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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Doesn't really matter what anyone else says. Bottom line is you've got to do what you are most comfortable doing!
Money is money, whether it's a credit card rewards card or cash.
As long as you have a safe place to carry cash, that sounds like a good plan.
The other option would be to use you MB to charge to the room and then use your cash to pay off the balance each day, or every other day.
As far as the Memory Maker, if you think you'll be able to stop for photos a few times a day, then I say go for it. It's great to have everyone in the photos! And every now and then, you hit the jackpot with a great photographer who will spend some time with your party and take some wonderful shots. It will also include the ride photos which are always fun.
Today is a hard day and not because of anything traumatic. Some of you may know already, but earlier this week my mother was hit by a car. Everything will be ok, but it certainly took some of the wind out of our sails. We're getting back on track and putting the pieces back together, but man, that really shook us up!
Work is really slow today and that's not helping to pass the time. I sat in the hot tub last night and Jay and I tried to come up with a plan for the next 10 days on what we're going to do when, but we were too scattered to deal with it. He's trying to finish finals for this semester and his brain is scrambled and mine isn't much better trying to coordinate all of mom's health care issues for follow up after the accident. We decided to just relax a bit and let the chips fall where they may. Last night, that seemed like a good idea. Today, not so much. I really need to figure out what I am doing when because of my limited time.
I know this weekend I will try and finish the one or two little projects I have left around the house. Last weekend, I completely cleaned out our garage and threw away or sold anything I didn't want. I made $20 just cleaning out my garage
Some time next week, I need to get my mani/pedi. I can't do it the 19th because I am getting my hair done that day and then going shopping with a friend. If I have some time in the evening of the 19th, I might try to squeeze it in. The 20th I agreed to work, and then the 21st we're out of here! I thought about trying to get it done before we leave, but I know somehow that won't work out so I better get it done by the 19th!
Last night I went to Target. I was there last week, or maybe it was earlier this week - I don't know, it all seems to blend together now. This week went by WAY too fast, but I guess that's because we had some excitement. Anyway, when I was there last week, this week, whatever, I saw the sale on gift cards and I tried to purchase some Disney ones, but they were all sold out. The sale was a free $5 Target card for every 2 gift cards purchased. Now, I don't know if this worked on the $25 cards or not because I didn't see any, but I saw it marked for the $50 cards. Anyway, they didn't have any so I didn't really pursue it.
I guess I read somewhere about the gift cards on the boards yesterday and about the sale I saw and the more I thought about it, the more I thought about what a good deal this was. So, I talked it over with Jay and we agreed we'd use what we had set aside for meal money and withdraw it and go to Target and buy gift cards with it. We got $400 in gift cards for $381 and then another $20 in "free" Target money. I gave the gift cards to my mom to send to extended family as gifts so really, we did save $20, making our total $361 because by sending the gift cards we don't have to use cash from our wallets to buy gift cards. I view it as I got an extra $50 gift card for $11. Not a bad deal I was able to add another $40 to my cash pile.
I don't know if it will cover ALL our meal expenses, but I think it will come very close. I just have to remember to stop by the front desk and pay off the balance, so I will make a note to myself and set a few alarms on my phone to remember to do this. I made a rough guess based on 3 adults because I have to share meals with someone. The only place I can't do this is Boma and Whispering Canyon Café, but that's ok. Sometimes, if I explain the situation the manager will charge me a child rate, but if that's not possible then I just move on from the subject and enjoy whatever I can. I'm not making a fuss about it.
Anyway, I have this weekend free - not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I will make it productive.
Rushy, Rushy, Rushy, Rushy. Isn't that always the way before a vacation?
I was going to get my nails done tonight and then I remembered I still have to bowl Friday, so I can't get them done until Saturday and I promised a friend I'd go all the way to Sarasota to go shopping with her. That's ok, I figured out a plan. I will have her drop her son off at my house and I will have Jay take our boys bowling and my girlfriend and I will just head out to the mall earlier than planned. We'll go shopping, have lunch, be home by 4:30ish and I will have my nails done at 5. In fact, I just got off the phone with them and confirmed the appointment
And now I just remembered I have a hair appointment at 10:30 and that takes at least 1.5 hrs, making me not get done until 12 and then I don't get to Sarasota until 1 and I'd have to leave by 3:45 to make it to my nail appointment. Oh well, she just wants to go to two stores and have lunch so I better make it. If not, I will have to go have my nails done after my MD appointment on Monday and I am trying to avoid that. I'd try and reschedule the shopping day, but I don't know if she wants to take an afternoon off work to go.
