It's not the way I want to do it, but it's better than no way at all - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Congrats on your run!! One of these days I will do one myself. Of course, I have to get myself off the couch more so I can start running to get in shape first
Once we got back to the Dolphin, Kara & Michael were asleep in minutes. Mike & I cleaned up & then headed out to get some breakfast. We had a 50% off dining coupon for anywhere in the Dolphin, so chose the buffet in the hotel restaurant called The Fresh Mediterranean Market. It was a nice buffet, with made-to-order eggs, omelets, pancakes and French toast, a healthy fruit/vegetable juice bar and all the regular breakfast buffet staples – meats, rolls, sweets, fruit, etc. I thought the $17.95 price was high, but since we were only paying half of that, it was a fine choice. We both ate enough that we knew we wouldn’t need much at lunch time.
It was still only about 10:00 when we finished eating, so we knew Sleeping Beauty & Prince Charming would not be ready to get up yet… what to do??? Well, what else?? We walked to the International Gateway at Epcot (& I stared longingly through the gate), then across the bridge and along the path to the entrance to DHS (nope, not going in… remember, I told you… no park tickets). I have to brag here that neither of us were tired or sore from the race and thoroughly enjoyed our walk. The sky was clear & blue and the temperature was perfect… a beautiful walk. Again, we hopped on the boat & enjoyed sitting outside for the ride back to the Dolphin… Hmmm, still too early to go back inside… what to do???
Well, we decided to explore the amenities at the Swan & Dolphin. We walked out to the pool area. It was too cool for us or for anyone else to be swimming, but we sat on some lounge chairs for a while and enjoyed the sun. When we’d had enough sun, we walked over to the Swan, through the lobby and restaurant area, then decided it was time to wake up the sleepers and get on with our day.
Much to our surprise, before we got back to the room, Michael called to say they were up, showered and hungry. Where were we? We met up with them and decided on a great place for lunch… Beaches & Cream! (never mind that Mike & I had been there yesterday). So we walked there, waited 20 minutes or so for a table and settled in to one of those nice, wide booths up against the wall. The kids ordered burgers with fries & onion rings. Mike & I passed on food & drank our lunches… vanilla milk shakes.
After lunch, we decided (no, not parks) to play miniature golf. We walked back past the S & D pools and over to Fantasia golf. After looking at the 2 choices, we decided to play Fantasia Fairways. Not having been warned about this course, we scoffed at the posted best score of the day. Michael declared that we’d probably all (well, maybe not mom) beat that score for sure. Well, if you’ve never played this course, I’ll just say it’s a miniature golf players worst nightmare!!! Challenging is an understatement. The surface is so slick that the ball never stops rolling. A perfect shot is, well, it’s not perfect on this course. My very competitive son started stressing on hole 2, then when he realized we were ALL doing quite poorly, relaxed and laughed his way to the end. In fact, we all laughed our way through the course. It became hysterical. In the end, Michael won, Kara & Mike were next and I was last (as usual!!). On our way out, they gave us a souvenir ball, with Minnie stamped on it (guess that’s so people won’t throw their clubs and scream at the end). As we walked away, a group of twenty-somethings were reading the board and deciding which course to play… Michael looked at them and said, “Take my word for it, DON”T DO IT!!!”
We wandered back toward the Dolphin and found those lounge chairs again. At this point, people were in the pool and lounging around the deck. It had warmed up to about 70 and was absolutely gorgeous. The outdoor bar was open, so Michael got a beer for himself & a FAB (strawberry daiquiri) for Kara. I think they were drowning their sorrows after the golf game! I struck up a conversation with a man who was studying the marathon course. He & his adult son were going to run it on Sunday. His wife was planning to watch & take pictures. Interesting, they are DVC owners, but couldn’t get a reservation for the marathon weekend, so ended up at the Dolphin, which he said was the only place he could find availability. Since I didn’t get to a park, I couldn’t tell you how crowded it was inside…. Around 4:30, after some terrific sun time, we headed back to get ready for our 6:10 ADR at the California Grill.
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Congrats on your time for the race!!! Wonderful!!! At least you got to step foot in a park, maybe not the way you wanted, but at least you could say you did. Sounded like you got relax a little. Can't wait to read more.
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Pixie Dust
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Beaches and Cream!! More please! 
YUM! Looking forward to more
Liz 
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