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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi gang, I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to this PTR. If you are still reading, THANK YOU!
The title of this update is Dining, Celebrations, and More Changes. However, before I get into the dining, I need to explain the changes. ~sigh~ Then we can end with celebrations, since those are ALWAYS happy notes to end on.
So in our last major installment, we read that Amanda had to bow out of the cruise because she will growing a bun in the oven. This time we are losing two more people from the cruise.
Geoff and Karen have decided not to go on the cruise. He told me he just couldn't afford it. Then today he emailed me to say that they won't be going to WDW either. He wants to tell Grace over the phone this weekend. (At this point in my story, I REALLY wish I could find out where Princess Sharon gets all her cool smilies.) WARNING: I have to rant here. As a backstory to help you understand how angry I am at my XH..... In March of 2005 he found a job out of state. This is a good job with a salary double what he was making here. However, since Grace was in school and I worked in a school, we decided that he would go out first to start work and find a place for us to live. Over the next couple of months I would ask him to look into the schools and 4H and Girl Scouts there since those were Grace's main activities. He always had some excuse why he couldn't. Then a month before Grace and I were to move out there with him, he calls and tells me that he wants a divorce and he doesn't want us to come out there. Luckily, Grace and I had "temporarily" moved in with my parents, so we didn't have to worry about finding a place to live here. The kicker is that he wanted to tell Grace over the phone when she got home from Girl Scout Camp. I refused to let him deliver life changing news like this to her via the telephone and i told him that I would tell her once my brother came home from his trip (to WDW with his then-GF) and she could be surrounded by family. Now fast forward back to today, and I hope you now have a sense of why I am so ticked off that he would even suggest that he would tell her over the phone! I know she is going to be disappointed and upset. She has been looking forward to having her whole family with her to celebrate her birthday. (ok rant over.)
Now, on to happier things........
We currently have the following reservations:
Wednesday, 11/23 - Sanaa - Lunch, CRT - Dinner
Thursday, 11/24 - 1900 Park Fair - Breakfast, Mickey's Backyard BBQ - Dinner (Although it has a different name today for Thanksgiving)
Friday, 11/25 - Sci-Fi Dine In - Dinner
Saturday, 11/26 - O'Hana - Breakfast
The wonderful CM's at AKL Concierge have been wonderful in helping me to make those reservations. I have changed a couple of the reservations such as Boma for O'Hana. I am thinking about changing the Sanaa ressie from a dining plan ressie to the Lunch with and Animal Kingdom Keeper ressie, and then do something else another day. Originally, we had planned for Grace to spend at least half a day with Geoff and Karen and then the other half with us. So some of our ressies were only for two people (like CRT). Other ressies (like lunch or Sanaa) were for all five of us. So I now have an email in to AKL Concierge to change all of our ressies to three people.
I am trying to resist the urge to tweak the ressies I have, but I had told Ramoan, once upon a time, that I would get us ressies for Teppan Edo and for Garden Grill. However, I didn't try to get either one since Grace wanted to eat at the ones we did get. So now I am seriously thinking about changing some of them. Although he (ok we ALL) also wanted Backyard BBQ, and we did get that one.
So, we know that we are celebrating birthdays on this trip, but what else is there to celebrate???? Well, after 19 1/2 years I am FINALLY graduating from college with my Bachelors of Science in Mathematics this December. I graduated high school and began college in 1992 and then I took time off to have a beautiful baby girl and work. I went back to school a couple of years ago and now I am within a few months of graduating.
We also found out that Amanda will be having a baby BOY! Blaine Allen will be born within a month or so of our return from Disney. So now B will have to be my "favorite Brysen" and Blaine will be my "favorite Blaine".
Well, for now that is all I have to update on. I am hoping to be able to hang with B this weekend and make a countdown calendar, but I don't know how that will work out. If we are able ot get it done, I will post pics.
Next update: Which parks are we visiting when? And what are our MUST do's?
Sorry to hear your ex backed out! Maybe he should have considered leaving the GF home so he could be there for his daughter, since it was her wish. & for both of you as you break the news.
