The Dolleys Do Disney...June 20-27 - UPDATED 7/1 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Your plans so far sound great! We are very much alike, I am also an UBER planner! And I hear you about Southwest, I am not so patiently waiting for them to release the flights for September...I hate knowing we are all paid for this trip but at teh moment have no plans to get us down there! SCARY! Looking forward to more!
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Getting ready for our own Disneymoon September 14-26th!
Oh Southwest! You are my greatest joy and my worst nightmare rolled into one!!
Shortly after I booked the Package part of our trip with Disney Vacations I started to stake out the Southwest website to see when I would be able to buy airfare! Southwest has great schedules, fares and non-stop flights out of Manchester…really, no one can beat them so they have the game covered up here!! LOL!!
Ok…according to the site flights would be released the first week of December for travel through June 28th…PERFECT!! On December 9th (I believe it was, may have been the 2nd!) I stake out the SWA site first thing in the morning. No Flights… Then I remember they are on a different time zone so I wait a couple of hours. My persistence pays off as I see the date change….You are now free to travel through….WHAT??? June 26th???? Are you KIDDING ME??? I need to fly home on the 27th!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!
Well, thanks to my new found happy place, the Passporter boards, I know I can book the flight down and flight back separately. I think okay…let’s check out the fares!! The morning Non-stop is listed at $134 each. Uph! A little more than I anticipated (We usually go in early December, so I have been spoiled by the $89 fares!) I decide to sit on it for a while and see what happens once they release the next block of flights…a whole MONTH Later!!
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait….you get the idea.
Fast forward to January…again I am staking out the SWA website…flights get released….I pull up the dates and flights we want and ARGH!!! Flights have now jumped to $170 each way…..that’s $1806 for 5 of us with taxes. WAAAAYYY more than I budgeted! Now what do I do???? Kevin, who is much, much more patient than I am says ”Wait it out, they will drop, I bet in May they’ll be down to rock bottom”
MAY??? I start to hyperventilate!!! I am a planer, not just “a planner” like some people say…I am a PLANNER…I am actually an event planner by trade…my motto is get it done, cross it off the list as soon as you can!! There is NO WAY I can wait until MAY!!!!
So, I quietly, and most obsessively, sign onto the SWA site daily to check the flights!
This past Monday I see an e-mail from SWA about a rate sale….”Travel dates through June 24th “ …Really, is there some Southwest employee somewhere stalking me and trying to make my life miserable??? Really????
I go to check out the flights anyway….turns out the earliest flight we had our hearts set on went down a bit…to $134 but the flight after that, still non-stop, gets us into MCO at 2pm has dropped to $98!!
I called Kevin and we both agreed for the price we can’t beat it. He also points out that this way we can get the kids to eat a good breakfast before traveling and chances are, the baby would fall asleep on this flight! …Good thinking Kev!! We buy the tickets down…$543 for all of us. YEAH!! I feel a sense of accomplishment…at least I know we are getting there…who cares if we can’t get back!! LOL!!
So now my attention focuses to the flight back. I decide to check out the Sunday morning flight, still non-stop. It’s listed at $134, not really ‘that’ much less than the Saturday night flight. BUT, still, we could get a $100 room at the airport and still come out on top! I start my internet searching and get an idea of the hotel rates and how this would work.
Today, I present my findings to Kevin who says “Absolutely, book a hotel room and the Sunday morning flights! That will give us another full day in the parks!” Ummmm, who is this “Disney fan” who has replaced my husband??? Wait, I don’t want to know, I just want to keep him around!!
One last ditch search for a lower rate hotel room…a picture of the Hyatt in the airport pops up…I giggle and say to Kevin, “That’d be cool!” He looks at the rate and says “It’s only $50 more than the other one?” “Well yeah but that’s $50” I answer “Book it, $50 is so worth me not having to lug the luggage to the airport to a hotel then back to the airport, plus, this trip is all about the kids and they would think it’s the coolest thing ever!!” AHHHHH!!! Really who IS this Man????? Hehehehe!!
I am happy to report we have flights both ways booked and get a bonus night at the super cool Hyatt RIGHT IN the Orlando airport!!! All and all, we saved about $600 by NOT booking those flights the minute they came out…and that includes the hotel room for the extra night!!
It feels real!!! It really, feels for real!!!!!!!
P.S. Sorry, i was playng with the smilys today!! I think they are really funny!!
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I didn't realize you were a fellow New Hampshirite! I fly out of MHT all the time, I absolutely love that airport! I too am wiating *not so* patiently for my flight schedule to open up for Southwest, apparently my magical date is April 14th No fun for us planners!
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Getting ready for our own Disneymoon September 14-26th!
Such awesome plans. So glad they fell into place for you like that. Also, so happy your DH has been trasnformed! lol. I'm still waiting on my DH to be bitten by the Disney Bug... Maybe when we get there? haha
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Then I remember they are on a different time zone so I wait a couple of hours. My persistence pays off as I see the date change….You are now free to travel through….WHAT??? June 26th???? Are you KIDDING ME??? I need to fly home on the 27th!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!
, the Passporter boards, I know I can book the flight down and flight back separately. I think okay…let’s check out the fares!! The morning Non-stop is listed at $134 each. Uph! A little more than I anticipated (We usually go in early December, so I have been spoiled by the $89 fares!) I decide to sit on it for a while and see what happens once they release the next block of flights…a whole MONTH Later!! 
, wait
…flights get released….I pull up the dates and flights we want and ARGH!!! Flights have now jumped to $170 each way…..that’s $1806 for 5 of us with taxes. 
WAAAAYYY more than I budgeted! Now what do I do???? Kevin, who is much, much more patient than I am says ”Wait it out, they will drop, I bet in May they’ll be down to rock bottom” 
Hope the rest of your plan's work for your trip to be full of Magic. Have a good time!!
your smilies too!
Maybe when we get there? haha
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