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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry things weren't exactly going smoothly, after the experiences with the red button.
Yes...me too. Had I known there would be a melt down I might've let her know about it ahead of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Sorry about Claire's mini meltdown!
LOL. Skip has one later......
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
I always push the red button! Glad it all worked out in the end. I almost tried those tacos while we were there as they sounded so good but we always ended up eating somewhere else. I did wind up with a pink sprinkle donut though
I do like to win...I should've thought that through!
They were good and hit the spot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sounds like Claire had reached her vacation time limit! Glad lunch helped everyone.
It is partly my fault...I really push us a lot, but I can deal with the melt down better than Daddy can.
After everyone had a full belly we decided we better get in line for Despicable Me so we worked our way there.
A Dora spotting…at the time my niece was still really into Dora…I think now at the mature age of 5 she is growing out of her a bit.
Transformers was back up and running but we just didn’t have time for it now.
We got in line, which I believe was over an hour wait if I remember right.
Once you get inside there are still a few more waiting rooms. This was supposed to be their house.
From this room we went to another room and then into our loading area. The ride, which is like a simulator but all in one room, was fun. We enjoyed it a lot…however I don’t think I would wait in a long line for it again.
After our fun with the Minions we did a bit of shopping.
We were in there for quite some time trying to find the perfect shirt for me and something for Claire. I also bought a magnet. Skip sat outside and waited for us.
Sadly it was time to go. We had to fill the car up with gas yet too.
We made our way to our car and started out to the airport. I said something about getting gas in the area and Skip said no, let’s just wait till we get closer. DUMB idea!!!!!
The crying now began. Claire did not want to go home…neither did I, but I told her we would do something again and be back. But then she cried because her dad doesn’t always go with us and he needs to do a long trip with us. He told her he would do more trips, but it wasn’t helping. She was very over tired and just worn out from a long trip.
We saw no signs for gas stations along the way and the next thing you know we are pulling into the airport. We turn around and look for one down the road….the cost of gas was about $8 a gallon…I kid you not! Skip said get it and I said no and he said get it and I made him pump and pay. I was so disgusted that this place can get away with charging so much for gas.
With the tank full of gas that was more valuable than gold we headed off to return the rental car. We were a little behind schedule but if security went ok we should be ok.
When we returned the car a porter asked if we needed help with our bags. I was surprised when Skip said yes. I was also happy. The guy was really nice and asked how our car was and we told him how crappy it was. He said “Well you had a Versa or a …..(something else). Yep we had the Versa! He took us to a different checkin counter for Southwest. He said it was busy upstairs and not many people know about this location. It had just a few people in line and before we knew it we had tickets in hand and off to head through security.
I don’t remember much about it, so it must’ve not been too bad. It’s always busy, but it seems like I didn’t complain much about it.
With that done we hopped on the monorail.
We decided we better eat something since we will be getting in pretty late to Detroit and settled for McDonalds.
At some point we lost Skip. I forget why he left us but it took him awhile to come back and we both were getting annoyed at him wandering off. He did this a lot on the trip and I was sick of staying put to have him find us or just wondering where he went.
We finally headed to our gate. There was another flight before us there still and looking at the monitor it was scheduled to fly out just 5 minutes before ours. I questioned it and was responded by grumbles. Why am I worrying about that? Just go to the gate. Well I am not stupid…2 planes cannot load at the same time and our plane can’t pull up and load in 5 minutes. We chatted with some people sitting in the area who were waiting on the first flight. Evidently their plane had technical issues and another plane was being brought in for them.
As time grew closer (Not long really) they were getting ready to board but no word for us yet. I went to the desk to question it and they told us that we would be boarding after….ok, sounds good. Then the talk started around the area that our plane was being used for this group and we were now delayed. Then word got out it would be a couple of hours and we were to go to another gate. Finally it was announced (and my email notification came). I was pretty annoyed by this. I know it happens, but I just wish they could’ve figured it out earlier and sent the emails out so we could’ve stayed another 2 hours at Universal. It was crowded but we found a seat with plugs and Claire and I plugged in and she played on her kindle while I worked on editing pictures from my Disneyland trip.
Skip was sitting in a different area and just dozed off.
Finally we were ready to board. The flight crew was annoyed as well as they were kept in the dark till the last minute as well.
