8 days and the kids still don't know!!!! - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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When we surprised our kids, we woke them up with video camera in hand. DS didn't believe me until I showed him the suitcases all packed and DD got right out of bed and started running around the house in excitement.
I say wait until you wake them up. They will have gotten a good nights sleep and they will be so excited and have something to talk about on the trip.
On the flight down to Orlando, the kids asked so many questions about what we were doing that it seemed like it took no time at all to get to WDW.
Have a great trip and congrats on keeping the surprise. It will be so worth it when you see their reactions.
Oh, I wish I had thought to keep our next trip a surprise! Of course when DD found out about her surprise visit to the BBB she got mad at me for lying to her . I vote for waking them up with a big "Get up were are going to Disney! "
And make sure to let us know their reacations! I got all teary eyed just reading this post!
My sister and I are doing the same thing for our kids on our June 4th trip (can't believe we have kept it a secret since last August!!) Tinkerbell will be leaving presents (a tradition in our house, and the sign that it is time to go to Disney!) and we will wake them up early and have the presents on the breakfast table, they will know what happens next. We have surprised our DS before and it was sooooo fun!!!
Ms. Butterfly-
Thanks for the link to the phone site, I think I will incorporate a call from Mickey into our surprise.
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Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, in the most delightful way!
We've surprised our kids twice now. Once, we left right on time to drive them to school. Normally both of us wouldn't drive them to school but they really didn't notice. At one point, my son looked at the clock and mentioned that he was going to be late to gym. We assured him that it was OK. Later, they figured that we were going the wrong way and asked why. I handed them a Hangman game with a solution of "We're having dinner at O'Hana's." They were super-excited! After that, they'd keep checking the trunk to make sure there weren't any extra suitcases in there!
The second time, we travelled to Virginia for some business work and on the way home, we just turned south instead of north. The boys played game boy, read and chatted knowing it was a long ride. Eventually, I couldn't stand it anymore and made them and made them "look at the scenery." Of course, they saw one of the South of the Border signs and immediately guessed. I know I was grinning from ear to ear!
This time, they know. I have a really, really hard time keeping such a thing a surprise!
I would have someone call you at 4 a.m. (like Mickey). Then I would go and say, "Kids, Mickey just called and he wants us to fly down to see him today. What do you think, should we go?"
I Could never keep that from my kids.......I would be too excited and blab. I would get them up and say......I want to go to Disney World........how about you?, thank goodness we are all packed........... and watch them run to the car.
I also vote for telling them in the morning! We are surprising our kids for the first time in a couple of weeks, when we sneak in a 4-day weekend trip. We're actually picking them up early from school because we're leaving at night. We thought about not telling them anything, but I think we'll tell them that we're going to Boston for the weekend to visit friends. (My son is 10 and I want him to get the work he'll miss in advance.) Then we're planning to crank some Disney tunes, break out their favorite Disney hats and let them guess what's going on as we head to the airport!
Surprises are so much fun! Good luck with yours and be sure to tell us how it goes!
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. I vote for waking them up with a big "Get up were are going to Disney! " 
Kris
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