The way We do a Disney Re-Do ~~ Beach club Aug 13-22 - FINISHED!!! 1/20 - Page 40 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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YAY!!! Just stopped by and saw your name on another post and realized I never finished reading your TR. I have not been on here very much lately and when I do, it is just to satisfy my longing to return for another trip. lol
I'm so HAPPY that your trip was WONDERFUL! You all deserved it! I loved reading your TR. It really helped me on our trip (we went for 10 days and was there over Thanksgiving...we had a FABULOUS time even though it was busier than it had ever been on our previous visits. We took breaks to swim, took advantage of late hours and the BESTT thing EVER was the ability to use our GAD/GAD vouchers. Allowed us to walk on so many rides b/c we were able to use our FP's with them). So thanks for all your help.
Can't wait to read your next report. I'm trying to talk my hubby into going during Mardi Gras next year or in 2013 for the same time (the kiddos have the whole week off here for that).
Thanks for coming back to this! I wish I could start writing a TR sooner than the year from now I am planning the next trip!
YAY!!! Just stopped by and saw your name on another post and realized I never finished reading your TR. I have not been on here very much lately and when I do, it is just to satisfy my longing to return for another trip. lol
Same here! I knew there were several reports I hadn't finished reading...and after postponing our Sept trip, it was just too sad to be on the boards much. So now I am off to finish up your TR (and make sure I don't read any more spoilers, so I can enjoy it first-hand!)
Hi Shelly,
Your TR came up in the "recently updated" so I checked it out, then read your PTR (I'm so backwards sometimes!).
I have to say that I am THRILLED that you didn't give up on WDW after your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. I can't even imagine what you went through. My "grand" gathering didn't qualify as one because we were 7 in our party and not 8, but I experienced a few similar things to you (trying to make everyone happy, doing things that everyone wanted to do, ignoring my own "wants" - one day while the other 5 went back to the resort to relax DD and I stayed at MK to watch the afternoon parade, had cookies at the bake shop and spent some time shopping). Sometimes "grand" gatherings ain't so grand!
I'm glad to see that things really turned around for you on your second trip. Like you said, you know your family and know what works for your kiddos. I only wish I had read your PTR before your TR, so that I could truly appreciate how amazing your second experience was (even with the sinus infection).
Here's to hoping there's a 3rd trip in the works for you!
Same here! I knew there were several reports I hadn't finished reading...and after postponing our Sept trip, it was just too sad to be on the boards much. So now I am off to finish up your TR (and make sure I don't read any more spoilers, so I can enjoy it first-hand!)
So glad you are back here!!! I cannot wait to hear about your Star Wars experience. We are hoping to make it in 2012 during a SWW, so I amm going to paying special attention to this year's trip reports during that time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shanmac
Hi Shelly,
Your TR came up in the "recently updated" so I checked it out, then read your PTR (I'm so backwards sometimes!).
I have to say that I am THRILLED that you didn't give up on WDW after your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. I can't even imagine what you went through. My "grand" gathering didn't qualify as one because we were 7 in our party and not 8, but I experienced a few similar things to you (trying to make everyone happy, doing things that everyone wanted to do, ignoring my own "wants" - one day while the other 5 went back to the resort to relax DD and I stayed at MK to watch the afternoon parade, had cookies at the bake shop and spent some time shopping). Sometimes "grand" gatherings ain't so grand!
I'm glad to see that things really turned around for you on your second trip. Like you said, you know your family and know what works for your kiddos. I only wish I had read your PTR before your TR, so that I could truly appreciate how amazing your second experience was (even with the sinus infection).
Here's to hoping there's a 3rd trip in the works for you!
Thanks so much for finding me and taking the time to reply. It is so much fun when my TR pops back into the updates and I see that someone else has taken a peek!
Thanks so much for finding me and taking the time to reply. It is so much fun when my TR pops back into the updates and I see that someone else has taken a peek!
Here's another bump!
Took me three days between meetings and on lunch breaks to get through the whole report, and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated it. We travel as special needs as well: my girlfriend has PTSD. We very much rely on the GAC to get us through our trip (I'm writing up my trip report from last Sept that I hope to post in a month or so and I'll be detailing it in there.) We also all have ADHD (different levels though), and I am definitely on the Aspie spectrum (my mother wishes she knew then what she knows now - my childhood would have been so different.) So I can relate to a lot of the problems you had and your solutions. It was also great to read and see so much of myself in Hannah and how she'd notice those different things, as do I. And I like her coping mechanisms!
Quote:
Originally Posted by benjiboo25
By the time we were on the road, Hannah was starting to talk. She was now complaining about going to Chef Mickey. She insisted she would not meet any of the characters. We got her to agree that she was hungry and convinced her that the food would be yummy and plentiful. She agreed to cooperate just for the food…we said she could hide under the table if she wanted to.
This situation reflects a hard position for us (and many other families, I assume) who deal with a child n the autism spectrum, or with other difficult behaviors. How far do you push? What if not pushing one child means the rest of the family has to miss out on an experience they should get to have? How much can we allow the child with the disability to “control” the rest of the family?
My family is three adults - myself, my husband and my girlfriend. And I hear you on all your questions. They apply to me with my issues and to my girlfriend with her PTSD: should we push through? Are we really done or just cranky? Would food or drink help, or do we need a break from the stimulation? And what does our actions do to my husband? How much does he miss out on because one of us is having a bad time? It doesn't get much easier as an adult, although we are all better at voicing our concerns/problems better. Also, those two have learned that when I say I don't want to go out to eat for dinner, not to push me - else they will be left behind at the restaurant and I will take the car home alone. (Yeah, bad day.)
I also like your suggestion of hiding under the table! I do similar things: hide in my book, my iPod, sit in the corner facing away. I'll tell the others what I want and have them order for me. The nicest part about having an understanding family is that I realize that while others may look and think that I'm acting like a stubborn 5-year-old, my family understands that I have hit my limit and here is a compromise to the situation so that we can all get through it without a meltdown.
Thank you again, Shelly, for a wonderful trip report!
I often wonder what my Hannah will be like when she is older, how much of this can be "learned" away and how our interventions will help/hinder her as she develops. Only time will tell. Thanks for reading!
I often wonder what my Hannah will be like when she is older, how much of this can be "learned" away and how our interventions will help/hinder her as she develops. Only time will tell. Thanks for reading!
As I grew up without explanation as to why I did things differently, I think Hannah will be much empowered by her knowledge. My Mom did the best she could, but we have both said that things would have been easier if we understood what was going on.
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So, I just read your whole report over the last couple days. I wish I'd read it earlier. My DD and I were there at the same time (Aug14-18)...but I didn't realize it was the same time until I was almost done with the report, so I don't know if we crossed paths much. I do know that we were at DHS on the last day that TSMM was open before refurb, so maybe we saw you guys that day and didn't know it.
I love the way you write, warts and all. Makes for a very colorful and believable 'story'. Thanks SO much for sharing with us. I hope your family will get another trip in 2012 that we can read about again.
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