Living the dream and remembering the Bagman COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Living the dream and remembering the Bagman COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM
Well, it's time to get this show on the road, now that we're finally back from our three week amazing vacation. Let's go!
Friday 9 September – part one: “well that’s the last time that’ll go off some time”!
So today is the day our adventure starts… and for those of you who read my pre-trip report, you might guess how the day started… the alarm went off and I could immediately predict the next words out of Mark’s mouth – “well that’s the last time that’ll go off some time”! Not that he’d mentioned it a couple of times over the last couple of days…
We got ready to go to work and I ended up doing some bits on Photobucket that I’d totally forgotten to do. I always load up a “dummy” photo into each day of photos on Photobucket, so that I have the details for the photo address for the trip report, and I only realised last night I hadn’t done that, so that was quickly out of the way.
As I did things this morning, I’d gather things up and put them either into a case or the hand luggage, once they’d finally been used, leaving us as little as possible to do when we get home, as we just want to get straight on the road and out…
We both had productive days at work, although I had a really emotional time of it at lunchtime, when I went to get Maltesers for Jan. We’d already got Roses, but neither she nor us can remember which of these chocolates, she preferred, so we figured we’d ensure we had both for her. For some reason, it just hit me at the checkout, and I nearly burst into tears there and then, but I just about kept it together. That would’ve looked good – me in floods of tears in Tesco!
Anyway, we both made it home earlier than expected. I was the last one back at 4:45pm, and we immediately set about doing the final bits and pieces, so we could get on the road. We weighed all the cases, and they were all fine, but then again if you fly Upper Class, you can have up to 70lbs in weight. The third case was over 50lbs, which is the normal weight allowance, but I’m not worried, as it’s the one with one case inside another, and we have four free cases with Southwest, so we can always go to four cases if needed…
Once we’d weighed them, we loaded them into the car, and this is what it looked like when it was all completed…
We set off and headed out on the motorway….
Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook from a couple of weeks ago about the bridge that collapsed along the M20 near where we live. How no-one died in this, I do not know, but even more amazing, they removed half the bridge that weekend, then they decided to close the motorway last weekend to remove the other half. There is very little left now. From this angle, you’d never know there was a bridge ever here..
And here’s the view of the remainder of the bridge – look to the left of the shot…
As we drove along, the sun was casting some beautiful light in the sky…
We decided to stop at Clacket Lane services along the infamous M25, the orbital motorway around London that spends a lot of its time at a standstill. We headed inside, and look how deserted it was!
We got ourselves a McDonald’s…
… although note the lack of McFlurry on the tray, as the ice cream machine was out of action. I really fancied one as well…
When we left, we were definitely going the right way around the M25… look at the traffic going the other way!
The clouds were darkening as well…
We’ve had a very dry summer in the south east of England, so any rain that does come through will be very welcome. I honestly cannot remember the last time we had a decent amount of rain – it’s probably been a good couple of weeks.
We started to head towards traffic as we neared the end of our journey… look what Google Maps was telling us:
We were soon arriving at our destination for the night…
… and wow, look at the driveway leading up to it! We were later to discover that it’s home to three 18-hole golf courses.
As we arrived, we were a little nervous, and feeling very out of place, as we appeared to be about the only people here not in tuxedos or gorgeous evening gowns. It turned out there was a charity event going on, and that’s where they were all going. As Mark said, we didn’t need to worry about our car, given the car park was stuffed with BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, Range Rovers… you get the picture!
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Enjoyed your photos of the road trip. That really is quite something about the bridge!
It was a bit like the Hoboken train crash. I do not know how more people were not killed. When I saw the first images come out, I assumed a lot more would be dead. Thank goodness they weren't.
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I love maltesers! If they were readily available here I'd be trouble ...
70 lbs for a weight limit is a big deal! I wonder how ridiculous I'd look trying to lift a case that heavy into the belt
I looked pretty nuts trying to lift our case off this morning, and I don't think it was anywhere near to 70lbs...
Nice start to your journey! I've heard about the M25 being one big parking lot and it's always the norm! Your accommodations sound amazing and looking forward to photos of the room and your stay!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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About This Page: 
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I always load up a “dummy” photo into each day of photos on Photobucket, so that I have the details for the photo address for the trip report, and I only realised last night I hadn’t done that, so that was quickly out of the way. 
I really fancied one as well… 
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Pixie Dust
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
I've heard about the M25 being one big parking lot and it's always the norm! 
Your accommodations sound amazing and looking forward to photos of the room and your stay! 
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