We boarded and soon were in the air. Claire was at the window and I was at the aisle, with Skip in between us. Drinks and snacks were served and then it went completely downhill from there. Claire had her drink on her tray and I have no idea why but Skip whipped his hand around and Claire’s drink went flying. It completely spilt all over. All over her lap, some on his and somehow even some on mine. I passed the napkin over and caught the flight attendant’s attention and she brought us some paper towels. Claire started crying because she was soaking wet. Skip was not taking blame at all. He just kept saying it was an accident and he was wet too, but you could tell by the way he was acting that he felt it was her fault when she did nothing wrong but have her drink on her tray. We cleaned up the best we could…nothing like sitting almost the whole flight wet with sticky pop and we heard the people behind us ask for towels too as it spilled on them as well. It was like this cup had gallons of liquid in it. Well hearing that the people behind us got wet put Skip in a mood. What I call acting like a baby. He sat and pouted the rest of the flight and refused to talk to either of us. Seriously??? It was an accident and Claire was over tired…give her some slack. Evidently he was over tired too. When we landed he didn’t say a word but got off the plane and just took off. Claire and I had to go to the bathroom so we bee-lined to one down the hall only to find it closed…so we went further down and were only about 20 steps away and a guy tells us it was closer to go to the one around the corner. I told him we didn’t care, she really had to go and we were fine, but he insisted that we not go to this one. Good grief. So we go around the corner…and it’s closed! So we head down to baggage claim and Claire is about to pee her pants she has to go so badly, but we beat the crowd and were fine. When we came out the line was stretching out the door. We have lost Skip, but I assumed he went outside to smoke. I call my dad to tell him we are waiting on bags. We look outside and don’t find Skip but come back in to find him and the bags. He is still grumpy and quiet. He takes off outside and we keep waiting for dad and Skip keeps yelling to tell him we will walk to him. Oh and it’s snowing, and freaking cold! Claire and I have sweatshirts on but Skip is just in short sleeves. I call my dad and he tells me he is waiting but no one is around and no one is coming out. What? Then he tells me he is at the Delta terminal….NO!!!! We are at Southwest…a completely different building, which I think is a few miles away. So Dad makes his way towards us and Skip starts walking. Claire and I follow….both of us whimpering about the cold and snow. The sidewalk ends and Skip still keeps walking. What the heck is he doing???? Then he stops when he can’t go any further and waits and starts to complain he is cold. Well duh. Dad finally comes around and we load in the car and Skip pouts a bit on the way home, but he does warm up and talk to dad after a bit. It’s about an hour or so to get home but with the snow it took a bit longer. When we arrived Skip and Dad brought bags in and then Skip went directly to bed. It was late and much later than we had planned to be home, but that is just the way it goes with flying.
The next day Skip was fine and I started the laundry and putting everything away. I enjoy traveling with him but coming home usually annoys me as he is always in such a hurry to get home and back to work.
He has stated several times last year that he wanted to go to California this year, but now that this year is here he has not committed to anything. A lot is going on here right now, so I understand why he can’t totally commit yet, but as of yesterday we are no longer going to be in the dairy farming business. Milking cows are being sold. He and his brother just are too tired of all the work involved and getting older and their bodies are not young anymore so they have decided to just raise cows …but not milk anymore. He won’t commit till after that sale is over and things have calmed down…..but I still think he could give us an estimated timeline. All I got was sometime in April, May, or June….and then he said summer another time….Yeah, that doesn’t help with the planning at all.
And that is the Tale of the Grow Walk……. I will add some final thoughts later…..
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Sorry for all of the travel issues getting home! I'm glad you had a great trip overall! It really looks like they've made a lot of changes to the Simpsons area of Universal since I was last there.
That was some experience you guys had on the last day. Travel delays are always bad. Sorry about the extra excitement with the drink and your Dad choosing the wrong building. Good luck with the sale of the dairy cows and the transition to cattle ranching. Perhaps this will give Skip some relief from the longs hours running the dairy operation.
Sorry to hear about all the changes you're going through and that you're leaving the dairy business.
At least you were sort of able to enjoy your last day, at least in Universal, although sorry you had such a rough journey home.
Well my husband seems happy about it and he sure is taking advantage of some extra sleep in the mornings.....kind of throwing off my routine though.
The journey home was long and a bit stressful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Delayed flights can be so annoying! Sorry it caused you all to be so late getting in.
Yes, if only we knew ahead of time it would've been much better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Sorry about the travel issues coming home but still seems like a great trip overall! Good luck with the cow sale and the changes coming your way
It was a nice trip....and I wish I was there right now again! Though it's probably crazy busy again this year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Sorry for all of the travel issues getting home! I'm glad you had a great trip overall! It really looks like they've made a lot of changes to the Simpsons area of Universal since I was last there.
They did add quite a bit in the area and it really looks nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
That was some experience you guys had on the last day. Travel delays are always bad. Sorry about the extra excitement with the drink and your Dad choosing the wrong building. Good luck with the sale of the dairy cows and the transition to cattle ranching. Perhaps this will give Skip some relief from the longs hours running the dairy operation.
