Don't Stop - part one of Disney trip COMPLETED - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The meet looks like fun. Osbourne Lights sounds really awful as I don't do well in large crowds. All the pictures are great. I really enjoy seeing them.
Liz
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I've had supper, but for some reason the pictures from Nine Dragons have made me so very hungry again. The Illuminations meet looks like so much fun! The ducks are so adorable that Heather brings!
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Saturday 12 December – part seven: sharing IllumiNations with good friends you don’t see very often
Soon IllumiNations was due to start and we all moved forward. It caught us out, as it was off to the left and I was certainly waiting for it to start, thinking that it would be right in front of me. Despite the fact that we were some way back, I still managed to get some good shots of it.
Having said that, credit where credit is due – I think Mark got some better shots than I did:
As you probably know about me by now, IllumiNations always makes me cry and tonight was no exception. I was full of torrents of tears when Wendy came over and put her arm around me. There’s nothing better than watching IllumiNations with good friends that you don’t get to see very often and it’s a moment I will treasure forever.
I wasn’t the only one, as Eileen and Larry were both in quite a state after it. I’m reassured to know that I’m not the only one who feels like this about IllumiNations.
We stood there and talked for a while, not really wanted the evening to be over. : There were group hugs and then we had to go our own ways.
We took our time walking back towards International Gateway, getting some photos on the way and sitting down, so that I could rest for a bit.
We got back to the Beach Club still taking photos....
.... then we retrieved the car and headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had the sad task of dropping Wendy and Ben off at Jambo House, but I managed not to cry, something to do with probably being all cried out from IllumiNations! We had had a great time with them today and I’m so glad that they came down for the day. It was such a lovely day.
We headed back to Kidani Village, getting some photos in the lobby on the way in:
I even got a few shots of the savannah at night, but no animals were in sight anywhere.
Then it was off to bed.
The weather today was cloudy with temperatures in the 70s. The best thing today was spending the day with Wendy and Ben. The worst thing today was there really wasn’t anything. : The funniest thing today was just so many things with Wendy and Ben – the four of us laughed so much all day long. Today we tried taking Mark to Sanaa for the first time And the result was it was another superb meal. The most magical moment today was watching IllumiNations with Wendy.
Great update, Cheryl! I've only seen IllumiNations once so far and I kept getting distracted because the couple next to my hubby and me kept talking to us I hope to see it again this March so I can fully appreciate this show for once
Wendy, I wish we'd had more time to hang out and maybe share a meal. Next time!
I TOTALLY agree!!! Like Cheryl said, we'll ALL be back there April 2011. I've got my dates, I've had them etched in stone(my brain) since Decade of Dreams. All of my kids will be with me, it's finally worked out where my family's trip gets to coincide with Cheryl's family's trip so we're running with it. AND we'll be there longer than 1 night!
I did NOT want to read the end of this update as it meant me leaving you all over again........
HOWEVER the prospect of planning 4/11 helped us both say Roll On April(with me think of Alabama Roll on highway, roll on a long, roll on mama till we get back home...) with less tears than ever before. I think our men were dreading what kind of blubberfest they'd have to endure. But we didn't embarrass them at all!
I am looking forward to your upcoming updates. Except pictures of the EMPTY lights meet at DHS the next day! You don't have to put those in. It's like pouring salt in the wound.
Great update, Cheryl! I've only seen IllumiNations once so far and I kept getting distracted because the couple next to my hubby and me kept talking to us I hope to see it again this March so I can fully appreciate this show for once
Great photos by both of you, as always... And, as with all Passporter meets, good times were had by all!!!
The one thing I noticed about Osborne Lights this year is that they stopped the lights on the back street and routed everyone back onto the main street.
In past years, they had lights set up all the way back to the Muppet Store and you could get back into the park, or to the front gates, without having to go against the flow of bodies.
We chose to go with the flow when we got back into it and then headed out by Toy Story Mania instead of fighting the crowd, especially with the stroller (even though we had a heavy duty jogging "combat type" stroller)
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The Illuminations meet looks like so much fun! The ducks are so adorable that Heather brings! 
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: There were group hugs and then we had to go our own ways. 
I hope to see it again this March so I can fully appreciate this show for once 
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