Patience, My Young Padawan PTR - UPDATED 5/25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Now that we’re just a couple months out from our third trip to WDW, I thought I’d start our pre-trip report – even though I’m a bit hesitant to do so. Last year, I was so happily writing our PTR for our upcoming trip in September. We were ecstatically looking forward to three upcoming adventures and busily planning the first one…when we had to postpone our vacation. So naturally, I’ve been feeling that if I started another PTR, the same thing might happen!
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." ~ Yoda
Some of you may remember that just a few weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we had not one, but two major car repairs. (If you’re curious, you can check out the details here : Hold on Harry, Hello Mickey PTR ) Luckily, we had the cash on hand to pay for them, but that also left us with no spendable money for our vacation, and we felt it was best to postpone the trip.
Notice the use of the word “postpone.” It sounded a lot better and felt a lot more bearable to simply postpone the trip rather than cancel it. We actually could have just waited another month and we’d be ready to go. But again, as some of you may remember, my DD Corinne (11) is a serious ballet student. For the past four years she’s auditioned for a part in the Youth Cast for Nashville Ballet’s Nutcracker. If she is cast, then from late September through December she is required to be at weekly rehearsals.
With that consideration, the earliest we’d be able to go would be January. None of us are fans of being at WDW in potentially cold weather…so spring looked much better. My DH Kevin and I were looking forward to our adults-only trip in May to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and to attend our first Star Wars Weekend. But what the heck, we decided to just make the May trip into the family vacation.
But even postponing something doesn’t always make it easier to wait. And wait…….and wait……Nutcracker and the holidays kept us busy and took our minds off the waiting, but as soon as the New Year rolled around, we’ve all just been as impatient as possible to get to the Happiest Place on Earth – right now!
It seems only fitting, then, that I’ve been quoting my favorite Jedi Masters in advising my younglings to have patience. Come to think of it, I have a feeling Walt Disney might have been a Jedi himself…
“All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. “ ~ Walt Disney
And in Yoda-speak :
"The adversity , troubles and obstacles, strengthened me it has...realize it not when happens it does, but a kick in the teeth the best thing it is."
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Oh I just love your title and theme!! My DMom was a huge Star Wars fan when I was younger and most of those 1st 3 released movies are burned into my brain.
We are going in May but we leave the 14th. I am hoping there might be some soft openings to the re-done Star Tours before we leave.
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and to attend our first Star Wars Weekend. But what the heck, we decided to just make the May trip into the family vacation. 
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