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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi! My name is Jen…..and I (OK take a deep breath)….am…a Disney~aholic!
There, I said it. Please help me!! ……. I feel the only cure is to do something Disney related as much as any human possibly can.
And that’s where my current job comes in. I was VERY fortunate to have an opportunity to become a travel agent this year. And not just ANY travel agent. I work for an agency that specializes in Disney travel. Now before I get bombarded with questions…I have to say that I had a very unique experience at becoming a TA…and basically I talked to the “right” person at the right time and was given a chance to work with some fabulous people. I took my classes last winter, right before my big Spring trip, which was on the Disney Dream and also a few days at WDW.
Once I got back, I got down to business a bit more. Let’s just say the potential clients were NOT breaking down my door to have me plan a trip for them right away. But as time wore on I have gotten more and more business and I must say it is feeding my addition quite nicely. After returning from our Spring trip, I also didn’t expect to be back at Disney very soon. I was kind of hoping for a Spring 2012 trip with my family, but that won’t be decided till much later. My DH is king of the last minute vacations. He is a Dairy farmer and swears he can’t plan anything ahead. Most of our trips are planned in about a months time. Our Spring trip was actually planned and booked in Jan. That was a miracle for us. We have never booked that far ahead. But then as fate would have it, my DH’s brother and partner in the farm broke his leg, which meant He, Skip, couldn’t go on the trip with us after all. My Mom ended up coming with us and really enjoyed the cruise. My Dad joined us for the WDW portion of the trip.
In May of this year, one of my fellow travel agents, Brook, who some of you know as Brookelizabeth on Dis, saw that there was an Agent Education Program (AEP) being offered in Aug of this year. I salivated over it! How fun would it be to go to Disney and LEARN about Disney as well. The dates were Aug 15th through Aug. 19th. I got up the nerve and asked Skip if it would be Ok to go. I would ask MIL (Who lives right next door) to watch our 6 year old, Claire, and would make arrangements for Claire to get to school. (Claire’s school was to start right smack in the middle of the trip.) Surprisingly I got a yes without much pleading…..Who is this man? And where is my REAL husband? LOL So before I could give him a chance to change his mind I applied for the program and with in a few days I was approved. Several other agents from my agency also talked of going as well. Brook applied and then left for a semi solo trip to WDW before she got an answer. Brook and I requested to be roommates. Mindy decided to go as well, and she applied. Then Patty decided she would like to come also and applied and they requested to be roommates. By the time Brook came back from her solo trip, we were all approved!
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The first order of business was to book flights. I did a lot of shopping around. I was going to be flying out of Detroit Airport and they only had 3 airlines that had direct flights. I ended up booking with Spirit, my least favorite airline. But the price was much better than the other 2 and they had perfect times….if I flew in a day before. Even with paying for luggage and a carryon, the price was still cheaper than Delta, my next choice. But be warned, Spirit has smaller seats than other lines. Basically NO leg room AND their luggage weight is limited to 40 lbs. I got my airline booked and then I also booked a 1 night stay at AS Movies on Aug. 14th. I normally stay at Pop Century when we travel as a family, but since this was all about learning, I wanted to try some new things. On the 15th, I would move over to the Yacht Club, which is where all the AEPer’s were staying. The plan was to fly home then on Aug 19th in the afternoon. I now know that I should’ve booked another extra night. We just were so busy that we had little time to be on our own nor have much park time. I was kicking myself already about a month prior to the trip. It would’ve been $115 to change my flight so I just sucked it up and made the best of the time I had.
I also noticed that one of my favorite Disers (Dizneeat…..Karin and her brother Tom) was going to be down there the same time as I, so we made plans to meet up on the 14th. I decided to forgo buying a park ticket for that 1st day as well. Our AEP package includes tickets, so I would just wait till I got those to visit the parks. Our temporary agenda was emailed to us all and we were all excited about all the things planned for us to do. For me, being a planner, it was a little hard to take. I am not used to having a whole trip planned out for me. But this was going to be like no other trip I have ever taken. I was going solo, going to classes each day and learning all things Disney, so I could deal with it. I just had to wait…and boy did the summer seem go drag on! We had a record heat temps and it was so dang humid as well. But being that Claire is only going to be 6 once in her life, I made sure we did as much as we could this summer and tried to keep my Disney trip in the back of my mind till Aug.
