My Very "Meety" Christmas Party - COMPLETED!! 12/15/10 - Page 24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cindy it was so much fun hanging out with you. You made me laugh so much my face hurt by the end of each day. Thank you for being who you are. Your trip report brought me right back to our happy place. I was bawling while I read through the part about the Osborne Lights. It really was a special moment and I'm so happy I was able to spend it with some new great friends. I hope our paths will cross again sometime. You are are special person and I feel so blessed to be able to call you my friend.
Cheers
Sandy, you are so much fun -- your kids are lucky to have you for their mom! I sure hope we can meet again at the Happy Place! Have a wonderful Christmas, dear friend!
yep, cindy is some kind of wonderful rolled up into a great big kid! glad i got to spend a bit of time with you on thursday and friday. we simply must do it again, dahling....dang, i can't believe i missed out on Brown Derby with you...ha ha ha.
yep, cindy is some kind of wonderful rolled up into a great big kid! glad i got to spend a bit of time with you on thursday and friday. we simply must do it again, dahling....dang, i can't believe i missed out on Brown Derby with you...ha ha ha.
Sheri, you would have definitely added to the hilarity at the Brown Derby -- I can always count on you to be too, too fabu! We must have lunch there sometime soon, dahling!
WOW i love the pictures makes me want to be a Disney instead of here working or tyring to work because I am on passporter.com
Yeah, but be grateful you aren't at WDW this week -- have you seen the stories on the record low temps??? Whew -- glad I was there at the beginning of December.
Sunday, Dec. 5 - time to go home & "final" thoughts
Not much left to say, other than I'd pretty much lost my voice (guess it was all that joyful screaming at DHS ), and I felt tired enough that I didn't mind going home on Sunday morning. Of course, I was up late Saturday night trying to cram as much into my check-on bag as possible!
On Sunday I woke up on my own before Mickey and Stitch could call me one last time, and I just kept telling myself "You'll get some sleep on the plane." My heart was still so full and the lobby was pretty empty at 7:30 a.m. so I went up to every Cast Member I could find and handed out $5 bills with a heartfelt "Merry Christmas, and thank you so much!"
Went outside to the Bell Services desk where a very nice young lady kindly weighed my suitcase -- I was afraid it was overweight, but she assured me it was fine. I had planned to eat downstairs, but others were waiting for DME so I joined them and the bus came pretty soon thereafter. Figured I'd try my new favorite place in the airport -- right by Gate 123 in the Southwest wing. I'd enjoyed it for an early supper back in October, and sure enough, they had a breakfast menu.
I ordered French toast, and it was quite good. Of course, I took a for you, dear readers!
Then I had about 2 hours to kill, and I ended up dropping a lot of $$$ at this cart, which of course I knew better than to make purchases at an AIRPORT, but the prices didn't seem bad to me, and I found a beautiful necklace for my mother for Christmas, and I am a total earring junkie, and I bought a few gifts for others back home. And the young lady was so nice to talk to. Bet my purchases made her day! I think she'll be watching for me the next time I come through there -- I always fly SW, so you know I'll be back!
I ended up in a middle seat between two pleasant people -- I was flying direct to St. Louis, but the woman on the window was going all the way to Reno (she said she'd be on that plane a total of 9 hours! ) and the gentleman on the aisle was getting off in Phoenix, so this was simply the first leg of their trips. The three of us alternately and and so that we were in St. Louis in no time at all. The pilot had reported snow on the ground, but I didn't see any, which was fine with me. Of course, it was pretty cold -- in the 20s, I think -- but I was outside for the briefest of minutes and then Rick whisked me away in his car.
And then I was home with great memories that I couldn't wait to share with all of YOU.
My firm has staff meetings on Wednesdays, and this morning I stood up and said, "Well, the Associates said they wanted us to use staff meetings to reveal more about ourselves" and everybody said what is Cindy going to hit us with, and I shared 10 photos from my trip. I said, "No big surprise: I'm a Disney nut. You all know that. I don't expect to make you understand, but I will give you a glimpse into WHY I'm a Disney nut."
I told about the last night at DHS, including running through TSMM and screaming and then silently walking through the backlot streets with tears in my eyes. I shared some of my favorite Osborne Lights shots, and then I talked about Thursday night at the MK and showed how Disney decorates "my" castle during Mickey's party, and everybody thought that looked pretty . I showed the pics of Sheri-David-Nora-Sandy and me in front of the castle when the fireworks began and how magical that was. I mean, how many guests end up with a real-time photo like THIS?
I could see several of my coworkers looking like this: or or or and I said, "I can see several of you are embarrassed for me" and then they because of course I'd hit the nail on the head, and I said, "That's OK, if you want to feel embarrassed for me -- but it doesn't bother me a bit, so you're wasting your embarrassment. I believe in pixie dust and Peter Pan , and I'm not afraid to admit it."
And then I said, "I'm going to end this with a daytime shot of me in front of my castle, and it's my holiday card for YOU. So happy holidays, everybody!" And they all and . So there!
And I think this same photo is the perfect way to "end" my Trip Report (except for answering questions and comments, of course ):
Another Wonderful TR Cindy! it was filled with so many magic moments & lots of pixie dust! you PhotoPass pics ~ I'm glad to see how hard you are working on getting over that shyness . thank you for sharing with us!!
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Oh I love your TRs!!!!!!!!! I feel like I am right there with you on your adventure! Loved all your photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can´t wait until you go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I did a double take when I read where you were from!
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), and I felt tired enough that I didn't mind going home on Sunday morning. Of course, I was up late Saturday night trying to cram as much into my check-on bag as possible!
I had planned to eat downstairs, but others were waiting for DME so I joined them and the bus came pretty soon thereafter. Figured I'd try my new favorite place in the airport -- right by Gate 123 in the Southwest wing. 
for you, dear readers!
) and the gentleman on the aisle was getting off in Phoenix, so this was simply the first leg of their trips. The three of us alternately 
and 
and 
so that we were in St. Louis in no time at all. The pilot had reported snow on the ground, but I didn't see any, which was fine with me. 
Of course, it was pretty cold -- in the 20s, I think -- but I was outside for the briefest of minutes and then Rick whisked me away in his car. 
. I showed the pics of Sheri-David-Nora-Sandy and me in front of the castle when the fireworks began and how magical that was. I mean, how many guests end up with a real-time photo like THIS?
or 
or 
or 
and I said, "I can see several of you are embarrassed for me" and then they 
because of course I'd hit the nail on the head, and I said, "That's OK, if you want to feel embarrassed for me -- but it doesn't bother me a bit, so you're wasting your embarrassment. I believe in pixie dust and Peter Pan 
you PhotoPass pics ~ I'm glad to see how hard you are working on getting over that shyness 
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