PTR-Celebrating Retirement with a European River Cruise - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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With your response to Laurie, it doesn't sound like you are completely retiring. Hope you do find some down time this summer. Glad you've got some plans for Amsterdam now.
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With your response to Laurie, it doesn't sound like you are completely retiring. Hope you do find some down time this summer. Glad you've got some plans for Amsterdam now.
Cam, I am going to work on a very part time basis for a textbook company training teachers in the ins and outs of the book and its techniques. I think most of the training will be in our district, but it could expand throughout the region if more schools choose to adopt the text series. I look at it as more travel money and something to keep me from getting too bored at home.
I came home from a tiring day at work today (only 13 to go!) to find an exciting delivery at the house. Look what came today!!
I was surprised to find a box, which was a bit heavy. Upon opening it, I found this great travel pouch.
When I opened it, I found a nice pair of luggage tags, as well as our Viking luggage transfer tags. It also contained our ship cards and lanyards.
In the pocket on the right there is a shoulder strap for the bag and some books. Our Itinerary and Departure information is printed in one. Then there are two books about the rivers we are cruising. One book is titled “The Rhine and its Tributaries” and the other is “The Danube.” Looks like I’ve got some reading to do.
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Yesterday, I was driving home from work, and it suddenly hit me—IN 3 WEEKS I’LL BE IN AMSTERDAM!! Wow! I knew it was coming, but that realization was startling. I was battling a head cold and not feeling super, but I had already skipped work an hour early (nice not having a class the last block of the day ). I decided to make a side trip to the mall to look for earrings. I wanted something bright and inexpensive to carry with me. I headed first to Claire’s, but found their stuff much to juvenile for my tastes, so I drove over to Charming Charlie’s. There I did manage to find 3 pair that I liked. Today I actually picked up a set of 9 pair at Wal-Mart as well. At least I’ll have something to put in my ears and there’s no problem if something gets lost in the travels. After both stops, I still arrived home before my normal time.
Today, I’ve spent a lazy day after my shopping. I picked up Pepto and Immodium at Wal-Mart this morning as well to stock our medicine supply. After unloading from that trip, I headed to Sam’s. There I found several tops and a pair of capris. I even braved picking up a polo shirt for Wade. He’s very picky, but I think this fills the bill. If not, I’ll just return it. Wade had to go in to his office this morning to finalize his grading and post grades for the end of the semester. Then he had to attend graduation this afternoon. Tomorrow, we are going out to brunch at the restaurant where DD and DSiL work. I’ve taken Monday off and the four of us are going out for lunch to celebrate Mother’s Day and Wade’s birthday together, as the kids are off. That afternoon we are meeting up with the two sisters who are house sitting for us. They both work with DD, so she arranged it.
I’ve been following the long range forecast on Accuweather for a number of our stops on the trip. It’s still a week out from picking up our first day, but I do seem to see a trend of slightly warming temps. Rain seems to pop up quite often also. I’ve purchased a mini umbrella for each of us to carry and pulled out our cheapo rain ponchos that I keep on supply for Disney. Gotta love the dollar store ponchos 2/$1; once used they get trashed. I’ve set out 2 for each of us for the trip. I’ll keep a small Ziploc bag in each of our bags to stash them if we use them, so we can get more than one use if we need to.
I looked online this afternoon to see about purchasing advance tickets for some things in Amsterdam. It seems they all want you to specify a date and time. I can handle the dates, but not the time, so decided to skip that. There was actually nothing available for the Anne Frank museum until 8 pm on June 1 and we will have sailed by then. They still have tickets available for walk up, but of course, that means long lines. I'm hoping perhaps the hotel concierge or Viking tour guide might be able to help us out with those.
Sorry you've got a cold, but glad you have a little time to get over it before you leave. So close now! I hope Viking can help with the tickets to the Anne Frank house, as it would be too bad to miss that experience. At least you'll be in Amsterdam, though, looking at sights you don't see every day!
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Great plans for Amsterdam! 
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