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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Welcome to the next installment of my trip report from our December 2009 vacation.
If you're joining this anew, then you can find the pre-trip report here and you can find the first installment of our first segment of Disney here. We then went on to our road trip from Disney down to Key West, which is documented here.
Sunday 20 December – part one: oh my goodness, this is one small plane!
We were woken by the wake-up call at 5.00, as our flight was at 8.00. Fortunately, I had no ill effects from the night before and we got going and got packed up for our flight up to Orlando.
We headed out and our first challenge was to find a gas station, as it turned out there are none on the south side of the island, near the airport. Finally, we found on, then had fun getting the pump to work, as it was one that required a zip code. Finally, we were there and headed for the airport.
Mark dropped me off with the luggage and then went and parked up in what turned out to be the employees’ parking lot. Oops... Never mind, we got away with it...
We got checked in, which seemed to take ages, as apparently there was a small problem with our booking, although we had no idea what it was. We paid our $70 baggage fee for our three pieces of luggage, which was actually less than I figured it would be. I think it was because we were actually flying with a small airline that’s part of Continental, rather than United, who we had booked the tickets through.
That done, we went back out to the car and returned it to the rental car area. That wasn’t that easy to find. For a small airport, it wasn’t very well signposted, but we got there in the end. The girl who was on the Avis desk when we got there told me that she had been to London about 15 years ago and, when Hurricane Wilma hit here, she lost everything, including all her photos and souvenirs from London. All she now has left is the ring she bought in London and she proudly showed it to me. A very sad story.
We headed up to departures and went through what was perhaps some of the most thorough security checks that we’ve ever seen. I wish all airports were that good. Both our bags got search and Mark had the pat-down routine. For such a small airport, I was very impressed with their security arrangements.
We walked through to the gate and settled down to wait for our flight to be called. I grabbed some yoghurt and granola for breakfast, as I had barely eaten before we left the room. I then spent the rest of the time waiting for our flight writing up various postcards.
I was trying to figure out how one plane could be departing at 7.50 and then ours would be leaving at 8.00, but when we went outside, it was obvious how, as we had to walk to our plane. The planes were scattered all around. Neither of us got any photos of any of this, as our cameras were packed in our hand luggage.
Speaking of that, when we got to the plane, all our hand luggage was taken off us, which we were a bit surprised at, but it made perfect sense when we boarded, as there were literally just seats and no storage space on board at all. There were only about 30 seats, so we went to our assigned seats at the back of the plane, but we were asked to move by one of the pilots, as there weren’t enough people for us to sit at the back.
That was fair enough and we selected some other seats, but the woman behind Mark complained about how uncomfortable she was. Mark repeatedly told her that it was a fixed seat and therefore it couldn’t go back, but still she was moaning and carrying on about how she was going to complain so Mark gave up in the end and moved forward a seat. Not a single word of thanks from the whingeing woman and why the hell she needed all that space, I do not know, as she was really small. I think she just wanted something to moan about.
It was weird to be in such a small plane and I did think that maybe it would be quite bumpy, as a result, but actually it wasn’t and I was pleasantly surprised by what a smooth flight we had. The only drawback was that we couldn’t really do anything, as you weren’t allowed any electrical devices for the duration of the flight, so we couldn’t even listen to our iPod, but then again, it was only an hour’s flight, so we managed.
Coming into land in Tampa was a little bit bumpy, but nothing too bad. As soon as we were on the ground, we were handed back our hand luggage and then made our way to the terminal and headed to baggage claim. Who do we find when we get there? Right, the whingeing woman was standing there, with her suitcases looking very annoyed. We took great delight in picking up our cases, which were waiting for us when we got there, and walking off to get our rental car, leaving her standing there, pouting away.
By the time we had sorted out all of the documentation and got ourselves a Chevy Malibu (which we were assured was very similar to our beloved Chevy Impala), the whingeing woman was still standing there, with her cases, waiting to be picked up by someone, no doubt. That brought a smile to our faces. Serves her right for whingeing so much!
We headed up to the second level of the car park to pick up our keys and quickly found our car. Luggage all safely crammed in and we were off. We had fun getting out of the airport, as the sat nav wouldn’t boot up in time, but we guessed that it was the 75 north, rather than south that we needed and we were right.
Soon we were zooming along on new roads out of Tampa and then on to the I-4. The last time we had come down here to go to Busch Gardens Tampa in December 2007, they had been doing lots of roadworks, so it was nice to drive along it now that it was finished.
It was a nice enough, if boring, drive to Disney, brown up by a few cow sightings along the way. Finally we made it on to Disney property and were at the Beach Club a couple of minutes later.
A bit odd...
As we’d expected, when we checked in, our room wasn’t ready yet. I did ask very nicely if it would be possible to have the room ready any earlier than 4.00 and explained that we had our Candlelight Processional dinner at 4.10 and they said that they would see what they could do for us.
I was also presented with my birthday button, which was interesting, as I didn’t remember adding my birthday to our reservation, but maybe it got picked up from the associated ADRs. It was still nice all the same.
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I give you guys lots of credit; I don't think I would have even stepped foot onto a small plane!
Glad you made it safe and sound and happily back in the bubble.
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
I had to laugh as I heard you describe your flight to Tampa. We flew our first commuter jet last year and it was definitely an experience. The girls were really surprised when we walked out over to our plane and it was so small but I also found that while it was noisy, it was a very smooth flight once you are in the air.
Glad the whining woman had to pay her dues...I would have waved when I was walking out of the airport Hope that they are able to get you checked-in by 4.
Great trip back to WDW! I have flown one of those small flights from Orlando to Atlanta, and was also surprised at how smooth the flight was in spite of the plane's small size. Jacked up trucks are very common in Kentucky, so it took me a moment to realize what was odd. Not something I think is particularly appealing, but having seen it so often, I guess I've gotten jaded to them.
Back in Disney World... love seeing those signs. oh the fun of flying on a small plane. I would have been laughing when the pilot said you had to move forwardguess they don't want to drag the tail of the plane,but who would think it would make a difference I would have waved goodbye the rude woman too. But now your back in the Happy place and hopefully get your room sooner than later.
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Finally, we found on, then had fun getting the pump to work, as it was one that required a zip code. Finally, we were there and headed for the airport. 
Never mind, we got away with it... 
Serves her right for whingeing so much! 
Finally we made it on to Disney property and were at the Beach Club a couple of minutes later. 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Susan
but I also found that while it was noisy, it was a very smooth flight once you are in the air.
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