Make your choice Adventurous Stranger...A Goin Solo PTR - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mike, I can't remember the first time I heard that (it was the 6Ps unedited for television version) but it still cracks me up!! Needed that at 8:30am. Thankyouverymuch.
My alarm went off at 4:30am (why is my alarm going off before 6am and I'm NOT going to Disney???) and I crawled out of bed like I was 110 years old. A quick wash of the face, brush of the teeth, grabbed my backpack and over to Jennie #1 & Joe's house. It was good to see I was not the only Crabby Patty that morning. We double checked the hitch (my fear of the trailer flying off the truck and/or blowing out a tire never left me the whole trip) and off we were. 5am.
In case you're wondering why we didn't just rent the trailer up in Jersey and haul it only one way.... That decision would have cost $525 + tax & fees. To haul it both ways cost me $132 all said and done.
For those of you that were following on Facebook, we checked in at every available Gowalla point for the next 12 hours. Not much to do besides that and sleep. The trip up was uneventful with the exception of me knocking over an employee of the gas station we stopped at in Virginia. I didn't mean it, I just was squeezing past him (he was filling up the candy station and I was looking for lifesavers) when he attempted to stand up but he smashed into me instead causing him to lose his balance and do a face plant on the floor. I apologized several times while attempting to help him up but he just gave me the look of death and slinked away.
We only stopped once for food (Shoney's in NC) twice for gas (aforementioned VA and PA) and made it to the hotel in NJ around 5:30pm. We stayed at Fairfield Inn Suites within walking distance of the highway (exit 3 off 287). Really clean room with the most comfortable beds! We just sat around like bumps on a log watching the news talk about the heat wave crippling the Garden State. 108 degrees (heat index 115) We made a wise decision to arrive at the storage facility at 6am the next morning to beat the heat. We would have gotten there in the middle of the night but it didn't open until 6am.
Around 8pm we drove (with the trailer) to Menlo Park Mall so we could meet up with Erica (yes, the same Erica from our Feb 30-40-30-40 WDW trip - she actually turned 30 while at Disney). We went to Fox & Hound for some beers, appetizers and darts. If anyone reading this has a F&H near them, this is THE BEST place to watch NFL games on Sundays. I wish we had one close to me. We wrapped up our evening around 11pm and I think we were out cold before our heads hit the pillows.
Up next: There is no way on God's green earth that's gonna fit
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Last edited by jennie622; 07-29-2011 at 09:31 AM..
Saturday, July 23 - How on God's green earth is this gonna fit??
5:30am the alarm went off and once again I was wondering why I was waking so early without the purpose of making rope drop. Shoot me! Moving a bit slower than the previous morning, we brushed our teeth and that was it. We didn't see the reason for showering when we were definitely going to need another one in a few hours.
We approached the access keypad within 15 minutes of leaving the hotel and crossed our fingers the number I had on my original contract still worked. If not, it would be another two hours until someone showed up to let us in. It worked!! It took me a second or two to remember which building my stuff was in and it took another minute to remember which door I should park next to. Then it took another minute to remember where my unit was. I knew I should have written that info down.
Once we found the unit, I panicked a wee bit. What if I had the wrong key??? Again, luck was on my side. The key fit and I removed the lock, leaving the keys in it and placed it on the window sill. However, that is the point my luck ran out. Once I swung open the door my heart sank. Every square inch of my 5x10 storage unit was occupied. Sure, we had a 6x12 trailer but I do not recall stacking items about 10 feet high!!!! Picture the three of us standing there peering into the darkness thinking the same thing. " Is it hot in here??" Yes, it was. On the second floor, sans air conditioning, no air movement and a unit in between two windows with the sun rising. We suddenly felt the overwhelming heat hit us like a wave. We had to move fast.
We started removing items and placing them left or right (left side = I could leave it behind/right side = coming with us). I had rejoiced at the fact I would be saving $75 a month getting rid of the unit, now I had to kick around the idea of keeping it. First items to tackle were the baker's rack and kitchen table/chairs. I quickly found the box that held my allan keys (kudos to me for labeling EVERYTHING) and we decended like a pack of wolves. FYI, you know all those allan keys you get with every item that has assembly required? save them, you never know when you and two of your friends might be in a storage unit at 6am tearing apart a baker's rack. Even though it was 6:30am, the heat was unbearable. Within minutes we looked like we had just stepped out of the shower. Of course, we forgot to bring water too!
