Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I am so glad your taking this trip. Mark is a good guy it was hard to convince Ben to let me go by myself and I live in Orlando...lol.
I can't wait to meet everyone...yeah!
I was at:
"I must be mad"
Thanks for a great laugh!
And all I'm saying is your are really good doing 2 TR's at once!!
You're officially my hero
I hope to meet you!
Pre-trip report – part two: there had to be a change in here somewhere!
It must’ve been around the end of April, when Wendy called me – and I guess, knowing her track record in making changes to her vacations, I shouldn’t have been surprised at what happened next.. Before I go any further, I need to backtrack a bit. Wendy is forever making changes to any vacation she books and that’s no word of a lie! It’s become a standing joke that whenever she books something, I’ll always e-mail back and ask her how long it will be before she makes changes to it – and whenever she says that this is the final change to her vacation and there’ll be no more, I always e-mail back and just say let’s wait and see. Inevitably, I’m the one that’s usually right. I guess I just know her too well, but whether it’s a change to a destination or to a resort, there’s usually something else that will happen before she and her family get there. Needless to say, it was no different with this vacation....
What Wendy had called to discuss with me was the idea of upgrading our room to a Tower view. Now, remember I said that was what I fancied originally? Well, I think you can guess what my answer was immediately! Talk about a dream come true. First, she had to call and find out whether any were still available and luck was on our side, so within a few days, we were upgraded to one of those lovely Tower view rooms. I couldn’t believe it – I would finally be able to sit in the Contemporary and watch Wishes from our balcony, although I did remind her that we mustn’t forget to factor that into the planning. There would be nothing worse than having that great room and then missing watching Wishes every night from there, just because we forgot to plan it in!
My next move was to book the flights out and I did that in August, getting what I thought then were great prices for Premium Economy. Of course, none of us could’ve known what lay ahead and it turned out that, had I waited, I could’ve got my flights for about £170 less by December. I didn’t want to know when Wendy told me that one! : And, before you ask, no I couldn’t get a credit on the difference – sadly, that’s not the way airfares work over here, which is a great shame.
After that, not much happened on the planning front. For our first night, we were originally booked into Pop Century, but then Wendy got a great deal and we changed to the Caribbean Beach Resort, so that we could try one of their new pirate rooms. I can’t wait to see what that’s like.
As the time passed, more and more people started to sign up to the Decade of Dreams tour or would be there at the same time and we started to make various plans to meet up with people, such as Amy (iamgrumpy), Tina (loobyoxlip), Dawn (DawnDenise), Sue (rescuesk), Sabine (disneybine) and Sara (Belle*). It was shaping up to be a lot of fun.
We got to 90 days out and Wendy was an absolute star at getting all our ADRs secured for us, particularly as we kept adding and subtracting people from the various bookings. We were delighted to be able to welcome along Angie (poohsgirl) and the rest of Sara’s family, although poor old Wendy, I don’t think she could keep up with all the extra people who kept being added on!
I have to say, between getting the ADRs and departure date, occasionally I would get an e-mail, asking if I still wanted to go to a particular restaurant – you see, Wendy’s love of change was very evident! I stuck to my guns. I’d deliberately picked places that I knew Mark wasn’t keen on, so the likelihood of getting to some of them in the near future was pretty low.
Then came the announcement of what Jennifer and Dave would be doing for all of us – I loved the theming of it, in line with the big band theme that they had been running since day one and I was impressed by how well it all fitted together, incorporating both their suggestions and those that had been banded around between individual PassPorters already. I certainly wasn’t expecting the lunch at the Crystal Palace, which had started out with just six of us to become such a huge gathering! At the last count (and I think I’m keeping up with this!) there were 27 of us attending – obviously not on one table, but PassPorters are definitely going to be taking over that restaurant that day!
It was a similar story with the SpectroMagic meet that Sue’s hosting on the Monday night. I know there are over 30 of us scheduled to be there, but without doubt, the meet that I’m most looking forward to will be the 10th birthday celebration on Sunday 3 May at the Living Seas Salon, the VIP lounge at the Living Seas. We had to abandon our plans for lunch that day, which were (ironically enough!) at the Coral Reef, but I know where I’d rather be. Having seen the salon once on one of our many behind the scenes tours, I know how stunning it is and I can’t wait to actually have an event in there. That should be a great celebration!
