Have Pen, Will Travel: A Solo Trip Report--Includes Dining and CSR Reviews and Photos! - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Did you buy the wine at the airport? Or at the CSR shop? Can't wait to read about your solo trip--I love traveling solo (don't tell my roommate--I love traveling with him too). There is just something special about being on your own time and doing what ever you want to do!
the wine was from the CSR shop--they even open it for you (you'll learn why this is important later...) for the record, i also stopped for a sandwich. though the wine was more important.
When I saw this come up, I did a little dance of joy!! So excited to read about your whirlwind solo trip (even though I followed along on your live blog).
I was excited to see you stayed at CSR. We are staying there in Oct and I am really nervous about the bus service. Can't wait to here about your experience!
I'm working on the next few posts, but first a few notes...
1. I've decided to include everything--dining reviews, lodging reviews etc.--in the 'story' of my trip as they occur. So, for example, when I reach a point in my trip report where I have lunch, I will stop and do a full dining review. I'll set these parts apart in bold, so if you are not interested in dining reviews, you can skip them! (But really, who isn't interested in dining reviews?)
2. Because of the time involved with uploading and resizing photos (unless I figure out how to do it more quickly on my mac), I'm only including them when necessary--for example, photos of food and/or lodging. That photo of the traffic I posted in the first post--yeah, that didn't need to be there (and I need to resize it when I get home!) If you want more photos and haven't already done so, you can check out the blog I kept 'in real time' when traveling, at www.virtualpassenger.wordpress.com. It is very photo-heavy, as posting photos was easier than typing with my thumbs.
3. Sorry this is taking me so long to do--I have at least one more post written that I did whilst eating breakfast this morning but didn't have time to post before I left for work (and I'm writing this on my lunch break!) I promise I will get on the ball asap!
I was excited to see you stayed at CSR. We are staying there in Oct and I am really nervous about the bus service. Can't wait to here about your experience!
as you will see in the next post i'm posting, the bus service was THE BEST part of CSR! i'm sure you'll have a great trip!
looking forward to reading and seeing more! did follow your blog and thought - what a BRAVE woman! I would love to do a solo trip, but I also think I would feel guilty!!! (Have a DH and DD that both LOVE Disney too!).
So glad to hear that you had a nice experience with DME - I am using them for the first time in May with my girls only trip (as a family, we usually rent a car) and we are trying to do only carry on luggage - another first! So I am LEARNING so much from you! (just read your thread about packing light!!!)
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
looking forward to reading and seeing more! did follow your blog and thought - what a BRAVE woman! I would love to do a solo trip, but I also think I would feel guilty!!! (Have a DH and DD that both LOVE Disney too!).
So glad to hear that you had a nice experience with DME - I am using them for the first time in May with my girls only trip (as a family, we usually rent a car) and we are trying to do only carry on luggage - another first! So I am LEARNING so much from you! (just read your thread about packing light!!!)
i'm more crazy than i am brave! but thanks! and there's no reason to feel guilty doing a solo trip--moms need to recharge, you know. but i have to admit to feeling a little guilty each night when i talked to my husband on the phone--he was jealous of some of my adventures! i sent him many photos of me in the star wars area of DHS.
i hope you have a similarly great DME experience. i'm using it again in may with my mom for our mother-daughter trip, but only in one direction (as i'm going from AKL to RPR at universal via a taxi). and i need to warn you--light packing is addictive! i'm glad you could get some pointers from my trip. i feel like i learned a lot, too--and i'm using all of that knowledge to make the mother-daughter trip as magical as humanly possible!
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