It took us about 20 minutes to bust down 4 chairs, a table and the rack. All screws were placed in a ziploc, we'd figure out which went to what at a later time. We just needed to get the trailer loaded and into some air conditioning. The storage facility had two flatbed dollys for use and we took about 10 loads worth downstairs (luckily there was an elevator) where we separated it into stacks (fragile, heavy, furniture odd shaped stuff) Once we emptied out the unit, we shut the door and moved our party downstairs to enjoy the fan conviently placed above the exit door. We took turns standing in the breeze to keep from passing out.
Jennie #1 and I did most of the moving of the furniture due to the low head room in the trailer (I must have bumped my head at least a dozen times - there was no way Joe would fit without bending double). I had picked up some of those Forearm Forklifts at Home Depot before we left and they definitely work. They just kept slipping from our elbow down to our wrists due to sweat. There were a couple of times we all got dizzy and had to pause to regain our balance. Insane, that is what it was but it kept us moving because we knew it would only get hotter as the morning progressed.
Suddenly, we all realized we had more room that we previously thought, nothing would have to be left behind. There were a few items I would not be needing and I ran (ok crawled) over to the office which was open by that point and asked if they had the number to Salvation Army or Goodwill. He informed me that neither organizations take anything but monetary donations due to the high cost of storing the donated items. He did offer me some water (I did look afright) and the use of the restrooms. I called to Jennie #1 and Joe to come on in and enjoy the air conditioning while I was checking out. We drank about 1/4 of the 5 gallon jug he just placed in the water cooler. After recieving my $64 deposit refund check (wow! went up $11 / month in three years!!) we hopped in the truck and headed back to the hotel.
We arrived back in time to take advantage of the continental breakfast when it hit us. We had emptied out the unit and loaded the trailer/truck in 2.5 hours!!! Must have been a record! We must have looked like monsters (and smelled like 'em too) because there wasn't one person in that room who stood within 5 feet of us. We didn't give a hoot. We were hungry and thirsty and tired. I alone ate a Jimmy Dean bacon, egg & cheese muffin, a ham & cheese quiche, a decaf coffee, a orange juice, a cranberry juice and a milk!!!
While stuffing my face, I looked over at my Baggalini and noticed one of the zippers was open. The zipper to where I kept my keys. You know, the key to my storage unit AND my house keys. The keys that were still (I hoped) on the window sill on the second floor of building 4 at the storage facility!!! I called the storage office and told him about my keys and he went up and got them for me and held them until we went back to get them. Could you imagine if I forgot the keys?!?!? We would have driven 12 hours and have been standing at my door 706 miles away and realized I left my keys in Jersey. THAT would have been bad. REAL bad.
I called the storage place back and asked if we could pick up my keys later in the day, we were in need of showers and sleep. No prob. I'm not much of a fan of indoor pools (smell of chlorine and the humidity that builds inside is gross) but I was that day! Funny, the temperature of the hot tub (104) was cooler than the outside temperature. We soaked ourselves for about 20 minutes and floated in the pool (refreshing coolness) for another 15.
Once we had showered, we did absolutely nothing. We turned on the tv, Joe fired up his laptop to do some work and I passed out cold. It wasn't even noontime!
up next: We haven't had a meal this good since Cali Grill!!!
You guys are amazing! You got everything unloaded, rearranged, repacked and even got in a swim before noon! Glad everything fit, and that you found your keys BEFORE leaving Jersey!
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Picture the three of us standing there peering into the darkness thinking the same thing. " Is it hot in here??" 
Yes, it was. On the second floor, sans air conditioning, no air movement and a unit in between two windows with the sun rising. We suddenly felt the overwhelming heat hit us like a wave. We had to move fast.
First items to tackle were the baker's rack and kitchen table/chairs. I quickly found the box that held my allan keys (kudos to me for labeling EVERYTHING) and we decended like a pack of wolves. FYI, you know all those allan keys you get with every item that has assembly required? save them, you never know when you and two of your friends might be in a storage unit at 6am tearing apart a baker's rack. Even though it was 6:30am, the heat was unbearable. Within minutes we looked like we had just stepped out of the shower. Of course, we forgot to bring water too!
He did offer me some water (I did look afright) and the use of the restrooms. I called to Jennie #1 and Joe to come on in and enjoy the air conditioning while I was checking out. We drank about 1/4 of the 5 gallon jug he just placed in the water cooler. After recieving my $64 deposit refund check (wow! went up $11 / month in three years!!) we hopped in the truck and headed back to the hotel.
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