Eight is Enough! The Wiseman and Friends Trip - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cast: Me (Leslie): The Planner. I love planning Disney trips. Podcasts, Websites, Reading books..when its over I am almost grief stricken because that is all I have done for a year. My husband said I should have the Passporter memorized. I love Disney and everything about it. It is truly my happy place. Todd: My High School sweetheart and my Hubby. He is a wonderful husband, who is a closet Disney lover. If you knew my husband, he is the last person in the world you think would love Walt Disney World. But he truly gets more excited that I do. Jordan: My 12 year old son who is getting at the age where he isn’t sure Disney is cool anymore. So we have to do some “new” things this trip to make it cool. Bailey: My 10 year old daughter who is kind of like her brother, but also is at the age where she still wants to be little and love the princesses. Disney World lets her be little and its okay that she is, because adults can be little there too. Heidi- My BFF since High School. Our families went on a Disney vacation in 2008 together and its all we have talked about since 2008. They have had a rough few years due to the deaths of both of her husband’s parents and a friend of her family, who died at 21 (her boys babysitter). Our last trip, her mother in law was dying of cancer and they were very distracted. Last year her father in law passed away from cancer, and Hannah died in January. This trip, we are loving life, remembering our lost love ones and not having any distractions!! Jack-My BFF’s husband who also attended high school w/ my husband and I. He likes to complain, but secretly he looks forward to Disney as much as my husband. Last trip he was consumed with how his mother was doing and couldn’t fully enjoy our vacation. We are going to change that this trip!! We share a love of Pepsi (which is no where to be found in Disney by the way) and Main Street Popcorn. There is nothing like it anywhere else. Kyle and Tyler- My BFF’s twin boys that are 11. Jordan and the two of them are inseparable. We just finished up our travel baseball season and we can concentrate on Disney!! The fact that the twins are going makes Jordan’s trip that much more complete. However, poor Bailey being the only girl gets left out. When:
July 14th-July 23rd. First 2 nights at Pop Century followed by a week at Wilderness Lodge! Background:
We decided after Jack’s dad and Hannah’s death this year, Heidi’s family needed a distraction. They needed something to plan for and look forward too. We had just visited Disney last summer without them, due to Jack’s dad’s condition at the time. So we weren’t going to Disney this summer. However, I felt like this was something we all needed. So my husband and I decided we would go again and then take a few years off. We had always stayed at Wilderness Lodge, but knew now that all kids were Disney Adults, the cost of the trip w/ tickets and Dining plan would be too costly. So we decided we wanted to stay at Coronado Springs. However, we went to AAA and it was booked the week we wanted to go. So, we booked French Quarter. We weren’t real excited about it. After a tip from the Passporter boards, we realized that we were driving in on Friday and CSR was booked, but Saturday it opened up. So….we thought we have never stayed at a value, we will stay at Pop one night, and then move to CSR for the week. We called AAA and changed the reservation and added Pop. We were pumped and ready to go! Then…..the deluxe discount came out. For only a few hundred more we could stay at Wilderness Lodge for the week! We still couldn't afford the Friday night at the lodge, but we could keep Pop and just stay Saturday to Saturday at WL. Ahhhhhhh…we decided it was worth it. So we changed CSR to Wilderness Lodge. CSR will be next trip!! We still kept our one night at Pop. We were pumped and ready to go! Then……gas prices went up. We looked into renting a van and SUV so we wouldn’t have to drive two cars. That price was crazy. Then we looked at flights. I am not a flyer. I have flown once and didn’t care for it. I hate elevators..especially those in the sky! J But, we realized we could fly in on Thursday add another day at Pop, cheaper the flying in Friday and fly out late Saturday night and spend more time at Disney and fly spending only a few hundred more. So last month, flights were booked (ahhhhhh) and we are set to leave next Thursday morning at 6:05 AM from Columbus on Southwest. I am trying NOT to be nervous!! I said earlier we were doing new things this trip so Jordan would think its cool…Jordan nor Bailey have ever flown. They are looking so forward to that experience. And…I guess I have to be brave for my kids and conquer my fears!! Watch out Disney, here come the Eight of us next week!!
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