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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 are back home safe and sound, and mostly unpacked. So here we go! I will start off by saying this will probably be my last trip report since Photobucket has gotten to be so stupid. I'm sad about that, but until something changes, it can't be helped.
July 22, we got up at 1:30 am. We finished packing the essentials. We were picked up by our friend at 2:30 am.
How did I sleep? Horribly. We had terrible storms that night. The kind where the thunder cracked right over your head. I got to seep about 20 pm and I woke at 11:30 at, so really I was up before 1:30. My husband slept that long. But oh well, not the last time I went on hardly any sleep.
We got to the airport and through security without an issue. The were boarding our flight very quickly trying to beat the next storm rolling in. And we made it, just barely! No sleeping on the flight for either of us. Due to the storms, many people were going Standby since their flights had been canceled the night before. So we were squished in like sardines.
We landed a bit ahead of schedule. Yay! We had to wait longer than I've ever had to wait at the Magical Express, but eventually we did get on the bus and there were no technical issues.
This Passholder thing is a lovely thing.
No text about our room, but we had always been super lucky with that so I wasn't surprised. We were the first stop! Before long we were at Coronado Springs.
We were hungry! We checked on our room at the front desk. We were going to be in the building I requested, but or room was not ready yet. We headed to the food court, but it had just closed to transition to lunch. Okay then, let's head to Disney Springs! See the spontaneity? It's just beginning. I had a couple of things in mind.
First we stopped at Morimoto Street Food to try a sample of their famous ribs.
The ribs come with three pieces. They pixie dusted us a fourth. They were delicious and definitely lived up to their reputation.
Christmas in July was happening. It was fun because even though it was hot, we were hearing Christmas music.
We hit up my favorite store, The Basin
After buying a couple of things, we stopped in a new first.
We got our free sample of chocolate.
Then went next door and got our favorite Rocky Road ice cream. Somehow we've always managed to skip over this. It was delicious.
Still no room text, so we went to the Co-op. Warning, lots and lots of pictures coming up. Just that morning, new purses had been released.
Tim stopped in this store.
Christmas in July! You could even meet Samar in the Christmas store.
Anyone drooling yet? I was
And then I saw this. And fell in love.
So it got shipped home for us. Remember in June when my family hugged each other while watching Happily Ever After? This. It was too perfect.
Afterward we got some poutine and heard the weather rolling in. Still no room text.
The wind was starting to pick up, so we headed for the brick building before you get to the buses to finish eating. It was good, and now I can say I've had it.
It started to pour. I put on a poncho because I had my iPad in my bag and didn't want to risk getting it wet. Tim did not put on his poncho and wished he had. We were dripping wet. We got back to the resort and sat in the lobby to wait. We started chatting with Sara, the Guest Experience Manager and talked with her about an hour. She went to check on our room twice and while it wasn't done the first time, the second time she told us our room was done and had been upgraded to a water view room. I was in 8A and we were in the refurbished rooms which I wanted. Best of all, it had stopped raining!