We Turned Her Into A Disney Lovin', Character Huggin', Thrill Ridin' Girl! COMPLETED 7/11 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I know I had told you the next thing would be leaving day but I forgot I wanted to share the big reveal with you. We will get to the trip in the next update though! I promise!!
It's finally time to go to Disney World! This is the day we were not sure would ever happen again. We had hoped and dreamed. Had told Asher we get to go again one day, but in reality we just were not sure. Things had gotten difficult for us after Selah started having seizures. Between the medical bills that were piling up, the doctors appointments, therapy appointments and just not feeling like taking Selah on vacation was a good idea or even possible, we just didn't know. Then something wonderful happened for Jamie and work and things turned around for us in an instant… at least financially. Everything else we just decided we would figure it out. We had decided we were going to Disney World! We had not, however, told the kids we were going. We decided to surprise them with the trip for their Christmas present. Christmas was just a little over a month away and we could keep the secret for that long couldn't we? It was soooo hard! On several occasions we found ourselves talking about ADR's and things like that with Asher in the room but luckily we never said too much. We did tell Selah because we just couldn't help ourselves! She didn't understand anything we were saying (she might next time though!) and she can't talk so we knew she was not going to tell Asher. Christmas morning finally came and we had it all planned out. We had some Disney goodies in a box and the box was wrapped.
We got the camcorder ready and told Asher to open the box. First thing he pulls out is a post card from Mickey saying "See you real soon, Your Pal mickey" (Thank you Fairy Godmailer!). He looks at us with hesitation.
Next is his t-shirt that says, "We're going to the Walt Disney World Resort!" Now you would think at this moment he would get all excited and jumping up and down. Nope, he still just looked at us like ummmm…
Next is Selah's t-shirt that says the same thing. Still nothing.
Next are some Disney cups from the party section in Walmart. Still nothing.
Last but not least our Custom Maps and STILL NOTHING. I say, "well what do you think this all means?" Then he looks up with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face and says, "are we going to Disney World?!?!" Then comes the jumping up and down! That's what we were looking for! I think he knew from the moment he saw the post card but he was afraid of getting his hopes up. It just didn't seem real to him.
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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
Great Update and Reveal!! Alex and I actually got the same shirts for before we left.
Thanks! We love our shirts! I was so excited to find them. While we were there we received several comments from CM's saying they had never seen them before. Did you guys get any comments about yours?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great reveal!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shnewell
Awwww, that brought tears to my eyes! What a great reveal!
Thank you! As long as they are happy tears!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a great reveal!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdwlovers
What a wonderful surprise for the kids! Looking forward to your trip report!!
Thanks so much! Leaving day is coming up next!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Selah is a miracle! Beautifully touching story! Love the reveal! Poor Asher afraid to get his hopes crushed! Can't wait to read more.
She is a miracle for sure! Thank you so much! I could tell with everything that he opened that he was afraid to speak what he thought he was seeing. He was so excited when he finally realized it was really real. Now that we are home the excitement has not left him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
more please
More coming right up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
What a wonderful surprise for your children!
It was and we were so excited to be able to do it for them and us!
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We woke up at 6:30 (our normal time for a Friday morning) and started getting Selah ready for school. The plan was for Selah to go to school a half day so as not to miss another day of school (she was already missing the whole next week) and I was going to finish the packing while Asher did any school work he had not yet finished (we homeschool him). Jamie was having to work for a few hours that morning and then we were leaving around 1. That was the plan. That was not exactly what happened. Selah did go to school for a half day. Asher did not have any school work to finish as he had finished it all up the day before. Jamie did go to work but his couple of hours turned into 5 hours. Ugh. Oh well, we were going to Disney World and that is what mattered. Wanda was coming to our house that morning to get her bags loaded into the car. I didn't know when Jamie was coming home so I didn't change anything with her. I figured I could get everything loaded up and that way when Jamie got home all he had to do was get himself showered and changed and then we were off. I had told Selah's teacher that I would be picking her up around 1 so when the time rolled around I went on to pick her up. Once I got back home I started loading everything into the car with some help from Asher while Wanda watched Selah. All the while we were all very anxiously awaiting Jamie's return home. 2:00 rolled around and he finally got home. Wanda and the kids were so excited they were all sitting in the car waiting. Jamie got himself ready and we were pulling out of our driveway by 2:30. Our plan for this day was to drive to Kingsland, Georgia and stay the night. That way we would only have a 3 hour drive the next morning. We were really wanting to get to our resort early in the day so that we could enjoy more of that first day there and also because we were needing to make room