Spooky Foodie Fun - TR from Adventurous Stranger!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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If you read my PTR you might remember this was supposed to be a solo adventure but a little over a month out, I invited Em to go along with me to celebrate her 21st Bday and graduation from college. Not long after that, I was fired from my full time job leaving me without vacation time which meant 8 days without pay. I also started bartending days at Cheddars which opened two weeks before my trip. The hectic pace of a new restaurant (8 shifts a week) paired with the two other restaurant jobs I have left me no time to recuperate and I got sick a week before we left. Luckily, it ran it's course pretty quickly and I didn't need a constant supply of Kleenex at WDW.
The night prior to arrival, Emily came by with her bags and we decided to consolidate our stuff into two of my lime green Disney suitcases. Lime green is very easy to spot on an airport carousel! Jennie #1 (my ex coworker - she was fired five minutes after I was) came by as well with some delicious bbq and after dinner I popped a bottle of champagne that we had leftover from our February Disney trip. Jennie #1 left early since she would be back in the morning to shuttle us to the airport. Em & I had lights out by midnite.
The alarm went off three minutes after I was awake. Amazing how 7:30 doesn't seem too early when on vacation. I showered and got ready and gave Em a little bit longer to rest. Jennie #1 arrived at 8:30 and I made coffee, scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage. We loaded the dishwasher, finished last minute carryon packing and kissed Mushu my cat goodbye. Scott, my ex BF came by daily to take care of her and she never warmed up to him until the last day. Hmmm....
Greenville/Spartanburg Airport is a whopping 20 minutes from my door to the security gate. Security was so fast we ended up sitting around for a hour waiting on our flight. I had done Early Bird Check in while Emily did not. We still ended up in row 5 me in the window seat, Em on the aisle.
Our pilot was a hoot, singing Disney tunes over the PA. It was the smoothest flight ever. I don't like to fly at all and I actually enjoyed myself. Probably due to the Bloody Mary we had and the fact the flight was 30 minutes early!! We were in the air a fraction over an hour!!
MCO was practically empty and we found the lime green luggage lickity split. We made it to the Mears Transportation counter within minutes. The only thing hindering us was my super heavy laptop bag that must have weighed a ton! We were given our shuttle reciepts and walked out the doors into warm Florida air! We waited approximately 20 minutes for the shuttle and this turned out to be the second longest wait for transportation the whole trip. Our van already had five people on board and we had to slide into the rear seat and I nearly clocked the dude in the seat in front of us in the head with me laptop case. Note: I will never take that thing with me again.
Our driver was the slowest man on the road. We went just below the speed limit and a few times I think we went in reverse. I was like a little kid, bouncing up and down in the backseat stomping on the imaginary gas pedal. Lucky for us we were the first stop. We grabbed our luggage, tipped the slow driver and walked thru the doors of the Dolphin. Home at last!!
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YAY! So excited to read your TR. Glad the flight there was smooth. I love that you posted the weather forecast. Um, they sure got it wrong for Saturday the 8th - I wouldn't quite call that variably cloudy- maybe variably monsoony! More please.
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