He is sleeping in now...which is throwing me for a loop....I used to like that last hour of sleep by myself where I could stretch out...now I am up earlier than him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
$8 dollars/gallon for gas, that is outrageous! Sorry for the rough end to your trip.
I know...it was crazy and I made my feelings heard to everyone around us. LOL. They all had similar feelings.
Sounds like quite a hectic last day at Universal and at the airport! I have to tell you Jen that you always make me laugh out loud when I read your postings! I just got in tonight from a long drive home from Fort Lauderdale via Charleston, SC in which we spent two nights and I was exhausted but you still made me laugh. Hope all works out with the cow business and you're able to get into a new routine of your own. I hope you write another TR for your DL trip if there is one this summer. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an entertaining trip report.
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Sorry the trip home wasn't pleasant. It sounds like Skip has a hard time transitioning from vacation mode to real life mode.
Actually he has a hard time not being home. LOL. I hope he gets better with it now that he is not milking cows anymore and not quite as busy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Sounds like quite a hectic last day at Universal and at the airport! I have to tell you Jen that you always make me laugh out loud when I read your postings! I just got in tonight from a long drive home from Fort Lauderdale via Charleston, SC in which we spent two nights and I was exhausted but you still made me laugh. Hope all works out with the cow business and you're able to get into a new routine of your own. I hope you write another TR for your DL trip if there is one this summer. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an entertaining trip report.
I am glad to make you laugh...I kind of tell it like it is sometimes. I know things can't be perfect and might as well share the downs along with the ups...and some of the stranger things in between....
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Great that you got a bonus day at US!!! Sorry that it had to be cut short to find out that your flight was delayed - I hate when that happens
Yep, by the time you arrive at the airport you just want it to hurry along...I just wish we had known earlier.
My thoughts on this trip!
Well…First off it was MUCH busier than I expected. I did expect it to be busy but it was just insane at WDW. I did do quite a bit of complaining about the crowds, but we still had a good time and did some new things or different things than we normally do. I however will probably avoid going that close to Easter in the future.
I was not a fan of the magic band or the My Disney Experience. It does seem to be getting much better now a year later and hopefully Disney will continue to tweak it but it does seem like every step forward leads to 2 backwards before they fix things. The biggest issue is not everyone has a smart phone or even uses a computer so it can be really hard for some people. …My brother in law is contemplating going in a few weeks…and he has neither and is not tech savvy. If he does go I am going to have to give him step by step instructions for everything and I will have to set him up an account and pray he can understand the FP’s, etc.
Even though the trip was fairly long, it still seemed way too short and I still didn’t do all I had wanted to or wished to do. I have heard people say they are ready to go home after a trip, but I never have that feeling. I really think I could spend a month easily there and still not really want to go home.
I have learned that my body just can’t go go go like it used to and I could use a nap each day. I really did feel tired more often this trip than I have in years past. That didn’t stop me though, but if I stayed longer I could get more rest without feeling like I was missing out on something.
The cruise was great. I really think Skip enjoyed it too. We have begun some talks of an upcoming family cruise like we did in 2012 and Skip actually seems like he wants to go. When I mentioned it recently to him he said if it’s planned for this year then that would be the vacation we go on verses Disneyland, which I keep trying to get him to commit too, but it sounds like now it may be 2016. Until DCL releases the dates and itineraries we can’t make a solid plan on that, but ideally we all seem to want to have a longer cruise…5-7 days. I know most of the family does not want to do WDW along with it but if I can work it out I would like to either throw in the Halloween party and or the Christmas party.
We had a good time at Sea World and just an OK time at Legoland. I probably will skip a few years before going back to Sea World again and not sure if I ever will go back to Legoland. Distance is a factor there too; it is not close and for us, just not worth it. Maybe when Gracie gets older I will change my mind on that and rethink it.
A year ago I was on the Magic (We boarded Mar. 28) and I am really feeling the itch to get away. It’s been a blah winter and I just need some sunshine. I was very fortunate to travel 4 different times last year and I don’t see it happening again this year.
I made some great memories with my family, earned a certification and got some extra relaxation last year!
Thanks so much for reading a long and sharing our experiences. I am taking a slower break from the boards now. I will still be reading when I can, but I just can’t seem to keep up as much anymore and keep up with work and life. Am setting some weight loss goals this year and I really need to focus on that rather than play on the computer in my free time. I will most likely write a TR for my next trip, but I am probably not going to start it right away so that I can get it pretty much close to ready and completed before I start posting….that way I don’t feel the pressure of posting on a regular basis.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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$8 dollars/gallon for gas, that is outrageous! Sorry for the rough end to your trip.
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