On the Road Again----SOON "In search of SNOW and FLOWERS" - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Terrific plans! You're making me think it's time to take some of these tours again. Wild by Design is my favorite of any tour I've taken, except for the Wild Africa Trek. I like it even better than the Backstage Safari.
Great plans! We really enjoyed the Wild by Design tour and I have to be honest, I've been thinking about doing Keys to the Kingdom tour again, as it's probably about 10 years since we last did it - and let's face it, you never know what you're going to find in the Utilidors, so that varies on every tour.
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How did you like the Backstage Safari tour? I did that one several years ago and got to see and touch a white rhino.. Bad thing no pix while in that area. Loved that tour.
We loved the Backstage Safari tour, and got up close to the white rhino, but he was tad unruly that day, so no touching. The no pictures rule is a downer.
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Here are the plans for the second week of our trip. Only a few hours less than 19 days before we are checked in. The excitement is building fast.
4/5 Saturday: We are going to Epcot for the “Flower and Garden Festival” with lunch at the Coral Grill (another first.) We also hope to find a place to watch Illuminations where we can get some good pix. I have tried this many times but have never got the results I want.
4/6 Sunday: We will start with early church and then move to either DHS or AK.
4/7 Monday: Back to MK for an extremely early start. We will have to go the Contemporary to use their parking lot and then walk over to MK. We have to be at the park entrance by 7:30 am for the “Behind the Steam Trains” tour. Yes, this is another first. We will probably leave the resort shortly after 6 to make sure that we are on time. We can’t be late for this one.
4/8 Tuesday: We will start the day early at AK. Our plans are to enjoy the Safari early and then the shows. OK, I will be jumping on the rides again. The single rider queue at EE sounds like the best idea and then I can hope for some FP+s for some of the others. We will try to get any characters we missed earlier in the week and possibly a trip back to the vet window at Rafiki’s. We may miss the parade and go back to the resort for some pool time and to get ready for dinner. We have an ADR at 6:35 for Boatwright’s at POR (another first.)
4/9 Wednesday: This is planned as a shopping day off property. I have a restaurants.com coupon for a Japanese restaurant at the north end of International Dr. and I plan on going there if we haven’t used it earlier in the trip. Who knows we may start in a park early and then go shopping in the afternoon and evening?
4/10 Thursday: This is our last park day and will be spent at Epcot chasing princesses, flowers, butterflies and food. We also have a ressie for the “Behind the Seeds” tour at 11:15. This will be a first for DW. Once again, I will be trying for some pix of Illuminations.
4/11 Friday: We will be checking out from the resort early and heading up the road. Next stop is Hardeeville, SC for the night.
4/12 Saturday: We will leave early and take a leisurely drive home. I have purposefully set the drive today to be only about 3 hours. This way we can get home early and get unpacked and rest before Sunday Palm Sunday services and the start of another work week.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
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We really enjoyed the Wild by Design tour and I have to be honest, I've been thinking about doing Keys to the Kingdom tour again, as it's probably about 10 years since we last did it - and let's face it, you never know what you're going to find in the Utilidors, so that varies on every tour.
Deb
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