I LOVE Comedians with Guitars......You didn't tell me that part...COMPLETE 2/28/13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
I LOVE Comedians with Guitars......You didn't tell me that part...COMPLETE 2/28/13
Hello and welcome to my latest trip report. I had the wonderful opportunity to sail the Magic out of Galveston for her inaugural sailing Sept 22.
Who am I? Well I am Jennifer….jenseib here on the boards. I love writing Trip Reports and sometimes I am a little Whacky.
I am a Mom of 3 children, Michael, who is 23, Paige, who is 20, and Claire who is 7. I am married to Skip. If you have read any of my past TR’s and/or PTR’s you will know he is a fun loving guy, but a vacation resistor. This trip was no different.
This past May I started planning a trip I had earned from my job. It was NOT a Disney cruise…..but one on another very nice line. The thing is, I had to wait for dates to be released for the time of year I wanted to go….Sept. Since this was kind of a promotional type cruise, I couldn’t just pick anything; I had to go with what was offered. From the start, I knew Skip would not go on this trip. I wanted Sept. for several reasons. Well actually I would’ve loved to have gone over the summer, but all of the summer dates released were during other scheduled events here at home that could not be changed. I would’ve lie to have brought along Claire, but she will be missing almost 2 weeks of school in Nov for a family trip on the Dream and to WDW, so there was just no way I could let her miss that much more school. I asked Skip if he would mind if I asked my friend Lisa to join me and he was fine with that. I texted Lisa and she responded with a yes.
Lisa has been my friend for years. Back in our single days we used to hit the local bar scene every weekend. We have traveled together a few times and I knew we were compatible that way. We have no problems going off on our own if we want to. Sadly over the years we have drifted apart. We both got married, and I had my 3rd child, Claire. We only see each a few times a year at most. We usually have no troubles picking up right where we left off, but this could be different. We hadn’t spent a long time together in over 10 years. Secretly, I did wonder if we would hate each other by the end of the trip. LOL…OK, not hate each other, but be annoyed with each other.
Well no worries. We had a blast together and it was just like we have seen each other every week since we got married.
All summer long I waited for the dates to be released and it just wasn’t happening. Finally the next batch was released…and they totally skipped the month of Sept. WHAT? I was crushed. How could this be? Fate stepped in and crushed my dreams….or so I thought. I told Lisa right away. I felt so awful. She had even applied for a passport just for this trip. But Fate had other plans for us. Later that day, another promotion was released through my job. This one was for the Disney Magic. It gave select dates in Sept and Oct. Sept 22 worked best for me, so I quickly called Lisa and she said yes. We booked immediately.
Long story short, my DH, who had known about this since May decided to be a big baby about it and we spent a few days not talking. I will not back down and if he doesn’t want to talk to me, I sure can handle that. Sometimes he talks way too much, so a few days of peace and quiet is fine. LOL. Eventually he got over it and I just chose not to talk to him about the trip. He really has no interest in where I was going, he only asked when about 2 weeks before I left.
I booked this trip in early Aug. I believe around Aug 9th. That meant not much time for planning. Soon I learned that 2 of the girls I had gone to an Agent Education program last year at WDW were going. It would be exciting to see Mary and Carolyn again. Not long after that, one of my co-workers, Brook….brookelizabeth on Dis…decided she wanted to go as well. She booked a cabin for herself, while Carolyn had 2 friends coming and Mary had 3. Brook and I were roommates last year, and it was going to be really nice to see her again.
The planning got started as much as we could and for the most part we were going to do a lot of “winging” it. We only pre-booked a couple of things. We did make matching t-shirts though…we are geeky that way.
How I came up with the name of this TR will be revealed later. Lisa and I always seem to have some sort of funny saying at some point in a trip together that makes us laugh and then we repeat it over and over…and this happened to be one of those lines.
