Eight Days a Week - the Bakelin Invasion - PreTR **Updated 4/2** - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So excited to see you writing another TR! I love your writing style and always feel like I could be there walking through it with you. Your trip last spring break was the first TR of yours I read, and I can't help but think (and hope) that this trip will be a lot more fun for you guys. Can't wait to read more!
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Can't wait to read about all the wonderful adventures! I know you'll have a great time!
We've stayed at All Star Movies twice, Dalmations Bldg. once and Toy Story Bldg. once. I love the themeing! My DH maintains that it is the only true "Disney" hotel!
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Okay, first I have to start by adding that everytime I look at my sig pic I get totally freaked out because with that short, light colored hair on my head, I look like my mom, with a moustache! Creepy….
So, we were booked for 4 nights, April 14 - 18, at Pop. Then that fabulous deal came out where you could pay for 4 nights and get 3 free. I’m assuming you’ve heard about this deal However, on every commercial, website, email, etc. I read it said that our dates were blocked out. Oh well, we’d just keep our plans as is. For Christmas my in-laws gave us $$ which was great. We told them that really they gave us APs So we went ahead and ordered our AP vouchers, and added on the Quick Service AP dining plan while we were at it. We knew we’d be eating mostly CS anyway and Andy loves knowing his food is already paid for ahead of time, so we figured we’d give it a try. So we were all set…….until…….
One afternoon at work I was killing time at the end of the day and looking at *gasp* another board for discount rumors and saw that folks had been able to apply the 4/3 deal during Easter week WHAT??? So I immediately called up to see if this was true. Sure enough, she could do it for us. There were a couple of catches though. Catch #1 we’d have to move to All Star Sports in a preferred room, Catch #2 we’d have the QS plan extended to all 7 nights, and Catch #3 we’d have to get at least a 1 day ticket. Okay, I can deal. How much? It was only about $300 more so I called Andy and asked his opinion. He wasn’t really keen on spending more money at the moment as times are tight right now with everybody and we still owed about $600 on the trip. So I decided we’d just keep it the way it was. That lasted until I got home and did our tax return. We finally, after 2 years of paying, were getting back money! And it easily covered what we still owed, and the extra $300 if we wanted to add on the extra days So I called Andy at work again and simply started the conversation by saying “so you wanna go to Disney for all 7 nights?” He knew what I was hitting on and said absolutely! So I called and booked it. Only change was that the one room left at AS Sports was now gone and we had to move to All Star Movies in a preferred room. That was fine by me. We haven’t stayed there yet so it’ll be good to stay some place different. I booked it and we were all set. We’ll save our 1 day tickets and apply the cost towards our APs next year
So now we knew we’d be there for Easter, which I know will be crazy, but we plan on taking it easy….and speaking of plan…. Planning……I’ll share our ADRs and dining choices in the next update
Okay, first I have to start by adding that everytime I look at my sig pic I get totally freaked out because with that short, light colored hair on my head, I look like my mom, with a moustache! Creepy….
I'm sure your mom would be thrilled to know that you think her hair looks like Ringo's.
What a nice surprise - finding out you could get the "free" 3 nights, and finding that you'd be getting a tax refund to pay for it all! COOL! Looking forward to hearing about your plans.
Good going with the tax return...see even Uncle Sam wanted you to take advantage of the 4 / 3 deal . We stayed at the ASMo last June and while I was not expecting to love it, that is exactly what happened. I would definitely stay there again. I also found that during the morning and evening rushes we had our own bus (I am sure during a busy time like Easter they might do it then too). And worse case scenerio if a Sports / Music bus came first we would hop on that and just walk through the parking lot.
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
Love the photo ! Great start , glad you were able to extend your stay. I'm going to guess that you will finish this TR 5 weeks before your next planned holiday to WDW.
I'm sure your mom would be thrilled to know that you think her hair looks like Ringo's.
I guess I should say I didn't mean Ringo's hair looks like my mom's hair. But rather that pic makes me look like I have short, light colored hair just like my mom and since I have long dark hair..it's kind of strange to see
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