Disney or Bust: A Lesson in Patience PTR (Aug 19-27) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Disney or Bust: A Lesson in Patience PTR (Aug 19-27)
This is the first time I have written a PTR or a TR for that matter. I have been to Disney World MANY time over the course of my life. However, in 2009 we took our first trip as a family. Back then our girls were 12, 4.5, & 11 months. For this trip they will be 17, almost 9, & 5. I was the Disney veteran when we went back then but I totally got DH hooked! We had planned to go back a couple of years later but we ended up buying a house, which put that plan on hold. We have been talking about going again for years, and finally this past fall we took the leap! I got a pin code in the mail and we knew we wanted to go this year. So in October I called our travel agent priced out the different options and dates and we booked it! This is where the lesson in patience comes in. Not only have we been talking about this for years, the kids have been asking to go back for years. Our youngest doesn’t even remember the last trip – she wasn’t even 1 yet, so for her this would be her First Trip. And Once we booked the trip we were approx.. 282 days out from departure. We have a Disney Chalkboard magnet for our countdown, and I have been writing the numbers on there since that day (not every day, but 5 out of 7). We are at 122 days!!! The girls, and us adults, have definitely learned patience!
So this trip is very similar to our last trip, with a few changes. We are taking an additional adult with us. Last time we brought a friend of mine, this year we are bringing our neice. Not only will she be there to help with out younger girls (they don’t listen to their big sister – SHOCK!), but she loves thrill rides like our 17 yr old and DH & I don’t. So DD 17 will have a ride buddy! Plus it wouldn’t be the same without her.
Last trip we stayed at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. We loved it!!! But this trip we wanted to try a different place, and we felt we needed more room. We have 2 fully mobile kids, plus a teenager and a 20 yr old. So we booked a 2 bedroom Villas at Old Key West. We are really looking forward to it! Last trip we drove down and this trip we are doing the same. However, last time we took 3 days down stopping to see friends along the way and 3 days back. We are road trippers, we love it! But this trip we added on a day to our Disney stay and with it being so close to the return to school we don’t have that kind of time. So this time we are taking 1.5 days down and back (I’ll get into more of this later)
So once we booked, we started in on the budget of when will we have it paid off – we wanted it paid off as soon as possible. And I am happy to say we paid in full this week!!!! WOOOHOO!!!! I ordered all the new versions of my favorite Disney planning books, and got to work on the planning of our days and dining. I took into account things we loved and things we didn’t – OK there really wasn’t anything we didn’t love about Disney but there were things we rated a little lower therefore to experience different things they might have to be dropped. This led to 2 lists: the “Cannot Wait To Do Again” list & the “Cannot Wait To Try” list. The kids all had input, this is their vacation too! But in the end DH and I made the final decisions – OK I made the decisions, but I have been married long enough to know that letting him feel like he is part of the decisions making is best for everyone ☺
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