3 Days, No Parks Trip Report Begins Post #62 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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We spent the morning hanging around the house, wrapping up last minute details. Much of the time, we were just sitting around waiting until it was time to go. I think this is one of the big negatives of an afternoon flight (for us at least). We’re so excited to start our trip, it is hard to sit around and wait to get going .
The trip to the airport took the usual 45 minutes and was uneventful. We parked in the long term garage which is adjacent to the terminal at BDL. Yikes, was that full ! We reached the roof deck before we found a spot. We toted our 5 suitcases and 3 carry-on bags to the terminal. That is A LOT of luggage for us ! We needed so many things for our cruise plus we were bringing a fair amount of food with us for the villa. Note, one of my carry-on bags was an adorable Mickey and Minnie soft sided cooler loaded with cheese, fruit and other “non-liquid” edibles for our trip. This is the second time I have brought a cooler of food with me on the plane and it is absolutely NO problem taking it through security. I am still shocked and surprised by that, although I don’t know why . I guess because I expected the ice packs to be an issue, but they haven’t been. One of my bags was pulled for closer scrutiny but not that one. Know what looked odd on the x-ray? -soap ! Another tip (learned on the trip home) –the “disposable” electric toothbrushes with the batteries inside got our bag searched too .
There was a bit of debate, as we waited to board our plane, around who would sit where . Ted complained that he never gets the window seat, which is completely true as Josh always sits there. Josh agreed to let Ted have the window seat and he would take the aisle seat. Wait one minute! So who remains stuck in the middle seat?!?! My boys continued with teasing banter back and forth, making “deals” with each other and telling me why I should still sit in the middle. Guess what, boys! I made the plane reservations, I checked us in for the flight, and my boarding number is ahead of both of yours! I get on the plane first and I can sit wherever I want .
Our flight was on time and we made our way quickly to DME. We waited a bit to board a bus and while the bus was pretty full when we got on it, we still waited for what seemed like forever to leave the airport . Okay, not really forever, but we probably sat there for at least 20 minutes. Once we were on our way, our driver announced the stops –Art of Animation, Pop Century, “AKL “and Kidani Village. I was pretty sure we would be the last stop. Looking at my watch, I was starting to be concerned that we were going to be late for our ADR at Boma.
Up Next: Checking in, Checking out our Villa, and Dinner at Boma ?
I'm with you on the late flight. We once went Sun-Sat and the entire Saturday I was like why are we at home? We should be in Disney, so now it's Sat-Sat.