A Little Trans-Atlantic Magic - The (somewhat) LIVE TR! -updated 07/03/13 - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh, no. Glad the first flight was comfortable, though. I guess the cancelled flight can't really be blamed on going standby, but I guess it'll make finding a spot on another flight more difficult. This is going to be a looong day.
So we're still sitting here - now at gate C113... the next flight to Houston leaves at 840pm, though I'm not holding out ANY hope for THAT one. There's another at 930pm'ish, and that one SHOULD be no problem for us to get on. Then we'll get to a hotel and zonk out for a few hours, and be back for the 730am flight home.
And can I tell you that my day BEGAN with my kid puking on me in a cab?
At least the flight over the pond was easy. When the best part of your day is an 8 hour flight in economy, you know your day isn't shaping up well, lol! But I got to watch three movies I was really wanting to watch, so I was quite glad for that opportunity!
I honestly have no idea how I'm going to stay awake for the next few hours... I'd work on my TR but I'm so irritable that everything I'd say would be negative, just because I'm grumpy.
Oh my gosh... they're now announcing that there are massive runway delays thanks to the rain that's pouring down. I'm never going home, am I? LOL!
If only you'd known of this, you could have stayed in Paris longer!
I've travelled standby before as well (former travel agent!) so I know how this game goes. It's frustrating to say the least. But I did all that pre-kids, I can't imagine how you're doing this with Meri as well!!
Get home soon!!!
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Ugh, you didn't mention the puke part of the trip on FB - or if you did, I missed it. YUCK! So, was your flight from Newark always routing through Houston?
I would have opted to overnight in Newark, only because you must be so tired with the time difference. Hope the sweet tea is still helping a little with the crankiness!
It really does sound like a nightmare! When you first posted about the problems in Newark I was hoping you wouldn't get stuck in the heavy rains that are headed up the coast. They're due here in a few hours. And what a way to start the day with Meri sick in the cab! I don't know how you're still upright.
Melanie sent a text to Jeannie (Dlandmom2) just before 9:30 saying that they were on the flight to Houston. She also asked Jeannie to e-mail me to let me know! Now I can go to bed. I hope they're soon in Houston and able to get a hotel room for a bit of sleep before going the rest of the way home. What a long trip!
Ok, just got home from work a little while ago (my late shifts seem to be getting later and later, lol!).
Hopefully you'll be landing in Houston soon if you're not there already. When I passed on your message to Laurie, I didn't know if you were going to try to connect home. Sounds like you're going to stay in Houston overnight, so hopefully you'll get a bit of rest. Hang in there!!!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
It's a little after 1:00am and I just got into the hotel in Houston. What a go of it!
We boarded at 8:30am'ish, and Meri and I got the last two seats on the plane - the wonderful gate agent managed to get us in the same row, but both middle seats. Meri was a little anxious about not sitting beside me, but I reassured her and went over the "rules". LOL! I just knew that no one would switch an aisle or window seat for a middle, so I didn't even bother to ask anyone. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The man in the aisle seat beside Meri immediately looked up and offered to switch when he figured out what the situation was. I told him no because I had a middle seat, and he said he didn't care. It was economy plus, so I guess he figured he'd have some room anyway. I was so touched, and frankly I'm surprised I didn't cry right then and there. It was a huge relief for both myself and Meri.
Meri took the aisle, and I took the middle, and she curled right up against me and was out before we even took off. We sat at the gate for quite a while because the pilot wasn't there yet. Then we sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes because they had to rearrange our flight plan due to nasty storms in our path. Then he told us we'd be about an hour late due to the reroute. FINALLY we took off... no idea what time it was. Once we were off the ground, I fell asleep awkwardly, and slept on and off for the entire flight.
We made up time in the air, and landed at a little after 12am. I called mom immediately, and she was so relieved. I know she was anxiously awaiting our landing. Poor thing was just as tired as us, but at least she could be tired at home in PJ's. Since Meri had thrown up on me in the cab (24 long hours ago, lol), I had been forced to change at the airport in Paris from my comfy velour sweats to my skinny jeans. Not how I wanted to travel, but it was the closest thing for me to get at in my suitcase. *sigh*
Now, of course, I'm in the same clothes that I wore all day... and I'll wear them to go home. Lovely. Good thing it was chilly in the airport and the plane, so I didn't sweat!
We have two choices for the flight tomorrow... the 7am and the 10am. Both are wide open. But I'm taking the 7am one simply because with my luck if I take the extra few hours of sleep, something will go wrong with the 10 and I'll be stuck here another day.
Oh and get this, they gave me a freakin jacuzzi suite. LOL! And yes, I plan on using the jacuzzi in about 5 minutes after I hit "post quick reply". I hurt all over. Then I'm going to get about 4 hours of sleep, and then it's off home. At least it's not a long flight, and I'll be able to sleep the second I get home...
So... goodnight all... I'll touch base hopefully from Memphis!!! Thanks for keeping me company on this ridiculous journey! What kills me is that while Standby is always a bit of a crapshoot... it's typically not THIS bad, where I can't get on a single flight to ANY city... the storm systems really really hurt us, and we were just in the wrong airport at the wrong time I guess.
I hope everyone in the path of the storms is fine, though - that's more important than me missing a few flights!
Glad you have made it one stop closer and that you have a bed for now even if it isn't for long. Hopefully next time you post will be from home. Also glad Nadine made it home safe.
*yawn* Ok I'm awake. Coffee is brewing in my nice little suite, lol. Meri is awake, and eating an apple. What an amazing trooper. She only cried once yesterday, and that was when she found out that Grandma got on an airplane to Memphis and didn't say goodbye to her, and then she was upset that we were all separated. I calmed her down quickly, and she was perfectly fine after that. I don't know how she does it when *I* am ready to melt down.
We have to be downstairs in 45 minutes for the shuttle. *yawn* I look like a zombie, and my cosmetic bag, of course, is now at home. Oh well. Hopefully there's a McDonald's open at the airport in our terminal, so I can get REAL coffee and she can get a cinnamon roll (her ultimate breakfast treat).
Good luck with the first flight! I'm going to be holding my breath until I get home and can check PP or FB to see where you are!!
As I said last night, the one good thing is that you should be on Paris time still, so this doesn't feel as early, and Meri is wide awake.