The Princesses and the Dad: A Pre-Trip Report! UPDATED 4/15 - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I am amazed that you and Luke are old enough to have a 24 year old daughter! Tell her I turn a whopping 36 on March 26th! And I'm totally bummed that we won't be there in June but Bethany will be too pregger huge. I'll have to take a picture of her and post it. hahahaha
I hope we can come in October though!
You are so sweet, but I'm 51 and Luke is 49. In fact Luke will turn the big 50 in October. Stefanie is very excited for you two and thinks Garrett is an awesome name.
Great plans!! Love the couple of birthday surprises you have planned!! And what a great idea to focus them on the little things at AK with a hidden Mickey hunt!! (I may have to steal that for a future trip ).
I'm not sure what time you were planning on Beaches & Cream but when we stayed at BC in November, we got sundaes from B&C in the evening and then hit the lounges on the beach. They usually have a Disney movie playing at night and we watched the movie on a blow up screen and ate ice cream. Lots of fun! Or if you stay at B&C, maybe the 3 of you can tackle the 'Kitchen Sink' sundae!!
I'm not sure what time you were planning on Beaches & Cream but when we stayed at BC in November, we got sundaes from B&C in the evening and then hit the lounges on the beach. They usually have a Disney movie playing at night and we watched the movie on a blow up screen and ate ice cream. Lots of fun! Or if you stay at B&C, maybe the 3 of you can tackle the 'Kitchen Sink' sundae!!
I called my TA today and added the quick service dining plan to our stay. After pricing things out, I found that I could save at least $100 when you consider the 2 snacks that I would inevitably buy anyways and the refillable mugs.
I really considered splurging for the sit down meals after figuring out it is only about $120 difference. However that doesn't include tips and loss of time in the parks while sitting down. In addition, no guarantee to getting any good reservations. Once I mentioned that to the girls, they agreed that the few hundred difference was better spent on Vinylmations! haha!
We used the QSDP for a few nights of our trip at the beginning of Feb. And loved it!
Look on Allears.net for restaurant menus, there are lots of great places to get more than just burgers and chicken strips. Of course all DS eats is pizza, chicken strips, grilled cheese and hot dogs, so he was fine. But I wanted more. You can also get desserts that are wrapped up for snacks later on.
At some places I noticed that the kids chicken nuggets are different from the adult chicken nuggets, so I'd order DS the nicer and bigger adult portion.
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And I'm totally bummed that we won't be there in June but Bethany will be too pregger huge. I'll have to take a picture of her and post it. hahahaha
). 
Susan
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