requests. We had heard on this board that it was a good idea to get there early to make those requests. Jamie drove all day this day. We both like to drive so we share this responsibility. We got just a few miles down the road and realized that Jamie and I had not eaten yet. Neither of us has stopped long enough to do that. So we went through the McDonalds drive thru and got a couple of burgers for us and some fries for the kids. In the past 6 months or so Selah has learned what McDonalds looks like and if we were to go through the drive thru and not get her anything she would NOT be happy and then rest of us would not be very happy either . So we got our food and we were on the road again. Around 6:30 we stopped at a Taco Bell and had supper. I don't remember where we were at that time but we didn't stop for long. We were ready to get on down the road and to our destination for the night. The sooner we got there, the sooner we could go to sleep and get up the next morning to head to Disney World. We arrived at the Days Inn in Kingsland, Georgia at 10:05 that night. Got checked in and quickly got everyone ready for bed. I had packed an over night bag so all we had to take in was the one bag for us. I had encouraged Wanda to do the same that morning when she got to my house and I saw that she had not. She thought this was a great idea and she was able to do that pretty easily. Once everyone was ready for bed I realized that while I had packed a bag for overnight I had failed to put Selah's sleeping meds in that bag. I had her daytime meds for that day and the next in her diaper bag but her night time meds were in with all of the medication that I had packed for the week. Selah cannot sleep without taking her sleeping meds. So Jamie and I go back out to the car in search of the medicine bag. I had a good idea where it was and if I was remembering correctly it was in mine and Jamie's suitcase which was the first bag packed. Oops. Luckily Jamie and I are both very calm people and we don't let a whole lot bother us. So this was really no biggie. We found the meds and then we were off to bed. All in all we had an uneventful first day. Which makes for a very good first day when all we are doing is driving.
Sorry I had no pictures for this day but I will make up for it the rest of the trip.
So glad you decided to do a TR and I love your new sig pic. By your title I am so excited to hear all about Selah's reaction. This is definitely a well deserved trip for all of you. Can't wait to hear more.
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It sounds like your daughter must have had a great time. I can't wait to hear about it.
I hope the story of our adventure lives up to the title! Thanks for following along!
Ugh. Oh well, we were going to Disney World and that is what mattered. Wanda was coming to our house that morning to get her bags loaded into the car. I didn't know when Jamie was coming home so I didn't change anything with her. I figured I could get everything loaded up and that way when Jamie got home all he had to do was get himself showered and changed and then we were off. I had told Selah's teacher that I would be picking her up around 1 so when the time rolled around I went on to pick her up. Once I got back home I started loading everything into the car with some help from Asher while Wanda watched Selah. All the while we were all very anxiously awaiting Jamie's return home. 2:00 rolled around and he finally got home. Wanda and the kids were so excited they were all sitting in the car waiting. 
Jamie got himself ready and we were pulling out of our driveway by 2:30. Our plan for this day was to drive to Kingsland, Georgia and stay the night. That way we would only have a 3 hour drive the next morning. We were really wanting to get to our resort early in the day so that we could enjoy more of that first day there and also because we were needing to make room requests. We had heard on this board that it was a good idea to get there early to make those requests. Jamie drove all day this day. We both like to drive so we share this responsibility. We got just a few miles down the road and realized that Jamie and I had not eaten yet. Neither of us has stopped long enough to do that. So we went through the McDonalds drive thru and got a couple of burgers for us and some fries for the kids. In the past 6 months or so Selah has learned what McDonalds looks like and if we were to go through the drive thru and not get her anything she would NOT be happy and then rest of us would not be very happy either 
. So we got our food and we were on the road again. Around 6:30 we stopped at a Taco Bell and had supper. I don't remember where we were at that time but we didn't stop for long. We were ready to get on down the road and to our destination for the night. The sooner we got there, the sooner we could go to sleep and get up the next morning to head to Disney World. We arrived at the Days Inn in Kingsland, Georgia at 10:05 that night. Got checked in and quickly got everyone ready for bed. I had packed an over night bag so all we had to take in was the one bag for us. I had encouraged Wanda to do the same that morning when she got to my house and I saw that she had not. She thought this was a great idea and she was able to do that pretty easily. Once everyone was ready for bed I realized that while I had packed a bag for overnight I had failed to put Selah's sleeping meds in that bag. I had her daytime meds for that day and the next in her diaper bag but her night time meds were in with all of the medication that I had packed for the week. Selah cannot sleep without taking her sleeping meds. So Jamie and I go back out to the car in search of the medicine bag. I had a good idea where it was and if I was remembering correctly it was in mine and Jamie's suitcase which was the first bag packed. 
Oops. Luckily Jamie and I are both very calm people and we don't let a whole lot bother us. So this was really no biggie. We found the meds and then we were off to bed. All in all we had an uneventful first day. Which makes for a very good first day when all we are doing is driving.
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