My Best Trip Ever! A Disney Trip 10 Years in the Making - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thank you everyone. It really wansn't unexpected- My Grandmother's passing. She hasd been in failing health for 2 years and once she had the stroke we knew it was just a matter of time.
Work had been really crazy. We had a computer upgrade in September. All went pretty wel with that but it pushed back all my regular work. Then I had vacation and that pushed back more work.
Things just kept getting more bogged down but I think I'm beginning to get back to normal. I'm trying to work on my TR before I forget everything and also catch up on everyone else's.
I set my alarm and get up at the ungodly hour of 3am. The only time this really doesn’t bother me is when I’m heading out on vacation. I got myself ready and let the dogs out for a bio break and a little snack and get Evan up about 3:15. We are leaving for the airport at 3:30am. The transfer picks us up right on time.
My mom knows a person who owns a transfer company and we were able to get a stretch limo for the hour drive to the Atlantic City airport.
The kids were so excited (and the adults too) but this was the first limo ride for all 3 kids (Evan, Bryson and Gunnar). We arrived in no time but there is only one porter at the airport so we needed to wait a minute for him to get to us. My mom is like “Oh we can walk it” I’m like – uh NO! I’ve got 2 suitcases, Evan’s backpack, my carry on, my purse, his car seat and the stroller. And since we needed to cross the road I would have to hold Evan’s hand – honestly what was she thinking? She is just so used to traveling by herself. There was no-way I’d make it over there with out the porter, so we waited. In actuality it took maybe 5 minutes – no big deal.
We got in line for flight/bag check and both of Christine’s bags are considerably over weight. She is NOT a veteran traveler and would have been better off to pack 3 bags and pay for the 3rd then to pay overweight fees for 2. Both of mine and my moms were underweight. I was a bit nervous as Spirit’s limit is 40pounds but I made it.
Up next was security. Evan, Mom and I zipped through no problem but Christine sets off the metal detector so she get searched and all 3 of her carry-ons get searched as well. She apparently didn’t know about the 3-1-1 rule and had packed large bottles of water for the flight.
On a side note – I say this because you guys are all planners like me. Christine on the other hand is not. I had made up itineraries for everyone, I had her tickets and airline info, stuff on all the ADR’s and the TON of food she ordered (more on that later). And I wanted to discuss everything with her before we left but she never made any time to get the papers or call me to discuss. I tried on 3 separate times to meet with her but it never happened. My thought was “she is an adult she can call me if she needs me, I’ve been to Disney many times, I know a few things that might help her out but I can’t force her”.
OK back to security. The line wasn’t long but Christine had hurt her foot a few weeks before we went and she was in a boot so I’m sure that is what set off the metal detector.
After we all got cleared and shoes back up we headed to our gate. Evan spent much of the time looking out the window at the plane and eating his pear.
Soon it was time to board. We had purchased seats so we didn’t need to rush to get onto the plane. We found our very tiny seats and were soon on our way. Honestly my knees were hitting the seat in front of me and that person didn’t even have their seat reclined.
Evan took the window, Mom the middle and me the aisle. Chris and the boys were directly across from us.
We left on time, 6:30am and as soon as we got up above the clouds the beautiful sun was shinning. The flight was uneventful. Evan and I both ate a granola bar and he watched his Scooby Doo movie he got for his birthday. We landed, had a potty break, re-claimed our luggage, got our rental car and were on our way to WDW. We were about 1 hour ahead of where I thought we’d be so things were looking great. The weather was beautiful. Warm but not hot and sunny I touch of humidity but nothing unbearable.
Our first stop of the day was Down Town Disney.
Sorry for the lack of photos – I didn’t take too many myself, mostly used the photopass.
I had every intention of taking lots of photos but I only have a small point and click so I kept putting it away and then taking it out and putting it away – it just got to be a pain. If I had a nice camera that had a neck strap I probably would have taken more pictures. Plus I’m definitely the type of person that wants to be out there with Evan, watching him and playing with him and enjoying what he is doing and not hanging back videoing or spending the entire vacation looking thru a view finder – I hope you all don’t hate me or stop reading. I love TR with lots of photos – unfortunately this won’t be one of them. Sorry.
Sounds like a great start to your trip, sorry about the tiny seats on the plane though! Other than that, how was your experience on Spirit? We are a couple of hours away from AC airport, but we were considering looking into Spirit for a trip at the end of the year. I'd love any feedback you might have
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Glad you've started, Holly! I love it when the plane lands early. I totally understand about the photos. Even travelling solo I don't take that many when I'm roaming the parks because I have to pull over and stop the scooter, dig out the camera. It's great that you took the time to concentrate on Evan and having a good time!
Sounds like a great start to the trip, being ahead of schedule is always good. Sorry about the small seats on the airlines, glad that it was uneventful however and that you all made it to Orlando to great weather.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Holly: 
Sounds like travelling was a bit of a baptism by fire for Christine with those overweight luggage charges! 
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