Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 81 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 loved seeing all of your F&GF pictures. When we were there last week, we noticed all the patches of sod grass. My dh did comment on that, b/c it wasn't very appealing to the eye. I told him about the F&GF, and that was the reason.
Hi Cheryl,
I have been away from the boards for a long time. But I got on this week end and have been reading your trip report.
I love your reports, with all the pictures I always feel I was there too. Another Great Report!
You certainly did have a great time.
I loved the Lady and the Tramp. Guess that's because my puppy Haley is a cocker spaniel.
Thanks for capturing a photo of it. I was wondering if they would have one.
Hope your bug bite is gone by now. That looked painful.
I don't know how you handled the heat. The pictures from the last day you both looked red and hot!
I'm all teary eyed, thinking about when the purple and red WDW signs turn into the boring green and white ones. Waaah!
Hope your trip home was an uneventful one!
Great pictures but it does look blistering hot. I hear that it's even worse right now. Doesn't sound fun to me. I'll stick with early spring, late fall, or Christmas. !
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Hi Cheryl,
I have been away from the boards for a long time. But I got on this week end and have been reading your trip report.
I love your reports, with all the pictures I always feel I was there too. Another Great Report!
You certainly did have a great time.
I loved the Lady and the Tramp. Guess that's because my puppy Haley is a cocker spaniel.
Thanks for capturing a photo of it. I was wondering if they would have one.
Hope your bug bite is gone by now. That looked painful.
I don't know how you handled the heat. The pictures from the last day you both looked red and hot!
Looking forward to the rest of the report.
Marylee
Welcome back! Glad you're enjoying the trip report.
Wednesday 6 May and Thursday 7 May: now, where’s my husband?
I took the monorail out to my gate to discover that there were very few dining options out there, just a Burger King, Outback Steakhouse (not really me somehow…) and a sandwich place that didn’t do anything vegetarian. Not good. I had a look in duty free and nearly fell over in shock at the prices in there. Even if we were still getting $2 to £1, those prices would be unbelievable and, of course, our currency gets much less than that today.
I headed for the gate and it was chaos when I got there, something to do with the fact that the Manchester flight was still there and due to leave out of the next door gate. I managed to find a seat and set about uploading the day’s photos and wrote up some of my trip report. About 10 minutes before we were due to board, I put the laptop away, only to then hear that we would be another 20 minutes before we boarded and that we had changed gates. Fortunately, it was only across the concourse, so we didn’t have to move anywhere.
When we were finally called to board, there was a very sniffy woman, who was with four other people and had been blocking the entrance to the boarding area. All I kept hearing her complain about was that people were pushing in front of her and she was holding her place in line. Well, it did her no good, as she got there and got asked for her passport and didn’t have it in her hand and neither did anyone else in her party. Myself and at least three other people squeezed past her and I couldn’t help but give a self satisfied smile at that point. Evil, I know!
I quickly found my seat and once again, had a nice guy next to me. He owned a place in Davenport and was out there for the first time since the death of his wife last month, after 25 years of marriage. Very sad and makes you realise how fragile life can be.
I must’ve got about four or five hours sleep, something to do with the film choice being awful, but also something to do with the entertainment system not really working. By the time they got it going, there was no way I was going to get into a film…
When I woke up, we were about an hour and a half out and I couldn’t wait to get on the ground. We were only about five minutes late and, considering that we left about 30 minutes late, that’s not bad going. I quickly cleared immigration, but then I had a heck of a wait for my case. It was again one of the last ones out. I reckon there were only about 60 people left from our flight, which had 300 odd people on it.
Then it was through customs and out to see Mark… except I just didn’t see him. Neither of us had any idea what the other was wearing and, to be hones, I didn’t want to come out and just stop to look for him, so I just kept going and he had to yell at me. There’s no excuse as there were very few people around and he even had a cool sign made up to welcome me back. I cannot begin to tell you how good it was to see him again.
Our next adventure was finding where the car was parking. I pointed out the signs for the car park, but that took us to the wrong car park. When we found the right car park, we tried levels 3, 4 and 5, before finally locating the car on level 2. That found, Mark drove me home and then we were able to spend the day together, as he had taken the day off to be with me. I can’t begin to tell you how good it was to see him again and all the great work he had around the garden, with a Japanese cherry blossom tree that he had bought for me and a flowerbed he had put in. Great job and a lovely surprise. What a great welcome home!
Today we walked 6.38 miles The weather today was hot and sunny and in the low 90s in Orlando and cold and in the low 50s in London. The best thing today was the Flower and Garden Festival and seeing Mark again. The worst thing today was saying goodbye to Wendy and how cold it was when I got home. The funniest thing today was not seeing Mark when I got home. Today we tried seeing the Flower and Garden Festival And the result was it was beautiful. The most magical moment today was seeing the Japanese cherry blossom tree that Mark had brought me.
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My flight left on time and was quick and great, except that someone seemed to have, um, expelled some gas and stunk up the cabin. No, it wasn't me. But Cheryl did get a text about it.
My arrival back in Indy was uneventful, and when I finally walked out of the secure area, my hubby didn't quite recognize the lobster walking toward him! Guess my skin was glowing and I didn't realize we had gotten so much sun!
I'm glad you made it home safely and cannot wait until December!