Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3
Putting a boot into our original Easter plans…
Pre-trip report – part one: a surprise through the post that changed everything
Dates: Friday 30 March – Monday 2 April Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (45) and DH Mark (52) Destinations: Bath, the Donkey Sanctuary at Sidmouth and other destinations in the south west of England and south Wales Resorts: Bailbrook House, Bath and Royal York and Faulkner Hotel, Sidmouth Meets: None Celebration: getting away for Easter and enjoying a present from a friend…
It’s pretty much a tradition in our house now that every Easter, we go away. It’s a four day weekend here, with both Good Friday and Easter Monday as national holidays, so it’s worth doing something, rather than sitting at home. Yes, of course that means it’s busier on the roads and often the price of plane tickets can be through the roof, but usually we find something that works for us. Here’s how previous Easters have shaped up:
2017 Northern Ireland
2016 Bath and Somerset, south west England
2015 Isle of Man
2014 Boating on the Norfolk Broads, eastern England
2013 Berlin, Germany
2011 Walt Disney World
2010 Road trip to Switzerland and Germany
In 2012, we were at home, as I was changing jobs and we had a week long cruise booked to the Norwegian fjords about two weeks after Easter.
So what were we going to do for this year? Well, for years, I’ve wanted to go and visit the Keukenhof bulb fields in Holland. I’ve had friends visit, including a professional photographer, and the photos they’ve taken have been stunning. Every year, I’ve said we’ll go and every year it hasn’t worked out. I was confident this would be the year… We need at least a three day weekend to do this comfortably, as it’s quite a drive from Calais, where the Eurotunnel (the car shuttle under the Channel Tunnel) brings us out. Easter would be perfect. I even had an itinerary all worked out, including other places to see in Holland. We were set…
… then we got a surprise through the post that changed everything.
Our friend Jan came over to visit in September 2017. Her husband Bill was killed in the line of duty in September 2015. Some of you will remember Bill (LizardCop) from the PassPorter boards. Others of you may well have heard about what happened to him. It made the national news in America at the time, as well as the BBC over here, as Bill had retired from the police force and then went back to work to earn a bit more money to take his granddaughter to Disney.
Understandably, Jan didn’t want to be at home for the anniversary of his death. We planned a trip where we picked her up from Paris, then we brought her home, visited London and other places across southern England. We took her to the Thermae Bath Spa, which we’ve visited many times before and some of you will be very familiar with from previous trip reports. It was Jan’s first time at a spa and we weren’t sure what she’d make of it. She absolutely loved it! She pretty much fell asleep in the rooftop pool and told us how relaxed she felt, which was wonderful. I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction from her.
A few days after she got home, a package turned up in the post from the Thermae Bath Spa, which we were very surprised to see, as neither of us had been in touch with them. We opened them, wondering what it was. She’d only gone and bought us a twilight package for two as a thank you for everything we’d done for her. We were absolutely bowled over and delighted, as we do love the place and, heck any chance to return is a good one!
The twilight package is only valid from Sundays to Fridays, which means essentially you’re looking at a weekday. The spa is about a three hour drive from us, which also means we’d need to take some time off work. Ok, no problem, surely, as we have lots of vacation? Well, yes we do. However, I tend to use it all up… I get more than Mark because I can take time back in lieu whenever I work extra hours. Let’s just say I’d already used up his leave for 2018 with a two and a half week trip to Florida (including a seven night southern Caribbean cruise) in January and a three week trip in September with 18 nights on the Disney Magic, as we travel from Dover to Quebec City on two back to back cruises.
Now what to do? The vouchers were only good until November, so we needed to find a long Bank Holiday weekend to go really. The only options were Easter, the early Bank Holiday in May, which was instantly out as we’d already booked flights to go back to Switzerland, the late Bank Holiday in May and the late August Bank Holiday. Given we were heading off on the Magic only a couple of weeks after the late August Bank Holiday, I ruled that out. I wasn’t keen on the late May Bank Holiday either, as my mum’s birthday is in late May and we might use that time to go up and visit them. That left Easter. So much for our plans for Keukenhof. Oh well, this is why I like to plan ahead and buy things for a vacation, as once things are purchased, you’re committed to going. We hadn’t purchased anything, so we could ditch our plans. I guess we’ll go in 2019 then…
We could either go to the spa on Good Friday or Easter Sunday and I opted for the Friday. I couldn’t see the point in going on the Sunday night when we’d be heading back the next day. It meant Mark would have a lovely, relaxing time before driving three hours, which would really wipe out any benefit. I phoned up, but we were actually too early to book. I was told to try again in November, which I did, and quickly secured our slot.
We’re due to check in at 6:00pm with dinner at 8:00pm. The package is a three hour spa session, including time in the restaurant, complimentary use of towel, robe and slippers and choice of one dish from the menu and a drink, which includes wine or beer. We’ve done the twilight package before and it is lovely. I can’t wait.
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She pretty much fell asleep in the rooftop pool and told us how relaxed she felt, which was wonderful. I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction from her. 
She’d only gone and bought us a twilight package for two as a thank you for everything we’d done for her. 
We were absolutely bowled over and delighted, as we do love the place and, heck any chance to return is a good one! 
I get more than Mark because I can take time back in lieu whenever I work extra hours. Let’s just say I’d already used up his leave for 2018 with a two and a half week trip to Florida (including a seven night southern Caribbean cruise) in January and a three week trip in September with 18 nights on the Disney Magic, as we travel from Dover to Quebec City on two back to back cruises. 
Oh well, this is why I like to plan ahead and buy things for a vacation, as once things are purchased, you’re committed to going. We hadn’t purchased anything, so we could ditch our plans. I guess we’ll go in 2019 then… 
We’ve done the twilight package before and it is lovely. I can’t wait. 
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