A Cottage, an Opry, and a Fairy Tale 10 Years Long and on to Forever - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You know when you've become extremely spoiled by trips to Disney when you have set your expectations of service at that level. While the Gaylord Opryland resort has gorgeous public areas, their service is uneven & their crowd management leaves a lot to be desired. They are also extremely overpriced for what you get. I splurged as a once-in-ten-years occasion & found more and more added at every step most of which was not disclosed at online booking. Maybe I did not research enough, but being given one bottom-line price then having $40 in additional charges ($16.95 of which was for parking ) announced with a comment "I'd recommend using the shuttle and your free bottled water; two bottles that would cost less than $4.00 mind you; since you'll be charged anyway" almost got me to boil over right then and there. Kept murmuring under my breath to focus on having a good time and to shrug it off and it helped me to not let it spoil my day.
Got to the room & it was not what I'd expect for the price - pretty similar to our Magnolia Bend room at POR. Again, moved past it quickly & grabbed my husband by the hand to wander through the gardens. That part of the experience was truly enjoyable. They have an almost tropical garden, a cascades & fountains area, and a Delta Island area with a New Orleans feel. Quite memorable to walk through and explore, but left us with a little time to burn before our dinner reservation at the Old Hickory Steakhouse.
My DH and I after a quick conference decided we wanted to keep walking & talking so took the shuttle over to the Opryland Mills to circle through the few bits we'd missed before & to visit the Gibson store where you could see guitars being made mostly by hand.
Dinner was another superbly enjoyable & memorable experience. I have an extremely sensitive allergy to alcohol & I've had some very bad experiences in the past with fine dining restaurants assisting with the allergy or acting snooty/ offended about the situation. I wish I could remember the chef's name but I can't for anything & didn't note it. He came out, explained the menu in detail to me clarifying what landmines to avoid he couldn't work around my allergy plus assured me he would personally review any dish sent out to me to make sure it was absolutely alcohol free. I do remember our server's name, Wayne, and I've never found a better server. Dinner was out on a candlelit patio overlooking the evening lit Delta Island so flash photography was out. Imagine, though, natural farm raised beef fresh from that morning meltingly tender & juicy with a simple herb rub served with a chimichurro sauce (lemon/ lime base with cilantro & maybe a bit of lemon zest & olive oil) The sauce was fairly acidic but perfectly balanced against the steaks. My DH was wonderful about working around what sides I could eat as you had to order the sides family style to share among the table. We ended up sharing fresh button mushrooms sauteed in butter & garlic plus mashed roasted red potatoes loaded with cheese/ sour cream/ etc.
Sheesh. I need a napkin for drool control just remembering that dinner. Rolling out of there, it was off for another wander around the Delta Island area but that got cut a bit short because of the absolute earsplitting noise created by two "outside" private events and one very overfull "outside" bar. Note- the hotel was hosting at least 5-6 conferences and many things were completely over-run with extreme crowds. It wasn't too bad in the day time, but insane in the evening. Our plan for live music at the Jack Daniels Saloon was de-railed by the venue being completely shut down for a private event.
No matter, we decided instead to try & hunt out Christie's Cookies to find something for dessert. The evening ended on quite a nice note stretched out in the room lingering over dessert.
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) announced with a comment "I'd recommend using the shuttle and your free bottled water; two bottles that would cost less than $4.00 mind you; since you'll be charged anyway" almost got me to boil over right then and there. Kept murmuring under my breath to focus on having a good time and to shrug it off and it helped me to not let it spoil my day.
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