An Island Frame of Mind (A Cam and Luke PTR) Updated 5/22 - Page 34 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Did the bands come with the DVC slider, or was that something you had from last time? I just ordered ours today!
The DVC slider came with the bands. It was tucked under them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
Congrats on the Magic Bands!! The train track came out beautiful!! the train too!!
Luke has the whole Mickey train up now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I think an emotional day like that is more draining than a very active one. Glad to hear your dad is in better spirits.
I love the train! That's so awesome! I'll be showing the boys tomorrow.
I can't wait for a few our great nephews to come over and see it.
I must admit I wondered that too when I saw your photo.
The DVC sliders did come with the bands. You don't get yours delivered to your home, do you? We didn't get ours one year so we asked at concierge at the resort, and they got us each one after we showed our DVC membership card.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
The train looks wonderful going around the room!
Hard to believe that your May trip is almost here. It snowed a bit here this morning!
: more snow! I can't believe you are still getting snow. Our highs have been 5 - 7 degrees cooler than normal with some strong winds that make it feel even cooler, but thankfully, no snow. It has made for some brisk walks this week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Congrats on the magic bands! Love the train video!
For others--we got the slider with our bands on the last trip. Typically we've been sent more 2 and 3 times the number of bands we need an then this trip we've been sent none. So I'll have to find our sliders!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Congrats on getting your Magic Bands!!! Love the video of the train!
I'll have to take one of the full train running the next time he has it up.
I just showed the boys the train video. They think it's awesome!! I'm going to show my Dad too and maybe he can rig something like that for the boys in their room - maybe use the monorail.
I just showed the boys the train video. They think it's awesome!! I'm going to show my Dad too and maybe he can rig something like that for the boys in their room - maybe use the monorail.
Luke has the monorail, but he wants to have the Disney World stuff down on the layout itself. I think a monorail running near the ceiling would be awesome.
Like the Magic Bands and Luke did some job with the train! Having a monorail running as well would be quite awesome to see!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Very nice magic band colors! How fun to have them all. I often wish they would come out with a few other choices That you dont have to pay extra for. I cant wait to read more
Like the Magic Bands and Luke did some job with the train! Having a monorail running as well would be quite awesome to see!
I'll keep posting pics as he gets more work done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by guerns17
Very nice magic band colors! How fun to have them all. I often wish they would come out with a few other choices That you dont have to pay extra for. I cant wait to read more
We don't have every available color, but we do have all the ones we really want.
This time in two weeks we’ll be on the road for around 8 or 9 hours with a scheduled stop for the night at a Hampton Inn in Valdosta, Georgia. So what have I done to get trip ready this week? Practically nothing! I have figured out which shorts I want to take, but that is as far as the packing list has gone. I have perused the Disney website in order to check out the menus for all the restaurants where we will be dining. I promise this week, I’ll make some progress on the packing list. In fact, one of the first questions that my DMiL asked me was, “Are you packed yet?” Some of you may remember that Stefanie liked to be packed a month in advance. So we made sure to do that for her, but I like to pack a week ahead, and Luke the night before (though he has gotten better since being retired).
Before we left for family time, I took advantage of the bright sunny day to get photos of our dogwood tree. It is two years old, so quite small, but it already knows how to bloom beautifully. Several members of Luke's family went together to purchase it for us on the one year anniversary of Stefanie's death to honor her.
(Note: The house in the background is not ours, but a neighbor's.)
Our house this time.
We spent most of today with family for a belated Easter meal and egg hunt. The weather has been very wet the past several weekends and my newest great nephew was born just a few weeks prior to Easter so we delayed just a bit. Smart choice because today was sunny and mild with a high in the upper 60s.
First, we got to meet our newest great nephew, Elijah Howard.
Here he is with Mamaw.
Such a beautiful one-month old boy.
Heidi giving her baby brother some love. Sweet kisses!
My DBiL grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Along with that we had chips and homemade dip and Mamaw’s famous chocolate chip cookies. The best part for me was spending time with family. I finally met and held baby Elijah while watching his siblings, Abram and Heidi hunt for eggs that were hidden numerous times for them to find.
Let the hunt begin!
Love that sweet Abram face!
Comparing who got the most eggs.
Look what I got! A good cookie!
Luke's younger sister who is Dre Dre (granny) to all three of these sweet kiddos.
Heidi Grace with her cool new Frozen sunglasses.
Part of my sweet family.
I had also packed the back of our Edge with lots of goodies and clothes from Stefanie. My niece and nephew were amazed at how much stuff we had for the kids. Abram wanted to help move the clothes from our car to theirs, telling me over and over how much he loved to try on clothes. I looked over to see that he had removed his orange shirt and had on a Star Wars Weekend shirt of Stefanie’s. It fit perfectly! He told me he was glad I hadn’t waited any longer to give this to him or he might have grown out of size 6 – 7 into size 6 – 40. I was glad I hadn’t waited any longer, too. But it takes time to let go. Brittany told me Abram would probably spend hours after they got home trying everything on. Love my family!
Once the clothes were transferred, Luke and I headed out to our city’s Green Belt for a walk. Usually we walk a 5K, but the weather was great and the trail we were on was new to us. Before we knew it we had walked 2 miles/3K without turning around. At that point, we made a legal U-turn. In the end we walked 4 miles or 6 kilometers. We had stood up for a good while at my DSiL Andrea’s house and then walked a long way, so by the end, our feet were sore. As of today, we’ve walked 76.2 miles for the month of April. Our feet should be Disney ready, but it’s standing that does us both in now.