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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our apartment rental in Paris and hotel in DLP are both reserved and have deposits completed. Our Eurostar trip from DLP to London is booked and paid for and our Flipkey rental in London is booked and paid for; we also chose to get London Passes which includes an Oyster card, entrance fees into a bunch of attractions, discounts on West End shows and some tours. We have our apartment rental in New York City and have purchased our Broadway show tickets!
After reading that paragraph it seems so simple but it was not. I had several hotels/apartments for each place and continued to narrow things down but did not ultimately decide until the day of booking. DD gave her opinion on some after I shared photos with her so often we picked her choice out of the 2-3 I had narrowed it down to.
I also have daily plans done for Athens, I know what we are going to do in Paris, NYC and London (mostly) just not day by day which is what I'm working on now and hope as I write this TR that those plans will settle into place.
I'm working on a balance of planned (for me) and spontaneous (for DD) each day. I'm also trying to decide how much more I should purchase attractions, transportation before I leave or when I'm there. So what did or would you do? Purchase as much as possible prior or wait until there?
You've certainly accomplished a lot and everything is almost in line with just a few things to do!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I would not purchase everything prior, because you may find that you can't fit in everything that you hope to. And you don't want to be out the money for something you can't use!
We love having the London Pass with Oyster card. We did a lot of things we otherwise wouldn't have. Like the Tower Bridge experience, and a Thames river cruise.
You mentioned that you are a teacher and that learning more about the some of places you teach about was a major factor in deciding to take this trip. Are you aware of Fund for Teachers? This is an organization that provides grants to teachers specifically for the purpose of travel to enrich their teaching. An individual is eligible for up to $5000 and a team up to $10000.. Obviously, it is too late for this trip but you may want to look into it for a future trip. Researching and writing the grant is work -you have to have specific goals and plans to bring your learning back to your students. Three colleagues and myself were awarded a grant this year to travel to China. Fell free to PM me if you want to know more about the process.
I think you have done an amazing job on planning and preparing for this trip. I don't think I would purchase a lot of things before the trip. You might find that you don't have time, weather is bad or other things that might make you change your mind when there. I would wait on those types of things.
You've certainly accomplished a lot and everything is almost in line with just a few things to do!
True
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
I would not purchase everything prior, because you may find that you can't fit in everything that you hope to. And you don't want to be out the money for something you can't use!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I had not thought about that. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
We love having the London Pass with Oyster card. We did a lot of things we otherwise wouldn't have. Like the Tower Bridge experience, and a Thames river cruise.
I'm glad to hear from someone who actually got one. Did you like the Tower Bridge experience? Was it interesting? Thanks for any info.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HollyH
Sounds like an amazing trip!
You mentioned that you are a teacher and that learning more about the some of places you teach about was a major factor in deciding to take this trip. Are you aware of Fund for Teachers? This is an organization that provides grants to teachers specifically for the purpose of travel to enrich their teaching. An individual is eligible for up to $5000 and a team up to $10000.. Obviously, it is too late for this trip but you may want to look into it for a future trip. Researching and writing the grant is work -you have to have specific goals and plans to bring your learning back to your students. Three colleagues and myself were awarded a grant this year to travel to China. Fell free to PM me if you want to know more about the process.
I have read about the program but have no idea about how to do a grant proposal
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
I think you have done an amazing job on planning and preparing for this trip. I don't think I would purchase a lot of things before the trip. You might find that you don't have time, weather is bad or other things that might make you change your mind when there. I would wait on those types of things.
Thank you. As I said to Pamcarey, I hadn't thought about pre-purchase that way but I appreciate you two helping me to consider events out of my control.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
You've gotten a lot of stuff squared away already!!
After re-reading that, I can see that I have, yea!
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I should make reservations for my 2 eat out places at Disneyland Paris.
Planning on Inventions and Plaza Gardens so far.
For London, I was considering purchasing West end tickets for Wicked and 42nd street.
I also want to see a show in Shakespeare's Globe - choices are Much Ado about nothing or Twelfth Night; and possibly a show in the open air theater in Regents park our choices are A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist. In order to get tickets for either of these we would have to do before hand or miss out.
Train tickets for a couple of excursions but want to get a railcard so I can get 1/3 off all train travel. So that might be better in person, since the railcard I'm looking at has person's photos placed on it.
We still have to decide what we are going to do with a day trip from London - either to another country or explore farther afield from London.
Decisions, decisions
We did enjoy the Tower Bridge. There's a glass bottom that allows you to see all the way down to the Thames, and even a mirrored ceiling so you can take selfies up that give the view of you hovering over the glass floor/water. Not something I would have paid to do on its own, but figured why not since it was part of the pass.
FYI on the Globe Theater - the pass includes a tour/admission, but only if there's no show going on. We ended up buying standing area admission to get in, as there WAS a show. If you buy tickets, there are seats, and then there's a big open area for standing room, and it is not frowned upon to walk around or come & go during a show. We would've liked to have stayed for the show we peaked in on - it was by the same playwrite that did War Horse, and the 20-30 minutes we saw was EXCELLENT. But we had tickets to Buckingham Palace that couldn't be moved.
I'm all about purchasing in advance! Typically you can save a few $$ but also you tend to save so much time! The lines at attractions can be so long just to buy the tickets, but when you already have them you get to skip that line!
I'm glad you went with Virgin Atlantic - you probably already know how much we enjoy flying with them!
I'm a great believer in buying as much as you can before a trip, as it allows you to pay for things bit by bit and, as others have pointed out, it may be cheaper in advance and it saves you standing in line.
Plans are shaping up. I'm an uber planner too so this all looks familiar and what I always do? If you need suggestions for Paris of things to do I can help as I've been there five times!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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