Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After our Magic shots, we continued up to the hub. There we stopped and waited for Carey and her family. I think we sent a few texts back and forth. While we waited, I took a few pictures of the area. Claire jumped in some of them.
Hey! There’s Tomorrowland!
Looking to see if we see Carey.
Nope!
We decided to get in line for a photopass picture here then.
Not long after the picture we got a text from Carey saying she too was near the Partners Statue. Hunh? So are we. So we walked around and kept looking, and there she was in plain view!
It was so nice to meet her. We met on Dis a few years ago and hit it right off. She loves to take pictures, which was one of the first things that drew me towards her. She also has an older daughter that is close in age to my older DD Paige. Then her younger DD, Kadence is about a year older than Claire. Claire was super excited to meet Kadence. She had seen pictures of her previous trips online and we have talked about her a LOT! Claire knew that this trip was a complete surprise for Kadence. (I think Claire was secretly jealous about that part) Claire and I will take walks to get in shape, and often on these walks we have to talk about every detail of our upcoming trip. These walks included a lot of talking about Kadence. So the big moment has finally arrived. According to Carey, Kadence was very excited to find out she would be meeting up with Claire too. Well this big moment, was a DUD! Both girls immediately became shy. Almost hiding behind us. Seriously, after all this planning, you are NOT even going to talk to each other! Well that didn’t matter, as Carey and I started talking right away. I had a gift for Kadence that we gave her and they had one of Claire as well. Claire kind of peeked in the bag, but I think she was too shy to really take a look, same with Kadence. Carey pulled out a journal from the bag she gave Claire and said it was for me. She said it was a gift from her and Janet (The dress maker who we were borrowing outfits from). OH Gosh! There was no need for either of them to do that. But it was so nice! I have to admit, I have only written about half a days’ worth in there and I need to get at it and finish it up. She also made this very cute autograph book for Claire. I loved it, and so did Claire. But as the trip went on, we forgot to bring it with us on a few key days and it only got a few signatures in it. I may take this with us again next trip. It’s too cute to waste and it has spots to put pictures in too.
Now it was time to get a group shot. We made Carey’s husband, John, take our pictures. Carey warned that he is not the best picture taker, but they came out OK. The first one looks like we are cringing. We are probably smiling and giving him instructions on how to use the cameras. LOL
And of course we have the bright sun in our eyes too.
We chatted a bit more and then it was time to head off. We would be meeting up in a week’s time, as our girls were going to do the Wonderland Tea Party together.
Claire and I headed back towards Fantasyland. We stopped and asked if the new part was open for previews, but no such luck. I did ask if it would open during the party and she gave me a knowing look and said to check back then once it started.
It was time for a snack. We weren’t quite ready to eat dinner (and honestly we were hoping to eat in new Fantasyland), so we went to get a Dole Whop Float. This is a new favorite for us, just having our first try of these last March.
We got in line and it was moving kind of slow. I think the guy we had was new, because he seemed to not understand what we wanted at first. In line I said we should share one now, but Claire was insistent that she needed her own. She said I was a pig and would eat it all. LOL. So we decided that she would get the pineapple one and I would get the orange one.
It took a while, but we finally walked away with one in our hands and took a seat across the way,
Claire obviously is mad that I made her wait for a picture before she could eat hers.
They were darn good! A picture of our view.
After a bit, I asked Claire if I could have a bite of hers and she could have one of mine. This actually worked out great, and we ended up trading then. We got half of one we loved and then another half of another we loved. After we finished up, we headed out again towards Fantasyland.
As soon as she spotted the sword, we had to stop. She learned about this on our April 2011 trip. She knows it “may” pull out for some lucky strong kid, and she wants to be that kid.
She kept telling me she could feel it move and was sure it was ready to come out.
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I'm gonna go off topic again. I'm gonna post a few pictures from Christmas day.
