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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Since I am already doing the single digit dance, I thought I would throw together a PTR!
As you can guess by the title, we are headed to Disney World for the upcoming Princess Half Marathon weekend!
Back story...
I am not a runner and I have never, ever enjoyed running! By nature, I am always planning and organizing things. After my wedding in the summer of 2011, I needed a new adventure to plan. Always looking for an excuse for a Disney trip, I decided that I wanted to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon. My husband's (Kenny) cousin, Monica, ran a little bit and wanted to run the race as well. We ended up going for a long weekend for a 'girls trip,'... Monica, her mom (Barb), myself (Lindsay), my mom (Lynne), my mother-in-law (Kathy), as well as Kenny's aunt and cousin (Judy and Colleen) all went to Disney World for a long weekend. [Barb, Kathy, and Judy are all sisters if that makes sense.] Some people did the 5K, while Monica and I did the half marathon. We survived, and we had a great trip!
Fast forward to 2014...
Monica had a baby girl Adeline in March, and I had a baby girl Charlotte in July. In the spring, Monica and I both had mentioned that we would like to do the Princess Half again. (I am still not 'a runner', but I have done a few 5K's since Charlotte was born... but just about anything can motivate me if it will get me a trip to Disney World!). We knew that this would give us a chance to get back to Disney World, and would also motivate us to get back in the swing of working out after the babies were born. Right off the bat, Monica said that she was planning on taking her husband and daughter with her. I said that I would take Charlotte, so of course Kenny (who 'claims' he doesn't love Disney as much as I do, but his eyes light up like he's 5 once he's there!) said there is no way he would miss Charlotte's first trip to Disney World, so of course he was coming too!
We are very close with my Kenny's family... we see them often, go to church and breakfast together every Sunday, and vacation to the beach with them every summer. My parents are even very close with them. My parents often come with us on vacation, and they have even been known to do things with my in-laws without Kenny and I! (go to baseball games, concerts, etc.) This really makes it nice for us, as we are very close with all of our family!
Mid-July came and my calendar was marked for the day the race registrations went on sale. I was in touch with Monica throughout the day, and she said that she was going to register for the race once she got home from work. When we last ran it in 2012, it didn't sell out until November (!) so she wasn't too concerned. By lunchtime, I think it was over 50% sold out though... so I kept touching base with Monica (I didn't want to register and then her not be able to!). She finally was convinced that she shouldn't wait until she got home from work, so we went ahead and registered. I registered for myself, and she registered for herself, her husband Mike, and her brother Sean. This was really going to happen! (Sort of a daunting thought considering I was 9 months pregnant at the time LOL!)
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Great start Lindsay! I'm not a runner either, but I would love to do a Disney race. I actually mentioned it to my husband.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Great start! I am also not a runner - more of a power walker - BUT this is on my bucket list! Someday
That is the great thing about Disney races - they are so laid back and everyone can feel comfortable! I do run/walk intervals, and I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to start running a little bit. I just can't run for an extended period of time. There are so many people at the races either doing intervals or just walking! So don't be scared (except maybe by the price tag of the race (!)
Yay!! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.
Wise decision to register early in the day. These past few years, the races have been selling out faster and faster. Crazy!
Signing up for a race is the best motivation for getting back into shape! The only problem (for me, anyway) is it's addicting. I haven't stopped running since my last child was born 8 years ago!!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
In August while at a family picnic, we talked a bit more about our exact plans. Last time we went, we went Thursday night (After work) and stayed until Monday evening. I said that this time I would like to go Friday morning until Tuesday evening. My rationale was that I didn't want to have to deal with a sleeping baby and setting up the pack n play when we got to our resort around 11:30 at night. So we decided that we would go Friday morning. This would give us Friday to just unpack, relax at the resort, go to the Expo to get our race bibs, maybe go to Downtown Disney, etc. My other rationale is that the week we arrive is at the end of President's Day week (and also Mardi Gras week this year), so the room will be a little more expensive that week, but the days after the race the room drops down to value season pricing. So extending the trip after the race instead of before would save us some money (and give us lighter crowds on those last few days).
We initially were going to stay at Port Orleans Riverside, our favorite resort. By staying here, we figured we would need to share a room to save some money. Then we were stuck with the dilemma of who to stay with - my parents (who we weren't sure yet if they were going; at that point we thought maybe at least just my mom would come), or Kenny's parents (who weren't sure if Kenny's sister would be going or not). I also wasn't too crazy about the idea of trying to have 4 adults plus a pack n play in one moderate room. It would be close quarters, and while Charlotte is a good sleeper, I would be anxious about if she kept everyone up all night (even though I know neither set of parents would mind!). At this point, we decided to stay at the POP Century. Last time we went for the race we had stayed at the All-Star and found it was fine for the small amount of time that we were actually in our room. If we stayed at the POP, we would each get our own room giving us more space overall for less money.
A few weeks went by and we monitored the flight prices. We all finally decided we were going to go ahead and book, and when we looked the Friday morning flight we were planning on had increased over $100 per person! The only other non-stop flight that day was in the afternoon, not getting us there until the evening. That seemed like a waste of a day, so it was time to do some 'Disney Math.' Staying Thursday night at the POP Century would only be about $145 with taxes, whereas it would have cost us over $200 more than we were planning on to take the Friday morning flight. So if we have to spend the extra money, we'd rather have an extra night at Disney, right?! So our flight leaves Thursday night (completely defeating my rationale that I didn't want to be arriving late at night with an infant but I'm deal with it if it gets me extra time at Disney Also, the tickets we had bought from Undercover Tourist were 4 day-get 1 free tickets... so we already had an extra day of a ticket, so this way we would be able to put it to good use! So that's how our 4 night/5 day trip turned into 5 night/6 day trip.
So in summary about our trip:
Thursday, 2/19 (pm) - Tuesday, 2/24 (pm)
Staying at the POP Century
5 Day base tickets
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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Crazy!
Also, the tickets we had bought from Undercover Tourist were 4 day-get 1 free tickets... so we already had an extra day of a ticket, so this way we would be able to put it to good use! So that's how our 4 night/5 day trip turned into 5 night/6 day trip. 
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