A Spring Adventure: Wilderness, Flowers, and the Force (with Cam and Luke) PTR Updated 5/22 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Luke: The basic facts state that he is 53 and retired. He hasn’t missed one bit the hassles of his former computer job as an Information System manager. Thankfully, the new kid (one of my former students) who has replaced him has only called or e-mailed a handful of times over the past four months. Luke asked to do nothing for the first two months of retirement, and then he’d begin on our list of projects. His first project will be discussed in a later post.
Luke with his computer tech department at the retirement party they threw for him.
I had forgotten about another of his favorite characters, Jack Skellington.
This is Luke and me with Mamaw on her 80th birthday on January 30th. The young man joining us is our great-nephew Abram who didn’t like that we didn’t have any kids with us as I’d taken group photos of each family with Mamaw.
Luke enjoys helping with the Disney trip planning, and flights and DVC resort reservations are solely his domain. He loves trains (and has numerous Lionel Disney trains), NASCAR, football (especially the Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers), and Batman (whose memorabilia completely packs our bonus room and is scattered throughout the house). His favorite characters are Tigger and Goofy. As far as park attractions, he is a thrill seeker with Rock ‘N Roller Coaster as his favorite. He is so sweet because it bothers him that his favorite ride is one I cannot ride with him. (And I feel bad because I can’t ride it with him.) We have been best friends for something like 34 years, and we do like to spend time together.
Cam: I’m a 55 year old retired high school English teacher. Over the past few months, I’ve embarked on a few of my own retirement projects. I’ve wanted to learn to cook and except for an epic fail with a beef stroganoff recipe that Luke found online, this has gone rather well. I know I still prefer to bake, but cooking lasagna is fun, too. I’ve had time to scrapbook (90 pages since January) and to read, a favorite childhood hobby that had fallen by the wayside when I had some many essays to grade (16 books since January). I now volunteer every Tuesday morning at the Sparrow’s Wardrobe, a clothes closet at my church, where I have made friends with some very sweet ladies who all treat me like their younger sister.
My face tickles me here. I was giving a little speech at my retirement party and trying very hard not to cry. I was eventually unsuccessful.
My role in Disney planning is all the ADRs and touring plans. Luke and I both have input on resort, flights, meals, and touring, but then we divide and conquer to get the actual work done. I love animals, especially giraffes (but most of you all knew that already), so Animal Kingdom is my favorite park. My favorite ride is Tower of Terror because it is the only thrill ride I can do consistently and not get nauseated on. Unfortunately, one time in a row is still my limit on it. Dopey, Tinker Bell, Mickey, and Chip and Dale are my favorite characters.
My favorite face character is Mary Poppins, and I never miss an opportunity to meet her.
Next: Luke’s first project (a brief break from Disney planning, but with a bit of Disney in the end result)
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