The West's are heading South...again! - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thanks everyone. My student loved her Frozen band!! She is so excited. Unfortunately, my other student's bands got lost in the mail, so they are having the replacement ones delivered directly to their resort, so no chance for me to decorate them. Student #2 is soo disappointed, but I put together a decorating kit that I will send home with her tomorrow. It has a sheet of the Frozen tattoos, an assortment of sparkles, a couple of polishes. An orange stick and a "dotter". Hopefully, her mom will be able to fix it up for her in their room...
I like to spread the magic.
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So, I took today off. I have a mammogram scheduled this afternoon and am going to take DD's car in for an inspection and oil change this morning.
I am making a small change to our arrival day plans.
I'm going to cancel our lunch reservation at Trail's End. I don't want to feel rushed to leave Jax too early. We usually end up hitting the Disney outlet in St Augustine on the way home when everyone is tired and cranky( and broke...lol!), so my plan is to go on the way there. We will grab breakfast at our hotel, hit the outlets and take our time getting to Old Key West. I am going to update our arrival time as I had us getting there after our 140 lunch time. Maybe we will take the boat over to DTD and do EoS for lunch instead. Yum. I have FP+ for MK in the evening, so dinner will most likely be a stop at my favorite corn dog stand in Frontierland.
Also, I don't think I mentioned DD's request for escargot again. She had it at F&WF a couple of years ago, and then we had Chef's de France last summer for her birthday. I was able to get the two of us a lunch ADR for Monday. The boys will find lunch somewhere in WS ( is there anything to eat there?...lol!!!), while she eats snails. Last time we went , I really didn't enjoy my lunch much ( ham and cheese sandwich I think?), so this time I will just get the Lobster Bisque. It was de-lish. We have dinner that night at R&c, so I need to save room for Sticky Toffee Pudding...oh my!
My students will both be at MK on Thursday, so I think that is where we will try to meet up for a castle picture. That is our DHS day with lunch at B&C, but I will go on over to MK for our photo shoot in the late afternoon or evening, whichever works best
I have my suitcase packed, just need to add the underthings. Laundry is done, so I will pack up DS's suitcase today. I will also hit the bank. I was going to get the car washed, but it looks overcast today. Also, my DH had a run in with a huge chunk of wood driving home from Boston last week. He put his car in the shop yesterday and we are waiting for the estimate. His car isn't even a year old, and the damage is mechanical. If they need more than a week to fix it, we will be taking his brand new Jeep Cherokee rental car on the trip instead of my 2009 Ford Flex. My car is the most comfortable road trip car there is. The proof is in the 120,000 miles it has on it...lol. If we can, we will give it a break and let the rental earn some miles
Well, I guess I need to get up and get moving...3 more sleeps until takeoff!