Taking A Break from Life with a Trip to My Happy Place - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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There used to be a Rainforest Cafe in MD but I am not seeing it now on the locations. We have gone there a couple times just to feel like we were in Disney! There is one in AC now. I told Sammy we would go over the winter, looks like we may be taking a road trip to AC! lol!
If you are road tripping it - count me in. We like the RFC and usually go every so often as an outing. The RFC is in TrumpPlaza? on AC boardwalk if it wasn't damaged by the hurricane.
Before I even begin, it looks like I will now be adding another first to my list, after the overwhelming to the Chocolate Covered Caramels with Sea Salt. Done. On the list. And now I'm afraid I'm going to turn into a caramel addict based on everyone's review. If anyone has anything else they'd like to add please let me know before I leave on Tuesday.
Oh, that 's right, I said Tuesday...we leave in 4 days!!! I've been so busy at work so this past week has just flown by! That's why it's taken me so long to post another update, but I've decided to actually take a lunch break today, so I could get one in.
I finally pulled the suitcases out, hoping that I can fit everything into the big one without overloading it too much. That way it will be easier for two adults to manuever through the airport while pushing a stroller. I'm not making any promises though since I checked the weather for next week, and even though it will be in the high 70's during the day, it will be chilly in the mornings and evenings, which means layers. Layers means more clothes to pack. More clothes to pack means an extra suitcase.
The dining plan has been purchased, so there's really not turning back now, even though the CM said we had up until we checked in to cancel it, but I doubt we will. It's going to be one of the many new things I plan on trying out on this trip, so hopefully it will something that we end up liking.
Hope still doesn't know we're going to Disney. I didn't keep it from her because I wanted to make it a huge surprise, because I don't think she's at the age yet where it would make a big impact, but because if I had told her she would have been asking me every single day if we were going to Disney. She has no concept of time, and I've learned from the past, that it's best to just tell her the day before that we're going somewhere. It makes putting her to bed soooo much easier since she knows that when she wakes up she'll be going somewhere extra special. I did tell her I got a phone call from Mickey Mouse saying he missed her, and she got excited for a nano second before she started telling me that she talked to Donald Duck on her purple play phone. Yeah...that's a three year old for you. She hasn't even asked me why the suitcase is in our bedroom, and she definitely knows what a suitcase is for.
I finally did online check-in since our waitlists never did come through. I was allowed to select two requests from the options, so I chose to be close to the transportation and on the Arusha Savannah. Let's see if any of that comes through for us. I know that when I asked to be close to the transportation at BCV, we were put in an awesome location, so I'm hoping we get lucky again.
Well, that's it for now. This weekend will be extra crazy with getting the house ready before we leave (and of course so that it's clean for Chad) and putting the clothes to the side to be packed on Monday evening. This weekend will probably fly by, then one more day of work before we leave for our exciting girls trip!
Can't believe you leave on Tuesday! Lucky! I told my husband the other day, you know our annual passes are still good until Dec 4th, do you think we should drive down for the weekend to get some more caramels!!!
I can't remember, have you had the butterfinger muffin yet?
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Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
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I knew your trip was coming up soon, but 4 days. Exciting! I'm so glad things worked out with the preview. Can't wait to hear about it. I completely get keeping it from Hope. If I even mention to Cam we'll be doing something in a few days he pesters me about it all the time. Our next trip may have to be a surprise.
And since I've benen horrible about getting on the boards since Mallory was born have a great trip! I probably won't have time to check in before you leave.