The "So Cheap it's Practically Free" Trip--4/30-5/3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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By "the bus" do you mean resort buses or the Magical Express from the airport? We've done DME numerous times and have not had to wait very long at all. Depends on if you are the first ones on the bus or the last. It's obviously quicker to meet up with the QS driver and be on your way, but the bus isn't bad for a free ride to WDW. And you get to watch a Disney video on the way which is kind of a fun way to get into the Disney spirit.
By "the bus" do you mean resort buses or the Magical Express from the airport? We've done DME numerous times and have not had to wait very long at all. Depends on if you are the first ones on the bus or the last. It's obviously quicker to meet up with the QS driver and be on your way, but the bus isn't bad for a free ride to WDW. And you get to watch a Disney video on the way which is kind of a fun way to get into the Disney spirit.
I can't wait to hear how the surprise plays out!
Yes, I meant DME. We've spent so many years using a car service or renting a car that DME never appealed to us, but our neighbors have done it twice and love it. I'm more worried about the rare horror story of waiting forever, three stops at Disney before your hotel, etc. Jake is generally of the mindset that if he can't afford a car/car service then he can't afford vacation. I'm not going to argue!!
So nice that despite leaving so early the next day you are still taking part in the birthday parties. Especially the one for your friend. This sounds like a huge deal for her & it's so wonderful that you are putting her needs first.
I'm excited for her to have a night that's about her, because everything else is focused on her daughter. I'm often struck by how much bureaucracy she fights through for services, and then wonder how less knowledgable or capable or resilient people manage to do it. How do you constantly fight for public school access or payment of service, fight for insurance coverage for a variety of medical needs, fight for your kid to gain weight or walk or be able to express herself.
The night before does put a big kink in your plans. Hoping it all works out for you all! When we stayed at the Poly last May, we typically only had a few minutes wait for a bus. I do want to be honest though because one day we had a 15 -20 minute wait. We weren't in a rush, so it didn't cause issues for us, but I know it can be annoying if you have plans.
Thanks!! I think we'll be in good shape. I'm aiming for the only bus trip to be for AK, Sunday AM. If we can skip HS I think that's best, the only thing he wants or likes to do there is Star Tours and I've already mentioned how the park has closed big sections to make the new Star Wars land and that we'll have to wait awhile for that.
Groundwork for the AM surprise is laid. Adam knows he's going to his grandparents for a sleepover (per previous post re dueling birthday parties) and he also knows that we are picking him up early from that sleep over, very early, because Baca and Mimi have "a lot of things to do that day."
He did a heavy "ahhh" with shoulder slump pout but at least he won't be expecting something other than an early wake up and NOT playing with Baca.
I plan to give him a T-shirt I found from The Mouse Boutique on Etsy; a Mickey head with a sillouette of Space Mountain in it. I didn't get his name printed though, because I think it's just not cool for random people to be able to know my kid's name by reading his shirt. I know. Silly.
Anyway, 11 days. Forecast says high of 90 and sunshine.
It's going to be a busy week and so much has happened unrelated to the trip that my head is not in the game.
Where to start?
How about with me, physically? I spent about two years repairing my running. two years ago I was sidelined with a stress fracture, not long after it healed I had a knee injury and not long after that I broke a toe. The first two were related to some structural weaknesses that I had neglected after having Adam, the last one was me being accident prone. Anyway, 10 months off of running, working on those weaknesses with pilates, barre, yoga, and weights. Then 14 months ago the running began again, with 10 minutes. We've worked slowly rebuilding, and for the last three months I've done the heaviest training loads I've had in years. And then two weeks ago I ran the longest run since Adam was born. It was just a mile over my peak, but that peak has been the tipping point to injury for me for five years now. And I tipped. I've got something ridiculously wrong with my achilles/calf/PF and tomorrow I'm going to new guy for some Graston/ART/hokum flim flam placebo healing. I'm so angry because I restrained myself so much for two years now and I'm right back were I was.
And how about my lastest freelance project. It was (key word 'was') a long term writing assignment. Beginning last October I was recruited and then praised for my efforts to overhaul Unnamed Publishers unfocused and too crowded plans. My writing assignments have brought comments from the editors that complimented my thoroughness, style, and content. And then Friday came. I got an email about a source. A source I did not cite. It wasn't an oversight, as one does not cite things that are considered public knowledge. This was one of those cases. The readers, people in the field, would know that. But my 22 year old, fresh from college, no experience in the field, english degree holding editor saw otherwise. Instead of just saying, hey, let's cite this an avoid an problems, there were some increasingly accusing emails and a final request to finish my current project but that I was not going to be contracted for anything else. Here's the thing. I do this freelance work because I like it, but when the pay is this low and you start to make it unenjoyable I don't want to work for you. And I certainly don't want to be told I'm fired, but not until I finish this component. I told them they could fire me right now and find someone else to write this component. We did finally agree that I would be partially paid for the current work, but I won't be surprised if someone decides I'm a plagiarist and refuses my invoice.
I know I sound like I'm not taking responsibility. Frankly, that the editor found one instance of error regarding citation in hundreds of pages tells me I did a pretty good job. They had tight turn around, demanded a level of detail that was not commensurate with pay, and no support. The editor could have added the citation, asked me to add it, reminded me to cite anything regardless of need, or any other reasonable action of an editor I would still be writing. But don't tell me how much the 'higher ups' love the work and then cut me loose for this questionable oversight. Really, what they were asking for was the citation for somethign as common in writing as the Five W's. You can't steal that or cite it. It just is common knowledge, procedure. No one owns that!!!
So I'm unemployed.
But then!!!! A former colleague of mine and I put in an RFP for a project and it's looking very good for us starting July 1. So publishers be damned.
Okay, bad ankle, bad job. What's next? Jake kneeled in something that cut his knee and now he's got this crazy infected bursa on his knee that looks like a third knee growing out of his leg. Parent involvement at Preschool on Wednesday. The Kindergarten information meeting is Thursday. My MIL bailed on my childcare for that afternoon, so I'll be the parent with the 5 year old at the meeting (I won't be the only one, but it makes it much harder to focus and ask my pointed and angry questions about the lack of play based learning in our local district). The dueling birthday parties on Friday night.
Saturday 5AM is going to come and you will not find a happier lady than me.
So help me god, if Adam isn't excited when we tell him I may question my entire existence.
Wow - and here I thought my life has been 1 step forwaed, 2 steps back. I am so sorry all this is going on just prior to your departure. I hope that the Disney magic will find you & Adam and it is an amazing & well deserved trip to the World that you apparently all need!
As for the job - unemployed is extremely tough especially in today's world but it seems like they were just looking for a reason jot to pay you especially since they had praised your work & then found such a minute detail to criticize. Perhaps this was just a way for you to get that other position with your friend. Pixies that it all works out.
Looking forward to hearing about Adam's reaction to the surprise! It will be great especially after it truly sinks in that u out are actually going to WDW. Now take a deep breath and may this week be smooth sailing the rest of the way.
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It's obviously quicker to meet up with the QS driver and be on your way, but the bus isn't bad for a free ride to WDW. And you get to watch a Disney video on the way which is kind of a fun way to get into the Disney spirit. 
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When we stayed at the Poly last May, we typically only had a few minutes wait for a bus. I do want to be honest though because one day we had a 15 -20 minute wait. We weren't in a rush, so it didn't cause issues for us, but I know it can be annoying if you have plans. 
Dana
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