An Anniversary, a party, a luau, and oh so many changes from the plans, lol! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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An Anniversary, a party, a luau, and oh so many changes from the plans, lol!
I'm going to attempt to do a TR while it's fresh on my mind. I never did finish last year's TR so I'll try to do better this time.
I'm borrowing the format from Winston since I thought it made it easier to remember where I left off when reading. Hope you don't mind Winston
Dates: 10/09/2010-10/18/2010
Travelers: Stacey (writer of this report - been to WDW too many times to count), Bill (my DH who prefers DL but does now love WDW as well), Mary (our DD who is 19 months old - this is her second trip. She was 9 months the first time), Jane (my mom - drove over from Clearwater and stayed a night), Lydia (my 9 year old niece came over with my mom for a night), Derek (DH's best friend who moved down to Atlanta this year) and Linda (Derek's wife - They drove down from Atlanta for two nights with their cat Willow since their other cat recently passed on )
Hotels: Off property at the Fairfield Inn the first three nights as there were no rooms available on points and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Village for our last 6 nights.
Celebrations: DH and my 11th wedding anniversary was on 10/10/10.
Day 1 - Departure and Arrival - 10/09/2010
So, while it looks like we had a huge group of people, the primary guests of this TR are me (Stacey), DH (Bill) and DD (Mary).
Since DH works Tuesday to Saturday so he has Mondays off to watch DD, we had to leave after work on Saturday. I booked us on a 5:05pm flight on Southwest scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:05pm. Even though we live about equally between Logan Airport in Boston and Providence we always choose providence so we can drive ourselves and park our own car for the week. This means we don't rely on others to drop us off and pick us up and if the flight is late we are not an imposition anyone else. Parking our own car may not have been the best decision this time... you have to wait until the end of the trip to find out why though
Our flight was delayed for some reason but only by about 15 minutes on departure.
I decided to purchase the early bird checkin for only DH's ticket on our flight down. My logic was that he could board before us and get DD's car seat all set up while we came along a bit later. I figured worse case we could board with the family boarding in between group A and group B. At the 24 hour mark I checked in myself and Mary and we got A58 and A59. DH had A19 so I think it worked out well buying the EB for him. When Mary and I got on the plane, DH had her seat all installed and it was a nice transition.
Mary was awake for about half the trip but in a fun playful mood and safely strapped in her seat. She fell asleep for the last hour or so of the trip and even slept through the landing I actually woke her up trying to pick her up to get off the plane, lol
We booked a car rental since we like the freedom to come and go when we want and also since we are staying off site the first three nights. Plus with an infant, we can run out anytime we need something.
The best rate I found was with Alamo using our BJ's wholesale club discount. The bonus was that since it was through BJ's we got a second driver at no additional charge so both DH and I could drive. We had booked a compact to save money and it was a tight squeeze for the trip to the hotel with the car seat, stroller, and three pieces of luggage.
We decided this time rather than wait in a long line at Alamo, we'd skip the luggage pickup until after we got the car. So we went right down to level 1 instead. The car rental was an absolute breeze! The customer service person we had was very helpful and friendly. Not too pushy on the upgrades, etc. We got the paperwork and went back up to pick up our luggage.
Apparently they are FAST with the luggage because ours was already put aside outside the southwest office. Of course I couldn't find my luggage slips but I showed them our tickets with our name on them and got our luggage without any drama. I'm a space cadet since having a child, lol
We picked our own car with Alamo. I really do prefer this. DH decided to pick a little chevy cobalt with New Jersey plates since most of the other rental cars have FL plates. It would make it easier for us to find ours in a parking lot... and it really did help us a few times!
We got the address in the GPS and were on our way to the Fairfield Inn in Marriott Village, which is just outside of Downtown Disney off of 535.
We were floored, there was bumper to bumper traffic at 9:30pm for some reason on I4? Then there was even more traffic on 535. We could see our hotel but couldn't get there. With all the traffic and not being able to tell how to get in to the hotel (Our GPS thought the driveway was off of the highway on ramp, LOL) we didn't get into the hotel until after 10pm. The front desk folks were wonderful. Very friendly and helpful. She noted my request for the pack and play for Mary and called first thing to make sure it was there asap. Since we are marriott reward members we got 20% coupons for the food court as well.
We were starving and decided to try to get to the food court before they closed at 11pm. DH brought all the luggage in himself while I stayed in the room with DD (what a guy huh? ) We scooted down to the food court and ordered burgers with fries, and got two sodas, a milk, and a water as well. We planned to go to the grocery store but were too exhausted tonight. It was a little pricey but I have to say that was an incredible burger! The best I had all week!
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