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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 love the Food and Wine Fest! You guys are going to have a great time and the Club level opportunities at AKL are fantastic!
Thanks! We're super excited!
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Originally Posted by chezp
Great start - and a woman after my heart, as I'm turning 40 in December and knew immediately that Disney had to be involved in that!
David celebrated his 40th at DLR, so it's practically a family tradition now!
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Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
What a great way to spend your 40. My plans are to spend my 40th at WDW in a year and a half. The F&WF is pretty cool. I hope you enjoy it. I would love to run marathon's but my knees are too bad. Good luck with the race.
Yes, well, the older I get, the less forgiving my knees are! I'm finding that at my advanced age I really need to do the run/walk intervals instead of just mile after mile of pounding on my joints.
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Originally Posted by JKnott17
Great start! F&WF sounds like a great way to celebrate your birthday
Thanks for joining in!
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Originally Posted by mojjo
Great start!!! I'm doing something similar for my 40th next year so I'll be taking notes during your trip report.
I'll try to give all the juicy details!
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Originally Posted by lazanya
Great start!
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Originally Posted by bsblady01
great start
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Sounds wonderful so far! I love all the new things you're doing on this trip-- a great way to celebrate the big 40.
That's one of the things I really love about Disney -- no matter how often you go, there's still always something new and different!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shelley the Pooh
Great start Shayne!
Disney is the best place to turn 40. I did that last year.
The F&WF is awesome! Just remember to pace yourself. There is so much to choose from.
Club level at the AKL is also pretty cool. I love staying there.
I'm looking forward to F&WF, though it's a bit overwhelming trying to plan for all the special events. As much as I love BCV, I am really looking forward to AKL!
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Originally Posted by tdhc
Great start! Sounds like a trip right up our alley, look forward to reading more of your plans.
Thanks for reading along!
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Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Great start, Shayne, and a great way to celebrate your 40th! You'll be there right after my birthday, so will you celebrate for me, too?
Well, ok...if you twist my arm, I might just have a FAB in your honor. When is your birthday?
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Originally Posted by disney_duke
Yay!! Can't wait to hear all about your planning. I did that trip last year, sans 40th celebration, during the same dates. It was a solo trip, with the W&D race, and F&WF foods...... I hope yours turns out to be just as much fun!
Way cool! I'm glad you had a great time, and I'm sure we will too. Someday I'll get brave enough to plan a solo trip...
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Great start! Love you plans. You are staying in the two resorts I have always wanted to stay at. We will someday when we join DVC!
Joining DVC has allowed us to travel to Disney way more often, with the result that we're getting the opportunity to see and do more stuff than before. We joined in 2009, and it's one of the best investments we've ever made!
Awesome way to spend your birthday! So lucky that you all got a 1-bedroom at Epcot because that will be so convenient to F&WF, one of my favorite Disney events. with the half-marathon.
Your plans sound like so much fun! Can't wait to hear more.
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start! What an awesome way to celebrate your birthday!
Thanks for reading! More to come shortly.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Awesome way to spend your birthday! So lucky that you all got a 1-bedroom at Epcot because that will be so convenient to F&WF, one of my favorite Disney events. with the half-marathon.
We were really worried about not being able to get the villa we wanted because we figured there would be high demand for BCV during F&WF. I was so happy when we got exactly what we asked for!
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Originally Posted by Mickeysgal
What a great to way to celebrate your birthday! You're going to love the F&WF!! Looking forward to reading all about it!
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As promised, this installment is about the runDisney portion of our trip.
An old injury: In late 2010, I had completed a half-marathon in San Antonio, my first race of any significant distance since completing the Disney marathon in 2001. I was having so much fun, I decided to run the Houston marathon in January 2011 (and, amazingly, DH and I both got in via the lottery system), but we both got injured about 6 weeks before the race. It turned out that I had an IT band injury that forced me to miss the marathon and kept me out of my running shoes for about 4 months. Once that finally healed, I was ready to go and had been running for about a month when I got plantar fasciitis in my right foot.
I first tried every home remedy I could find on the internet, but by September 2011 the pain was getting worse, not better. I went to see my orthopedist, who gave me a cortisone shot in my foot. It helped for a while, but by November, it was hurting even worse than before. He gave me another cortisone shot, and told me to come back to see him 4 weeks later, which put me at the week before our December Disney World trip. With orthotics in my shoes and prescriptions for pain meds and steroids, just in case I needed them, we headed to Orlando. I managed pretty well and only needed the pain meds once. But the pain persisted after the trip, and the doctor told me to start thinking about surgery.
I have a friend who does neuromuscular therapy, which is sort of an intense, deep pressure massage technique. He was determined to help me avoid surgery and made it his goal to “fix me.” He started working on my leg and foot in November, and after several months of therapy, he eliminated the pain in my foot.
A new race: In the meantime, runDisney announced that the Wine & Dine half-marathon would be moved to the end of F&WF and that a new race, the Tower of Terror 10-Miler, would take its place during the opening weekend of the festival. This was actually great news! The slightly shorter distance will be a bit less difficult to get ready for, and it is actually one of our favorite race distances. David and I signed up for the race when registration opened on Valentine’s Day, even though I still wasn’t able to run at that point.
A goal: So, with the goal of running the inaugural ToT race on September 29th, I tried to start training in April. It was really tough. Having been away from running for over a year, I was literally starting over at square one. I didn’t want to do too much too fast because I didn’t want my foot to rebel. After several weeks, the busy-ness of life (particularly the end of school) got in the way, and I just didn't have time for training.
Once the calendar rolled over to July, DH and I knew that we had to get serious! So, we've been training since the beginning of the month, slowly building our endurance and building up the mileage on our Saturday long runs (5 miles this weekend!). I have found that at my advanced age , I really need to rely on the Jeff Galloway method of run/walking. Otherwise, I tend to get injured. As an added benefit, it's a little easier on me cardio-wise also.
I'm currently doing an interval of 2.5 minutes running/1 minute walking. My overall pace is much slower than it used to be, and it makes me a bit sad. But at least I'm healthy and strong enough to do this, so I'll take it! I've already decided that I'm doing this race to have fun and celebrate my birthday, so I'm going to be stopping for character photos along the way and not worrying too much about my time.
That's the right attitude! Disney races are definitely for the fun of it. Oh, and that dang medal too! Run/walking is the way to go. I've discovered this as well, particularly after my knee surgery. Whatever it takes to finish, and you will finish!
I was hoping to get to the inagural TOT but the airfare didn't go down before the race filled up. My BFF and family will be there for their first Disney trip so it would have been awesome. At least her DH is running the race though!
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Wow, good for you and your attitude! I applaud you and DH for doing this because I am NOT a runner! It just has never interested me in any way, and all that I remember about running while growing up is not being able to make it once around the track (1/4 mile). I'm so glad you were able to "fix" your foot problems! I need to go see your friend...maybe I can get all my sore muscle problems "fixed" too!
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I really need to do the run/walk intervals instead of just mile after mile of pounding on my joints.
When is your birthday?
with the half-marathon. 
It helped for a while, but by November, it was hurting even worse than before. He gave me another cortisone shot, and told me to come back to see him 4 weeks later, which put me at the week before our December Disney World trip. With orthotics in my shoes and prescriptions for pain meds and steroids, just in case I needed them, we headed to Orlando. I managed pretty well and only needed the pain meds once. But the pain persisted after the trip, and the doctor told me to start thinking about surgery.
So, we've been training since the beginning of the month, slowly building our endurance and building up the mileage on our Saturday long runs (5 miles this weekend!). I have found that at my advanced age 
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