The way We do a Disney Re-Do ~~ Beach club Aug 13-22 - FINISHED!!! 1/20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I have no sense of direction, but I have been studying the maps for months.
DH wanted to hop on the boat to take us to DHS. I filled him in on my “inside information” (gleaned from this board) and told him that we should only take the boat if we can get on it right away. Since the boat to DHS takes longer than the walk anyway, having to wait for a boat is unnecessary time. He relented since the boat was nowhere in sight. It looked like it was about to downpour and we were in a hurry.
I had done so much research and map studying that I was sure I knew the way. I was also expecting to see signs pointing us in the right direction…
We did not see any signs...
At one point, I wanted to veer off the boardwalk to the right; DH thought we should keep going straight until we see signs. A person in a WDW uniform was just about to pass so I asked him if he could direct us to Hollywood studios. His English was not good and he did not seem sure of his answer. He first pointed in the direction of what we knew to be Epcot. When I said that, the CM agreed and pointed off to the left of where we were. Hmmm. DH wanted to follow his advice... so we did. We did not seem to be going in the right direction. It was starting to sprinkle. BUT! We were glad to be wet--it cooled us off and disguised the sweat!
A few minutes later, I asked some guests who seemed to be on a mission to return to a resort. They advised us against walking to DHS as it was about to pour. They said we should catch the boat. We argued that we were already halfway around the boardwalk and did not want to waste more time by backtracking. They shrugged their shoulders and pointed us in the same direction as the CM we spoke with minutes earlier. Hmmm...
We kept walking along the boardwalk. I soon recognized that we were...
back where we started…DH wanted to try this path off to the right. I said I was pretty sure that would get us to Epcot and we should just get on that boat. We tried the path. It was now pouring rain.
Picture this…2 soaking wet grownups, practically running in the rain. DH was pushing the double stroller with the girls, and we were expecting our DS to keep up (which he did--looking miserable until he saw me looking at him--at which time a huge fake grin crossed his face!).
Most of you probably know where we ended up...the gate to Epcot.
And another friendship boat dock. We gave up and waited in line. It was a long line as many people were escaping the rain. The boat came about 10 minutes later. It was a LONG.....….SLOW….......ride to D HS with a few stops along the way. We were on the boat about 30 minutes. It was a good time for our youngest to take a nap. When you add in the 10 minutes spent waiting for the boat and the 20 minutes wandering aimlessly in the rain, our commute to DHS was about an hour…but we were still smiling and determined. It was about 4:00. The park closed at 7pm, but we also have dinner ADRs at Cape May at 7:15. We needed to be heading out of DHS just after 6pm, with TSMM our only goal.