The quiet litte Trip that snowballed into two PTR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 have been good I have waited but now I am way way too excited to wait any longer to start a Pre-Trip report. Disney is usually a once every three or even four years experience for us so I am over the moon to be returning only 7 months after our last trip and also planning two trips simultaneously.
This trip(s) all started in July 2012. We had thought about buying DVC in 1998 but I was pregnant and we didn't have a clear view of our financial future so we decided not to do it then. We did the tour in 2006 fully intending to purchase but we didn't want to do the purchase on the spot thing so took the information away to purchase from home in the cold light of day. When we got home my job changed so again we waited. I had almost decided it wasn't to be when we were on our 2012 trip but the last weekend I said to my husband instead of thinking about it for another 6 years why don't we just go for it. We took a tour on a Sunday afternoon, left the two older children (teenagers both) in the apartemnt and took the youngest with us to the Saratoga springs resort facility. Three hours later we left with 220 AKV points with a plan to bank them and start a three year cycle of visits. We were also given an additional 220 2011 points which had been immediately banked and had to be used by July 2013. Now that didn't fit with our once every three years thinking so we decided a simple little quiet trip was in order but when. The options were October, February or July. Well we already had a trip to Italy planned for July, October seemed too soon to fly back over the Atlantic so that left February...
We were invited to a new members breakfast at the top of the world lounge in BLT the following day which was also our last day. While at the breakfast we booked a week at Hilton Head Island for February 2013 thinking a nice quiet holiday would probably be just what we needed after the madness of three weeks in Orlando. The best bit about leaving WDW in 2012 was knowing now we had to come back...
Next up: How long did it take for our small quiet trip to snowball into full on disney madness.
__________________
Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 11-30-2012 at 10:42 AM..
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.
So we left the world with a trip to Hilton Head planned for February. Just to give a little background we moved to Paris a year ago and bought annual passes to Disneyland Paris. We had been so many times we had almost put ourselves off Disney if that is even possible partly because DLP is never quiet not even first thing in the morning and because it just doesn't have the customer service of WDW. So when we went to Orlando in July we were not really feeling Disney. We mostly did Universal until the last few days where we started to do Disney and I suddenly remembered why I love that place. Due to this I left Orlando really feeling that I hadn't had enough disney. On the flight home i was already thinking I don't know if I could enjoy hilton Head without thinking we could have been in WDW. When we got home I looked at flights and flying to Savannah from Paris or London was a lot more complicated than flying to Orlando. When I looked at prices I was sold. We cancelled Hilton Head and booked a 1 bedroom standard view at Kidani village for 8 nights and bought flights to Orlando. I did say to the children we will be having a quiet holiday I will buy passes for 1 or 2 days but no more.
My DD is 17 and sitting her final exams this summer. She has one set in January and another in May. I felt February was a perfect time for a holiday as she could have a break after the first set before starting to study for the second. However, she decided she wants to study through so she will stay at home and we will go without her.
That means this holiday will just be the 4 of us. Me DH, DS14 and DS9.
Next up: What do you mean we are going twice in 2013?
__________________
Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 12-03-2012 at 10:28 AM..
Glad DVC is working out for you. I imagine living so close to DLP has been fun - even if it did lead to a bit of "too much Disney" for a while. Sounds like you have some nice trips coming up.
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.
So within a week of coming back from WDW we had cancelled our two bedroom at Hilton Head and swapped it for a 1 bedroom at AKV as we were missing the world and also because my DD had decided she really didn't want to come with us. We went to Scotland in August for a holiday and were visiting a castle when said daughter announced she wants to go to Orlando next year. go figure. So I asked her if she wanted me to change the 1 bedroom for a 2 bedroom but no she is adamant she doesn't want to come in February. Our next trip after that was pencilled in for summer 2014 but she is planning on leaving home before then so may not want to come with us then. My work then threw us a curve ball as well. My boss announced we will most likely be moving to our next location summer 2014 And it might be Australia so with a potential house move in the pipeline maybe a trip to Orlando that summer isn't the best plan. So I started playing around with dates and came up with late August 2013 just befor DD leaves home. I look at flight prices and points and decided to buy flights flying to Orlando on the 13th of August leaving on the 28th. So with two trips in the near future we are going to have to be very careful how we use our points.
Next up: Would we have enough points for all this travel. What accommodations have we ended up with
__________________
Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 12-23-2012 at 02:44 PM..
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.
About This Page: 
The quiet litte Trip that snowballed into two PTR
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
to DVC! Congrats on two trip, too! 
Can't wait to learn all the details.
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
