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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Okay - I was a bit hesitant starting this PTR for a few reasons:
1) I did one for our 2011 trip and never got around to completing the TR - it is actually all typed up and ready to upload, but without photos ~ although those are all put in folders on the computer too, but not uploaded.........life got in the way
2) We were not 100% sure that this trip would actually occur - and there is still a possibility that it might get postponed............there are so many health issues with our family right now that if something happens, we might have to make adjustments (we have purchased the trip insurance, so hopefully that is my insurance that I don't have to use it and spent $79 on nothing!).
So anyway - I am going to start this and hope that I can come back to the complete the TR, fingers crossed!!!
This trip originated back in March while DH (Scott, 44) was home recouperating from shoulder surgery...........too much time on his hands!!! We had originally said that we were either going to skip Disney this year, or only go for a long weekend as we had gone on a cruise during the April spring break. Well, this trip was originally booked as a long weekend - Thursday 10/4 - Monday 10/8. Well.........as the planning occurred, we were starting to feel like we were going to be missing out quite a bit of our favorites - it would be a 14 months since our last visit after all! So after checking the flights a bit, we found that it was much cheaper to fly back on Tuesday 10/9, so added that day on! Then a few weeks later, checked Southwest again, flights went way down to fly out on 10/3........hmmm.....added another day!!! ..................well a few months later, things started getting even crazier here on the homefront.....................checked Southwest AGAIN ............yep, flights down $50pp to fly out on 10/2!!!!! Called Scott again............we discussed it, because now we would be taking DD (Emily, 13) out of school for 5 days now............and we agreed - to heck with it, we NEED this..........and BAM................there we go, now our trip is a FULL week, with us arriving on Tuesday, October 3rd very early (taking a 6:05 am flight, arriving in MCO at 9:10 a.m.!!! )...........and NOT coming home until Tuesday, October 9th on the 6:50pm flight, getting back to CT at 9:25pm!!! 7 full nights, 8 days in the BUBBLE!!!!
We will be staying at Saratoga Springs (our home resort) in a studio - we are conserving our points for next summer! We originally tried to get into BLT, but no luck - then BWV, no luck there either ..........guess it is meant for us to stay at SSR!
I am so EXCITED to be going in October!! That used to be our favorite time of the year to visit, of course when Emily was much younger, and we didn't have to worry about school so much. We LOVE the MNSSHP!!!! And Scott and I have never really been able to enjoy much of the F&WF, as Emily was younger and her interests were more into MK than Epcot, and we also used to visit in October with another family and they were never interested in F&WF.............so this time we get to explore it all on our OWN!!!
A little back info as to why this is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo needed.............we have had a few years of just plain ol' yucky, horrible, can't make this stuff up type of life.......... I will give a brief synopsis of what we are dealing with (I have elaborated some on the family forum)...........
*Scott was diagnosed last year with 2 types of Thyroid Cancer, had the surgery, treatment, etc, but still has some effects from it.
*I suffered from endometriosis for year, had to have hysterectomy
*My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, COPD, fibro myalgia 2 yrs ago
*Scott's dad diagnosed/treated/recovered from bladder/prostate cancer 2 years ago.............now has stage 4 mesoththiolma (having 5th chemo treatment as I write this).
*Scott's mom suffers from mental health issues, they have flared considerably with all that occurred.
*Scott's grandparents (ages 100 & 94) are still with us, however, grandpa had a heart attack/stroke 1 week after turning 100 in June, been in nursing home since, recently moved both grandparents into nursing home together, but they are not well
And then all the little things that happen in between! Sigh...................it's been a rough time................so we are escaping to the Bubble, even if just a short time, we are hoping to get quality, uninterrupted time with each other.
So as of now..............of course, I keep changing things on a daily basis, so any of this is subject to change! Our plans are looking like this:
10/2: Arrival day, hoping to check in by 10:30ish, fingers crossed that a room is ready! Head to DTD for some Earl of Sandwich, renew our AP's & TIW and then head straight for MK!!! Then for dinner, we are trying out the Spirit of Aloha Luau at the Poly (a first for us!).
10/3: Either MK or AK in the morning, followed by a break by the pool for the afternoon, with dinner at Akershus with our Princess Friends, and hopefully catch Illuminations!
10/4: Breakfast at Tusker House with our favorite server, Neil ~ and of course, some of our favorite characters, Donald, Mickey, Goofy & Daisy! Then we will spend a few hours at AK before heading back to resort for a break and to get ready for the MNSSHP!!! We still have to make our Halloween tees for the party!
10/5: Start the day off at DHS, with an early lunch at 50's Prime Time (another first for us!), then venture over to Epcot for some F&WF fun!
10/6: Breakfast with Pooh & Friends at the Crystal Palace and some more fun at Magic Kingdom, dinner at 1900 Park Fare with Cindy and gang............then no real set plans for evening - possibly DTD or mini golf.
10/7: Start the day in Epcot, we currently have an early dinner booked at La Hacienda, however, probably going to cancel, as it no longer accepts TIW . Evening will be spent at MK for EMH!
10/8: Not sure where will begin day, possibly AK, probably sleep in a bit. Dinner at Via Napoli, then onto DHS for EMH!
10/9: Departure day ....BUT we have most of the day! Breakfast early at Ohana, back to room to finish packing, then hit up any park we want, late lunch at Tony's Town Square (this is tradition for us, we always eat here on our last day before heading to airport!)
So that's it for now.............as I said, I am hoping to make a few tweeks here and there...........hoping to move Ohana to a different morning. And we are going to be taking full advantage of the DVC discount on the Premium AP's, so we are hoping to surprise Emily with some DQ time somewhere in there! Haven't been there since she was 5!
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..................well a few months later, things started getting even crazier here on the homefront.....................checked Southwest AGAIN 
............yep, flights down $50pp to fly out on 10/2!!!!! Called 
Scott again............we discussed it, because now we would be taking DD (Emily, 13) out of school for 5 days now............and we agreed - to heck with it, we NEED this..........and BAM................there we go, now our trip is a FULL week, with us arriving on Tuesday, October 3rd very early (taking a 6:05 am flight, arriving in MCO at 9:10 a.m.!!! 
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