Passing through the Panama Canal - a Passporter's Tale **Updated 8/21** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well, it's almost time for you to disembark.....I'm sorry to see your cruise end! I've loved being a part of it with your updates! Can't wait to read the whole report! Hope you enjoyed your last evening on the ship!
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I hate reality... it tends to intrude at the worst times - like today. We woke up at 530am this morning - and were already slowing and heading for the dock in the port of Los Angeles. We got up, took showers and finished getting everything into our suitcases. I headed up to Topsiders for breakfast, while Lesley headed up to Shutters to get her reprints. We had to be in the Walt Disney theatre at 730am with the "early" debark group.We made it to the theatre, were seated and about 815, they signaled that we could debark. We made it through customs and border control, were allowed re-entry to the USA, and headed down to grab our heavy suitcases and get to our bus to the airport. That all went very easily and right at 9am - were pulling into LAX. After getting checked in - and a few items re-arranged in my bags so that they both weighed 50 lbs (although my garment bag scale said it weighed 48.1 lbs... the airport scale said 50) - we dropped the bags at TSA, went through security in about 10 minutes and then headed to find gates and breakfast.
We opted for some mexican food for breakfast (churizzo and eggs - YUM) and finally parted ways - since our gates were no where near each other. I am sure that after 17 days - Lesley is ready for some space... I know that if I'd had to be with me for 17 days - I would need space.
So - here I sit in the airport - I went ahead and found a plug for the laptop, paid my $10.00 for 24-hour access and am culling through all the emails and crud that I had been ignoring for the last 15 nights. I also turned my cell phone on for the firs time and actually had 3 voicemails I need to respond to. JOY.
My flight from LAX (via Las Vegas) lands in JAX at 1000pm tonight - and I will leave my bags downstairs tonight and deal with them tomorrow - well that is the end of the live updates for the Panama Canal transit trip - I will have the full trip report to start (who knows - may be I will have some time while starting the mountain of laundry tomorrow).
Thanks for the live updates, it's been fun "going" with you. I've really enjoyed your adventures, I'll be looking forward to the Trip Report with pictures. Have a safe flight home.
Thanks for all the live updates Terri - it's been wonderful to follow your trip as it happens. What a shame it's now over and it's back to real life, but I'm really looking forward to reading the full trip report.
thanks for sharing your journey with us, Terri, and add me to the list of those anxious for the full TR with pictures! It's been lots of fun and I've learned a couple of things along the way. (I love your new sig photo, you look phenominal!)
I know how depressing it is to get off the ship after the cruise. I'm still depressed especailly since last week at this time we were still at Castaway Cay.
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Previous trips: POFQ 2005 & 2007, Boardwalk 2008, BCV & AKLV 2009 (our honeymoon) & 2012, BCV & BLT 2011, BCV 2013, AKLV 2014
, it was great getting to enjoy your trip with you...
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