PTR....Universal Adventures of Dreams and an Expanding world part 2 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PTR....Universal Adventures of Dreams and an Expanding world part 2
Hi, I am Jennifer.
For those who don't know me, I am a mother of 3, Michael (23), Paige (19) and Claire (7). Claire is my traveling buddy. My older 2 no longer go with us.
To make a long story short, My son doesn't get along well with my husband and Paige won't go anywhere without her boyfriend these days....
Niether are huge Disney fans either...which is a huge dissappointment.
Here is Claire. She loves everything Disney and she makes me very proud.
I am married to Skip...and I hate to say it, but I don't really have a good recent picture of him. He was unable to come on our trip last year, and that is when I am usually able to get a picture of him. The last trip we went on as family was in 2009, so it's been awhile. We did do a 1 day trip to Cedar Point last year though.
Skip is what some call a resister...he seems to not want to go on vacations at all anymore.....while I want to do them more often. I do a lot of complaining about him, but he is a good guy... he just doesn't see why anyone would ever "need" to vacation once a year, let alone a couple of times. This also cramps my style, as I became a travel agent just over a year ago. So now I am planning trips for others and dreaming of Disney daily.
Also,.... repeat clients is good for business as well, and he wants me to succeed, right?... so he should see the light!
We have 2 very exciting trips planned this year....When I say we, I mean Claire and I....Skip will be coming on 1 of them, but the other he has chosen not to join, for 2 reasons. 1, he is a dairy farmer and that time of year can be busy, and 2, my family is going on that trip and he doesn't want to spend a week completely with them......though I have told him over and over that we can seperate as often as we like. I think he may still be considering it, but it is booked without him at this point in time.
So what are these 2 exciting trips you may ask? I'll start with trip number 2.
That is the family trip and what this PTRwill focus on. We booked this back in Oct. and won't be going till Nov 3rd of this year. My husband did give me hassle about this, but end the end he reasoned...happy wife, happy life... oh so true!
We will be cruising on the Disney Dream for 4 nights (nov. 4 ~ 8) and then heading off to Disney World for a few more nights. I know I will be staying 3 nights for sure, but I am thinking of extending it a few days more (again that has been met with grumbles). Claire and I will most likely be stayingtill the 14th.
Claire and I will have one cabin, My parents will be in an adjoining cabin. My one sister and her DH and 2 girls will have a cabin. My Aunt and Uncle will have an adjoining room to my sisters. Then we have 2 families of cousins along as well.
I have NEVER booked a trip that far in advance for myself.....EVER!
Now for trip number 1. This year we will be married 10 years, and I wanted to do something special, but the resister was fighting me on it. I had traveled twice last year, once with Claire and my Mom, who took Skip's place when he had to cancel last minute, and once by myself to go to a Disney agent education program.
I finally just kind of gave up hope of doing anything and waiting till next year. Skip then mentioned that we could go to Asheville NC to visit the Biltmore Mansion. This was something I had wanted to do for years. We had it planned that we would drive to a buddy's house and deliver a part, spend a day or 2 there and then drive to NC for a day or 2 and then stopping off at Gatlinburg on the way home. When we actually looked at a map and googled it, the drives were much longer than we thought...or hoped. At least 8 hours for each segment. This wasn't sounding too fantastic to me, but I didn't complain. Skip then came right out and said no way does he want to drive that long.
After looking at a few options , he came in one night and told me that we might as well go to that "other" Disneyland park....Ok, he gets park names confused all the time, so I asked, "You mean in CA?" and he said, "No, the other one in FL". So I knew he meant Universal So I started looking up prices of flights. Skip wanted to leave Monday, March 12......But the flights were sky high and hotel availibilitly was next to none. I told him we should try for the week Claire was off on Spring break. The flights were less, but still high and I could find several hotels to choose from. The main key being he wanted it cheap.
After doing research and some hem-hawing around (with things like should we stay onsite and pay $1000 more, or just go cheap and get a free breakfast buffet. ...the trip was booked!
We would be flying into Sanford Airport late March 26th and staying at the Quality Inn and Suites (formally a Fairfield Inn). We have 3 day park to park tickets and will fly home Friday. March 30th. It's a short trip, but I'm sure we will be busy and have a good time.
I haven't been to Universal since 1999, and both Claire and Skip never have been. After booking it, Skip almost regretted it and said maybe we should've stuck with Disney after all... UGH!.....go figure. But he just doesn't like to try new things, so I'm sure he'll be OK after we get there. He is still daily doubting this decision. I knwo we will have fun, we just have to convince him he is having a good time.
I am very excited to start planning. I leave in 13 days!!! I have so much research to do. I am super excited about going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Also it will be fun to be offsite and maybe get a look at other places in Orlando.
I am obviously back from that trip now and you can read about it here.