Returning to our Happy Place: Pre-trip report - UPDATED 09/08 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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This day I plan to be up by 5am, shower and head down to breakfast at the hotel. I am thinking we will try to catch the shuttle to the hotel for 7 or 7:30. Our flight out of New Orleans is at 9:45 with Southwest. (Is this sufficient time to get to airport and do everything that we will need to do? Remember I am new at this!)
Next we will just wait…..I plan to have some things for Abby to do and maybe a book or some magazines for me. Scott will be happy playing games on his phone.
I do plan to buy some snacks for us once we get past security and probably once we land as I am sure Abby will be hungry by the time we land.
Our flight is scheduled to land at Orlando International airport at 12:25pm. I am planning on using DME (any help/suggestions here would be appreciated). I am not sure what time we will make it to POP but once we are there we plan to check in and get our Keys to the world!! If the room is ready, we will bring our bags up and go up and freshen up. If not we will let the CMs bring them up later we will head to the MK!!
If we are hungry we will stop in a Casey’s Corner for a quick bite and if not we will just let Abby lead the way. This year she really wants to ride these attractions at MK that we either missed or she was too short for on our last trip:
Splash Mountain
BTMRR
Haunted Mansion
Goofy’s Barnstormer
Stitch’s Great Escape
***we measured her yesterday and she was right at 40.5 inches-at 5 years old!! I tell you she just won’t grow! Hoping to hit a growth spurt between now and September!
I am expecting that this night will be a MNSSHP night based on the park hours. I have decided that we will wait and do the party on the Friday night. I really wanted to do the party on the Tuesday night BUT I am worried that we might be tired from traveling and I want to make it worth the money and try to stay for the entire party.
Since the park will be closing early for the party, I have us heading over to EPCOT to tour there for as long as we can hang. EPCOT is open until 9 so we will probably eat at the Mexican counter service restaurant. I don’t plan to go past Mexico this night as we will be back to tour the countries another day. We are hoping that Test Track will be open back up by then and that if it is Abby will be tall enough to ride it.
I am sure we will ride Nemo AT LEAST once this night but that is ok because I love the ride and the movie!!
Up Next: First full day of parks and 'Ohana for dinner!!
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here: