TR Jan 30 - Feb 7, 2016: “Let’s Go Away!” (Updated February 10, 2016) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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TR Jan 30 - Feb 7, 2016: “Let’s Go Away!” (COMPLETED January 12, 2017)
Apologies for the delay, I had (literally) 600+ photos to go through. But, I got it down to a manageable amount, but that does mean I still have to go through every single one after uploading them all to Photobucket and fiddling with its fiddly interface. SO… it’s going to be in parts. Sorry.
So… why the title, I hear you asking? Well… I went to Daytona Beach on my trip, so I figured why not reference one of my all time favourite arcade games, Sega’s Daytona USA? So yeah. Also, sorry if I slip and write a u in something like favourite, I’m so used to seeing it that way when I write it the other way, it looks quite wrong to me.
Anywho, who are the people who went on this trip?
BJ (me)
Nice PP picture with my own Nikon camera… apparently they’re the official Disney cameras now? I didn’t notice.
Mom
Cute pic!
And now… here goes nothing. How’d my trip go? Time to find out!
Saturday, January 30, 2016: Planes (Thankfully Not Trains), and Automobiles
I got up at a much too early hour, as in 5:00 am, and I managed to get a fast shower, some to-go coffee, got my bags pulled together, and got into my dad's car (as he drove me to the airport).
Then I checked in, checked my one bag, got thru TSA, and ran around the Philadelphia airport in search of a decent breakfast and got on board my one plane to Orlando. Meanwhile, my mom made her way to Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, got thru TSA, got to her gate, and flew to Atlanta before going on to Orlando International Airport. I had a few hours to kill on the flight so I listened to two of my favorite artists, Renaissance and Jimmy Buffett, played a little Soap Smash on my iPad (it's a fun little iOS game from the L'Occitane En Provence store), and updated my TR up to that point.
After touching down in Orlando, I got to have a tiny little bit of time to kill in the Orlando Airport, which almost never happens! So... I figured I'd take advantage of the opportunity and stroll through the airport so I could let my mom know as soon as she touched down in Orlando where (if any place) we could have lunch (and if not) where I'd be waiting for her.
While strolling through the airport I found many shops, including a Sanrio Surprises of all things, and BOTH Disney stores!!
Once she was down we went off to baggage claim, and... We both got our bags okay!! Yes! So, we got our rental car and rocked right up to St. Augustine! After a quick (and expensive, of course) trip to Walmart, we made it to our hotel, the Hampton Inn St. Augustine Beach! I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of the view at first but I grew to love that view madly.
After a short while, we walked down and over to the Sunset Grille (almost like the Don Henley song), which was just across the road from our hotel! After a minor problem (my mom can't deal with fans and light), we sat down, were in a good mood, and ordered Sunset Oysters as an appetizer, I ordered a blackened Mahi with coleslaw and a baked potato while my mom ordered a tuna that was practically sushi it was that rare.
My blackened Mahi (YUM!)
Mom’s tuna sushi
Those oysters were wonderful, trust me.
Boy was that meal wonderful! After that, we decided to crash and decide what all we were doing tomorrow and that was it for today!
NEXT TIME: Lucy, chocolate, wine, and spirits. How could it POSSIBLY get better than this??
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