney World, but why do we have to wait so long between cruises? I’m super excited for our next cruise!” 
. Silly man.
so I was playing around on the DVC Member website 
. I wasn’t really positive Josh and I would take a trip but I booked a studio for the end of August (with a waitlist for one of the days). I had the reservation for just a short time, knowing I had plenty of time to cancel it if need be, when Southwest came out with their summer prices. I checked out our dates and came up with a reasonable airfare. Hmmm 
. They grow up too fast, and soon he won’t want to just hang out with Mom 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
. Great reason for a trip - some nice Mother-Son time 
Hybrid Mode
