The Promise of Spring: F&GF 4.0 UPDATED: 5/11 - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Everyone needs to vent now and again (you know I do my fair share on FB, especially in the last 2 days).
Hope the aches and pains recede a bit. This weather is so strange. We have all our daffodils and Lenten roses in full bloom, and may get snow Sunday. We've bounced from 80, to 30, back up to 65, and will plummet back to 30's soon. Ugh.
While I like the extra daylight the time change brings, I find losing the hour a much harder adjustment than when we gain in the Fall.
It's still in the 60s right now at 5:45, but we'll wake up tomorrow to the upper 30s. Boo! The loss of an hour isn't as bad since we've retired, but I never liked giving it up when we worked because I seemed to take a couple of weeks to catch back up.
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Originally Posted by Pris
I'm so glad we can be here for you when you are down. You do such a great job of lifting all of us up most of the time. Our spring has also been beautiful and extremely early. We are in limbo as to our weather Sat. night as well, possible freezing rain. It's not surprising as we've all been saying to beware! Take care of yourself and pamper yourself a bit while you dream of your upcoming trip to our happy place.
I have always appreciated and loved the support of my fellow PPers. This place is so such a haven in our crazy lives. Tomorrow I've decided since it's going to be cold means we need to curl up on the couch and finally watch Moana. Maybe a tropical island will make us think it's warmer.
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Originally Posted by oldmom
For me, it's November--my baby boy's birth/passing, my mom's passing. the blues just seem to still come around even now. <hugs> i know you have an awesome support system.
everything is blooming here and we are to get snow/ice this weekend. not much fun
We do have great support from so many of our family and friends, and the folks here, too. Seems like a lot of us are in for a not-so-good change in the weather.
The o7ssy willow tree across from the church is blooming as our the daffodils. Our yard only has the buds and lots of leaves for the early spring flowers up however it doesn't get morning sun, only afternoon so that could be part of it. Our temps keep jumping around & am having a negative effect on many plants & my allergies. I hope spring comes & stays soon.
I love the idea of longer days but the time change is quite hard on me & on my son's schedule. Took almost a month to adjust last year. Hope it is better this year but I am not very confident.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
It has definitely been an interesting winter. Here we had our warmest February ever. I don't understand it, but it is amazing how much harder it is to lose an hour than to gain one. I'm with you on wanting spring to come and stay!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Sorry you've been feeling glum .
I love how your framed prints look in your house! Great job!
Now that the prints are hung, it truly looks like they belong there.
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Originally Posted by Roxie2006
The flowers and trees are confused down in the south to. With this bipolar weather the pecan tree have bloomed and not sure if the pecans will even make it. I can say many people have already started with allergy issues. Looking forward to your next update!!!!!
I love that description -- "bipolar weather". Perfect description of what it's been like almost all winter.
I've been in Disney World since early Wednesday morning so I haven't been checking the boards daily until now. My heart was hurting for you when I read your postings about your son and Stephanie. I hope your pain lessens as time passes and your memories help you through the dark days. I'm so sorry that you've been having such a difficult time with your eyes and arthritis. My friend has been experiencing the floater problem this past year but she actually had a partial detachment of her retina which had to be repaired with a minor surgical procedure. It does happen as we get older the doctor told her. We were glad to be in sunny Florida this morning when the snow arrived but we are suppose to be flying out on Tuesday at 1:55 pm and they are expecting the snow to start in NJ Monday night with an accumulation throughout Tuesday of 5-8 inches. We hardly had any snow this winter by us, and the day we're suppose to fly home we get the most snow all winter! Not sure if we should try and fly out Monday or wait until Wednesday or Thursday whenever they can get us out. We'll lose our DVC points on Monday night but we might have to just do it to ensure we get out. Ugh.
