Things Don't Always Go As You Planned TR 12/11 - 12/18/11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Things Don't Always Go As You Planned TR 12/11 - 12/18/11
The Big Reveal - Saturday12/10/11
As most you know from reading my PRT (if you haven’t and would like to just click here http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...today-ptr.html) that this trip was to be a surprise for my boys and I had huge expectations on how the reveal would all go down. However, hence the title of my TR, it didn’t go as I had planned it would and maybe this reveal was a sign of how the week was going to be.
My original plan was to wake the boys up the morning that we were leaving and tell them the big news but however the day before was absolutely crazy I had a lot of last minute things do which included dropping our dogs off at their doggie resorts. I had told the boys that the dogs were at the groomers but as the clock hit 7, 8, 9pm, my DS1 became a little suspicious and kept asking where the dogs were and when they were coming home, he just wasn’t buying it anymore and started really getting upset and thought that I had gotten rid of them. I knew that this might become a problem and since I didn’t want to start this trip off with the boys being upset, I came up with plan B.
Thanks to fellow PP Linda aka shadowryter’s awesome t-shirt designs and her kindness to share them all with us, I incorporated one of the t-shirts into the big surprise. Here are some photos of the designs that shadowryter created for me:
I just love all her designs!!!! While my DH had the boys out of the house, so I could finish what needed to be done, I decided that I would take the shirts that said "I am going to Disney World", wrap them up, hide them and make them go on an impromptu treasure hunt when they got home. So I took the presents hid them outside by our Mickey Mouse inflatable and waited for them to get home.
When they got home DH said he needed help outside with the decorations, so the boys followed and eventually after a short game of hot and cold they found the presents. We came inside, presents were opened and the result was…………….........
Now I don’t know if it’s because they are boys but there was no screaming, crying, jumping up and down like I had envisioned it in my head but more like Disney rea1ly, oh we are, a little YAY! and that was it. Here are some pictures of the big reveal
Well at least I got a smile out of them at the end!
I then informed them that since it was already 10pm that it was time for bed because we had to get up bright and early in the morning. So as I tucked them into bed with kisses and sweet Disney Dreams, I stayed awake checking my lists twice to make sure nothing would be left behind, set the alarm for 3am and about 1am tried to get sleep, which I knew it would hard to do because I WAS TO EXCITIED TO SLEEP!!!!!
So glad you started! Unfortunately that's the same kind of reaction I got from my girls when I revealed the surprise, so I totally understand how you feel. Sure, they were excited, but they just didn't have the same excitement I had thought they would when I made the plans. Kind of dissappointing, right? Looking forward to more. I hope though, that you had a magical trip even though things might not have gone as planned!
So glad you started! Unfortunately that's the same kind of reaction I got from my girls when I revealed the surprise, so I totally understand how you feel. Sure, they were excited, but they just didn't have the same excitement I had thought they would when I made the plans. Kind of dissappointing, right? Looking forward to more. I hope though, that you had a magical trip even though things might not have gone as planned!
Absolutely, very disappointing, I thought every child would get excited about a trip to Disney, I am glad that my kids aren't the only ones. Thanks we did have a great time despite all the changes.
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.
Great start!!! Sorry the reaction wasn't as big as you wanted it to be. They were definitely worried about the dogs!! Looking forward to reading about your trip.
Great start!!! Sorry the reaction wasn't as big as you wanted it to be. They were definitely worried about the dogs!! Looking forward to reading about your trip.
Thanks, it is what is, as long as they enjoyed themselves once we got there is all that counts. My older DS1 was very worried about the dogs to the point where his was actually crying over it. This is why there will be no future surprise trips to Disney, I really think it is a lot more fun included them along the way.
Sorry about the reveal! I have always wanted to surprise our kids with a Disney trip but I was afraid their reactions wouldn't be as the commercials on TV....LOL. But I know they are very excited! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!
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.
Sorry the reveal didn't give you the excitement you were looking for! I'm sure the boys were still excited to go!
Yeah its Ok I have gotten over my initial shock and once it all finally sunk in they couldn't wait to get there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojjo
Sorry about the reveal. But very excited about your TR. Although I guess this means I'll have to start mine soon.
Thanks for coming along, can't wait to all about your trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoJayMom
Sorry about the reveal! I have always wanted to surprise our kids with a Disney trip but I was afraid their reactions wouldn't be as the commercials on TV....LOL. But I know they are very excited! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!
I guess I just set my expectations way to high because of those darn commercials but I supposed if they showed the non-excited reactions it wouldn't make for good PR for Disney. However, I would think that they were funny
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
So sorry the big reveal didn't go as planned! Great start to the report!
Thanks, they were excited once we up and on our way to the airport, all I kept hearing was Are we there yet?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start! Can't wait to read more.
, working on another update.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southerngirl1014
Aww sorry the reveal did not go as planned. I am glad to hear the boys did have fun though.
Thanks, they did and that's all the counts in the end.
Quote:
Originally Posted by abubbles77
Sorry the reveal wasn't what you wanted, but I have to give it to you, I could have never kept the secret.
Thanks, it wasn't easy I am pretty sure I slipped a few times along the way but if they had a clue they were gracious enough not to pop my Disney bubble.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great start! Sorry the reveal didn't get more enthusiasm.
Thanks, it's OK I know my boys really appreciated all the work that went into their trip even if the don't show it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great Start! Sorry the boys reaction wasn't what you were hoping for. More please!!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Katie's graduation
I'm sure the boys were still excited to go! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Sorry the reveal didn't get more enthusiasm. 
and once it all finally sunk in they couldn't wait to get there. 
all about your trip!
but I supposed if they showed the non-excited reactions it wouldn't make for good PR for Disney. However, I would think that they were funny 
, working on another update.
Linear Mode
