'Ummm, no Mom, you ARE NOT going without me'.....a pre-trip report - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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It's looking like gorgeous weather on the 28th (if you can believe forecasts more than 20 minutes in advance). We're arriving on the 29th and I couldn't resist checking...
It's looking like gorgeous weather on the 28th (if you can believe forecasts more than 20 minutes in advance). We're arriving on the 29th and I couldn't resist checking...
Can you believe I really haven't looked??? I need to go right over to accuweather and check that out!! Crossing my fingers we have awesome weather!! You and I are doing the happy countdown dance together right now!!! WOOHOO!!!!!
Sigh.......I can't believe it happened, but it did. And I should have expected it given the timing of this trip, but, well, I didn't! On Monday the reality of all I have going on hit me like a ton of bricks! Between 2 jobs (I work in a bank and as a TA), 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 hamsters, plus 1 husband, my world gets pretty chaotic! Add in some big issues with our computers at work (the bank) on Monday, plus regular customers coming out my ears, plus lots of stuff waiting to be put on the marquee (yes, I do that, too!), plus Brandon's swimming and diving practice, plus his S Ks Symphony rehearsal, plus Justin's cello practices and dodgeball afternoons, plus venturing into unknown territory at the travel agency, helping my poor dog recover from being attacked by another dog in our own FENCED yard, and evil cat that is possessed by the devil, and realizing that I forgot to set up payment for 2 bills, well, things just got very overwhelming! By Monday evening, I was nearly in tears. I was completely freaking out and telling myself, 'I can't go on vacation!!! I can't even keep up with life when I'm here at home, let alone on vacation!!!!'. Plus I'm worried about my cats with my Christmas stuff while I'm gone. Jeff will be home, but he isn't always very observant and doesn't have the love of my decorations that I do! OY!!!! Oh, and don't forget Thanksgiving in 1 week and 1 day! Luckily, that isn't a big stress for me. I do it at my house and make the meal, but really, we have a very laid back family, so it isn't particularly stressful. If my house isn't perfect or if the turkey is a bit crisp, nobody will say a word. So, that's a good thing! ANYWAY, let's just say I had a meltdown on Monday night! Not really outwardly, but inwardly. For the first time since I started planning this vacation, I really questioned if I could handle everything and if I would really be able to enjoy my trip.
However, by Tuesday, I felt better! I discovered Monday night a way to REALLY make that unknown territory I was working in with the travel agency much more manageable and less stressful! And it was such a simple fix! I felt MUCH better about that! The computers at work yesterday were back to close to normal. Business was at a normal pace again. My dog is recovering well and luckily will not need stitches in his hind leg. I worked out getting Justin home from school and delivered dinner to Brandon on my way home from work so he could eat between his swimming/diving practice and his orchestra concert. I had a lovely couple of conversations with an awesome client and I really feel good about this new territory I've ventured into! I did have to miss B's concert, but he was fine with it and probably was less concerned than I was! Since I was home, I got to spend a little extra quality time with Justin, too. We had a fun evening discussing Santa (is he real or not??) and looking through a catalog with some cute things. My Swiss Colony order arrived, so we added chocolate and pumpkin truffles to our evening! I now have the bills back in order and am working on a plan to keep all the ducks in a row while I'm gone. And the best part is, I'm back to my happy place!! I'm back to being super excited about the Poly in a week and a half! I made an appt to get my nails done (Jeff has been trying to get me to do it for YEARS and I finally decided that since they have all broken off due to our extremely dry weather here in KS, I would do it!) and an appt to get my hair trimmed! WOOHOO!!!
So there you have it, from meltdown to soarin' in 2 days!!! And here I am on Wednesday, happy that I only have 6 more work days (including today) before vacation!!! WOOHOO!!!! Will I get my documents today?? I hope so!!!! Happy Wednesday, everyone!!!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
I can understand the meltdown. I have had one or two of them myself in the last couple of weeks. I have work, school, Grace's after school stuff, and my own clients (I'm also a TA in my "spare time."). Add to that, having to pack for a cruise and a WDW trip. LOL that you are able to stay in your happy place.
You can do it! Google calendar is my friend - everything is laid out and color-coded, and my to-do list is right there. I'm still worried about the random stuff (do I have enough dog food for my parents to dog-sit? How do I deal with a 1/2 full trash barrel? Do we have kids' motrin and cold medicine? etc. etc.) but making a list helps me enormously.
When it gets to be too much, just close your eyes, plug your ears, and picture yourself on your favorite ride. My happy place is near the end of Soarin' when you're over the surfers at sunset. Fixes me every time!
It's been another crazy couple of days. I've not felt well and even left dance class early last night. It was a bummer b/c we were having a hafla with another class, but when you hurt, you hurt! So I came home! Today is a little better, but still iffy. At least it's well before I leave for my trip!
On a super happy note, today I finally got my documents in the mail! WOOHOO!!! I just love that mousemail! It fixes my mood right up! Also today is my 10 days out day, so I went in and did my online check in! Happy Day, Happy Day!!! I'm down to 3 more days of work, too! YAY!! Tomorrow I'm really going to get serious about starting to pack. I have a few toiletries and such packed, but nothing else. So far it looks like the 70's during the day, so I'm thinking jeans and tees, a light jacket and a heavier jacket, a few capris (just in case!), tennies, and maybe a pair of sandals. I'll probably throw in my swim suit, but doubt I'll use it. Oh gosh, reality is setting in quickly that right now in 10 days, I'll be at the Poly! Or, I guess more accurately, I'll be in EPCOT! Ok, so even though I don't feel so hot right now, I'm now in full bouncing off the walls mode! Gosh, I'm sure glad I came here and started typing this!!! Almost there!!! Have an awesome night everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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