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I've been in Disney World since early Wednesday morning so I haven't been checking the boards daily until now. My heart was hurting for you when I read your postings about your son and Stephanie. I hope your pain lessens as time passes and your memories help you through the dark days. I'm so sorry that you've been having such a difficult time with your eyes and arthritis. My friend has been experiencing the floater problem this past year but she actually had a partial detachment of her retina which had to be repaired with a minor surgical procedure. It does happen as we get older the doctor told her. We were glad to be in sunny Florida this morning when the snow arrived but we are suppose to be flying out on Tuesday at 1:55 pm and they are expecting the snow to start in NJ Monday night with an accumulation throughout Tuesday of 5-8 inches. We hardly had any snow this winter by us, and the day we're suppose to fly home we get the most snow all winter! Not sure if we should try and fly out Monday or wait until Wednesday or Thursday whenever they can get us out. We'll lose our DVC points on Monday night but we might have to just do it to ensure we get out. Ugh.
Thank you so much! The snow we get make actually be slight so my joints are already bothering me less. When I talked to my sister June the other night, she said winter had had it's chance to be winter a few months ago. March was too late for it to be winter now. She got me so tickled.
The day prior to our trip, we’ll check in with Southwest. We did purchase Early Bird so we won’t have to long on exactly 24 hours prior to the flight, but since we’ll be home, we just might anyway.
We haven’t actually settled on an exact time for leaving home, but it will probably be around 9:00 AM CST. We’ll need two and half hours for the car ride to Nashville, and then about a half hour cushion to get the car situated at Executive Travel and Parking and for their shuttle service to transport us to the airport, just about a seven minute ride. Once at the airport, there is the matter of checking our bags and making our way through security. Then we just wait at our gate for the call to board. By the way our flight is set to leave at 2:35 PM CST.
If the flight goes as planned, we should arrive at Orlando International Airport at 5:25 PM EDT. I wouldn’t mind if somehow we managed to land safely a little earlier. From there we’ll make our way to Level 1 Side B. I will be so ready by that point to board the Disney Magicl Express. It has been way too long since our last trip aboard the happy bus. Of course, until we board we’ll have very little idea of where else our bus will need to stop before it safely delivers us to Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House. My hope is that we’ll arrive no later than 6:30, but that is out of our control. By that time, our room should be ready and we’ll check it out, I’ll take a few photos, and then we’ll dump the carry-ons so we can head to Disney Springs.
Our dinner reservation for the evening is for Morimoto Asia at 8:00 PM. Possibly we’ll have a little time before to beginning our explorations, and if we’re not too tired after a filling meal, we may explore some more. We’ve decided that on this trip we are finally going to do Characters in Flight, but we’ve agreed we want to do this during the daylight. With that criteria in mind we may or may not get to this on our first night. We do have several other trips to Disney Springs planned so maybe one of those.
Soon enough we’ll return to AKL, and surely our luggage will have been delivered. I will take time to unpack and then I suspect it will be bedtime. Tomorrow means our first magical park day.
I'm sorry you were feeling down. It happens to me around the anniversary of my husbands death and my best friend's.
You dinner plans sound good. I like that we're short one reservation thing.
The weather here has been crazy. The poor spring flowers are so confused. Tuesday we had high winds come through and now it's cold and snowy again.
Liz
Nice details for your flight plans and arrival in WDW! Great choice for a first night ADR and Morimoto! I dined there on my October trip and my take on it will come in my TR in time! Still 3 days away in my TR!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I will be dining at Morimoto Asia exactly one week before you! I saw Chef Morimoto on the View this week at Animal Kingdom, and it got me excited for my meal there!
Sorry to hear that you've been in pain both emotionally and physically. Never apologize for venting, though--we all need to do it. But you are strong and are an inspiration to so many of us here and IRL.
Great plans you have for your vacation--isn't it funny for those dining reservations just seem to add on sooo easily?
About This Page: 
Everyone needs to vent now and again (you know I do my fair share on FB, especially in the last 2 days). 
Our spring has also been beautiful and extremely early. We are in limbo as to our weather Sat. night as well, possible freezing rain. It's not surprising as we've all been saying to beware! Take care of yourself and pamper yourself a bit while you dream of your upcoming trip to our happy place.
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Pixie Dust
I don't understand it, but it is amazing how much harder it is to lose an hour than to gain one. I'm with you on wanting spring to come and stay! 
Now that the prints are hung, it truly looks like they belong there. 
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