The "Aren't you glad I booked the room?" TR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We now interrupt this regularly scheduled TR for a very important introduction .
Once again, I have forgotten to start with some very important details. The 5 W's - who, what, where, when, why.
The who
Me, Darlene. A Disney lover for a long time now - almost 40 years!! This will be only my 17th trip to Disney. 18th if you include a partial day at Disneyland when I was 4, which I don't. I work as a kitchen manager in the local school system and most days like my job. At this time of year, I like my summers off more than I like my job. I also work as a retail cashier at a gas station a couple of shifts a week. It's a relatively easy, no pressure job if you don't count the fact my mother is the boss. I very rarely ever have to work with her so it works out.
DH, Lenny. A "new" Disney lover. He wasn't too thrilled with the thought of the original trip but the magic certainly worked on him and now he loves it too. This will be his 9th trip to Disney. He's a retail cashier at Home Depot and likes it. He likes his customers and knows the products so he does well at his job. He's also disabled and requires the use of a scooter when we go.
DD, Abby. Since she is so young, she's "new" Disney lover too. She's growing up the same way I did - with frequent trips to Disney and if history repeats itself, this trip will be the last one for a few years. She's a great kid but like her father, is disabled. She has Autism. It does make our trips interesting but it also makes them worth it because she has grown so much due to the things we see and do there. There have been fun experiences but there have been learning experiences too. Maybe not a huge amount of them but there are never leaps and bounds with Abby, mostly baby steps. A step forward is always a good thing, no matter the size. She goes to school pretty much all year but she does get a couple of weeks off in August so I book the trips to coincide with that.
The what: A trip to Disney World of course
The when: August 7th to August 20th. It'll be our longest trip ever to Disney
The where: Our home away from home, All Star Music resort
The why: Because we've worked our butts off to afford to go so we are doing it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled TR, already in progress
Darlene - since I first began reading then posting here, I think Abby has made more than baby steps and that is due to your diligence as a mom (not to discount Lenny bc I would not). You are so hands on always seemingly striving to better each of her days and experiences. She (seems from your posts) truly has grown up into a wonderful young lady from this perspective.
Thanks everyone. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far even though I've just started. I hope it continues to be enjoyable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cattailmarsh
Darlene - since I first began reading then posting here, I think Abby has made more than baby steps and that is due to your diligence as a mom (not to discount Lenny bc I would not). You are so hands on always seemingly striving to better each of her days and experiences. She (seems from your posts) truly has grown up into a wonderful young lady from this perspective.
Thank you for all the compliments.
You can discount Lenny, it's okay - he's just the dad . Seriously though, with him working two jobs as she grew up and my being able to stay home with her, then work at the school and still be able to be home with her in the afternoons and the summer, a lot of it has been me. Mom and dad (until we lost him) helped in the afternoons when they were home if I needed it and Lenny actually has been taking more responsibility over the last few months since he started at Home Depot. His schedule there is crazy but it's allowing me to work extra shifts and stuff because I know he'll be home so in the end of my long story, it's kind of been a village approach.
For Abby I definitely try to be hands on without being a helicopter mom. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As for being wonderful, yes she can be - she can also be that typical 16 YO that we aren't happy with at times. Today, due to circumstances, I had to take her to work for my entire 6 1/2 hour shift and she did great. She helped when I asked her to (she's allowed to do it) and she didn't complain a single time. Very grown up in her behavior. Also in being grown up, she's expressing an interest in doing the single rider line at Test Track this year (that's a separate post). I have concerns over the line itself (the length of time, etc) but not over her being able to do it by herself. I know she'll be fine.
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Looking forward to the TR for this nice long Disney vacation!
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