Our Last Hurrah As 3 TR - COMPLETED 7/29 (MNSSHP Included) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Our Last Hurrah As 3 TR - COMPLETED 7/29 (MNSSHP Included)
Hi! Welcome to my Our Last Hurrah as 3 PTR. We leave in exactly 30 days for a suprise trip for DS so I figured it was time to get this thing started.
The title of this PTR/TR is because this trip is really celebrating the end of an era in our little family of 3. In Feb we will be welcoming a new addition, but it's been the 3 of us for the last 9 years (expect a period of time where DNiece lived with us while DSis was finishing school.) During our Jan. trip we booked a bounceback for this trip because I was planning on running the Wine and Dine half. Then in March my grandmother got sick and I decided we should travel to CA to see her instead of a 2nd Disney trip this year. Then in May we found out that we were expecting this baby and I knew I wouldn't want to fly 6 hours at 5 month pregnant and would rather take DS and the baby to see them in the Spring. Then Disney released Free Dining and I came up with the brilliant idea to re-book Disney as a last special trip with DS. So that's how the trip was, then wasn't, and then was again .
Here are some deets about the trip itself:
Departing on Thursday, Sept. 30 and returning on Monday, Oct. 4.
Cast includes myself, DH and DS. MIL and FIL are also coming along (MIL will be with us the whole trip and FIL is flying in Sat. Oct. 2nd and flying back with MIL on the 4th.)
DS does not know about this trip, it's our intention that he won't know until he figures it out the day we leave, probably when we get to the airport. DH has slipped a few times (nothing overt, but specific enough around DS that he probably has an idea that somthing's up.) I am even going to so far as to not pack until DS goes to bed that Wednesday night and then DH will load up the luggage before we go to bed.
Once DS figures out what's going on, we aren't telling him that MIL is coming- that will be surpirse #2, and he is going to be so excited. Her flight arrives shortly before ours so we are just meeting her at DME, I can't wait to see DS's face when he sees her at DME.
We are staying at POR and scored free DDP
We are attending MNSSHP on Oct. 3. Looks like our gang is dressing up as Peter Pan characters. DS got the Peter Pan costume from Disney store this past weekend (it's very thin so I think this will work out for him), DH is going as Captain Hook, MIL is going as tinkerbell (can't wait to see this!), FIL is going as Smee, and I'm on the hunt for a Wendy Darling type costume (something to give this growing belly plenty of room to breath.) I might resort to sewing something on my own, but work is crazy between now and when we leave and I'm just not sure I have the time.
I've ordered a basket from Betsy for DS that's Star Wars themed, I'm pretty excited for that, it's surprise #3 for him.
Our ADRs are: dinner at Teppan Edo night 1, dinner at 50s PTC night 2, dinner at LTT night 3 (DH's only request, after which we will need to roll him out of MK and to the bus), and breakfast at Tuskar House and dinner at the Plaza on day 4 (MNSSHP day). I don't have anything booked for our departure day, but I might throw another breakfast in there, thinking maybe Cape May since I think we will go to Epcot before catching DME that afternoon to return home.
That sums up the details I can think of right now, I can't wait to take a few days off work and see DS's reaction when he realizes what's happening.
I'll be back with costume and other trip updates!
Mel
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
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What an awesome surprise for your DS!! Good luck on keeping everything a secret I really don't know if I could pull that off. I am sure it will be worth it to see the look on his face when he gets each surprise.
I think the Peter Pan costumes sound like a great idea and it's cool that everyone in the family is getting in on it.
Oh man, if we had to keep this secret for a loooong time, DH would never make it and he would definitely end up blowing the surprise. Luckily we booked this trip with only about 50 days before we depart, so hopefully since it's not a long stretch of time, the secret will be protected. I almost blew it myself 2 weeks ago- ILs are spending 5 days in Jan. at AKL for their anniversary, and DS and I are shipping a gift basket for them. We were looking at what things we could get to include in the basket and I almost said (but thankfully didn't!) "we can look around when we are there next month and buy stuff at the parks to include." Oops!!!
The next 29 days are so packed with other things (hockey and soccer for DS both started this week. I'm traveling for work all but maybe 10 days before we leave, DH's hockey league starts in a week, and we get our big ultrasound to find out if we are baking a boy or a girl) so I'm hoping that with everything else going on, we won't have time to think, or DISCUSS openly the trip.
It's those little slip ups that can ruin the surprise. on keeping the secret until you leave. Sounds like you have a lot coming up so hopefully that will be a little of distraction from discussing your trip.