The “Mom and Dad never took US to DisneyWorld” pretrip report (12/6/08 – 12/13/08): - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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The “Mom and Dad never took US to DisneyWorld” pretrip report (12/6/08 – 12/13/08):
Ok, this is my first trip report and I'm going to Really, Really Try to actually finish this BEFORE we leave. But don't hold me to it, OK?
My name is Mimi and I have been a somewhat regular poster on the boards. DH and I made our first “adult” trip to Disney World Nov 2004, for the F&W Festival and I fell in love with it. We have since gone every September and I’ve also made several trips without him. DH is not going on this trip because he is in the military and there is a chance he might have to make a 30 day deployment right in the middle of it. He is also suffering from Disney exhaustion.
To explain why this trip is so monumental, we require some background.
Part 1: “The Conversion” My parents, especially Mom, have been very anti-DisneyWorld for about 30 years now. A very long time ago, my parents made the mistake of taking us to MK at Christmas. You may ask why this was a mistake because many of you enjoy Christmas at WDW. My Mother hates crowds. HATES crowds. So to take 3 very small children (6, 4, and 2) to DisneyWorld the week between Christmas and New Year was insane. I have NO idea what they were thinking; I was 6. So after a miserable day of fighting crowds and waiting in long lines (Pre Fastpass) of course my brother (4) got lost. (Keep in mind, this was before cell phones.) You know those leashes that they make for small children? Tom was the type of kid that those are made for. After a frantic search, they found my brother innocently chatting with Goofy and Mom swore she’d never do DisneyWorld again. So we three kids were Disney-deprived until we were grown and could afford to take ourselves. Fast forward 30 years to February 2007….
Like many of you, I’m always looking for a Disney trip opportunity. My very dear cousin was getting married in West Palm Beach, which is only 3 hours from Orlando! Bingo!
Since my brothers and parents would be attending the wedding, we all discussed the possibility of a whole family Disney trip, grandkids and all. Well, we talked and talked but my DS1 didn't want to take the kids out of school so finally it was just Mom, Dad, and I going to Disney with both DBs meeting us later for the wedding and all spouses staying home.
Mom wasn’t looking forward to the Disney part. I was going no matter what and I think she only agreed to go because she was worried about me going alone. (I’m 36 years old but she’s still my Mom.) That and my Dad really wanted to go. I used golf as a hook for Dad. He’s an avid golfer so I played up the fact that SoG is right on the golf course and the courses are gorgeous.
It was the week before President’s Day and I assured her that crowds would be fairly low and we’d have a good time, but she was unable to get real excited about it. To tell the truth, she was dreading it. She didn’t want to talk about restaurant plans or shopping, or really anything. She was only going to make everyone else happy, which I hated, but I knew it’d be all right in the end. I made just a couple ADRs to keep it low key and just hoped for the best.
Well to summarize the Feb 2007 trip, we all had a great time. Soarin’ is Mom’s favorite ride and “Beauty and the Beast” is her favorite show. We ate at Tusker House (it was CS then) and she was impressed that Disney served “grownup” food in the parks. Both Mom and Dad got into the pins, Mom especially. We had Winnie the Pooh breakfast at CP one morning while Dad played golf and ate Pineapple and Strawberries and put whipped cream in our coffee. We shopped the outlet malls (not fun for Dad) and spent too much money. Dad got in 2 rounds of golf. We woke up early and drank coffee on our balcony and watched the wild turkeys and early golfers (Our room overlooked the first tee). They loved the Pirate Tutorial and wore silly hats. So Mom and Dad are now officially converts. So much so that Mom suggested meeting my Aunt and Cousin in Disney for an All Girls Mother’s Day weekend in May, which is another, totally separate trip report, which of coure I didn't do.
That brings us to the trip we’re currently planning: Mom and Dad’s 40th anniversary, Dec 6 - 13.
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Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Mimi, What a great story about your mom's conversion to a Disney fan. It's always great to have a special event to plan a WDW trip around and I'm sure you'll have a great time.
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