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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi everyone! I'm in the process of planning yet another crazy little trip and thought you all might be bored enough to tag along, lol!
It's going to be myself and Meri again. I'm trying to convince mom to come, also, but... she's a stubborn little cuss. I'll keep you posted on that! She may be stubborn, but I'm relentless.
To give a smidge of background... I grew up in NY. I was born there and lived on Long Island til I was 5, then moved to about an hour outside the city until I was 15. At 15, mom's job transferred her to Northern VA, outside DC. This will explain why I am so tied to these two places and know so many people in each location.
This whole thing started because my cousin in Atlanta emailed me to ask if I wanted to come out to DC. Her husband has a reunion out there for Memorial Day weekend, and she hoped I would come out and stay with them in the hotel (they'd pay for the hotel), and at night, babysit her son so they could go out and do grown-up stuff with the folks from the reunion. During the day I am, of course, free to do whatever.
First I had to look at some stuff and talk to my boss. Once that was done, I decided that would work out for us, and it would give me an excuse to spend a week in NoVA (the local short-hand for Northern Virginia). So the plan became that Meri and I would drive out, spend the weekend in DC with my cousin and her family, and then spend the rest of the week in NoVA with friends.
After our recent visit to NY, I decided I wanted to spend more time with my family up there (long long story, but the bottom line is I didn't know them at all until a couple of years ago, and only met them for the first time last year, so this is a big deal for us all). So, I decided to tack on a few days in NY on Long Island before the VA trip. Instead of driving, I decided I'd fly up to NY and then take the train down to DC, then fly home.
So then (I thought) I was settled. Well, today I started talking to a friend of mine from Boston. I realized I haven't seen him since before Meri was born, and we discussed meeting for dinner one night in Providence while I was in Long Island. Well, that's all well and good, but that's still 2 hours one way... just for dinner. Now... Crissy can tell you that I'm perfectly willing to do that (I did, after all, drive 3 hours to have lunch with her), but I wasn't sure that I'd want to do that while staying with family. Especially in an unfamiliar place.
Then it hit me. Why not fly to Boston, spend the day there, overnight there, have dinner with Matthew, enjoy the morning in Boston, and then hop a train down to NY? I haven't been to Boston since I was 14, and of course Meri has never been. It would be fun to add a tack to her map, so why not?
Phew! Three cities in one trip?? Sure! Why not?
So, with less than two months to go... come along and meet the cast of characters (there's going to be a lot), learn a little about me, and see two cities (Boston and DC) and a little bit of Long Island! I'll be the first to tell you, the NoVA part will be boring, and likely not much to write home about, but you never know what could happen!
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Sounds like a great trip! And NoVA is not boring!!
Not sure when you were here last, but I recommend going to National Harbor (where Disney owns some land - but no one is confident they'll really be building there).
Sounds like a great trip! And NoVA is not boring!!
Not sure when you were here last, but I recommend going to National Harbor (where Disney owns some land - but no one is confident they'll really be building there).
LOL ok I meant my personal NoVA trip! NoVA in general has tons to do, I agree! Once I am in NoVA, the five days will be a flurry of being at work and seeing friends. Pretty dullsville for a TR! Since the weather will be lovely, though, we may find ourselves downtown or in Arlington or Alexandria at the waterfront or something in the afternoons. I'll be working til around 1pm, but then I'm free as a bird! Maybe we'll head down to Georgetown or something. Though someone else has to drive because no one wants me to attempt to parallel park in DC in a stick-shift pickup truck (my friend is lending me their "spare" truck - you'll hear more on THAT later). LOL!
I did know about the National Harbor rumor though. I like the idea of them building some kind of resort there. I'd stay there frequently!
Here's a VERY rough outline of where we'll be and when.
Sun 5/22 - Tues 5/24 - Boston (this MAY be only one night... but my goal as of right now is to have 2 nights here, so I have some time to check out the city without us feeling exhausted / rushed)
Tues 5/24 - Sat 5/28 - Long Island (we'll take the train down from Boston - something I'm utterly excited about!)
Sat 5/28 - Mon 5/30 - DC (we'll take the train down from NY)
Mon 5/30 - Sat 6/4 - NoVA
Sat 6/4 - Fly home. Phew!
I will break down each section in a little more detail every day as we get closer. I do know I'll be bumping into Laurie (lauriep) while in Boston, though! She's the one that found me my hotel, thus making two nights a possibility! I'm very grateful! It looks wonderful!! I had one hotel booked for one night, but when I consulted with her on all things Boston, she suggested a different hotel in a safer location. As a bonus, it's also nearly half the price of the one I had booked, which meant I could do two nights instead of one! Didn't take much convincing, that's for sure!
I've got the hotel booked with a AAA rate and I'm really excited about it. I'll give you the specific hotel after we've stayed, I guess. It's funny, because when it comes to a Disney trip, I'll give out my resort info with no qualms. It's part of the excitement. And for some reason it feels "safe" to do so when it comes to a Disney stay (naive, yes I know). But when we're just in some random city, I'm not sure I want to say where I'm staying - not because I don't trust you guys that are regular readers / posters, but because who KNOWS who else reads this stuff? And as a single woman traveling alone with a child... better safe than sorry, you know?
Suffice it to say, it's a nice hotel and we'll fare quite well there! It's got a quaint little history and I can't wait to share it all with you for the TR!
I'm really excited about this little addition to the trip. It's been 21 years since the last time I was in Boston, lol, and I'm excited to check it all out and see some of the sights through adult eyes (and also through five year old eyes, lol). AND I get a PP meet, to boot!
Big big big thanks to Laurie! Things are starting to come together for the Boston portion of this trip because of her. She's a wealth of information!
I started by listing out the things I want to see while in Boston (Public Garden / Swan Boats, Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, among other things), and then Laurie made a few other suggestions (aquarium, commuter boats that give a nice view of Boston). Now I'm in the process of grouping together everything I want to see, so that I have kind of a "touring plan".
Day 1: Arrival in Boston
More or less, the first day is "set". We'll land somewhere around 1230pm, and my friend Tracey is going to pick us up from the airport (saving me roughly $30 in cab fare), drive us to the hotel, and have lunch with us! I figure on checking in first, then going to find lunch after we settle our stuff in the room. However, if Meri is starving to death and starting to whine, then we'll just eat first. I plan on bringing lots of snacks on the plane, plus giving her a late breakfast in Chicago (since we have a 2 hour layover), so hopefully she will be manageable.
After lunch, Meri and I will head on over to the Public Garden so Meri run around and stretch her legs, and we'll briefly ride around in a swan boat. We're also meeting up with Laurie here - so that will be great fun!! We'll hang out in the gardens / Boston Common a bit, and then there are a couple of streets I'd like to meander down. There's a bookstore that's on my tourist map, and a statue of Ben Franklin. I'd like to see both, and do some window shopping!
After our wanderings, we'll head back to the hotel for a shower and rest before dinner. Not sure where dinner will be, but it will be with my friend Matthew. Then I imagine we'll veg out in the room. There's free internet so you'll likely be getting an update from me with a bunch of pictures. We'll have been going since 415am, so I imagine we'll be wiped out pretty early!
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She may be stubborn, but I'm relentless. 
Melanie
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We'll hang out in the gardens / Boston Common a bit, and then there are a couple of streets I'd like to meander down. There's a bookstore that's on my tourist map, and a statue of Ben Franklin. I'd like to see both, and do some window shopping! 
Susan
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