I was supposed to get my labs drawn this morning, but I forgot, so I will need to get up super early tomorrow morning and have that done. In fact, just made an appointment for that too. I love writing this PTR, it's helping me stay organized!
Yesterday, I started pulling Jay's shirts out of the closets and seeing if any of his clothes need repair. Everything just looked so old and ratty or had a stain here, a pull there, a rip here that I told him to get in the car and we were going shopping. He's a big guy so the only store that carries his size is JcPenney. It's like in the stores, you can either be big or tall, but not both, so we have to go to this super expensive special size store if we don't find anything at Penneys. They carry lots of nice things, don't get me wrong, but I think it's silly that other stores don't carry his size. He's not huge, just on the bigger and taller side, and it's so hard to find clothes for him unless it's a shirt. He wears 2x in a shirt and I can find those all day, but if he needs pants, forget it.
Anyway, we got him some new boxers, a new bathing suit because he always complains about the mesh in his other one, two pairs of shorts, and a new pair of sneakers for walking around Disney. He wore the sneakers all day shopping so I hope they're broken in by time we leave.
This weekend has me a bit stressed with having to squeeze in all of my appointments, then working Sunday. I'd almost rather go after I get out of work on Sunday over Saturday. I need to speak to my friend and see if she wouldn't mind doing it Sunday instead. I can come to work early Sunday, get out by 2 or 3 and spend the rest of the evening at the mall and not have anything to worry about. I cannot do my nails before Saturday because I bowl on Fridays and I don't want my bowling to mess up my nails, so it has to be Saturday. Getting an appointment with my stylist on a Saturday is near impossible, so I can't move that one either. Stressed~!
I know, I know #richladyfirstworldproblems
Anyway, I was hoping to be able to finalize my home projects, but I don't think that's going to happen. I needed to sand the paint on my upper cabinets and have my husband reinstall the handles, but I just don't know if I will have time. I also wanted the floor done in my bedroom, but at this point, I think I will just call in a carpet repair person and have them fix the carpet at the entrance that got destroyed and save the flooring project for another day. I don't want to spend the cash on home repair before vacation, but I also hate the sight of the damaged carpet. I'm also undecided if I want the wood at the entrance of the bedroom. I was thinking of using the tile that matches our bathroom, but I am afraid of the look being out dated.
DISNEY REDUCED THE PRICE OF MEMORY MAKER!! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!
Now this excites me because I was still waiting to purchase it for our trip, but with the price drop and after telling Jason, he immediately said, "get it" and I did!!
However, the down side to this is that I feel the photopass is now a lesser value as being included with the annual pass. It's still a good perk that I am sure we will enjoy, but just isn't the "value" it was at the start. I'll just have to get the most bang for my buck by going more and taking lots of pics
I combined all of our gift cards onto the one that Disney sent us. I left one blank card in our account because another passporter suggested that if I lose the card with the money on it, that I can log into my account and transfer the balance onto the blank card. I thought that was a brilliant idea.
We changed our reservation to San Angel to 1:30 because we might try and make the Merry Member Mixer on the 22nd. Not sure if we will, but if the timing is right we might give it a shot since we have to pass the area anyway to go out the IG to head over to Hollywood Studios. Moving up the reservation gives us a better chance at the timing being right.
I made Mikey an account this evening so he can access the MDE app on his phone. He was instantly excited and started adding plans to our days!! I don't know if they'll work out, but I didn't want to squash his excitement so I left it alone. I made sure that at least one thing he added will work out such as the Fireworks at Hollywood Studios the night of the 23rd. Unfortunately, we discovered during this process that his phone is broken and Dad (Jay) is coming to the rescue with getting it fixed tomorrow. He is also taking my scooter in for repair as I think there is a problem with the speed control. It seems to "surge" a bit when holding down the speed control. I'll be going one speed and then it will slow down a bit for a second or two and then speed back up. It's not that noticeable, just more of an annoyance and I'd like to get it fixed.
