Pretrip Report: Anticipating the MAGIC (instead of doing laundry) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Pretrip Report: Anticipating the MAGIC (instead of doing laundry)
We leave two weeks from today for our Disney Magic vacation! Instead of cleaning the house, or cleaning the house, or hey-cleaning the house… I am writing a pre-trip report! I’m sure it won’t be nearly as exciting as the post-trip report, but it’s helping to pass the time!
A little history about our Disney mania… DH and I will be celebrating our 10 yr anniversary in August. About 10 years ago from today, I was planning our honeymoon. We were going to splurge and do a full week at the Grand Floridian and have an enchanting Disney honeymoon. I think we had nearly $4000 honeymoon booked. But we were also remodeling a house, I was looking for a job since I would be relocating to marry DH, etc. SO…we sadly decided we should not spend that much money on a honeymoon , cancelled the Disney trip, and did a much cheaper (and still fun) honeymoon to Las Vegas instead!
Two years later we were in Florida for my cousin’s wedding. DH and I bailed on the rest of the family the day after the wedding and went and did 4 days at WDW by ourselves, staying at the Contemporary. That was in 2001. Two years later we started talking about starting a family…but we had two things we wanted to do before we did that. Do another big trip to WDW without kids, and get an SUV. We took a fabulous trip to Disney World in May of 2003, got an SUV in June and had our first daughter in April 2004. (A side note, you should see our nursery. We blew up coloring book pages of Disney characters on the wall with an overhead, traced them, hand painted every detail…there are characters all around the room and it’s so cute).
As soon as we thought we could handle a trip to WDW with DD, we went. That was right after she turned 3— so we travelled May of 2007. We did 5 days at WDW and the 3-day cruise. In-laws went with. There’s a TR on here somewhere of that. It was fabulous, and we were HOOKED on cruising. We already can’t get enough of WDW, now we are DCL addicts too! Before we even got back to the airport after the cruise, we were trying to figure out when we would go again!
Our second DD was born in early 2008…. I was ready to take another Disney cruise when she was 6 months old but hubby was hesitant to take her that early. So we decided to wait till the Spring after she turned one. And that is how we ended up being booked on the May 2nd sailing of the Magic!
We thought DD5 would enjoy the Oceaneer Club more if she had a friend along with her…so I emailed all of my friends and family to see if anyone else wanted to come along. Some couldn’t afford it, others’ couldn’t go the dates we had booked, but one set of friends decided to book and we got it all set.
So instead of taking a big exotic romantic vacation with just DH and I for our 10 year (as I always swore we would do)…we’re doing a Big Disney Cruise vaca with family and friends! I told him "We’ll just do a quick weekend to Vegas on our actual anniversary"… No sacrificing Disney this time!!! We had to choose between that exotic vaca alone and a Disney Cruise with our kids…and there really was no debate. We couldn’t wait to sail with DCL again!
To set the stage: Travelling with us will be DH, DD5, DD1, hubby’s parents, and our friends who have two boys aged 5 and 3.
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, cancelled the Disney trip, and did a much cheaper (and still fun) honeymoon to Las Vegas instead! 
That was in 2001. Two years later we started talking about starting a family…but we had two things we wanted to do before we did that. Do another big trip to WDW without kids, and get an SUV. We took a fabulous trip to Disney World in May of 2003, got an SUV in June and had our first daughter in April 2004. (A side note, you should see our nursery. We blew up coloring book pages of Disney characters on the wall with an overhead, traced them, hand painted every detail…there are characters all around the room and it’s so cute). 
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