PTR: The Dunning Family's Triumphant Return to the World - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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That is such wonderful news and not just parts of it, but everything! I can only imagine how great this vacation will feel for all of you!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Good news on top of good news on top of good news...
I was hoping to log on and post a picture of our epic Doctor Who themed celebration complete with TARDIS cake, but unfortunately my mother-in-law never got around to setting everything up due to a mix-up she was trying to straighten out with the restaurant she had ordered his birthday dinner from!
So, we did have a delicious spice cake with cream cheese frosting, but it was not decorated like a TARDIS. His mom says she still plans on making it. I'm going to ask her (without telling David) to make it on my birthday and we will have a joint Doctor Who party. I'm a Whovian, too, and proud of my dorkiness.
That being said, we had some other amazing things going on this past week. After getting the all clear from David's doctors, we spent the weekend just enjoying being stress free and not having to worry about health issues. His parents also surprised us on Friday night with an inheritance check from David's grandparents. We knew they were going to give us some money from their half of the inheritance, but were very pleasantly surprised at the amount. (Not to mention extremely grateful!)
We had been thinking we would be able to pay off one credit card and set aside some money for the trip. Instead, we were able to pay off ALL of our credit cards, purchase two five hundred dollar Disney gift cards for the trip, spoil ourselves a bit, and still have some money left to put into a (shocking, for us) SAVINGS account. LOL!
In all the time we've been married, we've had to use credit cards to stay afloat through rough times, and we've never had savings. We used our tax returns to pay off a little debt...and go on Disney Trips. (It's really hard to be responsible when you live paycheck to paycheck and you get that chunk of cash...you just want to play.)
Now, we are officially credit card debt free for the first time in...well, ten years for me, since I got my first credit card at 18. And for the first time since we got married 8 years ago (come September) for David! The debt would probably seem small to a lot of people, but with our income level it felt like we would never pay it off...and now we have! And it feels AMAZING. Now I can not feel guilty for going to Disney World instead of paying off a credit card.
Woot for guilt-free Disney Trips!!
It's just so nice to feel like we are doing the financially responsible thing for once. Doing the adulting thing. We are hoping to improve our credit score enough and save enough to hopefully put a down payment on a house in maybe five years. We have to talk to someone who knows more about it than we do!
It's also a huge relief to know we have the money set aside for spending at Disney World, and now all I have to do is worry about hanging onto some of my money from editing to do Mousekeeping tips. David and I have also been discussing me getting a part-time job a couple days a week for the summer. Since I'm pregnant, I really would love not to, but I'll do anything to take some stress off of him and have more money to add to our savings account.
Although, with my editing business picking up these past few weeks, I may not need to. I'm actually having to really work hard to manage my time to keep up with all the different jobs I'm working on right now. It's a good feeling, to feel productive and know that I'm contributing, even in a small way, to our finances.
Chelsea's birthday is on Sunday, and I was actually able to purchase all the decorations and plates and stuff by myself without help from family. It seems so silly, but it's the first time since Briana was born that we've paid for the entire party without help, and that feels really amazing as a mom, to pay for it on our own. My mother-in-law is insisting on paying for the food, but I argued hard with her on that and lost...it wasn't out of necessity this year, and that feels great.
Anyway, I'm really rambling, I'm sorry! I just feel so giddy after last week's scare, and now all of the good stuff happening this week has us feeling on Cloud 9. We did go a little bit nuts on Amazon as a splurge, and I bought some stuff for the trip. I'll post more about that later!
Right now it's 2:30 in the morning and I need to force my wide-awake insomniac self to head into the bedroom and try to get a few hours of sleep!
Congrats on all the good news you've had - David's good health, the inheritance money, paying off your credit cards - it's a great feeling isn't it? DH & I closed all of our credit cards several years ago and have paid most of them off. Now, if we don't have the money, we don't buy it. It's so easy to get in over your head with credit cards. We found the best solution for us was not to have any credit cards.
Can't wait to hear more about the trip and the planning and all the good things happening for you!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s 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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Good news on top of good news on top of good news...
We are hoping to improve our credit score enough and save enough to hopefully put a down payment on a house in maybe five years. We have to talk to someone who knows more about it than we do! 
Congrats!
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