I have to work tomorrow and I should be in bed, but I am too excited!!
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Last edited by TheMadonna3; 12-15-2015 at 12:39 AM..
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So the whole fiasco with making plans to go shopping with my friend as well as having all my appointments on the same day has been worked out. I tried to get her to go with me Tuesday and she said she couldn't, but my stylist got back to me and moved by appointment to 9am, meaning, I should be done by 10:30 and we can leave as soon as I am done, getting us to the mall right around noon (maybe earlier, depending on traffic) and that gives us until 3:45 to shop because I moved my nail appointment back to 5. That should be plenty of time. I'll just have to pretend like I'm not rushed. Fortunately, all the places we want to go are near the door.
I was going to have my husband rip out some damaged carpet near the threshold of our bedroom door and put down a nice decorative pergo instead. However, I am undecided if that's what I really want and have been procrastinating on it a bit. I was going to get a nice area rug to cover it up while I continue to mull it over, but I've decided to repair the carpet instead. However, no one can fix it before we leave so it has to wait until we get back. I guess I'll just get a cheap walmart area rug in the meantime so I can stop looking at it and focusing on it.
I was hoping to finish the painting on my cabinets by sanding them down and making the finish even throughout. However, I don't think time is going to allow that and that will have to wait until I am off for New Years to take the hardware off, sand them all down, and put the hardware back up. I also noticed some areas where I grouted the tile that need a little retouching so I'll finish it then.
I started packing today. I got all of Jason's clothes packed since he is the worst packer. He always forgets to pack something like socks, underwear, bathing suit, etc. and then I get sent scrambling trying to replace it and I've already described how finding things in his size is difficult. So, he and I sat down this morning and decided what he was going to be bringing. Besides, his toiletries, he's all set.
Now, as for my stuff, I have decided on *one* outfit so far. I have 7 I need to choose and all I can decide on is ONE. Part of my problem is my tops are sooo big from the weight loss that I feel frumpy in them, but they're not so big that I can confidently go down a size or two. It's a very weird feeling. I have one top that's a size smaller that I like which I will probably bring. All my pants are super loose too, but again, not loose enough where I feel confident wearing a smaller size. The only thing that I definitely needed a smaller size (or two) were my bras. I can't seem to find anything I like right now anyway, so whatever is in the closet will have to do.
Florida has once again decided not to participate in the month of December. I just checked the weather forecast and our trip comes on the heels of a cold snap. Saturday, the day I am scheduled to go shopping, is gorgeous and a little on the chilly side, but Monday, the day I am supposed to start my vacation, the temp zooms back up to 82! Oh well, I live here so I'm either gonna be hot in Disney or hot at home. I was hoping for a week in the upper 70's. At least it will be warm enough to get some sun by the pool!
Jay had Mikey's phone fixed and he was super happy, but it cost me $100 so momma was not super happy. Jay's phone also needed some kind of repair, but we lucked out that his phone was still under warranty and was being repaired free of charge Jay was supposed to take me scooter in for repair, but says the place closed earlier than advertised and wasn't open when he got there. He is supposed to take it in today. He better because we're running out of time!
I was hoping to get the truck a tune up, but I don't know if Jay can manage to squeeze that in this week.
All of the gifts still need to be wrapped so I gotta get on that. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are out as I'm already busy!! Fortunately, work has been very tolerable these past few days so I'm just enjoying the ride.
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I was able to add another $40 to my cash pile.
I don't want to spend the cash on home repair before vacation, but I also hate the sight of the damaged carpet. I'm also undecided if I want the wood at the entrance of the bedroom. I was thinking of using the tile that matches our bathroom, but I am afraid of the look being out dated. 
squeezing everything in you need to do before the trip.
He is also taking my scooter in for repair as I think there is a problem with the speed control. It seems to "surge" a bit when holding down the speed control. I'll be going one speed and then it will slow down a bit for a second or two and then speed back up. It's not that noticeable, just more of an annoyance and I'd like to get it fixed. 
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