Trip Report for "Our Summer Surprise Trip", August 15-22, 2011 - COMPLETED!! 12/4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like a great trip in the making. We stayed at Kidani last January and loved it, I could be wrong but I could have sworn there was a drink station in the Kidani gift shop. I know that's where we purchased our drink mugs and I remember filling the cups with ice and drinks. Hope I'm remembering right. Looking forward to reading more.
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AWEsome! When we went on our first trip in 2009, I loaded a classic books app on my iphone for standing in line, the plane etc. The first ebook I ever read was on this trip called, "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, featuring the hero John Carter. In my Disney Insider email tonight, I read that Disney is making the film adaptation "John Carter"!!! Did I already say AWESOME?! March 2012
(I'm an old school science fiction fan, a la Robert Heinlein, etc)
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Your ADR choices look delicious, the Hollywood Brown Derby is one of our favorites, always a great meal!!!
We really like the Derby - one of our best meals last time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shari2137
Sounds like a great trip in the making. We stayed at Kidani last January and loved it, I could be wrong but I could have sworn there was a drink station in the Kidani gift shop. I know that's where we purchased our drink mugs and I remember filling the cups with ice and drinks. Hope I'm remembering right. Looking forward to reading more.
I thought seriously for about 2 minutes about driving to Florida. According to yahoo maps, it would take 13 hours to drive 880 miles. We live right off I95, so it’s pretty much a straight shot to Orlando. Years ago, we drove to New Orleans – 24 hours of drive time. That was a great leisurely road trip, just me and my hubby, switching off with sandwiches in the cooler. One overnight stop in Atlanta. That was good times.
Now, it’d be a lot different. Three boys in the back of a Chrysler Pacifica surrounded by bags with no leg room isn’t dh’s idea of vacation – not good times.
So I fired up the ol’ laptop and quickly found out that Southwest had the best deals. You just can’t beat “bags fly free”. We got non-stop, round trip fares for a total of $1112. Not terrible for 5 people. Total flying time each way is about 2hrs 15 min. Way better deal for dh. I still pine for an old fashioned road trip one day though… We’ll park again at the FastPark at BWI – we’ll pay $60 for 8 days. They used to have coupons for like $1 off a day, but as of today, I couldn’t find one on the internet.
We got our Magical Express envelope last week, yay! It was missing one person, their cousin – boo! One quick call to Disney Transportation fixed the problem. We should receive the correct envelope soon. Dh woke me up today (I worked night shift) to ask about another envelope we got in the mail – it was our luggage tags and itinerary. Yay! Something different from the last time – it includes a photopass card. Something else to think about $$… AND the luggage tags are new – they’re like the hologram type with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, instead of Cinderella’s Castle in the clouds like we had last time.
BTW, I was so worried about the kids seeing stuff from Disney in the mail. When ds6 brought in the mail with the ME stuff, he didn’t even notice. I guess because we get stuff from Disney all the time, like the movie rewards offers, etc - whew!