Don't Stop - the Pocono mountains section COMPLETED - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thursday 31 December – part four: happy new year with quite a party!
After that, we got inundated by people, including some of Sue’s family and Steve’s family and their friends. All were great and we had so much fun with all of them.
I think it’s fair to say that as the night progressed, people were getting the worse for wear. Poor old Dave was run off his feet and did a really sterling job of keeping everyone filled up with drinks.
The night went by really quickly and, before we knew it, it was midnight and we got to watch the ball drop at Times Square for the first time ever. I’m sorry, but I was really disappointed by this. All the major cities in the world, London included, do amazing fireworks displays and we were half expecting the same from New York City, but there wasn’t anything like that, which was a bit of a shame. I knew that it’s tradition, but even so.... I also found it a bit freaky that we had celebrated new year and they kept celebrating new year and they kept cutting to Las Vegas, who had a good couple of hours before they were due to celebrate it. I can’t begin to imagine what that must be like. On that subject, I can see that I’m glad to find that new year’s TV here is just as bad as it is at home. It’s full of people desperately trying to fill the time until midnight.
Anyway, back to the party.... I won’t say much more about it, except to say that I think these photos (which have been edited to preserve some people’s modesty / reputations... ), should give you some of the story....
”Is it over yet?
Proof I was there!
I also videoed the arrival of new year itself, as Steve had, by now, completely deserted his videoing duties. I’m sure he’ll be really happy with the footage I managed to shoot... at least I hope so!
I managed to stay awake until 1.00 and then it was too much for me. I was just in too much pain with my back hurting, so I headed off to bed. I didn’t know at the time, but Sue apparently kept yelling at everyone to quieten down, after I went up to bed, which was sweet of her, but Mark told me that no-one really paid much attention to her.... It was fine, as I did actually fall asleep, despite all the noise from the jukebox downstairs.
Mark crawled up to bed and told me it was 3.45 when he did so and apparently that was the point at which everyone gave up and went to bed. I was very impressed that he managed to stay up that late, but at that time, I wasn’t really interested in hearing about it at that time. :
The weather today was snow, but later dry and sunny, with temperatures in the high 20s. The best thing today was Sue and Steve’s new year party. The worst thing today was the lack of good souvenir books on the Pocono mountains. The funniest thing today was the state of everyone at the party. Today we tried going to Panera Bread for lunch And the result was it was a great place to eat. The most magical moment today was seeing all the snow first thing in the morning.
Ok, so that's New Year's Eve finished with - there are still a couple more installments to come in this trip report, but you'll have to wait until we're back from our French trip next weekend for those.
Oh...you're going to leave us hanging? That's okay...I hope you guys have a safe trip! Will we be getting a new TR for this trip as well?
As for New Years in NYC. I never was a big fan of watching the ball drop either. I mean, I still watch it because it's tradition, but I never quite understood what possessed those people to stand in that crowd for hours upon hours just to see a ball drop. And don't even get me started on wondering how they possibly get to a bathroom if they have to go???
Wow, that looked like quite the party! I am curious to see how the next morning was...
Chez will give you the big update, but one of our STRICTEST rules is you don't drink and drive at our house. Even when graduated from college and had a house party, his friends brought along 3 designated drivers. That's not a liability we are willing to take. We have futons all over, couches, and plentyt of floor space if neccessary.
In keeping with that tradition, it was quite a full house the next morning....
What a great way to celebrate New Year's Eve. I will admit that watching the Time Square ball drop on TV is nothing exciting except watching thousands of people freezing as they kept popping to the warmer celebrations in CA and LV, I did actually go a few times years ago but standing in the middle of a crowd when it was freezing really did not do it for me either....I agree some fireworks would be nice
I loved seeing the pics from the New Years Eve party Cheryl! Sure looks like Sue and Steve sure know how to throw a good party. Enjoy your trip to France. I'm looking forward to reading about that trip too.
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