The Great Procrastination PTR--Trip in Aug. 2011 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 Great Procrastination Pre-Trip Report/August 2011
Hi guys! I should be writing the vocabulary post test for my seventh grade reading skills class. What am I doing instead? Well, I’ve spent time on Facebook and time here on the boards. I figured that I would type up the PTR I’ve been working on for a week or so. Maybe I’ll get brave enough to post it…That sounds so much better than writing the test.
Introductions:
I’m Jen. I’ve been reading trip reports for a couple of years and have been living vicariously through people’s trips and experiences. Thank you so much for all the information you’ve given me. I’m a teacher and relatively good at procrastinating.
John is my dh. He’s a computer geek for a living and he builds race cars in our garage. John is amazing at procrastinating.
Jack is my ds. He’s six. He loves basketball and driving his go-kart. He’s my apprehensive one. He’s not one to rush into any adventure. He’s got to think about it first.
Julianna (or Anna) is my dd. She’s four. She is…well… I can’t really pin a description on her. She’s unique. She’s inconsistent. She’s Anna. Here’s an example. Yesterday we took the kids to IKEA to walk around. Every time she saw someone (and the place was crowded), she would go “AHHHH!” I kept reminding her to be nice. After a while, she was telling people, “Be nice!”
John, Jack & Anna. I'll try working on sizing pics for next post.
The Trip:
August 19 – 26th, 2011 at POFQ.
Along on the trip will be the following:
Mom and Dad (also known as Margie and Howie, the old lady and the old man…we (meaning my sisters and I) never take possession of them when we talk about them. It’s either “your mother” or “your father.”)
Karen, Valerie, and Geri—my sisters. Geri is technically my cousin, but we’ve always thought of her as our sister—even though she has her own siblings we don’t consider them our siblings.
Liz, Haley, and Kristy –my nieces. Liz and Haley are Karen’s dds. And Kristy is Geri’s.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
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
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.
I come from a family of WDW lovers. My sisters have been more times than I can even think about counting. One of my sisters (the only one who isn’t going on this trip…she’s going sometime this month) goes at least once a year. I’m not so fortunate. One reason is, honestly, money; another is my anti-Disney dh.
I shouldn’t say that John is anti-Disney. He is not exactly ANTI anything. He does, however, fail to see why anyone would even want to go to WDW more than once every five years. He says five years, but he means ten. Right now, he is referring to this trip as “our vacation to see the giant rat.” Whatever. At least we’re going, right?
I’ve been itching to bring the kids to Disney for a long time. Jack went a couple of times: once in 2005 when he was about 7 months old and once in 2006 when he was about 16 months old. He doesn’t remember, obviously. We haven’t been since. John had no interest in going until he was convinced it would be more for the kids than the adults. He didn’t complain if I wanted to take the kids with my sisters when they were very young, but once Anna came around, it wasn’t so easy.
The thing is that my sisters live in Connecticut and I live in Massachusetts. They prefer to fly out of Bradley or one of the New York airports; I prefer Logan or T.F. Green. With one kid, especially Jack, it was easy to either fly and meet them or drive to meet them and then fly. With the second kid (Anna has never been an easy kid. Lovable, sweet, funny. Yes. Not easy, though), it became very difficult.
When John and I were celebrating our 9th anniversary in August of 2009, we looked forward to our 10th anniversary and questioned how we would celebrate. I ventured that I would like to bring the kids to Disney, and he (surprisingly) agreed. Actually, our 10th anniversary would mark 10 years since he had been to Disney... Since I was on vacation and excited, I started to plan the trip.
John played along, too. We made all kinds of plans. We thought about how we could get a villa or a family suite. We could invite two of my sisters or his parents to come along and we would have live-in baby sitters! How awesome would that be?
Thankfully, John is wise—even if he is not a Disney fan. I wanted to book once we were able to do so, but he said we should hold off. He was concerned about the security of his job. For the previous two years we had watched and waited while his company had rounds of lay offs. After each round, we would sigh in relief. Unfortunately (or actually fortunately), the relief was not to last. In December of 2009, he was laid off from his job of 9 years. We were suddenly glad that we hadn’t booked anything.
His unemployment lasted about six months—long enough for him to start (and not finish) a lot of projects around the house, but not long enough for us to be too financially strapped. He was hired at another company (in the building next to the one he used to work at) in June of 2010. This job is way better than his old one. He likes it a lot more and I think it’s better for him.
So the trip was back on! Instead of for our 10th anniversary, we decided to plan it for our 11th.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
I’m a teacher and relatively good at procrastinating.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Glad the trip is back on! 
Linear Mode
