Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
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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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Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!!
Go your own way
Dates: Thursday 30 April – Wednesday 6 May (arriving home the next morning) Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (35) and Wendy (wendyismyname) (34) Itinerary: the Decade of Dreams tour Resorts: BoardWalk and Contemporary – Tower! Meets: Lots and lots, with all the PassPorters joining us on the tour!
Pre-trip report: “you could go on your own”
Cast your minds back to the dim and distant past... well, OK, maybe not that dim and distant, but we’re still talking about January 2008, which is a while back now. It was then that the plans for PassPorter’s Decade of Dreams tour was unveiled, a spectacular set of trips that would take in a cruise, visit to Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I knew immediately that there was no way that we would be able to join this tour sadly, as it was just a bad time of the year to take vacation for Mark. It was a shame, but there was no way round it – or that’s what I thought for about 24 hours.
Not long after it was announced, my great friend Wendy, who I’ve been in contact with almost daily for about five years now (time flies when you’re having fun!) that she was planning on going. In fact, I think she made the decision so quickly that she was one of the first – if not the first – to book her place. She’d be taking her youngest, Gabby, with her. This news on an e-mail really shocked me. I don’t know why, but I had never expected her to be interested in going, never mind on her own.
I half jokingly e-mailed her back and said that was a shame, as I’d love to have gone on the tour, but knew Mark couldn’t and would need someone to go with, as I wasn’t go to stay on my own – heck, flying Transatlantic on my own would be more than enough! Imagine my surprise when I got home that night and Mark told me that Wendy had called.
I don’t remember the exact words of the conversation, but I do remember telling him that she planned on going and it was such a shame, as I’d love to see her again. Somewhere in there, those magic words were uttered – “you could go on your own”. I think Mark half expected me to refuse straight away and say that I’d never go to Disney without him, but I didn’t. I thought about this offer for about half a millisecond and I knew what my answer was. “Do you really mean that?” (I had offered him a get out clause here, you notice). He nodded and said words to the effect of “I must be mad saying yes” and I told him I’d definitely go. Of course, the next words out of my mouth were “thank you” and “I’ll miss you while I’m there”. I think the “I must be mad saying yes” was repeated a number of times in the following hours, days, weeks and months.
I e-mailed Wendy the next morning and told her the upshot of the conversation and I waited on tenterhooks to hear back from her – after all, she was booked with Gabby... would she want to go with me? No problem on that count. I got home to an e-mail from her that night, saying she’d cancelled her original plans (after all, as she said, Gabby never knew what she was planning and was so young she wouldn’t understand anyway) and where would I like to re-book? I knew immediately I wanted to stay at the Contemporary, if the budget could stretch that far. I’d always fancied trying it and it seemed a perfect choice, as I wouldn’t be renting a car, and I wanted somewhere with good transport links.
We decided that the Tower room was out of our price range, which was a shame, as I really had always liked the idea of that, so instead we went for a garden wing room and I called up to book it a day later. The deposit was paid and we were all set.
Now you know us Disney planners – we can’t resist talking about our plans, no matter how far away they are. Wendy and I were no exception. We would occasionally chat via e-mail and sometimes on the phone about the tour and our plans for it. I knew that I wanted to do some things that I wouldn’t usually get to do with Mark – and try and do things he wasn’t keen on. That meant that some of the bigger rides, where I need a ride buddy, were a must – things like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Soarin’, Mission Space, Test Track, Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest. Automatically that meant getting to the parks early, but with my jetlag, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem and Wendy was happy with getting up early. We would obviously be following the tour schedule during the Decade of Dreams tour and, as we were getting there the day before, we decided to head to Epcot that day, as it’s my favourite park and any extra chance to see Illuminations sounds good to me!
All too soon, we were talking about where to eat and again, I tried to go for places that I knew Mark wasn’t keen on. There were certain places that he told me I couldn’t go to without him, such as the California Grill, which was fair enough, so I sat down with him and talked about restaurants he either wasn’t keen on trying or on going back to and we made our choices around that. We were soon sorted and ended up with the following choices for sit down meals:
Raglan Road (Mark isn’t keen on trying this place)
Rose and Crown (Mark didn’t enjoy our last meal and isn’t keen on returning – I don’t mind giving it a second chance)
Coral Reef (see above)
Crystal Palace (I was told that dining with my donkey was fine – I think he was just glad to escape that torture! )
Trail's End (neither of us have ever been, but Wendy always tells me how good this place is, so she was determined to take me there)
It was amazing how easy it was to put all our plans together and we kept commenting on that, especially as the trip was almost a year away and Wendy was going through what seemed like almost daily changes to her (then upcoming) family trip in June. However, we were all set and sorted and ready to go – all we needed now was airfares. Or were we?
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Okay, I can't make it past the first paragraph without tearing up!!
Oh I remember those conversations so well. Mark telling us both that we'll have a great time together and have no worries!!
You're right Gabrielle never knew that I had planned on taking her. It wasn't too hard of a decision when I knew that with an adult, I had no huge responsibilities!
You know, it's not a true vacation unless you PLUS it. And that's what I do.
Great start, Cheryl! And kudos to you for going it alone. It's something Steve and I contemplated but as we are 'car renters' it was the driving bit that really put me off.
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I can't believe I get to meet you guys in just a few more days!!!! Can you tell I am excited?!? Good start on the report. I also started tearing up when Mark told you to go without him. What a great hubby.
__________________
Love, April
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass;
it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Oh Chez, that's great Mark ok'd you going it alone. Although really it's just the travelling you'll be alone for. Your trip will be full of wonderful PP's!! I'm so jealous of all of you. . . . . especially since my mom is also in the World now. She's leaving Friday, so you'll overlap her a bit . Can't wait for more. . . .
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What a great start Cheryl....glad that everything worked out and that Mark told you that you should go. Sounds like this is going to be a great trip, can't wait to hear more.
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Imagine my surprise when I got home that night and Mark told me that Wendy had called. 
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. Can't wait for more. . . .
I can't wait to see how this all changes and comes together! PLUSES are always a good thing Wendy! 
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