So sorry that her dad has backed out...I know how you said it meant so much for her to have all of you there. Hope telling her goes ok and in the end she will have her family with her and have an amazing time and birthday celebration.
Grrrrr! I know what you mean about needing one of Sharon's jumping mad smilies! I guess being a dad just isn't a priority for your Ex, which is beyond sad and unfair to Grace and to you. I'm so sorry!
Onward to the good stuff... I like all the ADRs you already have. I'm just wondering if maybe you'll want to make another ressie for Friday. The parks get so crowded that weekend that grabbing a QS meal might not be so easy.
Congratulations on all the celebrations, especially your graduation! I'm glad Grace will still be surrounded with the family she can count on for her big birthday.
Onward to the good stuff... I like all the ADRs you already have. I'm just wondering if maybe you'll want to make another ressie for Friday. The parks get so crowded that weekend that grabbing a QS meal might not be so easy.
I am thinking about changing the Sanaa ressie to "Dining with and Animal Care Specialist" meal. Since I can't use DDP for that meal, then I can add another one somewhere else. (Oh the possibilities!) I found out from AKL Concierge that it is $49 per adult, so that is highly doable. I will decide in the next couple of days.
On another note, I told you that Merlin is going with us on this Dream-y adventure. Well, I called DCL the other day to let them know that we would have a service dog with us. They had someone call me back and he asked me all kinds of questions about Merlin and then mentioned that they MIGHT have to upgrade us since we don't currently have a verandah room. (Oh Darn! ) Currently, we are booked in to room #8500 which looks out over the front of the boat. If we look down, we could probably see the outside portion of Vibe, if we wanted to keep an eye on Grace. However, they try to put all service dogs in rooms with verandahs so that the dog can go outside to do their business. From what Chris (from DCL) told me, they have some special little setup that they put out on the verandah. Also there is a special Service Dog Needs station on Deck 4. Then he informed me that i would need to get a permit from the Bahamian Consulate to bring Merlin to Nassau and Castaway Cay. He was awesome and emailed me the information for the consulate so I could call and request the necessary form.
I downloaded and printed out the form last night and I will fax it off tomorrow.
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Gee, too bad you'll have to be upgraded!! Makes sense, though. It'll be really interesting to hear how it all goes with Merlin. I did the Animal Program lunch when they had it at Jiko and it was MUCH more expensive. Fabulous, though. Hope you decide to do this at Sanaa.
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This time we are losing two more people from the cruise. 
(At this point in my story, I REALLY wish I could find out where Princess Sharon gets all her cool smilies.) WARNING: I have to rant here. As a backstory to help you understand how angry I am at my XH..... In March of 2005 he found a job out of state. This is a good job with a salary double what he was making here. However, since Grace was in school and I worked in a school, we decided that he would go out first to start work and find a place for us to live. Over the next couple of months I would ask him to look into the schools and 4H and Girl Scouts there since those were Grace's main activities. He always had some excuse why he couldn't. Then a month before Grace and I were to move out there with him, he calls and tells me that he wants a divorce and he doesn't want us to come out there. Luckily, Grace and I had "temporarily" moved in with my parents, so we didn't have to worry about finding a place to live here. The kicker is that he wanted to tell Grace over the phone when she got home from Girl Scout Camp. I refused to let him deliver life changing news like this to her via the telephone and i told him that I would tell her once my brother came home from his trip (to WDW with his then-GF) and she could be surrounded by family. Now fast forward back to today, and I hope you now have a sense of why I am so ticked off that he would even suggest that he would tell her over the phone! I know she is going to be disappointed and upset. She has been looking forward to having her whole family with her to celebrate her birthday. (ok rant over.)
So now I am seriously thinking about changing some of them. Although he (ok we ALL) also wanted Backyard BBQ, and we did get that one. 
& 
for both of you as you break the news.
) Currently, we are booked in to room #8500 which looks out over the front of the boat. If we look down, we could probably see the outside portion of Vibe, if we wanted to keep an eye on Grace. 
Sorry about your ex backing out of the trip completely! 
that you'll probably get an upgrade! 
with the paperwork for the Bahamas! 
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