Don't Stop - the Pocono mountains section COMPLETED - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Longwood Gardens looked beautiful in the pictures. I can only imagine what it was like in person!
The drive to Sue & Steve’s looked lovely!
Wow! Is right to Sue & Steve’s house! Love it!
Sunday 27 December – part four: oh wow, what a place!
Finally, we were taken downstairs to the piece de resistance, which houses a huge rest area, with massive TV and I mean massive and gym equipment and then into Charley and Joe’s. Now we had heard a lot about this place and seen photos, but honestly, nothing prepares you for actually seeing this for yourself. Oh... my ..... goodness.... It’s unbelievable. I really admired them for a) coming up with this idea in the first place and then b) seeing it through. Literally, every little detail is catered for and, as Steve said, it’s all about the memories. I love the way he could look at everything on the wall and tell us the story behind it. It was so cool.
Steve showing off one of his London purchases.... ... and his photo from Hooters! “No-one comes behind this bar...”
We sat down there drinking our tea, but as I did, I just wasn’t warming up. I had had a headache earlier and now I just felt colder and colder and pretty tired. Steve suggested taking a nap and eventually I gave in and went and took one, but it didn’t last long, as I suddenly heard the door being pushed open. I assumed it was one of the dogs, but no, it was Adrienne, the reclusive cat that we were told that we would not see at all during our stay, trying to get in. I came out and I closed the door behind me. Mark and I then sat there, watching her trying to get in. It was quite something, especially as this was the cat that we weren’t going to see!
Steve took my boots to dry out, as it turned out that my socks were soaking from my boots, which had obviously got drenched last night and then had made my feet cold. I think that’s what had made me feel so cold. Once I was in a pair of slipper socks and a pair of Sue’s slippers, I started to feel a lot better and much more alive again.
We sat in the living room for a while, just taking it all in and watching the cats and the dogs, especially the reclusive cat that of course we were never going to see! Sue is not going to live this one down... We even had the railway train going around and around the bottom of the Christmas tree, which was really neat.
Steve and the not-so-reclusive cat Finally warming up! Tigger Guess who? Our not-so-reclusive friend! Cody shows some more tricks off.... Me and my Belle! Mickey not sure what to make of the train going round the bottom of the Christmas tree And the train heading round “What’s this?” Mickey the alien Three of the four cats together And our old friend again! Both out for the count
Eventually, I started to feel a bit peckish and Steve suggested a piece of his mum’s lemon meringue pie and boy was that good. It will be sure to say that to her when we meet her. He also made me a chocolate Godiva Martini and my goodness, that was so good. Steve really is a seriously good bar tender.
I even got my own glass!
Before we knew it, Sue was back from seeing her dad, who was in hospital at that point. The giveaway was when the cats went to the windows. Those animals are not stupid, I can tell you. :
We chatted for a while and found Sue and Steve’s final presents, which included a Christmas ornament from Disney of our castle in the woods.
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.
Sunday 27 December – part five: David Akers is the man!
Then it was time for the big game. From what I could gather and, bear in mind that I’m no good at sport (at least not unless it’s athletics, swimming, tennis or the Olympics, that is! ), it was what we (and indeed the rest of the world) would call American football. I think you guys know it as football, but we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one... Anyway, apparently there were Eagles playing and Steve seemed to get very excited at times from what I could hear.
Everyone went down to the basement to watch the game, while I went upstairs and went online instead. As Sue rightly worked out, it really wasn’t my thing at all. : I hate football at home and coming away gives me the opportunity to get away from it, so it was great not to be watching it. For the most part, I was fine on my own, although the animals, including of course the not so reclusive cat, made sure I was never truly alone.
The front room from upstairs as it darkened outside
About 6.00, Sue came out to work on dinner, which was pasta with spare rib for them and shrimp for me. It was bad shrimp, according to a text message Sue had sent me a couple of days ago, which had provided a lot of laughter. Of course, she meant big shrimp – at least that’s what she told me anyway. When I tasted it, I can tell you that there was no bad shrimp to be seen anywhere, so that was good.
”Feed me please!”
We headed downstairs to Charley and Joe’s, as the big match was still going on. As Mark said, how a 15 minute part of the game takes 45 minutes was beyond him. They must certainly make some serious money on advertising during these games. They have enough ad breaks during all the matches anyway.
Apparently it was a good, close match with the Eagles winning easily in the beginning, but then drawing towards the end of the game. From what I could gather, it came down to the last 50 seconds of the game and David Akers had to score a touchdown. Apparently if he did, the Eagles would win, but if not, then it could be anyone’s game again. Well, he did get the touchdown in the end, for 50 seconds, it took about four minutes to finish the game. You should’ve seen Sue and Steve celebrating. You can tell they love their football. It was fun to watch them and at least it was the right result for them in the end.
After that finished, we put the Jukebox on and we played a few 80s songs.
Mark and Steve had a game on the pinball machine, which I think Steve easily won... As you can see from those photos, Mark was getting a bit frustrated with it!
Sue suggested that we should watch the DVD from Steve’s 50th birthday party and, despite his objections, she succeeded in sitting us down to watch it and let’s just say it was very entertaining, but I can see why Steve wasn’t that keen on us seeing it!
Now Cody’s trapped.... ... now what? ... oh well, I’d better go back to sleep then!
We then watched some of the video from the night before at Longwood Gardens and that was very funny as well, especially some of Steve’s comments in it about wanting to meet Pierre du Pont and us telling him that he might have a long wait, as he’s been dead for some time...! When we finished watching that, it was off to bed.
The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the high 40s. The best thing today was seeing the Pocono Wilderness Lodge. The worst thing today was how cold I felt when we first arrived. The funniest thing today was Sue and Steve during the big game and the reclusive cat that wasn’t so reclusive! Today we tried staying at the Pocono Wilderness Lodge And the result was it’s a beautiful place. The most magical moment today was drawing up at the lodge.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
PassPorter Guide Author
and gym equipment and then into Charley and Joe’s. Now we had heard a lot about this place and seen photos, but honestly, nothing prepares you for actually seeing this for yourself. Oh... my ..... goodness.... 
I had had a headache earlier and now I just felt colder and colder and pretty tired. Steve suggested taking a nap and eventually I gave in and went and took one, but it didn’t last long, as I suddenly heard the door being pushed open. I assumed it was one of the dogs, but no, it was Adrienne, the reclusive cat that we were told that we would not see at all during our stay, trying to get in. I came out and I closed the door behind me. Mark and I then sat there, watching her trying to get in. It was quite something, especially as this was the cat that we weren’t going to see! 
We even had the railway train going around and around the bottom of the Christmas tree, which was really neat. 
: 
They have enough ad breaks during all the matches anyway. 
Linear Mode
