The way We do a Disney Re-Do ~~ Beach club Aug 13-22 - FINISHED!!! 1/20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Our experience on the DME just HAD to be better than last time, right???
I was glad to be the first in line for the DME, even if it meant we would have to wait a bit longer for our bus. So we sat down and started to change around our carry-ons to make it easier to go straight to a park. Our plans had changed a few times (or more) but I am okay with changes as long as they are informed changes. J Originally, our arrival day was to be a day to relax, unpack, have a nice dinner and explore the resort. WDW threw us a curve ball by refurbing TSMM during our trip. So the new plan would be to head to straight to DHS on our arrival day to fit in this “must-do” attraction (that we skipped before due to long lines). I also knew with a 2pm arrival, it was possible that our room would not be ready.
DH and I had been talking to the kids about this first day plan during the preceeding week. We let them know that we would try to get to TSMM that day, but everything would need to go smoothly in order for that to happen. The flight schedule was not in our/their control, but our attitudes were. My DS (8) said that he make everyone have “stick on smiles” and not fight with each other so we could go. (Side note: DD [6/ASD] was mad that Ben forgot to actually bring smile cut-outs from home. Her literal mind thought he would be making smiles to stick on their faces.) She was fine once we cleared up the misunderstanding.
No sooner did we have all the bags opened, than our bus arrived. We had to scramble to stuff our items back in the bags and get on the bus. The driver helped to stow our stroller and we brought everything else (5 small carry-ons) on the bus to finish the organizing. We took seats near the front and waited for others to join us. I knew from this board that the bus would not wait longer than 20 minutes to take off. It was nice to have the bus to ourselves for now. Here is a picture of an empty bus! So relaxing!!!
5 minutes later, the driver got on and said we were on our way. We were the only ones on the bus! WOW! I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED TO US! What a great start! We chatted with the driver who seemed a happy guy. We learned that he does 5-6 DME trips a day, and the sooner he gets us to our resort the sooner he can go back to get more guests. We had planned to tip him $5, since he only had to handle 1 stroller, but we felt responsible being the only ones on the bus and gave him $10 instead. We tipped another $2 after he took our picture in front of the bus.
Next up: would our luck continue as we made our way into the resort?
Okay--so I need to play around with photo bucket a bit more...any way I can resize all pics in an album at the same time? Or does it have to be one at a atime?
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As for Photobucket, I don't think you can do a whole album, just individual pictures. What I do is I have Windows XP and there is a tool available for that were you can resize an entire folder of pictures on your computer. Once I resize them there, I upload them to Photobucket so that 1) I know they are the correct size already and 2) they are smaller than the originals and don't take as long to upload as full size pictures do.
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Wow Shelly! That sounds like the start of more good things to come!
That was waaaayyy to cute of Hannah to think Ben was bringing actual stick on smiles. What a great memory! LOL
I love the pic of you guys in front of the bus. I especially noticed Hannah's big smile. Loves it! You all looked like you were ready to start a wonderful vacation.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
By the way, with Photobucket, you can set up options, so that as the photos load up, they're automatically resized. That's how I do it for my trip reports. I can't remember offhand how you do it, but there is a way of doing it.
By the way, with Photobucket, you can set up options, so that as the photos load up, they're automatically resized. That's how I do it for my trip reports. I can't remember offhand how you do it, but there is a way of doing it.
Thanks--I will try to play around with it a little bit...
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Pixie Dust
Susan
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
to be the first to board a DME bus! We got to do this on our return trip once and Stefanie loved having her choice of seats. 
getting those photos resized! I did this once, and unfortunately, I had to resize each one at a time.
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