From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 94 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 5 March – part two: this doesn’t look like a good plan…
We headed over to the shop to use up the remaining six snack credits we had from the Dining Plan, because heck, you can’t let them go to waste.
They had an amazing selection of stuff in there, probably the best we’ve seen at any resort shop. Mind you, it is the Grand Floridian, so I guess that’s to be expected…
We picked our car up from valet, paid and made our way out…
We were going to the Fantasia Gardens miniature golf, but the car park was packed when we got there, and it looked like there were loads of people already out. This didn’t look like a good plan…
I suddenly had an idea. We had valet parking good for all day, so why not put it to good use… hmmm… we could rent a boat from the Yacht Club marina. I suggested it to Mark, and he immediately went for it. It was a very odd experience driving up to the Yacht Club, as we always drive up to the Beach Club.
We headed inside, and you know what? I’m growing to love this place more as the years go on… I would love to see the DVC adding on here, but I’m doubtful they will, as I read a couple of things recently about keeping the DVC away from conference hotels, and the Yacht Club is definitely a conference hotel.
We made our way over to the Bayside Marina, which was due to open at 11:00am.
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We're going to be there January 27 - February 1st or 2nd. I know you mentioned that you would be there in January but I was thinking it was earlier than that.
We're going to be there January 27 - February 1st or 2nd. I know you mentioned that you would be there in January but I was thinking it was earlier than that.
It is - dang it. We're going to be flying home on 26 January... can you believe it?
Sunday 5 March – part three: can you join us on our cruise?
We were there a couple of minutes before the Bayside Marina opened, so waited around until they opened, and then we were first in line to get a Sun Tracker pontoon boat. It really is an indulgence, but it honestly doesn’t cost too much - $45 for 30 minutes, and you think, you could probably seat 8-10 people on it. There’s also a DVC discount of 15% and an Annual Pass discount of 30%, which makes it even more affordable.
I will say I am very lucky in that Mark’s a confident driver… well you know what I mean… We’ve taken boats along the River Thames and the Norfolk Broads, and he knows enough of the basics to manage. In fact, here it’s a lot easier, because there’s someone here to help you cast off and get you back in again.
Today it was the wonderful Mike, who we chatted to for ages before we actually left. I think it was 11:20am before we set off, which tells you something. He was just so much fun, and I asked him if he could join us on our cruise, we enjoyed his company that much! Sadly, he couldn’t, so the two of us set off…
We headed out, first going around Crescent Lake, getting photos first of the Yacht and Beach Club…
… then the BoardWalk…
… and then we made our way over to the Swan and Dolphin.
Now here you’ll see a Friendship docked, and Mark thought he’d be respectful, and wait for them to go. Well, we waited, and we waited, and then we waited a bit more. Eventually, we decided enough was enough, and they didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so we set off. It was the weirdest thing, because we didn’t see the boat again. Mark kept asking me, and I kept looking behind us, and it was nowhere to be seen.
We made our way past the BoardWalk…
… and Mark did graciously give way to this guy, as he’s a bit bigger than us!
We liked the way they’d acknowledge us by tooting the horn and waving at us, we hoped in thanks for sticking to the rules of the water.
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