Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My inlaw clan keep saying they want to do a cruise , so I'm quite interested to see how your group did it! And a Disney cruise is always worth tuning in .
That's A LOT of cheesecake! and it looks delicious
The best thing to do with a group is to be sure they all know that not every waking hour is going to be spent together. Now Cousin Vicki wanted to hang with everyone most of the time, and I think she stuck with Aunt Mary mostly, and Aunt Mary is so good neatured that she didn't complain. But as for the rest of us, we did some things together and many things apart too. I also took my niece Aleixs with us as time, and sometimes others took Claire.
Now things weren't perfect, but I think they went well for such a large group.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Dinner sure looked great! Glad you were able to get a new pair of shoes for Claire.
It was darn good. I am so glad I noticed it then and not at 5:30 AM the next morning. We would've had a majpr panic situation then. But I'm sure we would've eventually found her some shoes somewhere .
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Glad you noticed Claire's shoes and were able to get new ones before you were dressing for a day at the parks!
Yes, If I had not noticed it, it couldn't been a not very good situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Glad you were able to sort out the shoe situation easily enough! What a fun evening with Carrie and Amanda.
It was a really nice evening. I am so glad to have met Carrie in real life. She is going to Disney in just a few short weeks now, so we talked about that a bit too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great start! That is some group you are traveling with! Cheesecake Factory cheesecake is the best!
It was a big group, but we managed pretty well. I think at times some people doubted what I had told them, only to find out I was right. LOL
4:50 AM the alarm went off, but I think I was pretty much up at that point anyways. I got up and dressed and fixed myself up real pretty. LOL I let Claire sleep as long as possible. Amanda was up in her room and getting herself ready as well. She was going to go to work early after dropping us off and then she could leave early to drive up to Toledo.
Our plan was to be on the road by 5:30. I finally woke Claire and she was so sleepy. She swore she would sleep the whole way down on the plane …news flash …she didn’t sleep a wink … and we packed up the remaining things. I left my overnight bag right at Amanda’s house. I had packed it so that there was nothing in there that we needed to take with us, there for not upsetting the balance of my big suitcases. Amanda put 2 chocolate muffins in a baggy for us to take to the airport for breakfast. I also grabbed a banana before we left as well. I am one who needs to eat pretty much right away or I get a headache. Claire, on the other hand doesn’t need to eat for hours. Soon it was time to leave and we made fabulous time. Amanda was worried about traffic, but I guess when you leave at Butt crack thirty, no one else is on the road. Amanda even made a wrong turn, going naturally towards her work and then made it a little longer route to the airport, and still we made great time. She dropped us off at the Southwest curbside check in and we said our good byes and Claire and I dragged 3 big suitcases, one carryon, 2 back backs and another little bag she had over to the check in. It probably looked comical. We checked in the 3 big suitcases (and one of those had a rolling duffle for extra purchases for the way home) and went on in to go through security. Now when I had been here just 6 weeks prior, going through security was like a ghost town. Not a person in sight for the most part. So I knew we didn’t have to get here “too” early to make it through just to sit and wait. This time it was much busier. Not bad, but still a lot busier and they had 2 or 3 lines going this time. Since we were decked out in tie dye Mickey tees and Disney cruise sweatshirts, and our bags all had some sort of Disney thing on them, we were asked several times where we were going. The one security guard made friends with Claire and told her how lucky she was to miss school for Disney. Claire has such a cool Mom …don’t I know it.
We found our gate and picked some seats and I pulled out one of the muffins. Claire didn’t want anything yet, so I ate the whole thing myself. We played on our gadgets until it was boarding time.
We made one last potty break and bought a drink to take with us on the plane and soon it was time to go. The boarding was much more orderly this time. People did seem to look at the boarding numbers a little more carefully on this flight. On the 4 flights to and from Galveston, no one seemed to care at all. We also had a better boarding number; I think something like 20 and 21. WE got on the plane fast and found a row not too far back at all. Claire jumped in her window seat, something she was worried about the whole time, and we settled in.
It appeared that the plane was not sold out and we kind of hoped no one would sit with us, but then towards the end, a lady did sit with us. She was very nice and we made a bit of chit chat here and there. Things were going fast and soon the plane door was shut and we were on our way. The pilot said we would be arriving in Orlando early because we were going to have some good tail winds. YES! I love hearing that. I seem to start getting panic attacks on planes lately. After about an hour in I start feeling like I need to move and it plays with my mind. I did much better this trip. I have learned to take rescue remedy. I don’t know if it works or is all in your mind, but I seem to be a bit calmer with it. I am not afraid of flying; I just hate being cramped up for 2 hours. And for the record, I have been having this issue in car trips over the past year too. If I am the driver, it doesn’t seem to bother me so much.
