Forums Closed
|
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
|
|
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
|
 |
06-09-2004, 02:06 PM
|
#1
|
Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Concierge Level: 1
Posts: 9,564
|
Pre-trip report for June 2004
Opps, posted this on the wrong boards, sorry I added it to Disneyland reports 
Well, now that I can do the single-digit dance  I thought I would put together some pre-trip thoughts! 
It has been my dream to get my immediate family  together at one time for a trip to WDW. DH and I went on our first trip in 1987 with his sister and her husband. We went because our daughter had been there once or twice (I can’t remember now, it’s been too long) with our church’s youth choir and she loved it. They would spend a week at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL and then have a day or two to visit WDW. Of course it was only the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT at that time. My parents had also gone in after EPCOT opened but before 1985, so it was time for us to go. We decided to go in May of that year, but we did not take our children. Our son was attending the local community college and our daughter was in high school. What bad parents we were!! We had a wonderful time, but didn’t go back (or become Disney Fanatics) until 2000. On that trip we went with our son, his wife and our 11 yr old grandson (Anthony). Our daughter had gone for her honeymoon in 1995, but we had never managed to get all our schedules together for a family trip. DH and I also enjoyed trips in 2002 and 2003 meeting other family members there and one “just us” trip last fall.
So-o-o-o, about a year ago I started to campaign for the family trip. Our daughter and son-in-law welcomed a son (Trevor) on Christmas day 2001 and they wanted to go when he was old enough to begin to know the magic, but still be “free” (e.g. didn’t cost anything). Our daughter is a teacher so that restricted us to summer pretty much. We wanted to avoid spring break and Thanksgiving is right around parent-teacher conferences. Going in summer worked out of everyone else as with 9 months + to request vacation we all got approval. 
Since DH and I had just been last October, a trip for just the two of us, we let the kids know that we would be happy just being there with them all and would volunteer to do childcare as necessary so that they could enjoy themselves as couples part of the time. They left the reservations in my hands and I was able to get an awesome deal at Pop Century. In fact, it was so awesome that we were able to add on one additional day. Our package was from 6/20 – 6/26 originally, but when the Disney Visa discounts came out I saved over $600 (DH and I are gifting the tickets and room portion of the trip to the kids). Since it was a package we were really loosing one day’s ticket in the parks since we were to leave on 6/26 early because we are driving from Central IL. Well, when I got the discounts I added one addition night for all of us, room only, and we’ll now leave early on Sunday morning.
We then got together to plan some special meals.  The kids are treating DH and me to one meal each. Son, Daughter-in-law, and older grandson are taking us to the California Grill on Monday night and we scheduled it so we could see Wishes while we are there. Daughter, Son-in-law and youngest grandson are taking us to Chef Mickey’s for an early dinner on Tuesday. Both of these are new things for DH and me. We are all going to the Crystal Palace for breakfast on Wednesday. We have matching WDW 2004 t-shirts and hope to get a good picture from Main Street with the castle in the background BEFORE we get breakfast, to insure they are all clean (LOL). Thursday night is the luau at the Poly. This is where our daughter and son-in-law spent their honeymoon so it will be a chance to relive some memories I’m sure. Friday night is dinner at Hollywood and Vine at the Studios. Most of us will go on to Fantasmic! but I don’t think our youngest grandson will enjoy it. He’s just 2.5 and it might be too intense for him. Dinner is early so we hope to catch the parade before the show. We plan on one or perhaps two partial days at water parks. Eldest grandson says he is going to try the Summit Plummet. I want to try and get this on video tape!! He and I also want to go into TOT but leave at the chicken exit; we just want to see the lobby!
I would like to experience the Festival of the Lion King show with my youngest grandson, he loves Simba! He is also very into Monster’s Inc. so we’ll have to catch the Stars and Cars parade. 
Well, enough pre-trip. I’ve been packing for a month it seems. As indicated elsewhere I may have to work some extra days to get everything in order for me to get away and not worry too much about work. I will be well worth it. I will take detailed notes in my PP and try and give a good TR. I will also have another pre-trip report to give as DH and I and another couple are going back the first week of December. The other couple wanted to go with us in June, but they were unable to do so. Of course that opened up the opportunity of another trip, right?? It will be the first time we have purchased PAP but we expect to return in 2005 at least once to enjoy the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland events.
Thanks for listening/reading.
|
|
|
|
06-09-2004, 02:23 PM
|
#2
|
Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
Looks like you've got a wonderful family trip planned! Looking forward to reading all about it!!  Have a great time!! |
|
|
|
|
06-09-2004, 02:24 PM
|
#3
|
|
RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
Great start Barb 
Sounds like you are all going to have a great time, and how great of you to spot the rooms and tickets for your kids and grandkids. I'm sure it will be magical to have everyone there all together 
Can't wait to read how it all turned out Safe travels  |
|
|
|
|
06-09-2004, 05:59 PM
|
#4
|
Community Rank: Trekker 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 1,742
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
Have a wonderful Magical Gathering. It sounds so special. So sorry about the extra work days. Maybe Tinkerbell wil come and sprinkle some pixie dust and take the extra work away! Have a safe journey and a great trip! Enjoy the time with your extended family! What a great blessing. Can't wait to read the TR and see the picture with the t-shirts!
|
|
|
|
|
06-09-2004, 07:48 PM
|
#5
|
Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 2,072
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
Great start! We also have matching shirts for our Magic Kingdom day. Looks like we'll be at Pop Century the same week! Maybe we'll bump into each other. Have fun! |
|
|
|
|
06-09-2004, 08:26 PM
|
#6
|
Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Fort Smith, Arkansas
Posts: 10,721
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
Have a great time Barb!!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*
|
Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
|
|
06-09-2004, 08:37 PM
|
#7
|
Community Rank: Jetsetter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: beautiful beachy FL
Posts: 2,357
|
Re: Pre-trip report for June 2004
You have a wonderful trip planned.
I hope you enjoy Pop Century, it's such a fun resort (and relatively cheap, too  )
When in the Studios, look for Sully and Mike W. They don't sign autographs but are often avail for pics.
Looking forward to hearing about your Magical trip, |
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