The other things I’m really looking forward to are the various quests that Jennifer and Dave have put together in each of the four parks. Wendy and I have all four of them down in our spreadsheet, so hope to be at all of them. I can’t wait, as I love things like this, as there’s nothing better than sharing your enjoyment and love of Disney with like minded people.
The only like-minded person who wouldn’t be sharing that enjoyment and love was Mark. The closer I got to this vacation, quite understandably, the less he wanted to hear about it. As he put it “I don’t want to know about all the people you’ll be seeing that I won’t get a chance to see.” I tried to point out that I was sure a lot of people who were going to Decade of Dreams would be back for the PassPorter meet in December, but it didn’t help. I know he was torn, as he desperately wanted to come with me, but knew that it just wasn’t going to work, having more time off work so soon after Japan.
In fact, Wendy being the angel she is, had even called early in the new year, to say that if Mark wanted to join us, that wouldn’t bother her at all. The room was paid for and adding another person wouldn’t be a problem. All we would have to do is find the money for the flights and the food. Sadly though, it was never about finding the money (tough though that always is! ), it was about being away again and Mark declined.
So, by the time we got to Japan – and indeed when we returned – I was reduced to not saying a word at home about Decade of Dreams, which was very tough, as I was getting more and more excited about seeing everyone, especially as so many names of people I knew well and people I’d been hoping to meet for some time, were being added all the time. I just about managed to contain my excitement with lengthy e-mails to Wendy, although my excitement was tempered with knowing that, before I flew out, I had to complete two 3,000 word essays for my PR diploma – not a pleasant prospect!
The closer it got to departure day, the more people were telling Mark that he should go with me, including work colleagues, which was the main reason he was staying. I half hoped he’d change his mind – and Wendy even e-mailed to say that, if he did, that would be fine with her, but it was not to be.
Oh yes, the inevitable changes. Like I say, I always try to "PLUS" it like Walt did.
I just know that Mark is torn, but he is truly happy for you to do this for sure!!
Imagine it multiplied by 5! Chez isn't the only one leaving loved one behind to party like a rock star! Once in a while miss Gabby says, only 5(or 4,3,2 and today is 1 before i leave) more days until you go to Disney, then she'll stick her bottom lip out for a few seconds and then hop, bounce or run away! LOL! Ben has said several times how he wishes he was going too, but I keep reminding him that he wasn't invited because he has the wrong parts!
I'm forever always thinking of my travel companions and what they will like, what they probably won't like and what they'll make do with.
In the end, I actually changed from the Pirate room at CBR to a room at the Boardwalk Inn!! And then the AP rates came out and I've got a sweet credit awaitin' me!
I told Chez that I wanted to pay for our room the night before the Contemporary because it was I who strongly campaigned for her to come down a night early on the 30th, and since she also spoils me rotten, I'd like to do this for her(and me!). Also, I really fancied just walking to Epcot instead of getting the bus! LOL!
Upgrading to the Tower room was something I really tried to work out how to pay for, then luck was on my side so I asked her if she'd still like to do it! I knew it was a silly question, but I asked! LOL! I had stayed there in 2006 and had one of the best trips, good company that made me laugh alot, and the view is second to none(that i know of!).
Calling to get the ADRs were fun. I thew my ideas at her and let her go with them because none of my family would be upset if I dined someplace without them, so I left it for her to decide then whens and wheres, which wasn't hard since we followed the tentative schedule!
But I did get confused on some of them because I've never done ADRs for dining companions other than us! LOL! I cannot wait!!
We are going to have such a great time!! You writing our trip report is a great thing! Thanks for doing this by the way!!
I know how hard it is to take time off from work as well and sometimes it creates more bad than good if the timing isn't right. I think that as much as Mark would love to go he's also very happy for you that you get to do this.
Congratulations on your upgrade! It's something I'd love to do as well. I can't wait to read about it later.
Well, those are alot of changes, but they are all great!!! I hope this continues to be a "tag-team" TR, those are fun! It's only days away now and I am just so As I've told you before Chez, you really need to keep a running tally of all the PP's you have met. Before long I'm sure you'll have met all of us. LOL Can't wait for more. . . . .
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: And, before you ask, no I couldn’t get a credit on the difference – sadly, that’s not the way airfares work over here, which is a great shame. 
I can’t wait to see what that’s like. 
), it was about being away again and Mark declined. 
As I've told you before Chez, you really need to keep a running tally of all the PP's you have met. Before long I'm sure you'll have met all of us. LOL 
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
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