The Perpetual Disney Adventures with the D Family TR - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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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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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The Perpetual Disney Adventures with the D Family TR
Welcome to The Perpetual Disney Adventures with the D Family TR. I'll be your host on this never-ending adventure- Mel (Melissa.)
The What
Kind of an odd TR, I know! Last summer we made a big move from Indiana to FL, Panama City Beach to be exact. Before we even unpacked the UHaul, our first order of business was to acquire to most magical FL APs for our favorite place on earth.
And we got gooood use out of them because I was frequently having to travel to central FL for work, thus frequently bringing the family along for some short but sweet trips to Disney. By January of 2013, I was pretty much over the 5 hour drive that I was making pretty regularly one way for work so I informed DH (Allen) that we needed to seriously consider moving further south.
Move closer to Disney? That was not a hard sell and by the time we traveled down for the Princess half in late February, we started checking out surrounding areas to figure out where we might like to call home.
We quickly narrowed out search to Clermont, which is located in the only place in FL that isn't flat (reminded us a bit of where we lived in Indiana.) And by May, we found a rental and delivered the first truck of our belongings. By The first week of June, the second truck was delivered and we were officially central Floridians.
The Why
I love TRs but being about 20 minutes from WDW means we don't have any plans in the near future to do a traditional WDW trip, so I figured my TR writing days were over. And the I thought about it some more and decided there was no reason I could do an ongoing TR, right??
We've been averaging about a visit a week (not usually a full day because it's so hot and crowded at the moment) but I thought it would be fun to share some of our adventures (because I'm pretty sure my non Disney friends are tired of it!)
The Who
If you've seen any of my past TRs, the crew is the same (for the most part) but there will be other characters coming and going because our home has been quickly deemed "DDVC"- the D's Disney Vacation Club!
Me: Mel
DH: Allen
DS: Tyler (soon to 12)
DD: Stella (2 going on 13)
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
I'm glad you decided to write this and I'm excited to see what adventures you and your family have. Being AP members for 3 years now and a FL Res, my family and I go to Disney quite a bit so I'm sure we'll bump into each other a lot, especially in the Fall/Winter and Spring. I find that we don't spend whole days there anymore because we have the passes and don't feel the need to open and close the park to make sure we see everything in one day. Does that make sense? lol Anyway, can't wait to read about your birthday!
I was going back and forth about how I felt about it- the thrill of planning a vacation in the WDW bubble is something I won't get to do again (at least not for now) but it is pretty awesome to be a stone's throw away. I think we'll really appreciate it more come this fall!
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Originally Posted by Jessie092408
Oh my gosh, how cool! I will be reading along as you share your various adventures with us.
Thank you- so glad to have you come along!
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Originally Posted by PhilsEagles08
Yeah!!!! Another TR... You are certainly on a roll with TR's lately!
I *might* have 2 other TRs that are unfinished from last year.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
this idea!
Thanks Cam!
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Originally Posted by bsblady01
great start
Thank you!
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Originally Posted by iwonathomas
So glad you decided to write this! Can't wait to read more
Thank you!! I'm excited to write it so I'm glad you want to read it!!
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Originally Posted by JKnott17
Great idea! Can't wait to read all about your Disney adventures And, I'm just a little jealous that you are only minutes away from WDW!!!
Thank you! I can't quite believe that we are so close myself- funny how life works out!
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Love it! Great start!
Thank you!
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Originally Posted by kingfamily1129
I'm glad you decided to write this and I'm excited to see what adventures you and your family have. Being AP members for 3 years now and a FL Res, my family and I go to Disney quite a bit so I'm sure we'll bump into each other a lot, especially in the Fall/Winter and Spring. I find that we don't spend whole days there anymore because we have the passes and don't feel the need to open and close the park to make sure we see everything in one day. Does that make sense? lol Anyway, can't wait to read about your birthday!
Makes perfect sense and it's so nice to meet another local! We definitely need to 'bump' into each other. And I'm totally with you on the Fall, Winter and Spring- I can't wait!!
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Originally Posted by CinderAbby
Great start. "Mini" adventures to Disney are just as much fun to read about as long adventures IMO.
Thanks Darlene- we have really been enjoying our mini adventures
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Originally Posted by scrapsoflife
How fun! Glad you guys were able to relocate without much trouble
Well I promise that the relocation wasn't without it's fair share of drama - but we learned some valuable life lessons and now things have settled down so we are really getting to enjoy all the central FL has to offer!