Meri's Dream Come True - A Birthday Celebration! - A Somewhat Live TR! complete 02/20/2014 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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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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For a quick synopsis, my daughter, Meredith (Meri) is turning 8 on Saturday, and every so often, we like to go to WDW for her birthday. This year, we found that taking a 3 night cruise on the Disney Dream would be less expensive than a 4 night stay at WDW. Well after that it didn't take much convincing for us to jump on the opportunity!! Another tidbit... Meri doesn't know about the cruise. She thinks we're hanging out in WDW!
Tuesday, February 4 - Departure Day
We had initially planned to leave at around 6pm, after I got home from a full day of work. As the departure day neared, the weather forecast was unimpressive, so my boss generously told me that if I need to leave early, I could. On Tuesday morning, I awoke to sleet and heavy rain. Awesome. I got into work on time (a little early, actually) and my boss wasn't far behind me. The first thing he said was, go ahead and leave at 2 or 3... and I immediately said, "Ok!" We were under a winter weather advisory, but so far it was just rain...
It didn't take long for 3pm to roll around, because I was busy during the day with some projects. Finally, I said goodbye to my boss and headed out! I got home at 3:45pm and we were on the road by 4:10pm (CST). Let me tell you... we drove in horrid driving rain for about two hours, and finally we outran it altogether about 20-30 miles into Alabama. We stopped at 6:00pm outside of Tupelo, MS, to get a quick meal at Sonic, and we were back on the road. Mom and I had grilled cheese and Meri had chicken tenders.
We switched drivers outside of Birmingham, and I started driving the second half. We arrived in Macon, GA at around 1am, local time (12am CST). So, amazingly, we'd made it to Macon in just under 8 hours, even with being slowed down massively by the rain at the outset.
We stopped at a Quality Inn in Macon, because it had the best reviews on TripAdvisor of all of the hotels in this area, and it was very inexpensive, which was quite nice! It also has free wifi and a free breakfast, with waffles, biscuits, cereal, coffee, juice, danishes and fruit. The total for the room was $62 plus tax - pretty decent!
We're about to hit the road now, at 8:20pm (all times going forward are EST) and I anticipate a 2:30pm arrival at CBR! Our magic bands are out and we're ready to go!!!
I'll update again tonight from WDW! Heather - we're a-comin!!!
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Glad you beat the rain at some point - more so that it was only rain and not ice. That's what we woke to this morning - ice. And now you're in the bubble, checked in to the hotel and enjoying a yummy dinner. Hope you're able to meet up with Heather and enjoy the MK!
Awesome! Sorry about the rain to begin with, but it is so much better than the 8+ inches of snow we got in east central IL. Also, the next cold wave is coming tonight. I envy the temps there in FL and for the cruise!
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