Welcome Home, Airmen! A Brent and Liz Trip Report February 2016 - UPDATED 06.05.16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Welcome Home, Airmen! A Brent and Liz Trip Report February 2016 - UPDATED 06.05.16
Greetings all!
Brent and Liz are back with another Trip report. You all know me, Cinderella devotee, and lover of things light blue.
And Liz, Tinker Bell fan and lover of all things Snow White.
This trip is quite special as we are going to meet our daughter, Victoria, and her friend, Merlin, there. Victoria is an airmen in the United States Air Force and we couldn't be more proud. It's extra special to get to vacation with her because she just got back from deployment around the holidays. We haven't seen her in the longest time! She is also bringing her friend, Merlin, along for the fun.. This is the first time we've had the privilege of meeting him, so that's just one additional thing to make this trip even more special. We will be vacationing from Friday February 12 through Sunday February 21. We are staying at All Star Movies, which is another first for me as I have always stayed at Pop Century. I was very much looking forward to a new resort to explore in my early morning sojourns to the food court to fill my coffee mug.
Friday February 12:
Got up way early to make the hour and a half drive to Grand Rapids to catch our plane. We were going to Orlando with a stop in St. Louis. You always are a bit relieved when there is no snowstorms around when you fly in the Winter Months.
The flight left Grand Rapids right on schedule. I was hoping to catch a view of Lake Michigan but the cloud cover decided otherwise. Before you knew it we were on the ground in St.. Louis. We were hungry and we had an hour and a half til we board our next leg and there was a Chili's right there when we got off the plane so we figured why not? Big mistake. 45 minutes later we just put our order in. Ugh! We explained our circumstances to the server and finally got our food, choked it down then went on to board the next flight to MCO. How can any restaurant provide such slow service in a restaurant? Anyway we were on our way home! Next stop Orlando and we get to finally see our Airmen again! We felt the wheels touch down and we could not wait to get on our way as we knew our Airmen was already at our Happy place waiting for our arrival. Can it get any better? We scurried off the plane about as efficiently as you can and got right on the bus to All Star Movies. Then as luck would have it we we found out we were the last of about 4 stops. (Seemed like 40!) But then finally we made it to All Star Movies! (After, of course stopping at All Star Sports, and All Star Movies...We got to our room with our carry ons and then set off to meet her and Bam! Found her!
Then after some catching up and a few tears we headed to Kona Cafe for dinner. Had a great meal and were just reminiscing with our lovely daughter and her new friend. I think Liz has some pictures of this meal.Perhaps she will share. Then it was off to the Magic Kingdom! First thing we did was find a photopass photographer;
Then Victoria wanted to do the Tree house so off we went. It was a little spookier than I remembered at night. Speaking of spookier at night, Haunted Mansion was next. Then it was time for my first meeting with Cinderella. She was as beautiful as ever. I want to think she recognized me from our trip over Christmas. She loved the photo book I made and looked through the whole thing and insisted on signing the cover. Then warmly welcomed us back to the kingdom.
Rapunzel treated Liz like a long lost friend.
By now it was getting late and we were definitely getting tired because it had been a long day for us, so Liz and I headed back to the room. The kids stayed in the park and continued to have fun late into the night. We arrived back at the room to find we were gleefully reunited with our luggage. We flew Southwest so we were able to check two bags free. Well, one of my bags was the ‘Beer Suitcase’ so I unpacked it and made good use of the fridge.
Thanks Southwest. That save a good sum of money over the $8 per beer it costs here. Liz and I had a great first day…
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.
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.
Location: Physically stuck in Michigan while my heart and soul reside in Disney.....
Posts: 2,680
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 16
Likes (Received): 11
Thanks (Given): 14
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Joining in on our trip report!! Hoping to do our normal back and forth type report. This was a wonderful trip, we were so happy she was back from deployment. The military lifestyle is certainly something we are adapting to.
I will get some pics posted soon....probably Tuesday.
Just a side note for everyone.....the little girl that you see in the pink in my signature pic is the same Airman that you see in the trip report with me. All grown up! I have a pic of her standing in the same spot that I will post....amazing to see the changes.
Joining in on our trip report!! Hoping to do our normal back and forth type report. This was a wonderful trip, we were so happy she was back from deployment. The military lifestyle is certainly something we are adapting to.
I will get some pics posted soon....probably Tuesday.
Just a side note for everyone.....the little girl that you see in the pink in my signature pic is the same Airman that you see in the trip report with me. All grown up! I have a pic of her standing in the same spot that I will post....amazing to see the changes.
Judy & I remember that storm in the summer of 2008. Being in the park with TS Faye blowing was a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing the comparative photos. I did 4 years in the Air Force (64-68). Tell her thanks for her continued service.
Just a side note for everyone.....the little girl that you see in the pink in my signature pic is the same Airman that you see in the trip report with me. All grown up! I have a pic of her standing in the same spot that I will post....amazing to see the changes.
I hope you'll post both photos side by side, as I'd love to see them together.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
You all still managed quite a bit on your travel day. 
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
