Sousefest - A December to Remember (If We Can) - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm loving the "CLQ+The Lush" -- 'cause I love me that Lush , and the whole CLQ has been known to have a drinkie or two at The World, on occasion.
Unlike one member of our group, my head isn't so swelled that I think you ALL know who we are at this point. (I'm not naming names, but she hasn't finished a TR in years....) So, how 'bout a little background on how we came together, how the CLT became the CLQ and how we seem to keep falling in love with other PassPorters and adding "pluses" to our gang.
I'm and I have a little problem -- perhaps I could say it's a "Minnie" problem.
Luckily, I have a loving family who accepts this flaw in my character (even though my DH threatens to stage an intervention every year or so.)
While I love all the schmaltz and sentiment of Disney, it's the design and execution of everything they do (except for a certain bagpiper) that keeps me coming back year after year. I love the rides, the shows, the restaurants, the resorts, the pools, the characters... oh, just everything.
I love the zany things that happen to guests who have their hearts open to the magic and I love the quiet, bonding times I've experienced there with family and friends.
I got a bad reputation for having to take regular bio breaks (from those who have bladders the size of Texas), which has made it rather a joke for me to point out each time I need to stop in a rest room.
I'm now a card-carrying member of the Bladder Buddy Club and can't wait for our next meeting -- at the Toilet of Terror, natch!
And I'm working on the technology necessary to launch a podcast from my FAVORITE bathroom...
To me, there are few places more wonderful than Disney World -- and no place as magical at Christmas.
Ohhhh, those liiiiiiights!
But Disney isn't perfect -- there are a few things that burn my biscuits.
<-- Seriously, they must fix this!
But, I still haven't gotten to how we all came together! (Sheesh, get on with it already!) I've been a member of PassPorter since 2004, but was a lurker for a lot longer -- waaaay back before my first post-child trip in 2002. It was while reading trip reports that I started realizing there were several people who had the same joie de vivre, love of family, and deep passion for Disney that I had. Luckily for me, they liked my writing as much as I like their's and we struck up an on-line friendship through the trip reports.
The first person I got to meet was Karen (zacksmom_1993) -- she and I happened to be in The World over the same weekend in May 2005. We met up at Fantasmic and it was adoration at first sight. We became the best of friends and are more like sisters than most sisters.
In 2006, we started talking about how much we loved the TRs of PrincessSharon and how much we wanted to meet her. We totally stalked her and insisted she be our roomie for the "Girls Only DLR Trip" in 2007. Luckily, our face-to-face meeting in December 2006 turned out well and we all got along like gangbusters.
Thus was born the Crazy Lady Trio.
Heaven -- being in their doofy presence is pure heaven to me!
Wanting to spread that love, we all starting chattering about how much we adored the writings of Jill (Jillybean) and how much we wanted to meet her.
So we stalked *her* and forced ourselves onto her family vacation in 2008. Yay!! We found ourselves another sistah!
We even declared her the President of the Epcot Lush Club.
And a loooooong line of drink pictures was started....
True to form, Karen even arranged an ELC event at Mousefest a few years ago -- and it involved math, foreign languages, deductive reasoning, flirting, egg rolls, and the good and the bad from Norway:
It was great fun... what I can remember of it.
But, just so you don't think we're total lushes, we have had terrific times that involved many other things -- ice cream, for example.
And the stories that have come out of those events can still reduce me to a puddle of giggles... (and make me blush riotously!)
There have been dining adventures that have been incredibly memorable too -- everything from glowing ice cubes in aprons at the Sci-Fi, to amazing meals at Jiko, to white asparagus at Napa Rose (DLR), to a simple Mickey-shaped soft pretzel on Main Street in California.
But... the best... the pinnacle of dining adventures simply had to involve Bob and Larry!
Truly one of the best evenings of my life was spent with them at last year's gathering. From the laughter, to the wine, to the food, to the service, to the wine, to the dessert, to the wine.... Well, it was perfection itself.
And then they had to go and give us one of the best gifts I've ever received:
*sigh*
And traveling with Karen wouldn't be "traveling with Karen" if it didn't involve a challenge. She got us started with simple things like scavenger hunts, then lubricated us with Lush Club crawls, before starting in on the I'm-gonna-plus-it adventures, where she had to outdo the amazing feats of touring-do others had attempted.
In 2008, it was the four parks adventure -- which she plused by adding a water park to the mix, and doing more rides than necessary, and doing a character meet-n-greet and... oh, I forget!. Luckily, Sharon can keep up with her and doesn't need bio breaks. I, on the other hand, stayed in the concierge lounge with Jill (and others) and "supported" them long-distance, being there to take the final picture at 11:59PM.
This year, she's got another challenge in store for Sharon -- and Heather too, I think! (Jill and I will be supporting them from benches and kiddie rides in Fantasyland, ready to take a blurry picture as they race by us.)
There will be no stops in restrooms:
No stops for characters:
No stops to randomly spell out M-I-C-K-E-Y:
But I'll be darned if I forget to stop and play in puddles -- I will always remember that and honor Art's years of service!
And I can assure you that there will be no sadness... not like last year. We're all wearing our bubble wrap suits until we get safely onto Disney property. I never again want to have to create such a sad image as this:
And I don't want to have to send a card like this... not ever, ever, EVER again.
I honestly will have a longer post later when I'm done taking my Christmas decoration-munchin', ribbon-tanglin', hook-swallowin' puppy to the vet. But THIS...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldercup
Unlike one member of our group, my head isn't so swelled that I think you ALL know who we are at this point.
has to be dealt with. Oh wait, she totally put that in here so I would respond, didn't she? That LeeNee and her dastardly ways!
Plus, she goes and puts pictures in like this...
Quote:
Who does that to her friends?
Oh well, whenever I feel really bad about THAT shot, I'll just take a gander at this one to make me feel better...
Quote:
To paraphrase one of my favorite political commentators, that shot is like a pinata of hilarity. No matter what part of it you hit, it's high-larious. Although cross-eyed Sharon has got to be my personal favorite.
I will be back! (You can trust me right? ) Who wants to take bets on what's in the puppy's stomach? I'm having this total cartoon image of like a rubber ducky, a lamp, and an anvil.
__________________
Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
Last edited by zacksmom_1993; 12-01-2009 at 12:01 PM..
That is a very good question!! Where is Jill? And in honor of the first day of December the Drink of the Day:
Peppermint Stick!
1oz Rumplemintz
1oz Bailey's Irish Cream
Pinch of nutmeg
1 packet of hot chocolate made following directions on box
splash of cream and top with whipped cream!
Add a candy cane if you're feeling dandy!
Jill I've got a bottle of chardonnay on ice .. . . come out come out where ever you are!
To paraphrase one of my favorite political commentators, that shot is like a pinata of hilarity. No matter what part of it you hit, it's high-larious. Although cross-eyed Sharon has got to be my personal favorite.
I'm not cross-eyed, Karen. I'm just keeping an eye on both of my drinks. That's vital, what with all those lushes in such close proximity.
And Eileen, I knew you'd fill in the story! Well done! You're making my job so much easier. I'll pick up the slack toward the end of the report when y'all... if, I mean if y'all start slacking.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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, and the whole CLQ has been known to have a drinkie or two at The World, on occasion.
and I have a little problem -- perhaps I could say it's a "Minnie" problem.
<-- Seriously, they must fix this!
But THIS... 
) Who wants to take bets on what's in the puppy's stomach? I'm having this total cartoon image of like a rubber ducky, a lamp, and an anvil.
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
That's vital, what with all those lushes in such close proximity. 
I'll do my best to add my two cents soon! 
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