The Crazy Large (but fun) Group Trip Report!!!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Ok so I introduced you to everyone in this crazy large group, and I told you how this trip was all thanks to my parents. But I haven't really told you much about one of the men going on this trip that means the world to me. It's not the of my life (my husband), while he is amazing and wonderful and my whole life, he isn't the one that I am so happy to share this vacation with. It's not my dad, he is the most wonderful dad that anyone could ask for and I find myself calling him daddy still (when I am sick, tired, or in the World.) but the man I am talking about is my grandfather (my pa pa).
My Pa Pa Cross (Grandpa Bill) My moms dad.
I have always been extremely close to my Grandfathers. My dads father (my Grandpa Ed) past away when I was in the 7th grade. It was a really hard time for me. I still find myself missing him. (I was home earlier this month and I made time to go by the cemetery and take some pictures of his tomb stone and grave site.)
So the reason this trip with my Grandpa Bill is going to be so special. This will probably be his last vacation, that he is able to take. My Grandpa has COPD and Congestive Heart Failure. He is on oxygen 24 7, and breathing treatments through out the day. He has a hard time just walking around the house. He however is very much looking forward to this trip and he has been preparing himself and making up time schedules for when he should take his meds and breathing treatments.
He told me earlier this month while I was home that "I am doing this for the grate grandkids, I want a vacation with them" I looked at him and said "Hey! What about me" he laughed and said "oh you know" and pointed at me and winked. This has always been our way of communication. I have always gotten a wink and a point and thats all I need because I know how much love is in that wink and point. We could sit on the couch together or him in his recliner and me on the foot rest of the recliner and not have to say a word to each other all day. I knew he loved me and that he would cart me around in his old green ford truck. And life would always be good. I go back to the memory of that old Ford and the windows down and my grandpa without oxygen, and just stay still in that moment for a while. Another tradition for us is when we say good bye he will say "see ya in a month" and I will say "no see ya in a year". Sad thing is now that I am in Maryland it is true. I don't see him everyday. See the thing is my Grandparents have always lived close to us while I was growing up. I would see them everyday. So it was funny when we would say see you in a year when I knew I would see him the next morning. Now I have to wait a month, two or maybe even a year, as traveling isn't easy for him.
So this is why I am really excited to spend this vacation with him. I can't wait to share all the adventures and trouble my grandfather and I get into while on this trip with all of you.
Up Next: Well I am going to say the first day of vacation, but who knows if something will get thrown my way that I just have to share.
Thanks! I almost did Buzz and Jessie, but I figured everyone would pick Buzz and Jessie. And I was right. We saw so may Buzz and Jessie's last night at Trunk or Treat.
Please keep my best friend Abby and her mother (my second mom) Lynnette in your thoughts. (Their pictures are on the first page.) Lynnette's husband Kevin (dad # 2 for me) is in emergency heart surgery as I am typing this. Thank you so much.
At this point our group of 12 is down by one. Making our group 11.
Lynnette (pictured on page 1) is staying home with her husband who had emergency open heart surgery yesterday.
Abby is as to what she should do. Part of her still wants to go and take her son for an awesome week at Disney. But the other part wants to stay at home with her dad.
She asked me what I would do. My response at first was selfish. I want to see her. That is so bad of me. I also don't want her to regret being on vacation when something goes wrong back home with her dad. Then I really started thinking about what I would do. I was in Florida at Disney when my grandpa had a brain aneurism burst, and I didn't get to see him one last time. He was in ICU when we returned home and hooked up to machines and tubes. Not a sight I wanted to remember, but non the less that is the last memory I have of my grandfather, and him waving out the kitchen window when we drove past their house on our way to our Disney Vacation. I also have the experience of what my Uncle Dave, Aunt Terri and their kids went through when my Uncle Dave had open heart surgery. We almost lost him. My dad has heart problems also and if it were me I would be staying by my dads bed side. So in the process of thinking about all of this. I came up with the answer to her question: "What would you do?" My answer would be to stay home.
So please keep your thoughts on Abby while she is making up her mind. Should she stay home with her dad or take her son to Disney World? This is a tough question that she has to find an answer to before tomorrow. (Tomorrow is the departure day for the Illinois crew.)
Thanks for listening.
Up Next: Will it be a group of 11 or a group of 9?
About This Page: 
of my life (my husband), while he is amazing and wonderful and my whole life, he isn't the one that I am so happy to share this vacation with. It's not my dad, he is the most wonderful dad that anyone could ask for and I find myself calling him daddy still (when I am sick, tired, or in the World.) but the man I am talking about is my grandfather (my pa pa). 
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as to what she should do. Part of her still wants to go and take her son for an awesome week at Disney. But the other part wants to stay at home with her dad. 
. That is so bad of me. I also don't want her to regret being on vacation when something goes wrong back home with her dad. Then I really started thinking about what I would do. I was in Florida at Disney when my grandpa had a brain aneurism burst, and I didn't get to see him one last time. He was in ICU when we returned home and hooked up to machines and tubes. Not a sight I wanted to remember, but non the less that is the last memory I have of my grandfather, and him waving out the kitchen window when we drove past their house on our way to our Disney Vacation. I also have the experience of what my Uncle Dave, Aunt Terri and their kids went through when my Uncle Dave had open heart surgery. We almost lost him. My dad has heart problems also and if it were me I would be staying by my dads bed side. So in the process of thinking about all of this. I came up with the answer to her question: "What would you do?" My answer would be to stay home. 
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