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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
This trip was riddled with the consequences of my newly acquired absentmindedness. We left early on a Saturday morning. We drove from NY in our new (to us!) Dodge Durango and I didn't want to squish the kids inside for 2 days so I bought a soft-sided rooftop carrier from roofbags.com. I also bought their 3 duffel bags for packing it. We packed the duffels that were shaped like the carrier (higher in the back than in the front) so we just had to put the bags up in it and go. We bought a new slim folding step ladder for this and put it in the back under the stroller. There is no way we could have gotten those bags into that thing without that ladder! If anyone is in need of a rooftop carrier I HIGHLY recommend this one. We drove through torrential rain in GA and northern FL both ways and the things inside stayed completely dry. I don't really know the effect on our mileage since we never made this trip without the carrier but we spent about $180 each way on gas in a V-8.
So we pull out and stop at Dunkin Donuts and I promptly drop my Blackberry, which had no cover since I forgot to put the cover back on it, and the screen went out. I ran back home and got my old BB and switched the service over to that one when we stopped until Verizon sent me a replacement which I received at OKW on Tuesday. The rest of the leg was relatively uneventful. We stopped in Walterboro, SC at a Hampton Inn. Nice. Clean. It was here I thought I forgot the camera. We found the camera (more on this later). Up the next morning, ate complimentary breakfast and on our way.
We made it to Disney about 2:30 and checked into OKW. I had originally requested close to HH but amended my ressie to ask for a refurb room so my DS & DD did not have to share a bed. They didn't have that on file so we were set up in a HH room but they switched us to a refurb room. We had a great room, a ground floor corner room. The floors were covered in Allure vinyl plank flooring except for the bathroom and master bedroom. This was unfortunate for us since the people upstairs had a toddler that sounded like a herd of elephants and ran all over the place at like 5 in the morning! The appliances were the same but the countertops are now granite and the tvs are LCD. The stay was uneventful except for the washer leaking all over the floor on our last night and engineering not coming until 10 pm at which time they replaced the washer.
We began our trip at Epcot , got our APs and went in. I went to take a picture and I discovered that I did have my camera but I had left the battery on my kitchen table! I took it out of the charger, packed the camera & the charger, but never put the battery IN the camera. Fail! So I was using my BB Tour's camera until Saturday when it conked out again. This time the screen worked and the track ball would scroll but no buttons clicked! So I was without a phone/camera until yesterday when I put the battery back in and lo and behold it worked again!
Zoey was really not enjoying herself in the beginning of our stay. The first few times on the bus she got hysterical. At MK she went on Dumbo and liked that but then we took her on Pooh and she was done for the day. At Crystal Palace, she tolerated the furries only from a distance of about arm's length. A few days later she was doing fine on the bus and by our last night at Chef Mickey's she was digging Donald and Pluto. Mickey was kind of rude....she touched his nose and he gave her the "uh-uh" wagging finger and walked away! Really turned my mood sour after that. Goofy was a blast and was moonwalking during the song. There was a table of 4 women who were going crazy, having fun and they really had fun with him!
We were trying to get to the PP meet at Epcot but it was early in the trip and Zoey melted down so we had to head back and we missed it! Maybe next year.
This trip was rough with the baby and my son. He had been complaining since before we left that he didn't want to go and he was tired of Disney. Little did I know that he was just tired of staying at OKW. We toured BLT on Thursday and that rejuvenated him and his Dad and that is when I found out that it was staying in the same place that was boring him. So we added 75 points so we have more resort options. Next trip we are going to try for BLT or AKV. We've stayed at BWV, SSR & BCV but BC & BW were a while ago and they don't really remember them too well. Even though SSR is my home resort, I'm not a huge fan.
The ride home was uneventful. We stopped in Dunn, NC at a Hampton again. Nice. Clean. Weird thing was that there was no closet area in the room to hang anything.
So now I am busy planning my mom-daughter trip with Logan for December. I am glad we are doing this because she really didn't get to do a lot of what she wanted to do-some because of the baby but also because her brother was being a stick in the mud for the first half of the trip. Then I will be on to planning my trip for next summer which poses another problem: DD starts college on 8/29 which means I have to go during a slightly busier time which costs more points. This is going to be my situation for the next 5 years with her in a special 5 year bachelor/master's/teaching certificate program. My son will still be in high school or else we would go in January! Oy! I wanted a 2br since we are going to be bringing DDs BFF along. Now I am toying with the idea of sending them on their own in a studio and the rest of us going our regular time in a 1BR. But I will miss having her with us. Any thoughts?
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Thanks for sharing it with us! 
Linear Mode
