It's going to be an "Incredible Summer" - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Some nice changes to your plans and looks like it will all work well for this long Disney vacation! Glad all went well in court with Abby's guardianship hearing. A lot less stress for you now to tie this thing up!
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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!
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I love your dinner change for AK! That sounds fun. Disney is the only place I will rise and shine to enjoy the rides at 630 am. I'm glad WDW is accommodating the onsite guests.
Congrats on everything going smoothly at the custody hearing!
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Wow...your trip plans look amazing. I remember when you announced your trip, we were just going on our first trip with JB and I thought - there is a lot of time bw our trip and Darlene's. And with a blink of an eye, it is time for your incredible summer adventure. Safe travels and much pixie dust for a magical journey!
Those sound like some good changes! I hope you have great luck riding the new rides in TSL at 6:30 am! I haven’t heard about the new family style dinner at Pizzafari, but that sounds like fun!
Now you just have to wait.... "Anticipation"... and the waiting drives me crazy!
No more changes, unless Disney does first!
No more changes, hmmm??? Really Kate. And yes, at this point in time the waiting is driving me crazy (9 days and hours, but I'm not really counting )
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Some nice changes to your plans and looks like it will all work well for this long Disney vacation! Glad all went well in court with Abby's guardianship hearing. A lot less stress for you now to tie this thing up!
Thanks Dave. Yes, less stress now that court is out of the way and I'm feeling confident we're going to have a great trip this year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Nice tweaks to your plan. Now you can start packing!
Already started a few weeks ago - it's the finishing I have to do .
Quote:
Originally Posted by tcmary
I love your dinner change for AK! That sounds fun. Disney is the only place I will rise and shine to enjoy the rides at 630 am. I'm glad WDW is accommodating the onsite guests.
Congrats on everything going smoothly at the custody hearing!
Me too - or actually I should say Lenny. It took me what, 7 trips to convince him to be at the park for opening and this year (for his trip number 9) he said he's actually looking forward to getting in the park at 6:30 am. Keep in mind, this is the guy that with his problems takes 2 hours here at home to get ready for the day. Disney he seems to get ready quicker (but we won't let him go slow either).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Love how your changes and tweaking are working out so well.
Thanks Cam, me too. I love when the changes go smoothly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cattailmarsh
Wow...your trip plans look amazing. I remember when you announced your trip, we were just going on our first trip with JB and I thought - there is a lot of time bw our trip and Darlene's. And with a blink of an eye, it is time for your incredible summer adventure. Safe travels and much pixie dust for a magical journey!
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Thanks Denise. You're right. Things always seem to be so far away and then we look back and say 'where did the time go?'
Great job with the changes! Sounds like a great trip with some new experiences.
And it will be here before you know it!
It will be - just a few more days now Donna. I'm looking forward to the new experiences too.
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Originally Posted by purplegal
Looks like everything is falling into place.
It is, and it helps to get me excited when it does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Those sound like some good changes! I hope you have great luck riding the new rides in TSL at 6:30 am! I haven’t heard about the new family style dinner at Pizzafari, but that sounds like fun!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I think they're good changes. I've been "stalking" the MDE app for the past few weeks so I think we'll have luck riding at least one of the rides if Disney still opens the park at 6:30 when we go. If they don't then we'll just go with my original plans for the day. We're looking forward to the Pizzafari dinner too actually. I had read months ago about something similar they were suppose to do at Pinocchio Village Haus. It makes me wonder if they people got their information wrong. I'll let everyone know how it goes though in my TR.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
That sounds like some great plans. Keeping my fingers crossed for you that everything works out as you wish with no meltdowns, especially.
Thank you very much. I too always hope for no meltdowns but in the back of my mind I always know they can happen. It's just all in how much I can prevent Abby from going into one full blown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NanaTink
Your plans sound "Incredible" and I know y'all will have a most excellent adventure! Can't wait to hear all about it! It won't be long now!
No, not long at all. And you guys will hear all about it when I get home and start my TR.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
You’ve made some great changes! Glad everything went well at court!
Thanks Marnie. I'm happy with the changes I made and think they were good too.
Just when I thought I was all set for this trip, something happened that had me making changes again. Kate (lovewdw2 here on the boards), invited herself to join us on our vacation. How rude!! :wink: Yes, I am totally kidding in that. We met back in 2013 when she was on a solo trip and we just clicked. We met in the MK and then rode the train together - twice - then went over to ride IASW together. We rode that around 3 times (we were in the wheelchair accessible boat and the CM's offered it, we didn't ask). We talked like we were old friends and I don't think we've really stopped talking since. Well maybe I do most of the "talking" but we still stay in contact almost daily via emails and texting.
So on Saturday July 21st - just about two weeks out from our vacation, Kate told me about this crazy idea she had. She wanted to go to Florida for the weekend and spend time with us in Disney. After convincing me it was something she could do and really wanted to do, I was on board with it. Lenny and Abby were too - and if truth be told, Lenny had actually said months ago "it's too bad we won't be seeing Kate again this year." Now that he knows we will be, he's looking forward to it just like I am. After Kate decided which days she actually would in Disney, it didn't really involve too many changes on my part. She'll arrive on Friday August 10th and leave on Tuesday August 14th. Friday is our late day in the MK with the dessert party so we won't see her at all. Saturday is our down day and we'll get together at some point in time. Nothing is quite finalized yet but since we like Trails End and she likes Trails End, it just makes sense to eat together there. Sunday is another MK day and again, nothing is finalized but Kate will join us at the park and at her suggestion, I've added an ADR to our day. We will all eat together at the Plaza for an early dinner. We haven't been here in years and I could never really ever seem to fit it in to go back. This is the perfect opportunity to - and only as I wrote this did it dawn on me how easily I was able to get an ADR for it two weeks out for 4 people (must have been meant to be). Monday is an Epcot day that we are going to spend a majority of the time in WS. This is the day I also added in an ADR at Teppan Edo because of Kate (she's the one who kept sending me pictures of her meal). Not only does Kate enjoy WS, she also loves Teppan Edo. What better way to end her weekend than at a park she enjoys that includes having a meal she loves with friends? I can't think of a better way. Just like with the Plaza, luck was with me and I had no problem whatsoever adding her to my ADR for lunch.
And not to leave anyone out, we also have plans to meet up with Ginger (GingerJ here on the boards) while on vacation as well. I added her to my Friends and family list and I know she's gotten quite a few matching FP with ours but she's going to play it by ear on those days. We each have cell phones so it should be easy enough to keep in touch (as long as my phone works - it has a tendency to not always behave, and not just at Disney either now).
We're now into single digits and I'm getting more excited. It's not so far away now and other than all the "small" things I mentioned before, there's not a lot I have to do between now and then. Good thing as three of those days I work both jobs so nothing will get done here. So yeah, it's still turning out to be an Incredible Summer.
I think it's wonderful that Kate is going to be able to join you for several days. It sounds like you will have a great day together. Also fun to meet up with Ginger. PP meet and greets are always fun.
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