Pre-Trip Report: Our Last Trip to Disney…for a Really Long Time - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Trip Report AND Pre-Trip Report: Our Last Trip to Disney…for a Really Long Time
Our Last Trip to Disney…for a Really Long Time A Pre-Trip Report
June 18-26, 2009 Cast Members: Me (Michele) Chris (my husband) and Peter (our 9 year old son) Destination: WDW!! We will stay 4 nights at the Marriott Grande Vista and 4 nights at BWV About the Title: This trip to WDW will be our third. The previous trips were in 2005 and 2006. I don’t want to paint Chris as a villain, because he is an amazing husband and father. However, he agreed to this trip under the condition that it is our last for several years. Don’t get me wrong, he likes Disney. He just doesn’t love it the way Peter and I do. So we’ll hike the Grand Canyon in 2010, climb mountains in Yosemite in 2011, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll return to WDW in the future. At any rate, I want this trip to be amazing and unforgettable, and I want to take lots of great pictures, so I can preserve our memories in a digital scrapbook. About Us: We live in Ohio, where DH is a college professor and I’m a teacher. We’re both musicians, and we do a lot of fund raising and volunteer work for the March of Dimes. This began in 2003, after we lost our second son, Ben, to complications of his premature birth. We were blessed to have Ben in our lives for a year and a half. WDW is such a magical place, and when we’re there, I like to imagine that Ben is with us. Our Trip: On June 18 we will drive from Ohio to the Marriott Grande Vista. We are staying there for a ridiculously low price in exchange for our souls. No, not really! We just have to attend a 90 minute time share presentation. It looks like a nice place. I know the time share salespeople drive a hard bargain, but we can take it.
On June21, we will move to BWV, where we have rented points for 4 nights in a villa with a Boardwalk View!! I’m very excited about this part of the trip! I dream of one day being a DVC member, so for 4 nights I’ll get to pretend. We’ve never rented points in the past, but I’m feeling strangely comfortable with the arrangement. Our Plans:So far, our plans are pretty loose. We hope to hit a Star Wars Weekend at DHS, there are a few attractions we don’t want to miss (Toy Story Mania, Soarin’, ToT, Star Tours, EE) and we are hoping to get ADR’s for some places we’ve never been. Peter LOVES water parks, so this will be the first time we’ve sprung for the Water Park Fun and More ticket option. What Will We Celebrate? Our 20th wedding anniversary is in August, so our big splurge will (hopefully – who knows with the ADR situation!) be dinner at the California Grill, just before the fireworks begin at MK. Other than that, we are celebrating life, celebrating family, and celebrating just being together. ADR’s: In addition to the California Grill, we hope to dine at Sci-Fi, Le Cellier, Boma, Crystal Palace, and maybe Chef Mickey’s or Les Chefs de France (something with Chef in the name, anyway!) All of these restaurants are new to us. Spoodles is an old favorite, so we may eat there as well.
Stay tuned for exciting updates, as I try to select the best parks to visit each day, and comtemplate purchasing the services of Tour Guide Mike.
What great plans you've got! And by the way, you have some awesome vacations in store for 2010 and 2011 - we're hoping to visit Yellowstone in 2011 as well, but no hiking for us there. :
Pre-Trip Report: Our Last Trip to Disney…for a Really Long Time - Updated 01/07/09
My First Update:
First let me say that I am surprised and pleased that people have actually read this thing! Thanks for all of your comments and encouragement. Changes:
Only two small changes have occurred since I wrote the initial pre-trip report. 1. We had hoped that our June 18-26 trip would coincide with a Star Wars Weekend. It would have been our first, and both Chris and Peter are huge Star Wars fans. Sadly, the dates have been announced, and we'll be there 4 days too late. On the up-side, we no longer have to arrange our days around being at DHS on Saturday and Sunday. 2. I may be able to squeeze an extra half-day out of this trip! Typically, Chris is a drive-straight-through type of traveler. Though Ohio to Orlando is a fairly long journey, we do it in one day. However, Chris' uncle and aunt have a lovely home in South Carolina, about 8 hours from WDW. They have invited us to stay the night with them on our way home. So why not spend half of our departure day at a park or water park, and then leave WDW around noon? As it is, we won't be able to use all of our Water Park Fun + More visits, so I think this is a great solution!!
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
About This Page: 
in the name, anyway!) All of these restaurants are new to us. Spoodles is an old favorite, so we may eat there as well. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Melanie
![[SIGPIC]](signaturepics/sigpic18031_16.gif)
You plans sound great!
PassPorter Guide Author
And by the way, you have some awesome vacations in store for 2010 and 2011 - we're hoping to visit Yellowstone in 2011 as well, but no hiking for us there. 
:
On the up-side, we no longer have to arrange our days around being at DHS on Saturday and Sunday. 
Linear Mode
