It Was 30 Years Ago Today...Now I'm Going to the AKL to Play! UPDATED 8/16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It Was 30 Years Ago Today...Now I'm Going to the AKL to Play! UPDATED 8/16
Well folks, here we go again...
Today is officially my first day of summer vacay and I'm itching to get our trip going! So I figured I'd go ahead and start this crazy PreTR. As if you didn't get enough of my weirdness in the last one that I just finished..
So, yes, it's a stretch of a Beatles reference "It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play". But why 30? Well, it'll be 30 years ago today (on July 12th) that I made my presence known on this Earth... and I guess the world hasn't been the same since
I really can't believe I'm going to be 30. I mean, where did the past 29 years go? I did some reading yesterday and discovered that when I do turn 30 I'll be older than 42% of the population. That's awesome. And I discovered a list of 30 skills a girl must master before turning 30.... I know there is at least one other 30 baby out there, so enjoy: 30 Skills Before Turning 30
I have to say I can check off 27 of those... I can't exactly negotiate a pay raise when I work for the state (stupid teacher salary).. and don't expect to get a gift from me that doesn't require a sharp knife to cut through all the tape... and I'll leave the last one up to you to decide after you read the list..
Okay, let's cut to the details..
Who: Me, Melissa (turning 30 on the trip), DH Andy (29) and hanging out with our pals Brandi and Tom. (I won't say their ages, but you can soon add 10 to get Tom's.. )
When: July 11 - 17
Where: AKL
So since I've decided to start this thing a little over 3 weeks out, I'll bore you with some walks down memory lane. Maybe you'll get a little giggle out of this.
I dug around and found a few pictures from my strange and long ago childhood.
Let's go waaaaaaaaay back to 1983. My 3rd birthday.
Check it. I was already rocking the Mickey Mouse party hat. Score. Please notice I'm also rocking a smurf shirt, a bowl cut, and a baby bottle. Okay wait. That baby bottle was for my kick butt new baby doll I got for my birthday..........
Skipping ahead to somewhere around 1986 maybe? It looks like I'm missing a bottom tooth and I didn't get those knocked out till I fell on the pavement at PE in first grade...
Ahoy matey. Thanks for the sailor suit mom. Where's the sailboat? Oh wait, that's right, we don't have one so I just look like a tool with my sailor outfit and Farrah Fawcett type hair...
And then we have the coup de grâce, the creme de la creme...
I believe this was 1989. Yes folks, at 9 years of age, I still allowed this to happen. Am I referring to the painted face? Am I referring to the massive perm? Am I referring to both? Oh good gravy. That hair. Then again, I love you mom, but really? Your 'do wasn't exactly Vogue material.
High school photos were just not allowed... what a dork I was. So I skipped ahead to the year I graduated college... not that long ago.. 2002. But still, I think it's kind of scary that even after 8 years, I feel like I look the same..
And then, the very next year, 2003, I got married..
To this:
Awesome.
I kid I kid....
And now, here I am...
Ready to celebrate with my friends and my hunny..
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Oh good gravy. That hair. Then again, I love you mom, but really? Your 'do wasn't exactly Vogue material.
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