"Yes, The Past Can Hurt, But You Can Either Run From It or You Can Learn From It" - PTR - COMPLETED 9/20 #184 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Today I decided to try our hand at playing miniature golf to see if Joshua would like the game. Since this was his first time, I wanted to find a local place that wasn’t crowded and not too difficult. I knew there a golf driving range a few miles from where I live, but I didn’t know they also had a miniature golf course too. I drove there last week to check them out and hardly anybody uses it since it’s not one of those fancy types…the ones with windmills and tunnels and loops. So, I thought this would be an ideal place to try to see if this would be something we would want to do on vacation, since I wouldn’t have to worry about crowds and it would allow us extra time if we needed for Joshua. I had to modify it for him since he had a really difficult time hitting the golf ball with the putter. He seemed to enjoy watching me and his dad play or at least attempt to play, more than playing the game himself. So, at this point it looks like playing miniature golf at Disney is off the “Do List” …at least for now.
Joshua also finished up his two weeks of Summer Day Camp, which he greatly enjoyed since he got to go to an indoor water park every day. I on the other hand, I am greatly pleased that it was only for two weeks, since the drive to and from the place takes about an hour each way and the worst part is it’s only twenty-miles from where I live. Thanks to low speed limits of 30 miles per hour and traffic lights every few hundred yards. Yes, I could take the beltway during rush hour, where if you’re lucky you might be able to go as fast as 40 miles per hour. That is one thing about this area, that most people hate is the commute, since you never can get anywhere fast. For those traveling through Maryland and or Virginia for your upcoming trip to Disney, please accept my heartfelt apologies for the extra time you will need, while passing through, especially if you happen to stumble on one of our famous rush hours or traffic jams.
We still may try to go since it comes with the package. I noticed Joshua like watching us and he may enjoy keeping score during the game. I just hope the course doesn't have water hazards. The course we played on near my house has a water hazard that takes your golf ball and you have to walk back to the club house for another one. I managed to lose it twice in the water hazard.
I haven't played mini golf at WDW in a long time, but the courses are beautifully themed--I might go just for that--especially if it's included in the package you don't have to play the whole round.
I haven't played mini golf at WDW in a long time, but the courses are beautifully themed--I might go just for that--especially if it's included in the package you don't have to play the whole round.
That's the reason why I really want to go We also stayed on property but had to rely on the bus system and since they don't stop there...we never went. This time we'll be driving so in my mind it's worth a look.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sorry about mini-golf, but glad he had a good time at camp!
He did have a good time and was kinda of disappointed that it was over so soon.
Just got all caught up. I love the idea of setting up scenarios at home to see how they might play out on our trip. Might actually be a good idea to try with DS Alex. Hopefully you do get try the mini-golf. Tom and I did it on our trip in Jan. 2012 and it was a lot of fun.
Just got all caught up. I love the idea of setting up scenarios at home to see how they might play out on our trip. Might actually be a good idea to try with DS Alex. Hopefully you do get try the mini-golf. Tom and I did it on our trip in Jan. 2012 and it was a lot of fun.
Welcome aboard...thanks for joining. I do so hope we get a chance to try the mini golf too.
Donald Duck…Please don’t interrupt my ADR...Thank you
I just found out Disney opened up dates in September for the Tomorrow land Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party. I originally had this scheduled in my phone calendar to call and reserve on July 28th, sixty days from the date. So, I decided to check it out on My Disney Experience. I thinking it would be just for the first week in September and didn’t expect my date of September 25th to be available yet. You can imagine my joy seeing that it was available and I immediately started entering in my time of 7:00pm for a party of three . The next screen came up asking to select the number of guest, then I getting my credit card ready to pay for it, since it requires payment upfront and my computer seems to be taking forever and guess who pop up? Donald Duck! Now don’t get me wrong, I really do love Donald Duck, expect when he shows up on the web page in his classic tearing out the feather pose and I see the “Server Down” message . Well at this point I have no choice but Disney Dining directly. Dialing the number and answering the endless questions, I finally get a hold of a Disney Cast Member, who proceeds to tell me there is no availability for the night that I was trying to reserve…What!? How can that be? If Donald hadn’t interrupted me I would have my reservations made and could list this in my things to do plans.
I’m really feeling disappointed after the call, but for some reason I’m not sure why, but I felt compelled to go back online to see if what the cast member was saying was true. So I sign back into MDE to check out the Fireworks Dessert Party. Ready for this….it’s showing the date as being available along with the time I want . I’m not sure what the cast member was seeing, but I liked what I was seeing right about now. I quickly sprinkled some on my computer and quickly started entering in the information to reserve the date. Hurrah for pixie dust…the next screen to enter my credit card for payment came up and with fast flying fingers entered the information and clicked on the next button…waiting…waiting….(please Donald don’t appear) ….Confirmed! I would love to surprise my family with this, but I’m going to have to tell them, so I can prepare Joshua for the dessert party, which I know he’ll like…since he loves desserts.
Congrats on the Dessert Party! We loved it when we did it. I understand the frustration with the Disney Website and making Dining reservations. We had the same problem yesterday and then we would call and for some reason got a snotty CM and the reservation wasn't available, then just like what happened to you we would go back and low and behold it was there. I wish they would fix the kinks in the reservation system cause it seems like since they changed it, it is so much worse.
Same thing happened to me while trying to make Dessert party reservations yesterday. so frustrating! I ended up calling DVC member services and the CM was able to book it for me.
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since he got to go to an indoor water park every day. I on the other hand, I am greatly pleased that it was only for two weeks, since the drive to and from the place takes about an hour each way and the worst part is it’s only twenty-miles from where I live. Thanks to low speed limits of 30 miles per hour and traffic lights every few hundred yards. Yes, I could take the beltway during rush hour, where if you’re lucky you might be able to go as fast as 40 miles per hour. That is one thing about this area, that most people hate
is the commute, since you never can get anywhere fast. For those traveling through Maryland and or Virginia for your upcoming trip to Disney, please accept my heartfelt apologies
for the extra time you will need, while passing through, especially if you happen to stumble on one of our famous rush hours or traffic jams.
He did have a good time and was kinda of disappointed that it was over so soon.
. The next screen came up asking to select the number of guest, then I getting my credit card ready to pay for it, since it requires payment upfront and my computer seems to be taking forever and guess who pop up? Donald Duck! Now don’t get me wrong, I really do love Donald Duck, expect when he shows up on the web page in his classic tearing out the feather pose and I see the “Server Down” message 
. Well at this point I have no choice but Disney Dining directly
. Dialing the number and answering the endless questions, I finally get a hold of a Disney Cast Member, who proceeds to tell me there is no availability for the night that I was trying to reserve…What!?
How can that be? If Donald hadn’t interrupted me I would have my reservations made and could list this in my things to do plans.
. I’m not sure what the cast member was seeing, but I liked what I was seeing right about now. I quickly sprinkled some 
on my computer and quickly started entering in the information to reserve the date. Hurrah for pixie dust…the next screen to enter my credit card for payment came up and with fast flying fingers entered the information and clicked on the next button…waiting…waiting….(please Donald don’t appear) ….Confirmed! 
I would love to surprise my family with this, but I’m going to have to tell them, so I can prepare Joshua for the dessert party, which I know he’ll like…since he loves desserts. 
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