You've lost the weight now let's celebrate....with a trip down memory lane. - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mom's suggestion got Abby's attention and she was all for trying to lose weight to get to Storyland, whether I liked it or not. I didn't but being the adult I am, I kept my opinion from Abby and really hoped that would be the key to getting Abby to try. If she did try and actually lose weight then she would deserve the trip. Another thing I would hope would help is we were doing this as a family - well me, Lenny and Abby. I told Abby we would all be watching what we were eating, we would all be exercising (Lenny at the time still needed to get walking without the crutches so he would go too) and I would be careful with what I was bringing into the house to eat. It would be a family effort and she would have lots of support. I also told her I could start a thread here on the boards so she could see it's not just a struggle for her but for lots of people out there. She liked the idea of that so I did that as well. For Abby's attempt at losing weight, she has far more support than I ever had.
About a week after we started trying to lose weight and when I was at work at the station, I started looking into hotel options near Storyland. In the past we had stayed at a Comfort Inn that had a mini golf course nearby, It has been 12 years since our last trip and things do change but I was happy to see the hotel was still there. I looked into the rates and for the weekend I picked - June 8th and 9th - I found a good rate so I clicked on book the room. I then called home and told mom I had gotten a room for Storyland. She of course asked why and I told her the truth. "Mom, it makes it too long of a day to drive up, do the park and then drive home. If we're going to take Abby to Storyland, I want to be able to enjoy it so we'll go up Friday night and then come home Saturday night since the park closes at 5." Mom of course didn't like this "I'm not taking any time off of work" and "I suppose that means Lenny is going too?" I told mom that yes, I made the plans with the thought of Lenny being able to go "unless you want him to stay home and take care of the animals but I don't think you want him to." She agreed that no, she didn't want him to. I then went on to point out it's not fair to the dogs - two golden retrievers to be exact - to shove them in the back of a Ford Escape for 3 ½ hours, then shove them in a kennel for whatever length of time, then shove them back in the car for another 3 ½ hours to go home. I said the rabbits would be fine - give them extra greens, hay and pellets and they would last the day - but that's too much IMO on the dogs. Then I said my famous last words. "Besides, if Abby stops trying to lose weight, I'm not out anything. I just reserved a room. I can cancel it at any time."
After I got off the phone with her though, I went into my email where I saw my hotel confirmation and the words "room cannot be canceled or modified." My jaw dropped as I didn't know why it said that. Somehow or other, I ended up with a pre paid booking that not only would I not be able to cancel it but I would also actually have to pay for it when I booked it. Lenny was still out on disability and Abby had only started losing weight - I didn't know if she would continue to try - and I was not happy with myself at all. That was a big time mistake on my part. Then when I got home and told mom about it, she made the situation worse. She gave me crap about booking the room and not being able to cancel it and she also said "so you made the decision for me that I'm not going." I told her that no, I didn't, she was still free to go but that was how I wanted to work it and I was thinking realistically - we had to think about the dogs as well and be fair to them. Then I pointed out "what does it matter if I have a room? Even if Lenny stayed home you still wouldn't stay in the room with us so whether I booked something or not, it doesn't affect you." After some more conversation, she still sounded mad about it but she finally agreed she wouldn't be staying in the same room if she did go and that someone had to stay home to take care of the dogs and it might as well be her.
About a month after we started watching what we ate as a family Abby had lost 11 pounds and I lost about 4. I'm not sure what if anything Lenny lost as he never got on the scale. Abby had some weeks that were tougher than others with what she ate but she was still trying and still losing so it was looking like she would be getting this trip to Storyland. Since that was the case, just out of curiosity, I looked into the hotel again. That prepay room I had booked only three weeks earlier was now up by about $40 so it looks like the mistake I had made was turning out to be a good thing. In the meantime however, the more "immediate" reward for March was a trip to the indoor glow in the dark mini golf course that Abby likes. It's kind of cute - not too scary - but I was surprised by how expensive it was. Abby was doing her part in trying hard to lose weight so it was worth the money IMO.
By the middle of April, Abby was still losing weight. Now she was up to 16 pounds lost even though there was one week that she didn't lose anything at all. I know Abby was bummed about it as she was trying hard and quite a few days came in under her allowed points. I was bummed for her too but I was happy there wasn't a gain. I told her that and also reminded her that weeks like that will happen and weeks where "it's that time of the month" also affect weight. The next week was a different matter however as she once again lost 4 pounds and was up to a grand total of 20 pounds lost!! What makes that week so impressive? It was school vacation week and she was home all day - some of it by herself - with access to food the entire time. She did incredible if I do say so myself with really being very careful with what and how much she ate and it showed. Her reward for April was a trip to the local "Family Funway" where there is a go cart course, mini golf, bumper boats, batting cages and a bungee/trampoline thing. It was only open for school vacation week so it was the perfect time to go. Abby wanted the bumper boats but it was still too cold for it and they weren't open anyway. They won't open until June but we did the go karts and mini golf. I even enjoyed the day and told Abby we can go back again as a reward once it opens for the season in mid-June and we could do it as a just for fun day. It was reasonably priced too IMO. For $19 per person you could do any three things you wanted (they have other deals too but 3 was a good number that day). We did two times with the go carts and one round of mini golf. After we used the three tickets, I realized I didn't get any of the promised pictures and videos for mom and Lenny (she just didn't want to go and he had to work) so I bought Abby another ticket to go around again. It was getting late at that time and no one else was there so she raced against one of the employees.
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