I woke up early, but Claire sure loves to sleep in. Paige and her boyfriend stayed the night as well and Paige was up fairly early as well. I made her wait to wake Claire up, which was hard for Paige to do. She's still a big kid at the age of 20. I walked outside for a minute taking garbage out and came in to find Paige in Claire's room. Paige sears she heard noises in there, but I am pretty sure she snuck in there and made the noises herself. LOL
Once Claire got up, she went right to the presents. I know people do Christmas differently at each home. Our tradition is a few gifts from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve, but Santa comes overnight and brings the majority of things.
Legos were a big hit this year.
We just think Merida is so darn cute.
Early in the unwrapping Claire unwrapped a hat and accessory kit for an American Girl doll. I made the comment, "oh wow, now your new doll has a few more things." But Claire was too wise and told me that this stuff did not belong to Marie-Grace, but to her friend, so then she proceeded to look for any box that was the size of an American girl doll. And she hit the jackpot!
After Claire was done with all her goodies, Paige and Jordan opened their gifts from us.
A new Dooney purse for Paige. She is a bit of a purse-aholic.
We had a bit of a downer moment then. Paige was in charge of bringing rolls to my parents house and as her and Claire were playing a new wii game, she realized she never got them. She was so worried that she ruined Christmas. I told her all would be OK, but she took off and went in search of some. But of course hardly anything was open and she opnly could find a gas station open in the town near us, and they had none. All was fine, Christmas was NOT Ruined, but she felt bad. My one sister, Amanda, actually made these stuff crescents, so those worked out great as a replacement for rolls anyways.
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After our morning, we headed over to my Moms house. Before most of the other guests arrived, we exchanged gifts with Michael, who actually arrived a bit later than I thought her would.
We got Michael a Kindle Fire and he was pretty darn excited about it.
Skip usually arrives right before we eat. he uses the excuse of working with the cows, but I think he just likes to spend as little time as possible over at my families house. LOL
I got Abby an American Girl doll too. She wasn't too excited, but the hat was a hit.
A new sleeping bag for Claire.
Claire and Alexis both got Kindle Fire HD's. Claire was slower opening hers because she was busy popping bubble paper. They were a big hit with both girls though. I am still not sure why the HD version is supposed to be better. it has a camera, but not a very good one and it only takes pictures if you are facing the screen. And the actualy tablet is bigger, but the screen itself looks to be the same size as my kindle fire. But it is still used quote a bit and we have a couple of happy girls.
This next picture from left to right has my Aunt Laura, (the one who thinks we are all foolsih for going on a Disney cruise), Aunt Mary (who went on the cruise with us), and a family friend, Mary G. Aunt Laura is opeing the photobook I made of the cruise/WDW vacation. Even though she and my sister Amanda didn't go, I made each one as well. She just rooled her eyes when se saw the cover photo of all of us in our matching shirts. Aunt Mary whipped the book out of her hands and her and mary G looked it over.
Later my Dad opened the one to my parents and so my Aunt Mary then knew everyone was getting one and she pulled hers out and said she wasn't waiting her turn and so everyone else opened theirs as well. I must say the book was a big hit. They loved the photo choices and the memories it had.
My sister Gail told me that she was hoping and praying that I was going to make something like this. I told her that I wanted to, and that was one of the reasons I had been pushing her for the cruise CD, as I knew I wanted the group photo for the cover. Her husband Rob just said "you guys need to communicate a little more". LOL
We had a great day, with lots of gifts (my family goes overboard) and it was long and tiring and I ate way too much.
Claire must have been on Santa's good list this year!
She is a good kid for the most part, and yes she is spoiled. My other 2 were spoiled too, but I was a single mom most of their younger childhood. Being a bit in a better place, Claire gets to do a lot more now than the other 2 did. now they weren't completely unspoled at all though. They had made a few trips to Disney as kids too and got more gifts than ever needed at Christmas as well.
Paige is not a big Disney fan, and Michael doesn't say too much about it, but I think if I took him, he would go and have a good time. Paige is more of a thrill seeker and Disney is too tame rides wise, while Michael is not when it comes to rides, so some of those rides are too darn wild for him. We did get him on ToT one year and h screamed like a little girl the whole time and said never again!
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