It's not the way I want to do it, but it's better than no way at all - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
It's not the way I want to do it, but it's better than no way at all
Dates:
January 8-10, 2009
Travelers:
Bob’s Sister, Marti (you may know me from my guest appearances in some of the famous Bob & Larry trip reports)
Mike, Marti’s DH
Michael, DS
Kara, DS’s girlfriend
Purpose of our trip:
To get away from Maryland’s cold weather, to visit Michael (who lives in Orlando) and to be part of Disney’s marathon weekend by running in the Circle of Life 5K
Background:
I love the magic! In fact, I love it almost as much as my famous (at least on this board) brother, Bob. Sadly, nobody else in my family shares the joy, so I only make it to the parks when I can connect with a Bob & Larry trip.
I do, however, make it to Disney more often than I make it to the parks. You see, we do Disney a different way and I’ve decided that, for me, it’s not the way I want to do it, but it’s better than no way at all. What do I mean? Well, DH Mike plays senior league softball. He travels to Florida several times every year. We always stay a few days after his tournaments end and we always end up doing something at Disney. Whatever we do, it never involves actually entering a park. We’ve toured all the resorts, we’ve eaten in many of the restaurants, we’ve watched fireworks, we’ve walked the path from Epcot to Studios, we’ve even taken the Segway tour at the campground… but no parks…. Sigh
This trip, though more of the same, had a bit more Disney than most. Since, under Bob’s leadership, our entire family is tentatively planning a trip for Jan. 2010, I thought I’d try writing a trip report now to get ready for the big trip next year (I don’t see who else in our family would write next year, so assume it’ll be me & I better be ready). Please be patient with me… I don’t really know how to do this, but I want to try.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
The Plan:
Back in June, I was reading the Passporter newsletter and noticed something about the Disney Marathon Weekend. Hmmm… When I retired, I started walking, then race walking, then race walking in 5K races, then walking longer distances. Could I sign up for the Half Marathon and walk it fast enough to finish within the time limit??? YES, I knew I could.
So, I went to DH & asked him if we could go to Disney in January so that I could walk the Half Marathon. To my surprise, he said yes, let’s go. Well, I went to the website to register, only to find that registration for the half marathon was closed – FULL and it was only June…. YIKES! By now, I really wanted to go, so I checked out the Circle of Life 5K, scheduled for Friday of Marathon Weekend. I registered. Yippee! a Disney trip. We told our son we’d be coming to visit him so I could do the 5K. He was fine with that. A few weeks later, he told me his girlfriend Kara wanted to do the race with me. I challenged him to do it, too and he said, “OK, If Dad will, then I will.” So, before they had time to change their minds, I registered them all.
Well, the race was scheduled for 7:00am. Wouldn’t we have to get up REALLY early to be there on time if we were driving from DS’s apartment which is about as far from Disney as you can be and still say you’re in Orlando? Why not stay in a Disney resort the night before the race. DH said, “Good point, OK. Let’s do it.” And then, said I, we won’t really want to rush back to the room in time to check out immediately after the race, so how about TWO nights in a Disney resort. I almost fainted when he said yes to that, too. I asked if Animal Kingdom Lodge would be OK, since the race was at AK. I warned him that AKL is expensive…. Fortunately, he didn’t ask “how expensive?” Instead, he again said yes. I tried hard to get reservations on the concierge level, but they were already booked, so I opted for AKL, Savanna view. Booked, deposit paid, done!
OK – Let me try & push my luck one more time. I’ve always wanted to eat at the California Grill, right by the windows overlooking the Magic Kingdom and to watch Wishes from that spot. I asked, DH said “OK,” so I checked on the time for Wishes & then called and made a reservation. We got 6:10, with Wishes at 8:00 – enough time for us to wait for a window and still get seated in time. Great!
Then, the hardest sell of all… how about some park tickets??? DH said, ‘no way.” DS said, “It’s way too early to plan that.” Sigh… no park tickets… maybe later. As I said before, it’s not the way I want to do it, but it’s better than no way at all..
So, the plan was made & all we had to do was wait for January.
As it turned out, I had one more surprise. Kara, Michael’s girlfriend, has a cousin who works for Westin. She offered to get us a room at the Swan or Dolphin at employee rate. Well, I’ve never been inside either hotel, but they are in a great location. Let’s find out what “employee rate” might mean… Kara checked it out & made the reservation…$69 per night!!! I couldn’t believe it, so told Kara that I wouldn’t cancel at AKL until I had confirmation of our reservation at the Dolphin at that rate. Sure enough, we did. So I cancelled our ressie at AKL & began to plan for our stay at the Dolphin. Unfortunately, in the course of making the change and oohing and aahing over the $69 rate, DS told his father how much AKL would have cost…. Guess I’ll never get to stay there again…”You told me expensive, but THAT expensive…no way.”
So, the final plan was to fly to Orlando on Wednesday night & stay at Michael’s apartment. Go to the WDW Marathon Sports Expo on Thursday, check into the Dolphin later Thursday afternoon, complete the 5K on Friday morning, dine at the California Grill on Friday night and return to Michael’s apartment for a few more warm weather days on Saturday.
Fall comes and goes, Halloween comes and goes, Thanksgiving comes and goes, Christmas comes and goes…. Finally, it’s time for our trip!
Marti - So glad you're writing a TR! I had the pleasure of meeting Bob at Mousefest and was part of the famous Bob and Larry Dining experience. When we were leaving WL after that wonderful dinner Bob and Larry were reminiscing about your surprising Bob there for his birthday.
I at at CG last May (unfortunately not during Wishes) and had a wonderful meal. Hope yours was as good.
Great update! I'm you weren't able to get into the 1/2 marathon, but the Circle of Life 5K sounds like a great 'replacement' Awesome rate at the Dolphin! Can't beat that! Looking forward to more
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
When we were leaving WL after that wonderful dinner Bob and Larry were reminiscing about your surprising Bob there for his birthday. 
you weren't able to get into the 1/2 marathon, but the Circle of Life 5K sounds like a great 'replacement' Awesome rate at the Dolphin! Can't beat that! Looking forward to more
Linear Mode
