Sparky's Gone to the World- A TR 9/13/11-9/20/11 - Page 31 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Welcome Home - looking forward to hearing all about the trip.
Thanks!
Today I averted a crisis. A Disney nightmare if you would. I popped in my memory card of pics from WDW in my computer and it said they were all corrupted. Today I went on a search and found a recovery program and for the mere price of $39 recovered all my pics but 5 of them. I am so relieved, I'll pay the $39 because to me they are priceless.
Lesson learned....next trip, I am only taking a days worth of pics on one memory card. That way, I only loose one day if something happens and not 6 days worth, like I almost did.
I am almost done editing my photopass pics and once that is done I will try to start my TR. Lots of stuff happened on this wonderful trip. Can't wait to tell you all about it.
Losing my pictures is one of my worst nightmares! Glad you were able to recover them!!
Me too Kathy! I'll tell you, I bought a bunch of souvies, but I would have rather lost them than pictures. Luckily for me, I didn't have to lose either.
Well friends as you know I am back from my laughing place. I miss it already but know that I have next year’s fabulous trip to look forward to. I will definitely be writing a PTR for that trip (hold on to your seats ladies and gents!), but in the meantime, I am going to relive my magic memories while telling you all about my awesome trip this year!
As those of you who have followed my PTR know, we had decided to keep this trip a surprise from my DD, age 7, till the morning we were leaving. Little did she know when she awoke that she was not going to school that day! Or for the next 8 days for that matter.
At 6:00, I woke DD by telling her it was time to get up for school. Luckily, she doesn’t tell time so she had no idea it was way earlier than she gets up for school. I had made eggs on her special surprise reveal plate I had made for her. Within a couple bites, DH couldn’t contain himself anymore and started asking what was on her plate? What did it say? She read it (with a smidge of help) and it didn’t seem to register. I looked at her and said, “Would you rather go to school today or WDW?” She looked at me funny and replied with some concern, “But I have school today!” Oh boy! At this point I just said, “Oh, okay. You’d rather go to school than to WDW?” This time she says, “No, I think I’ll go to WDW!” Then she sat there watching TV and eating her eggs. I didn’t think she understood or believed us. After a few bites, I said to her “Come here, look! I have all our suitcases packed so as soon as you’re dressed we can go to the airport…to go to WDW!” She ran over to the suitcases and spotted the WDW luggage tags. With that, she started jumping like a spring and shrieking. Now, that is the reaction I was looking for!
Immediately she went off to get dressed. I presented her with a brand new sparkly Mickey tee I bought her the day before for $5… by chance. As she was dressing, she started asking me if I had packed her ears and her Minnie doll. She thanked me for remembering to pack all her treasures. Once she was dressed and her new Tinkerbell backpack was filled with toys for the plane we were off!
The trip to the airport and the airplane ride itself was uneventful. The usual same old, same old. DD was excited to ride the tram thingy in the airport over to the main building. I have to admit, I think it’s pretty neat too. We grabbed our luggage, which came out fast, and proceeded to DME. Luckily, for us, there was a DME bus boarding as we walked up so within 5 minutes we were on our way. With only one quick stop at the Swan & Dolphin, we were at the POP. You know I took a big whiff of it as soon as I entered the doors. Nothing beats the smell of WDW, and for me especially the POP. I have no idea what it smells like, but I like it!
I had done online check in, so with no wait, we were heading to our room within minutes. The trek to our room…eh, a little longer than mere minutes. I had put in as a request the ground floor, due to having a scooter a good part of the stay. I called in my room requests 4 days before arriving and the lovely CM said I could put in any kind of request I wanted. So my requests in order were….1.) Ground floor 2.) 70’s buildings 3.) Building #9. Well, I did get my first request met, and I realized even before arriving I had made a mistake on the requests.
The way I meant my requests were, I would like the 70’s or building #9, preferably the ground floor. If there is no ground floor in those buildings but availability then I’ll take any floor. If there is no availability in those buildings and I will be somewhere else, then I would like the ground floor.
How do you say all that without writing a novel or sounding too pushy? I think I have it pretty much solved for the next trip, which won’t be till 2 or 3 years from now. DH and I actually really loved the building we were in which was the 90’s building #8. Room # 8134 to be exact, I think the only rooms farther away from the main building was 8135 and 8136 which were the 2 doors right after mine, the last in the building. We liked the location because it was quiet, and we preferred the computer pool. However, the best feature was the smoking area to the left of the pool, right in front of the building. We decided that if we can get a center room facing the pool, we can prop the door open and our DD can have freedom and so can we…to smoke. Perfect! Though, she will be 9 or 10 then, but still.
We got to our room finally, unpacked some, changed and got to the bus as we had an ADR at Ohana for dinner at 6:50 (a new ADR for us) and a meet with PP Mommie2allkids (Marybeth) and her family for fireworks on the beach.
Up Next: Did we like Ohana? Did we find Marybeth and family?
Yay! It's here! I'm am so in need of a Disney fix. Your TR should tide me over until we leave. I'm glad DD decided WDW was a better choice than school. LOL
Yay! It's here! I'm am so in need of a Disney fix. Your TR should tide me over until we leave. I'm glad DD decided WDW was a better choice than school. LOL
I know huh? I am glad she picked WDW too, didn't want to have to drag a kid there.
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.
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Pixie Dust
Back!!! Glad you had a great trip, can't wait to hear all about it!!
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
Holly: 
Today I went on a search and found a recovery program and for the mere price of $39 recovered all my pics but 5 of them. 
I am so relieved, I'll pay the $39 because to me they are priceless.
Very scary!
Arrival 9/13/11
Yay! It's here! I'm am so in need of a Disney fix. Your TR should tide me over until we leave. I'm glad DD decided WDW was a better choice than school. LOL
I know huh? I am glad she picked WDW too, didn't want to have to drag a kid there.
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