Survey to WDW...A Savings Challenge and PTR in one! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow getting so close now.
I'm back from my recuperating and catching up on all the TR's. What happened with the posting on your old one? Ever get that figured out? No worries I'm all caught up for the new streamlined PTR.
Welcome back Holly! Hope you are doing well.
The old PTR was deleted per my request, and I'm unsure of what happened with Dana's posts, but we are all set now. So it's all good!
Well I missed the old one, but I'm here for the new one.
So exciting that you two will be meeting in WDW! I hope to do that with my PP gal pals some day too.
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Well I missed the old one, but I'm here for the new one.
So exciting that you two will be meeting in WDW! I hope to do that with my PP gal pals some day too.
Thanks for joining in Kelly! I can't wait for the trip. It's going to be so fun meeting someone you have talked to for a couple years. 33 days left!!
I started this challenge on PP in January 2012, but I actually started the challenge in October 2011. So I am officially at a year of saving at this point. I am excited to see where I stand at this point, and I still have 3 weeks to go, but we'll get to that after some updates.
On the getting healthy, eating better (what I like to call it as opposed to a diet) I am officially down 17 lbs..with 3 weeks to go before the trip. I think my goal of 20 lbs, is within reach.
I realized that I was dreading and putting off trying on clothes to see what fit for the trip, and what I needed to buy. I don't know why...it's like I didn't believe the scale or something. I finally broke down and did it 2 weeks ago though. I was pleasantly surprised when shirts 2 sizes smaller than what I was wearing actually fit! I think this time around I am losing it up top as opposed to the bottom, as shorts that I last wore at the weight I am now, were too small. In the end, a lot of stuff fit fine, including 4 pairs of jeans so that meant they came of the to buy list. Which was actually the whole reason I started this...to have jeans that fit!
However, I only had one pair of shorts. The possibility that it could be 70* during the day, and considering I am from MA...I might think it hot! Around here we break out the shorts when it hits 60! My list ended up consisting of...shorts, capris, hoodie sweatshirt, regular sweatshirt, and tees for the transfers.
I started my shopping at Ocean State Job Lot, which for those that don't know is a discount store that has a little bit of everything. I found a gray hoodie, red sweatshirt (for the xmas party), and a pair of gloves...total spent $20.
Not finding any shorts/capris around here, I ended up ordering 2 pairs from JC Penny online. When they arrived, one pair was too big! I decided to make the journey to JC Penny about an hour away to return them, and while in the area visit Walmart. I am glad I did! They had racks and racks of clearance stuff that I went through and ended up trying on like 14 pairs of shorts/capris. In the end I scored 2 pairs of shorts $5 each, 1 pair capris $9, and one pair bermuda shorts (which are like capris to me bc I am short! $3. SCORE! I also found a sweatshirt I like better though it was $18, instead of $10. Oh well.
This week I am returning the original hoodie to Job Lot and the other pair of shorts to JC Penny. I don't know if I will take the ride, and visit a friend or mail them back yet though.
All said and done, I spent the same amount for all the stuff at Walmart plus 4 other things for the house for the same price as the 2 pairs of short from JC Penny and the sweatshirt from Job Lot.
I am now all set with my clothes for FINI2. Whether it's 80* or 40*! I also have checked my toiletries bag and bought what was needed for that.
I got back the designs from Linda (aka Shadowryter) and they came out fabulous! I plan to start making the tees next week.
We got DISNEY MAIL!!! WHOO HOO! Dana and I are now officially set for DME to POP Century resort.
We have 14 days till online check in, 23 days till airline check in, and 24 days till I get to finally meet my bestie!
This past month I discovered while at BJ's that they now sell Disney Gift Cards. $100 for $95.99 and $50 for $47.99. I ended up buying enough of these gift cards to cover my meals, souvie money, and drinks including the resort mug. Saving myself pretty close to $25!
Due to this you will see a great dip in my savings total, but also a great dip in the goal amount.
I would like to begin by telling you what I have cashed in for and then I will list the totals for the survey sites I plan to use between now and the trip.
Let's get started with the survey totals for October 2012!
These are the sites I have cashed out for/came in this month and included in my savings.
These are the survey sites I plan to use for the next 3 weeks, trying to make goal.
1.) My Survey- 1940 points Need 2200 points
2.) Survey Spot- 350 points Need 1000 points
3.) Opinion Outpost- 5 points Need 100 points
4.) Swag Bucks- 1404 Swag Need 2500 points
5.) Quick Rewards- $49.52 Can cash out any amount
6.) Panel Polls- 30,500 points or $30.50 Can cash out any amount
7.) Tin Can Fund- $31.55
TOTAL in Savings to date (this includes what is in my savings account and Tin Can Fund): $316.99
Amount needed to make goal: $355
Percentage of goal: 89.3%
I am only writing in the survey sites that I will be using for the next 3 weeks. The survey site totals are for what I haven't cashed in yet. These figures are not yet reflected in my TOTAL. Once I have cashed out AND put the money into my savings account, that is when they will reflect in the total savings.
I have decided that I will give one last update, the week before we leave, as far as the survey totals go. I may do a couple updates between now and then on other things. Hope to see you!
Holy cow! 17lbs is awesome!!! Guess what? I'm at the same weight! LOL! You got some great deals! wooohooooo!
Thanks girl! I feel so much better...about myself. Not so much energy or physically yet. I was so excited over my deals. Nothing I love better than a bargain!
Cool to see how you are doing on surveys. I have recently signed up for one that I can earn Southwest points on and am actually doing good towards our tickets for next year.
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Just remembered, you are on the Cape right? Where abouts?
Thanks! I live smack dab in the middle, in Hyannis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugmonster
Cool to see how you are doing on surveys. I have recently signed up for one that I can earn Southwest points on and am actually doing good towards our tickets for next year.
I use 2 sites that give me Southwest points that I intend to use in conjunction with my Southwest Rapid Rewards for the next trip. The 2 sites I use are ERewards and EMiles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Congrats on the weight loss Sounds like you are almost all set for the trip and it won't be long before you are on your way!!
Yep! I am so excited!!!! Tuesday I plan to make our tees. Wish me luck!
About This Page: 
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
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Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
I want that song on CD, darn it! I love it!
Touche!
Just you wait till we are there. Then you can hear the karaoke version sung off key! 
November Update!!
on the weight loss! And the savings!
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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