Soon we were taking off and saw the beautiful lights below us.
We watched the sun come up.
I made Claire pull out some homework. She wasn’t too happy about that, but we did know there wouldn’t be much time to work on it later, so it was best to get through some of it. We did half of the math (the other subject sent with us) done. Technically she could’ve gotten it all done, but she really started grumbling, so we put it away. It was easy math too, with most being greater than and less than problems.
We were served snacks and drinks, which was a highlight for Claire and she watched a movie on her ipod and I did a little reading. Soon we were landing ….25 minutes early. I was so happy.
I had to go to the bathroom, but figured I would wait since we landed early. I try to avoid the airplane bathroom if I can, plus I didn’t want to make our row mate have to move. Sadly, with being so early, our gate was not open. So we sat and waited and waited and waited.
Finally we made it to our gate. We got off fairly fast and headed to the bathroom. We were excited and ready. The weather was nice and we could hardly wait to feel it.
We went over to wait for the fake monorail.
And soon it was there and we hopped on. In our excitement, I took a picture of Claire on the monorail.
Look closely at the picture. You will see a lady staring at us in the background. I didn’t notice her in the picture till I got home.
Soon after that picture, as Claire and I were chatting away, I notice this lady walking towards me. My first thought was, “Wow, she looks just like Lynne”. My words to her as she came forward were, “You look so familiar”. And she replied, “I should, I’m Lynne.” So who is Lynne you may ask? Lynne is a former coworker. My job is mostly online based and everyone who works for it lives basically all over the country, even one in Canada. We talk on facebook and via emails, but we haven’t met many of each other in real life. I have been lucky enough to meet 4 up to this point, Brook, who I have traveled twice with now, and Mindy and Patty, who traveled to WDW last year when I did too. Lynne recently quit the company, so I had not talked to her for a few weeks. Originally, many months ago, Lynne was going to come down to WDW and go to the Halloween party and then sail on the same Dream sailing that I was, she ended up canceling that to go on a Princess cruise, which she ended up canceling because her Dad was having health issues. I had not talked to her much since then, and hadn’t realized that the WDW portion of her trip was back on. I was totally shocked to see her there and what a small world to be on the same monorail car. We chatted a bit and she introduced me to her niece. We walked and talked after getting off the monorail and then we stopped for a picture before going on our separate ways.
Lynne was renting a car, so she headed off in a different direction. As we moved on, I saw this for the first time (I usually fly into Sanford), so we stopped for a blurry photo op.
Claire and I headed outside before hitting the Magical Express line. We just had to go and feel the weather before going on a bus.
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You've arrived! I'm glad that the flight went well and you arrived early. Bummer you had to sit and wait for the gate to open up It was a beautiful day that day, looking forward to hearing what you did!
I think I had that same chicken alfredo dish the last time I went to Cheese cake Factory - it was yummy. I have when Evan sleeps with me. I become the human pillow and know it is always going to be a bad night's sleep for me.
Glad you were able to get replacement shoes before you hit the bubble.
You've arrived! I'm glad that the flight went well and you arrived early. Bummer you had to sit and wait for the gate to open up It was a beautiful day that day, looking forward to hearing what you did!
It was a fabulous day weather wise. We were lucky most of the trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Yay! You've arrived! You know it's an early flight when you see the sunrise from the air... LOL.
I know! But we got to Disney early, so that was a plus.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Yay! You've landed and had a small world encounter before even entering the parks!
Yes it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Sounds like you two are off to a great start. Looking forward to reading about your cruise and the WDW time.
Slowly but surely working on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
You've made it - and even with a "Small World" moment thrown in for good measure!
I was such a surprise to see her, it was nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlb38
Cheryl beat me to the Small World comment Let the fun begin.
We had lots of fun too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Glad the flight was uneventful! You're finally there, only minutes away from crossing under that wonderful gate.
We were anxious to get there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
How cool you got to meet your co-worker.
I think I had that same chicken alfredo dish the last time I went to Cheese cake Factory - it was yummy. I have when Evan sleeps with me. I become the human pillow and know it is always going to be a bad night's sleep for me.
Glad you were able to get replacement shoes before you hit the bubble.
Sleeping with Claire is not great, but for most of the trip she was not too bad, only a couple of times did she really move all over. I lucked out.
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What a fun evening with Carrie and Amanda. 
It was a beautiful day that day, looking forward to hearing what you did!
Let the fun begin.
Holly: 
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