Please join me as I relive one of the greatest vacations I have ever had. It was very different than ones with my family, but in a good way. I still love traveling with my family, don’t get me wrong, but it was really nice to do a girls only trip this time around.
I will forewarn you now. I have a very busy month ahead of me as well as a long trip (Nov. 2- 14) to WDW and on the Disney Dream. This TR will be slow going, but I will finish it. It will just take some time.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
This post will not have pictures…but I promise there will be MANY coming up soon.
The week prior to sailing, Lisa and I started phoning each other a bit more. She was very nervous and not sure what to pack. I went over some of the list of things she should have and things I was bringing that she wouldn’t need to have, like a blow dryer and bonine, etc.
Sept 20 (Thursday)rolls around. The night before our departure day.…..It was a busy one for me. I had to be sure I had things packed for Claire. She was going to be going back and forth between her Grandmas’s, so I had to have 2 suitcases packed for her. 1 Grandma lives right next door, so if anything was forgotten, she could run over and get it (and evidently that means toys…as many seemed to make their way over to MIL’s while I was gone). My Mom doesn’t live too far away and it’s an easy stop here to pick up anything if it was forgotten as well. After school we took everything over to MIL’s house and gave her Claire’s planning itinerary. Yes, I made one for Claire’s grandmas and a friend who would be picking up Claire a couple of the days after school. I wanted to try and make it go smoothly and to give everyone each other’s phone numbers, etc. It was also Family Fun night at Claire’s school. I made an early dinner, since Claire rarely eats at events like this, and I wanted to be sure she got something in her stomach that wasn’t junk, and then we headed off for a night of fun activities at the school. They had a DJ and all the kids had such a great time. Normally I would take pictures, but with all the rushing and getting ready, I didn’t even think about bringing a camera this night. Towards the end of the night, Lisa called one last time. She was on her way to Meijer and picking up the last things she needed. We chatted a bit and I told her my goal would be to be at her house around 5:30 AM. YIKES…that sounded so early! I was going to get up at 4:30, but she was getting up at 3:30. She wanted to get up and have her body adjust to the early hour. The dance ended and Claire and I headed off to my Moms. Claire was dropped off and we gave big hugs and kisses, but she was practically kicking me out the door. Her cousin was going to be arriving soon to spend the night as well, (neither had school on Friday and my Mom took the day off of work to keep them both) and she had no interest in me hanging around. PLUS, my Mom had made a treasure hunt, so as soon as Cousin Alexis (Who will be sailing with us in Nov.) arrived, they could get started on that fun.
I went home, finished packing the last minute things items and loaded suitcases in the car. Skip was in the house…and of course bothering me. He thinks it’s funny to ask many questions while I am busy. He did, however give me some cash to take. He gave me his wallet and told me to take what I needed…Um…not a wise thing to do. I told him to give me what he wanted to give me. I didn’t want to hear later that I took too much. He gave me $200. I was good with that. Then he continued to tell me to take more because we would be “laying” in the bars all the time. That is so not us. And he knows it, but it was funny. I did end up taking $20 more just to make him happy.
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. You really have your hands full with all of the events this fall. I will try to be patient as I wait for the updates. I fully understand about time delays as I am trying to get my TR written for our trip last month. Hope to get this one done since I never did get the report written for the trip before that one.
Great start! Glad that dropping off Claire went so smoothly!
Yes..I think I was much more wooried than she was over the whole thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I love the way Claire was kicking you out of the door!
Isn't she so sweet? I know she was missing by the time I got back though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Great start. You really have your hands full with all of the events this fall. I will try to be patient as I wait for the updates. I fully understand about time delays as I am trying to get my TR written for our trip last month. Hope to get this one done since I never did get the report written for the trip before that one.
I want to read it. When you get a chance give me the link. Of course I am behind at reading TR's too, so I might not be fast at responding, but I do love reading TR's.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
,
PassPorter Guide Author
I know she was missing by the time I got back though.
Linear Mode
