My Birthday Dream Come True!!! **Updated 10/9** COMPLETE - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
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 just started reading your PTR, and it's making me itch to write my own. You're doing a great job expressing yourself! Thanks for sharing. Now back to my reading...
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryEL8775
I can only hope that they live up to some of your's and other's tr's when I am done... I have a hard time expressing myself sometimes and I don't write what I want to say properly sometimes. But if you have any advice please let me know. Thanks...
We got up at 3:00am and were off to the airport by 3:30am. I drove us down and my neighbor came with us to drop us off, then bring our car back home til it was time to come back home.
Our flight was due to take off at 6:45am from gate 4 at BDL in Hartford. Well we took off as scheduled with no problems.
Well here we are the time is now 8:15am and we are in the middle of our flight. We are currently over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Our flight took off on time. There was minor turbulence but very minor. I got to sit with Tyler while Sami got to sit with Daddy.
I am doing so far so good on only 2 hours of sleep time. I mean who can sleep the night before going to Disney World. I am missing my mom like crazy right now as this will be a pretty rough week for her. Because the 4th was my grandmother's birthday and the 6th was my grandfather's birthday. Then of course the 7th was my birthday.
But this trip is a new beginning for me. A few years ago, my grandfather passed away on my birthday, thus I have not wanted to celebrate my birthday as of late. But I figure it is time to start living life again.
It is now 8:52am and we will actually arrive early. We have already started to descend on this flight. Somehow I now have both kids sitting with me and Eric is all by himself.
I can't wait to give the kids their surprises. I know they will love them. We will be one happy family this week, I hope!
Last night at Kristen's, I actually got a henna tattoo of a Mickey head on my leg. So this should be interesting. I also have the envelope to deliver to Kristen's resort and the stuff for Genevieve as well.
Luckily tonight we dine at the restaurant at Gen's resort so I can just drop off her stuff while we are at dinner.
The only problem on the whole flight down was that there was this kid behind us who not only kept kicking our seats but kept saying, "We're going down, we're going down!" I wanted to hang this child but just kept ourselves occupied with activities.
It's 9:05am and we are making our arrival to Orlando. The landing gear is lowering as I am writing this. I particularly don't like departures or arrivals with planes. I just have to remember to control my breathing techniques.
Well we are off to the DME bus and our driver was Mark Mansour. He was absolutely great. Very entertaining and very delightful.
So we get all checked into our resort, "Port Orleans French Quarter" and what a surprise our room is ready for us. So we head on up to room 5339. Now I was told it was a courtyard view but I could see the Sassagoula River. So I am very grateful and would love this room on future trips.
Granted I was just excited to get a room in building 5. The funny thing though is that we live on the 3rd floor at home and yet here we are on vacation and again we are on the 3rd floor still.
For lunch we hit the hotel resort food court. I had a very yummy cheese steak sandwich with onions and peppers. DH had a double cheeseburger, DS had a single cheeseburger, and DD had the 8 piece chicken nuggets and fries meal.
I then let the kids swim for about an hour while DH took the boat over to POR to check out their gift shop. Then I had them come get ready for dinner at Trails End. We then took the boat to DTD. Then proceeded to take a bus to Fort Wilderness for dinner. The food was ok. I was able to drop off the things for Gen before heading to MK for EMH.
Last year I promised Tyler to take him on Buzz Lightyear, well we missed it, so it was the first ride this year. Then Tyler and Eric wanted to ride the Indy Cars, so Sami and I decided to ride the TTA. The belt broke to walk up to the ride but they let everyone just walk up the belt since the rest of the ride was completely operational.
I was starting to have some back pain and we decided to call it a night. So off to bed with Aleve and hoping for a better tomorrow.
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.
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.
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the kids and I in Cayo Coco, Cuba. March 2011
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