A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 6/24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 22 December – part five: afternoon sun over the Gulf of Mexico
We headed over to Southwest, and my goodness, I was glad we’d printed our boarding pass off. I couldn’t believe how long the line was to check in. Honestly, I thought in today’s modern world, everyone would have already done, but apparently not.
We only had a few people in front of us, then we dropped our bags, and made the happy discovery that they were all under the weight limit and then we were off.
As we walked over to the shopping area, I spotted this, which I thought was really neat.
Mark bought a book, and I had a look in Disney’s EarPort, but I found nothing in there I wanted. I loved how it was themed though.
That done, we headed through security, and I think it took no more than three or four minutes’ wait to check our ID and boarding passes, and about the same amount of time to clear security itself. It honestly was nowhere near as busy as I’d expected for the Saturday before Christmas. I’d figured the airport would be mobbed, but not a bit of it.
We boarded the monorail out to our terminal…
.. and when we got there, we grabbed seats to wait for our flight to San Antonio. I was fascinated by this – this really is an “only in America” moment! There is no way I can ever see us having anything like this at home….
I couldn’t believe this when this appeared on the screen in the news!
Our flight was on time, which is more than I can say for the one going to Providence. It was coming in from Milwaukee, and they kept doing warnings about how tight the turnaround would be. It was now due to leave at 3:30pm (I have no idea when it was originally due in), and they kept telling people to be back at the gate for just after 3:00pm, as I assume the second ours left (we were scheduled to go at 3:10pm), it would be boarding.
We left on time, and we had some lovely views as we took off…
.. I did wonder what the huge expanse of water was that we could see almost as soon as we took off from Orlando, as I really didn’t expect it to be the Gulf of Mexico, but it was. As you can see, the sun was casting some lovely colours over it.
I also didn’t realise that there were patches of land in it. I guess these all belong to the States as well?
I tried to sleep for a bit of the flight, as I knew it would be late when we finally got to LAX (8:10pm their time, but 11:10pm for our body clocks), but didn’t have that much success. At least it was a smooth flight.
Next: will we ever make it from LAX to Disneyland?
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I am so looking forward to this part of the report, we loved Disneyland and more and more can't wait to go back.
You will love the changes made since you were last there.
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It must have been a totally different experience flying domestic out of MCO instead of International. Hope the arrival at LAX wasn't too rough.
We've flown a few times out of MCO domestically and it's not that different an experience. Flying into MCO domestically is a very different experience though - no immigration or customs to clear.
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Looking forward to more! Hopefully someday we'll visit DL. My mom visited with a favorite aunt and uncle when she was little. They traveled all the way from Ashtabula, OH by car. They stopped along the way to see other sites. She still has fond memories of that trip.
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Disney Trips: BLT & Poly Bungalow 2016, VGF 2015, Fantasy 2015, Saratoga Springs Resort 2014, Grand Villa at VGF 2013, Fantasy 2013, BWV and Kidani Village 2011, BWV and Kidani Village 2010, BWV and Saratoga Springs Resort 2008,Beach Club Villas 2008,Villas at Wilderness Lodge 2006, BWV 2006, BCV 2005, HHI 2004,Polynesian 2003,Grand Floridian 2000/concierge, Honeymoon at Polynesian 1994,Polynesian 1980,Polynesian 1978
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Sue
Looking forward to more! Hopefully someday we'll visit DL. My mom visited with a favorite aunt and uncle when she was little. They traveled all the way from Ashtabula, OH by car. They stopped along the way to see other sites. She still has fond memories of that trip.
Not being very familiar (still ) with the geography of the States, I had to look up how far that was. Wow - over 2,000 miles? My goodness, I bet that was quite some trip!
Love all the Airport Photos. The land you saw in the gulf, are marsh that is there to help protect from Hurricanes( helps to slow them down). They are now deminishing so Wild Life and Fisheries (State Program) has a grant from the government to start rebuilding our preicous marsh. Help with alittle history. You had a very nice day to fly, since you were able to get so many great photos.
Great photos from the plane! I'm surprised you could see the Gulf of Mexico so quickly!
I was too. I kept thinking it was a lake, then I realised my mistake... I guess it's only something like 40 minutes to Tampa - I'm trying to remember and of course that's also coming into land and we were over the Gulf in maybe 20-30 minutes...
Love all the Airport Photos. The land you saw in the gulf, are marsh that is there to help protect from Hurricanes( helps to slow them down). They are now deminishing so Wild Life and Fisheries (State Program) has a grant from the government to start rebuilding our preicous marsh. Help with alittle history. You had a very nice day to fly, since you were able to get so many great photos.
Cool - thanks for that. I'm glad someone was able to tell me what they were.
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and then we were off. 
There is no way I can ever see us having anything like this at home…. 
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) with the geography of the States, I had to look up how far that was. Wow - over 2,000 miles? 
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