Living the dream and remembering the Bagman UPDATED 3/21 - Page 44 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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An extremely emotional evening, but so good to spend it with friends who were able to share the loss. I commend Jan for being able to participate at all. It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man.
I commend Jan too. I'm not sure if I'd be able to do the same, if I was ever unfortunate enough to be in her position.
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Finally all caught up. What a very emotional evening. I'm crying as I'm reading about the evening. Bill sure did send you a beautiful sunset. And wonderful pictures of Illuminations. When I read how it began to rain, I certainly started crying too. The whole evening was just a beautiful way to remember Bill.
Definitely an emotional evening! Illuminations always gets to me, so with your added emotions, I can only imagine how difficult it was for you all and Jan. Your photos of Illuminations and Epcot at night are great.
WOW! What a tough day but at the same time it was such an amazing and heartfelt tribute to Bill which his widow Jan and family I know appreciated thanks to all of you involved! Great photos of Illuminations and I always get teary eyed every time I experience this. Even more so for all of you as you said there were no dry eyes!
A long day and everyone's energy in your group is on an empty tank and I'm guessing all slept well later unless you're all still on adrenaline as well!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Finally all caught up. What a very emotional evening. I'm crying as I'm reading about the evening.
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Bill sure did send you a beautiful sunset. And wonderful pictures of Illuminations. When I read how it began to rain, I certainly started crying too. The whole evening was just a beautiful way to remember Bill.
It was and I'm so glad we were able to be there for it.
Definitely an emotional evening! Illuminations always gets to me, so with your added emotions, I can only imagine how difficult it was for you all and Jan.
I am so with you, as IllumiNations always gets to me too.
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Your photos of Illuminations and Epcot at night are great.
WOW! What a tough day but at the same time it was such an amazing and heartfelt tribute to Bill which his widow Jan and family I know appreciated thanks to all of you involved! Great photos of Illuminations and I always get teary eyed every time I experience this. Even more so for all of you as you said there were no dry eyes!
No there weren't and I suspect I'll always think of Bill whenever I see IllumiNations from here on in.
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A long day and everyone's energy in your group is on an empty tank and I'm guessing all slept well later unless you're all still on adrenaline as well!
Thankfully we did sleep well, as we definitely needed it.
Friday 23 September – part one: silence at Disney….
I was up before 7:00am this morning. I assume my body had just decided it had had its fill of eight hours sleep, although I know I heard the boat horns from the ferryboat. However, I do honestly think you get used to that, and I was waking up anyway.
I headed out on to the balcony, and please accept my apologies for the fogginess of some of these shots, as the poor camera struggled to move from air conditioning inside to the heat outside.
As you can see, it was around sunrise, and once again it was a beautiful one.
As I sat there, I cannot begin to tell you how peaceful it was out there. It was just silent. Apart from a couple of guys on a fishing expedition (I could hear them talking) and the occasional pretty empty ferryboat, that was it. Not a sound from anywhere else. It was almost spooky, as it’s not something I’m used at Disney, but it was a very pleasant change.
And how cool is this moon shot I got?
I even took the laptop out on to the patio at one point and worked outside for a while. Can you imagine how wonderfully relaxing that was?
Eventually Mark got going. I’d been careful to try not to wake him, but according to him I’d been “crashing around”, so I guess I didn’t try hard enough then…
Once he was up, we got going, and headed out. We made our way over to the boat dock…
Beautiful morning photos! The peace and quiet you describe reminds me of being at my mom and dad's lakeside cottage. Mornings are just like that with no one else around!
What a beautiful sunrise! Such a great way to start off your day.
Funny how you thought you were being all quiet, like a mouse, but you really weren't.
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What a tough day but at the same time it was such an amazing and heartfelt tribute to Bill which his widow Jan and family I know appreciated thanks to all of you involved! 
Even more so for all of you as you said there were no dry eyes! 
. And another beautiful start to your day!
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