The Whole Family? My Poconos Trip Report UPDATED 8/2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
The Whole Family? My Poconos Trip Report UPDATED 8/2
Welcome to my newest trip report! I am very excited for this trip and can't wait to share it with all of my Passporter Pals (that's you!). Here's the whole back story on how this trip and trip report title came to be.
Tomorrow 4/17, my dads parents (not the same grandparents I talked about in my "I am freaking out" trip report) are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and we wanted to surprise them and take them somewhere special. So the WHOLE family (except for them. It's still a secret!) sat down and got thinking. At first, I thought "Hey! Why don't we go on a Disney cruise?! They would love that!" (and so would I!). We looked at pricing and it just wasn't in the budget for some of us. So that idea was out. Then, we decided to put all of our ideas into a hat and pull them out until we found a good choice for all of us. So of course, I wrote down "Disneyland California" and tossed it in the hat. I have never been there and I really want to. It was actually the first slip of paper that got pulled out of the hat! Again, we looked at prices and again my bright idea was just too much money. Oh well, I tried! Someone also threw in Disney World and we figured that if Disneyland was too much, than maybe Disney world would be less since we could potentially drive. But again, just too much. But I don't think that my grandparents would enjoy walking around a Disney theme park all day in the heat. We kinda started thinking about us more than what they would enjoy. Then, it was my turn to reach in and grab a slip of paper. I pulled it out and read it aloud. "Pocono Mountains". HMMMM. It's only a 2 hour drive from our house and the prices were quite reasonable. So we found a nice hotel (that I can't quite think of the name of it) that has alot of family friendly activities as well as things to do alone. So we booked our journey!
Next: our cast of "characters" (and I mean characters!)
Just so you all know, I probably won't get back to this TR until next week so that I can finish my Disney World trip report.
Ahhhhhh so where did I get this TR title? When we were considering buying my grandparents a vacation, we were thinking about sending them alone so they would be able to spend time together. At our "meeting" we were thinking away about ideas of where to send them when an idea clicked into my head. And before I could even consider it, I announced "Why don't we just take the whole family?". And everyone looked at my like "yeah right you wish girl!". Then, my aunt leaned over and whispered "that's a great idea.". So he meeting came to an end and we all left to go home. The next day, my aunt emailed us all saying that she called the hotel and we would get a family fun packae if we all went that you only get it you book more than 3 rooms in one reservation. It includes a discount on all the rooms, fishing, boating and water ski access, lake, tennis, beach volleyball, hiking, biking and a whole bunch of other stuff. So in the end, my idea won and nobody had a hole in their wallet.
Our cast of Characters (and yes I mean characters!)
In this thread, I will introduce you to our family. It has been requested by them that I don't use their names in this trip report, so I will obey!
Family #1-My family! This consists of my mom, my dad, myself, by brother (age 10) and my other brother (age 6) He will be 7 when we go on this trip.
Family #2- my dad's parents. It consists of my grandmother (she goes by Mamaw in our family) age 72 and my grandfather (he goes by Papaw) age 69.
Family #3- my dad's youngest sister's family. They have 2 boys (ages 7 and 8) that I love spending time with. I think they are the most well behaved boys and have great manners.
Family #4- my dad's older brother's family. They have a daughter in college and a son (age 18) that graduates this year.
Family #5- my dad's older sister's family. It will be her, her boyfriend, her son (I think he's 25), her daughter (I think she's 21) and possibly her granddaughter (age 5). Her granddaughter is the cutest girl you have ever seen!
Well, I told you we had alot of rooms that we needed! The hotel was very surprised when we called and asked for 5 rooms.
Tonight is my grandparents 50th anniversary party/ vow renewal. Technically, this is part of the trip so I will post a little bit about the party tonight (but most importantly, the big trip reveal!)
It is a beautiful resort with tons of family friendly activities, as well as activities for adults, kids and teens. We are so excited as it has activities for all of us.
OK, so it's time to talk about the party! We arrived at 3 o'clock to set up and do decorations. Easy. We were done in 15 minutes. But then the photographers showed up and we needed to set up a place that could fit our whole family in one picture. That was harder. By the time we finished, it was 3:55. Perfect timing because pictures were at 4. The the rest of the family arrived and we got situated for pictures. First, we did individual family pictures, then pictures of the kids, (I was still considered a kid ) and then the adults. Then was the struggle for the whole family picture. But everyone got situated and everything turned out great. So then the guests began arriving (all 150 of them) and it was time to start eating. But first....
My cousins and brothers and I love to write and perform plays for our family (don't know why, we just do)
Before I get started on our idea, a little back story....
There were several people at this party that were video taping things for a CD we are making of the events of the night. He asked us kids (yes, I was considered a kid yet again) if we wanted to say or do something for the CD.
Earlier that night, we had written and short skit (and a dumb one too) that we were supposed to perform. Well that never happened, but we told the camera men that we had written it. So we decided to do our skit for the CD. I helped the boys practice (and they wanted me in this play too. Can you imagine how that turned out? ) and finally we were all ready. So the camera man gave us microphones to hook onto our clothes and hooked up his camera and away we went. We had to keep redoing it though because the band would start to play and blare in our video. But it turned out ok. I wasn't thrilled about being in this play but I went along with it. But it was a nice memory for "Mamaw" and "Pappaw".
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Sounds so fun!!
PassPorter Guide Author
) and finally we were all ready. So the camera man gave us microphones to hook onto our clothes and hooked up his camera and away we went. We had to keep redoing it though because the band would start to play and blare in our video. But it turned out ok. I wasn't thrilled about being in this play but I went along with it. But it was a nice memory for "Mamaw" and "Pappaw".
Linear Mode