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I woke up at 5:30 AM. For those who have followed me on other TR’s, you know I have a hard time sleeping the night before a trip, as well as during the trip. I slept like a rock. I was so happy to have a good nights sleep to start off this trip! I got ready pretty quickly and woke Claire up as well. She LOVES to sleep, but she got right up. She knew Mommy was going to Disney school, BUT she also knew Mommy would be bringing home a few special prizes for her from my trip as well. Claire is a major Daddy’s girls, but I also know that even though she pretends at times like I’m not her favorite, she really does love and need her Momma. When ever she is hurt or needs ANYTHING, it’s me she goes to, not Daddy. It has now become a bit of a game for us. She will tell me thank you, but Daddy’s still the best, and then she laughs an evil laugh. My Mom and Dad were taking me to the airport and Claire was also coming along, and then spending the day with them. After that they were going to drop her off at MIL’s. We hit the rode at 6:30. The drive is about an hour long to Detroit airport. Believe it or not, but in that short drive we had to make a couple of bathroom stops. When Mom drinks her morning coffee she has to go frequently. LOL. We arrived at the airport about 7:45 and I gave Claire lots of kisses and hugs. Mom told me later that after they left and only got about 2 miles down the road, Claire said “Whoever misses Mommy, raise there hand!” Mom said my Dad didn’t raise his hand and Claire was mad at him. But then my Mom told her that they had only left me a few minutes ago and they didn’t even have a chance to miss me yet. LOL! I got checked in at the airport and then made my way through security. It has been years since I flew out of Detroit and I got my first taste of the body scanners. We usually fly out of Toledo, which does have the scanners, but I also always have Claire with me, and we get to forgo the full scanners and go through the old fashion ones. I came out clean, no extra pat downs and made my way to the gate. I was hungry so I stopped at a store and picked up banana bread and a couple of drinks for the plane. I sat and waited and munched on the bread and played a bit with my phone, checking out facebook.
Here is the beautiful weather Detroit was offering this morning.
I didn’t wait too long and it was time to board. Now if you fly with Spirit, be sure you follow the personal size bag rule. You have to pay for a carryon and it is in code on your ticket, so they know. If you didn’t pay and your personal bag doesn’t fit in the box they have…..you will PAY! Or not take it on. On both of my flights I heard people argue over this and try to smash their bags in the box, but they were strict! If you paid for a carryon, which I did, then they seemed more lenient. Basically they didn’t seem to question the size of anyone’s personal item that had paid for a carryon as well. I was in my seat by 9:15. I think Skip called me then as well and asked how things were going, and had to throw in a few sarcastic remarks, as he loves to do that. Things like, I bet it will be raining in FL., etc. I was thankful that I had an aisle seat. The seats were really tight in the leg room area and I could let my leg hang out in the aisle off and on. The seat in front of me actually was jabbing me in the knees. Our flight left on time (around 9:45) and I was that much closer to Disney! This flight seemed REALLY long. I think the reason being was because I was alone. On all other flights I have someone to talk to, or Claire to tend to and that kind of helps with the time. I read my magazine and did some crosswords, but the motion of the plane will only allow me to do that for so long and then I feel a bit queasy. We landed on time, which was a blessing. If you read my Spring TR, we had been delayed and then once we got to FL we had to circle in the air for about 45 minutes to wait out the storms. I think I would’ve been jumping out of my skin if that happened again this time. Now for my little rant about deplaning. Wait your TURN! I was about 1/3 of the way back on the plane. I knew it would slow getting off, but that’s ok, because my checked bag wasn’t going to be out and faster than the others. (Even though I wasn’t getting mine, ME was taking care of that) There was a large family in the back two rows of the plane. They quickly got up and started working their way to the front. The Dad got to my seat and stopped….with his whole crew behind him. WELL……I have a big booty and I’m not afraid to use it when needed. LOL! I stood up and backed out of my seat into the aisle. If I saw that booty coming at me, I would move too. LOL! The Dad moved up in front of me, with his whole family behind me. One other note, is that they also spoke another language, so they quickly started chattering back and forth. I knew they were mad. I then let the father and child out in front of me that were in my row. Again, I heard more chattering from the other family. The Dad in my row goes, “that’s what happens when you don’t wait your turn.” And of course the “mad” family hadn’t learn good hygiene and could’ve used a bath about then….just saying,…… if you are going on a plane with a lot of others, please use some deodorant! We made it off the plane and I used the bathroom. Guess what, that family wasn’t in such a hurry after all. A couple of the teenage girls from that family were in the bathroom primping. (I guess they knew about hygiene, maybe they should teach some of it to good ol’ Dad.) They were still working on their hair when I left. I headed to the fake monorail and made my way to the Magical Express.
I arrived at the Magical Express area. It is totally set up differently than it was last time we used it. Everyone just got in line and bypassed the desk? Is this what you do now? Only go to the desk if you have a question or something? Anyways, I pulled out my booklet….1 of 2, since I would be coming home from a different resort, the guy scanned it and I got in line where he pointed me to. Hmmm, I looked at the sign and didn’t see AS Movies listed on it. I just waited a bit, then it hit me, I DID see Yacht Club listed. I looked at my booklet and I had pulled out the wrong one. This was where I was coming back from. I quickly pulled out the right booklet and told a CM about it and they directed me to the correct line.
The lines were amazingly long. It was very busy in this area.
They did move fast though and before I knew it, I was on a VERY full ME bus. So full in fact, that one family held a younger child on their lap as there wasn’t a seat left on the bus.
Yay! Love the pictures of the airport monorail--when my kids were younger, they always counted that little monorail as their first (and last) "ride" of our Disney trips--who knows, they probably still do!
Great start, and I'm looking forward to more, please!
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