Don't Stop - part one of Disney trip COMPLETED - Page 49 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow, what an amazing number of Passporters all in one place! Is it strange meeting all these people whose TRs and posts you've been reading for so long? I'd think it's a little like meeting celebrities! (Afterall, it looks like you had many of the PP celebrities there!!)
It's actually quite wonderful to meet all the PPs. Now, when I read their posts, I hear their voices. And their laughs!
Of course, occasionally being referred to as the "infamous Bob & Larry" does gives one pause!
Wow, what an amazing number of Passporters all in one place! Is it strange meeting all these people whose TRs and posts you've been reading for so long? I'd think it's a little like meeting celebrities! (Afterall, it looks like you had many of the PP celebrities there!!)
Not really. : I guess, because I've been part of the boards for so long now and have met so many fellow PassPorters over the years that I count many of them as friends.
It's actually quite wonderful to meet all the PPs. Now, when I read their posts, I hear their voices. And their laughs!
Of course, occasionally being referred to as the "infamous Bob & Larry" does gives one pause!
Do you know what? Until you mentioned about being able to hear people's voices in an earlier post, I'd never thought about it - but it's a really good point.
And you guys are definitely famous, maybe sometimes infamous...
Sunday 13 December – part seven: the Osborne Lights in all their glory
After we did this, the shame was that everyone just drifted apart and, as a result, we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to most people. At least it didn’t mean that you didn’t have the associated tears, but it was a shame.
Waiting in line for our Photopass picture to be done, watching the lights dance
Jill explaining to Mark the presidency of the ELC...
Not long after we did the photo, sure enough, we lost nearly everyone and Mark and I just strolled along, taking photos and admiring the dancing lights. It was so much quieter than the night before, thank goodness. I never want to have to go through a scrum like that again. That wasn’t at all pleasant. :
It’s not a very good shot, but hopefully you should get the idea – the soldier in the middle has Mickey ears!
We got to the end of the main street and took a few more photos...
Then we spotted Jennifer, Alexander, Bruce and Marta. They were heading for a restroom break and that was where I wanted to go as well, so we headed that way. We then sat talking for a while and I said I was getting tired, so we’d head out, which the others thought was a good idea, so off we went. Bruce was asking us lots of trivia questions, none of which I knew the answers to, Honestly, this guty is such a mine of information about Disney. I have no idea how he retains it all and I said that to him. Sadly, his misguided tours have had to stop, because some idiot complained to Disney about it. For goodness sake! They don’t know when they have an asset there. They need to take Bruce on as a tour guide. That would be perfect for him. I know he’s trying to get into that and I hope it works out for him.
We lost Jennifer and Alexander to Toy Story Mania, which was showing a 60 minute wait time at just after 10pm. I do wonder whether this will ever get less popular, considering that it’s now been open for well over a year now and the waits still seem to be as long as when it first opened.
We headed out of the park, with Bruce and Marta, getting some Photopass photos on the way out.
On the way, Bruce also took a copy of our itinerary when we come back to WDW to see whether or not they could join us for a meal or two. We had learned at lunchtime that they would be on the same Alaskan cruise as we’re booked on with Sue and Steve, which is great news. How cool will that be?
We walked back to our cars and said our goodbyes to them, but hopefully only for a few days and then it was back to the room and off to bed.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 80s. The best thing today was the Osborne Lights meet. The worst thing today was the service at Kouzzina. Today we tried Kouzzina And the result was great food, wonderful company, but very poor service let it down. The most magical moment today was seeing everyone at the meet.
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Just getting caught up! Sorry about your bad experience at Kouzzina -- we ate there last week and from the glimpse of your server in the pic I do believe we had the very same one! Maybe she has a thing about dessert because she didn't ask us if we wanted any either , which was okay by us because we already had our eye on something over at Boardwalk Bakery, but still, always nice to be asked!