PTR-Celebrating Retirement with a European River Cruise - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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PTR-Celebrating Retirement with a European River Cruise
For years DH and I have talked about wanting to visit Europe, but it has never happened for many reasons, mostly just life in general. DH never does any of our trip planning. It’s all up to me. I’m quite comfortable planning what I know, such as Disney, but don’t do well with the unknown. Several years ago, I stepped out and took my first cruise with DD to celebrate her college graduation and her new journey to culinary school. Of course, I chose a Disney cruise. Since then, cruising has become my favorite non-WDW trip. DH did a couple of Disney cruises with me, but expressed a need for more cost effective and less Disney. So we started cruising with Royal Caribbean. Cruises are easy to plan, since there really isn’t a whole lot of planning.
I looked at several Mediterranean cruises, but then I got a brochure for European river cruises and started looking at them. Fast forward to last March. I was dreaming of my retirement at the end of this school year (just 6 more weeks now!!), and thought, “what better way to celebrate?” I talked to DH, and he said check it out. Next thing you know, we were booked on the Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises. I had checked out several of the river cruise lines, and we ultimately decided on this one. We will be on a 15-night tour from Amsterdam to Budapest on the Viking Magni, one of the newer long boats. We decided to book the air flights through them as well, since they guaranteed 2013 rates. I figured they wouldn’t get lower, and they haven’t.
So here are the pertinent details:
Travelers: DH, Wade - 62 a lazy traveler who goes along to keep me happy, but is looking forward to Europe and Me, Pris – 66 a traveler who loves to go and see new things
When: We fly out on May 29, just 2 days after my last day at work and return home on June 15
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