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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Location: Connecticut..Just under the Red Sox Nation...Go Bo Sox
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The third times the charm TR!
OK So I am going to try yet again for a good TR. You would think after reading so many I would have it down but I just haven’t gotten the grasp of it yet. Here goes……
I will start in November. I was just finishing posting about how I so missed Disney and how selfish I felt as we had just been in August. I had been playing around with dates for the family to go in December or over February vacation but DH kept telling me that we just couldn’t swing it. I completely understood as we have a big trip with family and friends planned in September. This however didn’t deter me from the daily visit to the Disney site and weekly call to 407wdisney to see if any specials had been announced that I may not have picked up on (yeah right).
Back to me posting…..I am sitting at the computer when my oh so sweet DH says “well I was going to try and surprise you but (drum roll please) I want to send you and DD to Disney for your Christmas, Birthday, Valentine’s day etc, etc, etc, gift. I almost fell off my chair. He then pulls back a bit and says “only for a few days though” “I will stay home with the baby so you two need to come back pretty quick”.
I can live with that so the planning began. I started checking the school calendar for vacation days and cross referencing airfare. I came up with the dates of January 25th-29th. This week my DD has a day off so she would miss 4 days of school but the airfare was on the moon for the dates she had more time off. I called my Dsis and Dmom to see if they would be able to come help DH with DS(20 months) so he could work from home in the day. They both agreed so it was booking time!
I went directly to the JetBlue website and booked our airfare. We got rock solid prices on round trip tickets with great times. The flight got us in at 9:45am and home at 2:45pm PERFECT! My last decision was what resort to stay at.
Stayed tuned, Up next players, accommodations, and more!
__________________
-Amanda
Last edited by mommadjones; 02-01-2010 at 07:22 PM..
Reason: Change Font
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Location: Connecticut..Just under the Red Sox Nation...Go Bo Sox
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First I want to say Thank you for all the kind words. It makes me feel much better about writing this, my third, and hopefully best TR.
So we left off on accommodations…….well DH had stressed that this trip had to be as inexpensive as possible which is why he hadn’t surprised us at Christmas. His words “I know you can do this way cheaper than me and you would kill me if I planned a Disney trip without you”. So my choices were semi limited. No worries my DD loved Pop century the last time we stayed there so I figured why mess with what works!
I start playing with the numbers when my yet again oh so sweet DH says why don’t you look into that new QS meal plan that you told me about! OK double what???? So I plug in the plan and he says “yes that looks like a good price” “I would much prefer knowing you girls will have everything you need while you are there”. All I can say is WOW. Not that DH is a horrible husband/man but this goes way beyond my expectations. Well all I needed to do now is book it. I used Disney Travel Co. only because my Favorite TA was unavailable at the time
My next big deliema…..do we tell DD or keep it a secret???? Luckily for us she was away for the weekend so I had a day to think about it. Sunday arrives and my excitement is growing. DD will be home in a few hours and as much as I want to keep it a secret I just can’t contain myself. At one point way back when (2007) I was able to keep our Christmas trip a secret for 10 months how is it that in 2 short years I have become so weak? Well the moment arrives, the door opens and I start shaking. DH looks at me and just says “go ahead tell her” I tell him it’s his gift he should be the one to tell her but only if he really wants to. We go back and forth for a few minutes with the should we, maybe not, yeah I think she should know, well it would be a huge Christmas surprise, Oh just tell her before I explode already!! So he tells her and she hits the roof. We then head straight to the computer and I tell her all about the trip. She loves the QS dining plan idea. I told her to go on allears and check all the menus, pick out where she wants to eat. This makes her sooooo happy. I am the one usually doing the planning and she is the one doing the complaining about me “over planning everything”. She then tells me “mom you know what would make my planning easier”? “My own PassPorter”! As the new PassPorters had not been shipped yet and I had a few on order already I had to shrug that one off with a will see honey. She continues to pour over the menus until I look up at the clock and see that its 10 pm. It was way past bed time so off to bed for DD. After she went to bed I checked her planning book and it was so cute. She had our flight info our hotel info and a list of maybes to eat at. I put her book with my PassPorter and got ready to call it a night myself.
So we have covered;
The accommodations = Pop Century
The more = surprise you can include QS dining to your trip.
I haven’t formally introduced the players. So without further ado...
The Lucky girls-
Me-Amanda 33 Stay at home mom to 2 wonderful children
DD- 11 going on 16
The wonderful home crew-
Daphne- My wonderful sister who lives in upstate New York but drives 4 hours to CT to babysit whenever we ask!
Roberta- My wonderful Mom who also lives in Upstate New York and also drives down with Dsis to babysit whenever we ask!
Rob - My wonderful and oh so generous DH who is sending us to our happiest place.
DS - 20 months and a great little boy who is very busy and is on the go from sun up to sun down.
Up next - Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?
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so the planning began. I started checking the school calendar for vacation days and cross referencing airfare. I came up with the dates of January 25th-29th. This week my DD has a day off so she would miss 4 days of school but the airfare was on the moon for the dates she had more time off. I called my Dsis and Dmom to see if they would be able to come help DH with DS(20 months) so he could work from home in the day. They both agreed so it was booking time! 
-Amanda 
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So I plug in the plan and he says “yes that looks like a good price” “I would much prefer knowing you girls will have everything you need while you are there”. All I can say is WOW. Not that DH is a horrible husband/man but this goes way beyond my expectations. Well all I needed to do now is book it. I used Disney Travel Co. only because my Favorite TA was unavailable at the time 
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