Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 - Page 22 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Bill was so wonderful sharing his photography knowledge! I will always remember whenever he told me 'nice shot!' and how it made me so happy! One of those 'nice shots' now hangs on my wall, using an idea in the printing he suggested!
Getting hotels in big cities now is like booking cruises. You have to book way in advance, or try last minute to get the good prices. Hope you got a Toronto hotel that's in a good walking location - it makes a huge difference! We stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle and walked everywhere. It was perfect. (we didn't go to Loma though)
The pieces are slowly starting to fall into place now.... the trip is looking pretty good!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Great update Cheryl! I know what you mean about Bill helping you with photographs. He gave me some advice about dark sky photography right before he died - for my trip to Big Bend National Park since there was an eclipse the night we would be up in the mountains. I wrote it down as a note on my desktop of my laptop... its still there. I just can't bring myself to remove the file.
I can understand that and I'd hold on to it too if I was you. It's a good reminder of him.
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Thanks for the reminder to have Chris take his navy hat with us to Magic Kingdom for opening. I'd completely forgotten about that.
With the fact that you have a waterfront bungalow, I think I'd just enjoy that on Friday evening! Make use of that great dump of points. Or, go hang out at Trader Sam's Grog Grotto!
Ah well, all I'll say is there are changes afoot and for a good reason...
Bill was so wonderful sharing his photography knowledge! I will always remember whenever he told me 'nice shot!' and how it made me so happy! One of those 'nice shots' now hangs on my wall, using an idea in the printing he suggested!
Wow! What a wonderful trip you guys have planned. I am devastated that I will not be able to join you for the WDW trip. I miss Bill.
I'm very sad you can't join us, but can I just double check you won't be joining us... I mean you do have a bit of a history of changing your vacation plans, you know?
All joking apart, I miss him too. I'm looking forward to this trip, but there are parts that are going to be very tough as well.
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Getting hotels in big cities now is like booking cruises. You have to book way in advance, or try last minute to get the good prices. Hope you got a Toronto hotel that's in a good walking location - it makes a huge difference! We stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle and walked everywhere. It was perfect. (we didn't go to Loma though)
It's almost as if people have worked out you need to plan in advance. Ugh - don't they realise that's a closely guarded secret? Well, there's still a lot to come on the subject of the Toronto hotel, but yes, got there in the end and I think it is pretty much within walking distance of a lot of places.
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The pieces are slowly starting to fall into place now.... the trip is looking pretty good!
I think it will be wonderful, although it has taken a lot of planning...
I'm finally getting a chance to read through your pre-trip report. As usual - it seems that you have an epic vacation planned on our side of the pond. I love to read your planning journey - you have a knack for capturing reader's attention.
I did want to say that although Canada may have a better exchange rate, you may want to be cognizant of sales taxes. Ontario currently charges 13%!!
Merrimack Premium Outlets doesn't currently have a Bath and Body Works shop, but you'll likely be driving right by the Mall of NH, on Route 293, as you head towards Maine. There is a shop there - and when you combine their sales, with a coupon code (I currently have a 20% off offer, valid for the month of September), and my lovely states lack of any sales tax - SOLD!
That way, you can save your cash for fun on your travels, and still smell nice.
I'm so looking forward to getting together with good friends - but there will certainly be some sad and difficult moments. Bill was a special person - and will never be forgotten.
^^
Good point. Sales tax in Canada is really high - especially Quebec!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Oh trust me, I am not forgetting him! But seriously, to have an Olympic champion twice over in a sport you've never had an Olympic champion in before is just amazing - I didn't even realise until Sunday night that we'd never got gold before in gymnastics. Talk about history being made and in fairness, Andy Murray made history too - the first to win two men's singles titles in the tennis in the Olympics.
There have certainly been changes since I wrote this with who can come and who can't come. It seems to happen all the time. For us, once the flights are booked, that's an end to things, as they cost so much. That's why I like to get them booked, as then we have to go. Tough life, huh?
I guess because maybe they walk into their local restaurants any day of the year and get seated? That's the only thing I can think of and, in fairness, if you like in a small town, maybe you can do that, but even in most cities these days, if you want to eat in a specific, good restaurant, I'd book those in advance as well.
Certainly amazing with Andy as he's not only my favorite tennis player but probably one of my favorite athletes overall! He's a real class act as I think I may have said before! Very strange with the USA not ever winning a mens' singles title in tennis before considering how many great players the USA has had and perhaps many of the top ones have not appeared! The latter is ridiculous and only one reason they don't appear and that is $$$! Time to put your ego away and represent your country, which to me is much more important as you have enough!
Good points on the flights as perhaps many can't commit until the last moment, but not like me or you for sure being the planners that we are!
True with people in the restaurants, but with Disney you need to adjust and make those adrs!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 08-17-2016 at 10:28 PM..
Sorry to hear about your credit card and hope all is well with that now! Nice going with the rest of the plans and better yet with Cirque du Soleil as their shows are just amazing! I've only seen La Nouba up til now but want to eventually see the one in NY, I think called Paramour, which I'm sure will be great!
Just hope you will have a lot of PPs for the meets in remembrance of Bill as it seems so many are not committed yet! You still have a good 5 weeks or so...so hopefully, no worries!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I thinking watching Hallowishes from your bungalow will be awesome! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Well, there's still a lot to come on the subject of the Toronto hotel, but yes, got there in the end and I think it is pretty much within walking distance of a lot of places. 
Time to put your ego away and represent your country, which to me is much more important as you have enough!
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