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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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....the DVD system was something my wife insisted on when she got her Ford Freestar.....and luckily there were two models on the lot that had all the bells & whistles she wanted when she bought it (the deal she got was so incredible it boggles my mind). She knew we'd be doing the "drive" to WDW each year and wanted all the comforts, and to be able to amuse my kids. Strangely...the DVD player hasn't been something that really got used a lot on "the drive". That was 5 yrs ago when our daughters were 10 & 17. I guess that once they (daughters are now 15...and 22)...got smart phones....they mostly text communicate with their friends, stay on Facebook, or some other social media site....or their favorite activity...sleep. It's maybe kinda' silly....but even if they're sleeping....my wife will still wake them up as we enter each state to show them the "welcome sign". We forgot to tell my youngest daughter once...and she got all huffy with...."why didn't you tell me" So....now....I don't care if she's snoring....we wake her!!
....I...have only one "must" to take in the car.....several bottles of Manhattan Special Espresso Soda. Chug a bottle of that......point the car south...and I'm good to go.
Many awesome ideas on here. Only one I have is a travel potty. Little one like the ones you start potty training with. I know it's awful, but we did put (then 2 & 3 year olds) them on it while moving a few times. We pulled over and let them use is more times than I can count. rest stops take time. Pull over squat and hit the rode again.
That is a good idea. We are at the mercy of the one with the smallest bladder!
(our boys can can just go behind a tree...)
DVD player a must in our household plus the gameboy. Our kids really like the activity booklet that I created for them on our last trip. We also play travel games like Animal Alphabet where you start with "a" and list an animal. We also change it up to cities that start with each letter.
HEY, I'm from Westchester County in NY also. I did make the drive to Florida years ago. I found that "South of the Border" was a ok place to stop and eat,take a short rest. On the way home I stopped there again,......
Our favorite game is to count "South of The Border" billboards. The rule is that whoever sees it first says so and adds a number to their count. It is actually quite challenging. There are so many different kinds of signs all over the place on the sides of barns, on water towers. They all look different! Sometimes they are so close together that someone can be sure to get ONE while the other people are counting theirs. Be sure to say which side of the road and what color the sign is, because, as I said, there are TONS of them. Let me know how young of kids can play this too.
Another mature game we like to play is to try to find a song for every state in the Union. We include the song for the state even if the song only says the name of a city in that state. We have never come up with all of them, but it is amazing how many they are.
If you are in a place that has had a bunch of school closings for snow and they announce the closings by counties-one time we tried naming all the counties in our state!
Oh and I found a two-sided (one side was black and one was white!) dry erase board at an office supply store the other day that came with dry erase crayons! Wouldn't that be fun?
We drove for the first time last year from CT to FL. My kids, DD8 and DS12, fight ALL the time in the car - we can't even drive into town without them fighting. So I did 2 things that made the trip go smoothly....
Whenever we reached a state border, if there had been no arguing or fighting, they each earned $5. If I had to tell them to stop doing anything, they had to pay a dollar. By the time we reached Florida, they both had "earned" $40 which was their spending money in Disney.
Also, whenever we reached a state border we pulled over and they got a surprise from bags I had packed prior to leaving - new DS game, book, puzzle book, etc. This way they never got bored with what they were playing with.
We're driving again this year but this time we're also doing the auto train so I won't have to do as much planning - I hope!
We did not drive down to WDW from NJ but we did take the train, which is just about the same amount of hours..ugh!
In any case, we traveled with three kids, 4, 7, 10. I made "travel" bags for each one, filled with crayons, markets, sketch book, games, crafts and puzzles. I also packed a portable DVD player and I have to say it was the best investment of the trip. It kept them entertained all the way through!
How do you pack or keep a supply of hot water for milk in a 12-hr trip?
....a "good" (glass lined) thermos bottle will sufficiently keep water hot / warm for at least several hours. The trick is to not keep the bottle open too long when you need to take some hot water. To add efficiency to the thermos...it can be kept inside one of the "thermal-bags" that you can get at Costco (catering supply aisle)...or in any super / food market such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. The bag not only increases the insulating properties...but the padded insulation helps to protect the thermos.
Also, if you are filling a Thermos, another great tip is to pre-fill with water that is whatever temp you want to keep it, either hot or cold, which will also extend the length of time you'll be able to keep the liquid either hot or cold. So in the case of hot, boil the water, add to the thermos, then close the lid and let it warm everything up while a second load of water gets boiled, once ready then just dump out the original water and then add the newly boiled water.
this idea may have already been mentioned but it worked very well for our family driving from Michigan to Disney. We printed our exact travel route on maps and put the pages in notebooks. Our boys could follow the roads, exits, find certain landmarks along the way, etc. we used star stickers to find capitals and other stickers as well to find things on the maps. My oldest son loved the along I-75 and he would keep track of gas stations and also our gas mileage along on the way. Even though it is a 21 hour trip it is very doable! We really enjoy the trip!
I have also found in the $1 bins @ Target & Wal-mart. small cans of Lysol which I would carry into the bathroom while traveling....a quick spray, a few seconds to dry and hopefully a much cleaner potty!!
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Dual Screen dvd players are a life saver. We are thinking of buying a new van soon and wondered if anyone had a built-in DVD system?/
I bought a new Acrua last year with a build in DVD system so when I have my grandchildren in the car, they can be entertained. It was worth every penny!!
We are planning our trip for 2013. It will be our 7th trip. I have a journal that I write in on each of our trips. We have driven to WDW on each trip. In my journal, I write where we stopped for gas and food along the way. I also write where we had problems : seeing car accidents , construction , toll roads etc. I also write the times we reach each state and what time we leave a state. Writing down where we stay along the way is always a good idea, too. Every time we pack for another WDW trip , I make sure I put my journal on top of my take along bag as well as the maps etc. I have shown this journal to several people who were planning their first driving trip to WDW.
Two out of three of my kids are grown. But they all were "dragged" over thousands of miles in Europe and USA on family roadtrips. Here's some of our lessons learned:
Individual stuff to do - don't plan on them "playing together" too much. So pack for what each kid likes.
New stuff - new books (big ones like HP recommended), new movies with car chargers, new game cards, etc... Visit your used book store or Goodwill to find inexpensive stuff they will enjoy.
Plan to stop - Dad's are great about driving through and to somewhere but pitstops are important. A ten minute stop running around will do wonders for everyone.
Use your time wisely - Play, talk, sing and watch movies with your kids in the car. This is your chance to connect with them. And little do they know, you're really just trying to distract them!
Headphones are a must. Walmart has a great little splitter that multiple headphones can be plugged into. We all plug in together to one ipod and then share our favorite songs.
Medicine box and water/snacks - again think individual car riders. But bottles of water are a must, same for dramamine in case of car sickness.
Two more days and we're off on another road trip to WDW!
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