It's not the way I want to do it, but it's better than no way at all - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My alarm went off at 5am. I hopped up, made a pot of the in-room coffee and jumped in the shower. Nobody else moved. At 5:30, DH Mike’s alarm went off & he got up, followed quickly by Kara. At 5:40, Michael got up. I don’t think any of them did more than throw on some clothes and brush their teeth, but no worry, we were ready to head down to catch the bus that would take us to AK for the race.
Now, I should tell you that after race walking in lots of 5K races over the past couple of years, I had decided that I couldn’t get any faster. My motivation had decreased, so in August I had decided to try running (I’d NEVER been able to run – about 3 or 4 steps and I couldn’t breathe). This was huge for me. I really didn’t think I could do it. I started very slowly, on an outdoor mile course near our home. I’d walk all but the last tenth of a mile (which is downhill) and then run that. Gradually I increased the amount I ran, but never made it anywhere close to the full 3.1 miles that make a 5K. When the weather turned cold, I moved my running to the treadmill at our local YMCA. In November or early December, I finally ran 3.1 miles on the treadmill for the first time. So, for me the Circle of Life 5K would be my first attempt to run and entire 5K outdoors, in a race without any walking. I was excited!
Back to race day…. Anyway, we walked through the Lobby at the Dolphin and saw a very friendly lady (not sure if she was a volunteer or if she worked for Mears) who told us the next bus should pull up in about 15 minutes. Michael scowled at me and said, “See, I could have slept 15 more minutes.” We stood inside as it was a cool morning, temperature was in the 40s, and noticed other runners waiting around for the same bus. Everybody looked like they were up way too early. The bus came, right at 6:00. Fine, I thought, it’s about 5 minutes to AK from here & we’re supposed to be there by 6:15 – no problem. Well, not so fast… we went from the Dolphin to the Beach Club, the Yacht Club & the Boardwalk before we headed to AK. By the time we got off the bus, it was about 6:40, so we headed straight to the starting corral. I left Michael, Kara and Mike in the 13-15 minute mile group, just ahead of the walkers, although they agreed that they were just going to mosey along the course, staying just ahead of the pickup van. So much for running buddies! I lined up in the 9 – 11 minute mile group as I’d been running it on the treadmill at just under an 11 minute mile pace.
The 5K is billed as a fun run – no prizes for winners, no individual timing chips or times reported, although the race was timed, so everyone could see their time as they crossed the finish line. MANY people came in Disney gear – hats of every kind – Goofy ears, Mickey ears… also lots of Tinkerbell wings…. and plenty of full costumes – My family sauntered along with “Minnie Mouse,” and I watched the White Rabbit and Alice cross the finish line. There were also lots of kids in this race. As we waited in the corral, there was lots of laughter, music and appearances from the guys on stilts (giraffes??) from the Lion King show. At 6:55, we all counted down for the wheelchair start… off they went! At 7:00, just as the sun was coming up over the horizon, we counted down our race start, with fireworks going off at “go.”
I started off with the crowd. As we rounded the AK parking lot, it thinned out a bit, but I found myself doing a bit of weaving to get around slower runners (what? Someone slower than me… a new experience… I was excited). I was wearing my Garmin forerunner so I could keep an eye on my pace as I was afraid I’d get excited, go to fast and then burn out at the end… so far, so good, right on pace for just under 11 minute miles. Almost the entire first mile was in the parking lot. As I headed toward the park entrance, I thought, “this is easy!” Then, right there was the entrance to AK…a park!!!! I was actually going into a Disney park ….. no matter that it was only for a few minutes, I was IN. The time clock was right there – 11 minutes 8 seconds – a bit slow, but then I was way back in the pack at the start, so probably took at least 10 seconds after the clock started for me to get to the starting line…. So, the time was just fine. Now, up toward the bridge to Africa (around on the left path)…I thought about all the beautiful wildlife along this path, but didn’t stop to look, just kept going across the bridge and up into Africa.
Then, we headed slightly right and onto a service road … Hey! This isn’t the park… there are dumpsters and vehicles and tall fences…doesn’t look Disney-like at all… We made a left turn and passed the 1.5 mile water station – I didn’t need water, so passed it by…. We continued up past the train tracks toward Rafiki’s Watch, but we were still on the service road…no views….
We turned around and headed back down toward Asia (still on the service road). I watched for M,M & K, thinking I’d see them going up as I ran down, but I never saw them. I checked my Garmin and realized that I’d sped up & was going much faster than I’d planned, but I felt great, so didn’t worry. I passed the 2.5 mile mark just as we went back into the park, aaahhh, the magic is back!
We came up toward the queue area for Everest & I watched several runners duck into the restrooms, others stop to take pictures and others just slow down to a walk. I kept going and I have to admit I felt GREAT! We ran past the entrance to Nemo, then the entrance to Dinoland and, darn, out onto another service road.
All along the way, cast members had stood & watched, cheered and yelled encouragement. As I left the park, sigh, for the last time, there was one cast member clapping excitedly saying, “You’re almost there, you’ll make it!” I didn’t WANT to be finished. I wanted to keep going…
As I came out from the service road & back into the parking lot, I could see the clock & the finish line. I think I sped up a bit and crossed the line in 30:35! For 3.1 miles, that’s slightly faster than a 10 minute mile. For me, that was amazing. I was thrilled and particularly happy that I wasn’t breathing hard, hurting, or tired. I just wanted to keep running!
I stood waiting for my 3 slacker companions… 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes… OK, what happened to them??? Did I miss them??? Then, 17 minutes after I finished, they came smiling across the line, continuing their leisurely pace. Michael said, “Nice walk past the trash dumpsters, Mom! I thought you said this race was through the park.” Well, it was…. sort of….
They had quite the adventure! Apparently, around the 1.5 mile mark, a man in front of them needed a “biological break,” #2, but couldn’t get to the next restroom soon enough! They reported a terrible odor, his look of horror and then his detour to get some relief. While it probably wasn’t funny for him, my crew seemed to think this was hilarious. Also, where they walked, closer to the back of the pack, they saw many more costumed participants than I did. Again, they thought this was hilarious. So, with all their grumbling about getting up too early, and too much time on the service roads, I do believe they had fun.
We accepted our medals (well, they were made of rubber & stamped “made in china” on the back, and led to many jokes about our "Chinese rubbers" but who cares?), grabbed some fruit & PowerAde and headed back to the bus. Kara & Michael were ready for naps.
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