An Island Frame of Mind (A Cam and Luke PTR) Updated 5/22 - Page 47 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I hate dreams like that - I find them so unsettling!
Happy packing day!!!
It was very unsettling, and when I did get my eyes open, Luke was off at the other end of the house. Just felt creepy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by clio
Wow that was a weird dream. I hate it when I have dreams like that.
Your yard is so pretty. My flowers are finally starting to come up but the deer ate all the tulips. I have to figure out what to do with the front yard flower bed. the hedge roses died over the winter and I don't how what to replace them with. It looks really bad right now.
Have a fun safe trip.
Liz
It's been several years ago that we had several bushes and a dwarf tree that didn't make it through an ice storm, so we had to redo. It's not an easy job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wishes
Not long now! I so enjoy your trip reports...one of my favorite parts is hearing all about your days leading up to your vacation. You and Luke really get so much done in a day, and it is so nice to see how well you are enjoying your retirement together. I hope DH & I can experience ours as nice as yours! Have a magical trip!
In church tonight, our pastor mentioned spending time with your family. And then I thought I think we're doing well on that since we're together 24/7 and still love each other.
Definitely weird! I'll have a packing update when I'm done with response.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jambo
I'm catching up on my trip report reading. You have a beautiful yard. Way to go on getting a second opinion on the jewelry! I love the way you reference what you will be doing "this time next week". We also do that and we also say " Remember this time last week when we were in ... Or eating at ...". I hope you enjoy all of your music choices on the drive.
We do that, too. It's a fun way to reminisce about the trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Crazy dream! I think when you fall asleep during the day dreams are weirder than at night...or maybe you just tend to remember more of them.
Sounds like you are getting down to business with the packing! Yay!
Your house cleaning routine is very impressive!
I have to agree as my afternoon dreams are usually strange. My friends like to tease me that I'm a cleaning freak.
I know what you mean about the weather in Florida! We were there a few weeks ago and on the day it was not suppose to rain-it did. (and that was after watching the local news in the hotel room that morning.) But we made the best of it. A rainy day at Disney is better than a rainy day at home!
I am new to reading your trip reports and really enjoy them. I hope you have a good and safe trip!
That's our philosophy, too. Rainy days at Disney are way better than those at home. Thanks so much for reading along.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
What a crazy dream! I hate those kind of dreams. Sounds like you are all set to go!
As of 9:00 tonight we're as ready as we can be until we finish cleaning up in the morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
That was a crazy dream!
I can't wait to hear about the "this time next week" day! We hope to get to do all the fun SWW stuff next year.
I really hope you can get to SWW next year. Luke and I have both worn several Star Wars t-shirts this week.
Oh my goodness! Your dream was weird and scary!! I can never remember my dreams, but Muffin remembers his all the time. What another nice day for you guys! All of this stuff keeps your countdown going!!
I used to remember all my dreams and regaled Luke with the details, which usually had him laughing. He couldn't believe that I actually remembered colors of people outfits and the like.
Quote:
Originally Posted by B.M.
Great pics around the yard! Glad you got something to protect your tiny trees.... When I seen your pictures- I thought to myself that I hope they don't get trampled on!
Sounds like yall have gotten all of your yard and house work squared away.....
Have fun packing and have a wonderful trip!
I'm really hoping my nephew's crew pays attention to the baby trees.
Another busy day for us, but that is usually true of the day before departure. Since having chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast one morning in Disney years ago, at Stefanie's request we have had chocolate chip pancakes every Saturday. There have been a few exceptions, but we've kept up the tradition. So that was the first order of business this morning.
Then we headed out the Green Belt for another walk on the nature trail. We just kept going today, making 5.2 miles before going home to begin the packing. We decided to go long today since we don't know if we'll get much walking in tomorrow.
Back at home, we both began pulling out shirts and shorts and everything else that needed to be packed. We both pulled items that needed to be iron, and I started with those. About an hour later I had the ironing done, my clothes all neatly stacked, and Luke's shirts laid out to match with shorts. I had also started one load of laundry.
Time for lunch, and then I asked Luke which shirts he wanted to go with which shorts. I knew he'd leave it to me as he is color blind and prefers me to make sure the choices really do go together. But he did pass approval on all my choices. I sent him to the garage to pull our two largest spinner suitcases while I stacked all his clothes. Once the suitcases were laid out on the master bedroom floor, it was super easy to load both, first Luke's and then mine. Now it was time to bring in one of the medium spinners to hold miscellaneous stuff (first aid kit, extra medicines, breakfast bars, hats, ponchos, etc. Speaking of ponchos, we couldn't find our really nice DWCF green ponchos that were given to us as gifts a few years ago by the DAK staff after Stefanie died. These are super sturdy ponchos that even Luke likes. I don't know how many places we searched before I thought of a box in the garage that holds totes. They were there probably because I removed them from the spinner suitcase when we packed for the cruise and I didn't think we'd need them. Thank goodness I found them! The last medium spinner brought in will hold what we will need for our one night in Valdosta plus all our medicines. That means some of it will still need to be packed tomorrow, like my hair dryer.
By this point my feet we letting me know that I'd been walking and standing for way too long. I sat on the couch for just a few minutes to check e-mails on my laptop, but I didn't have long as I needed to get ready. We had invited Luke's mom to go to church with us tonight and then to dinner afterwards as we'll not be with her tomorrow for actual Mother's Day. Luke also wanted to replace her furnace air filter before we left town. She was very happy with her yellow begonia (which we'll probably buy another for us when we get back because it is beautiful) and a selection of Bath & Body "hanitizers" (Stefanie's word for them and it makes quite a bit of sense). She loved our church's service and the special little gift each mom got. She did have a little trouble with dinner as she has a genetic problem with her esophagus. Send her pixies for May 19 when she has it stretched again. We'll be in Florida still, but Luke's sister will take really good care of her. By the way, this is only one of many times she has had this done. Seems like every other year, I think.
This time next week, my sister Pam joins us for some time at AK. I'm excited to take her to Finding Nemo: The Musical. Later she'll head home and will head to DTD for shopping and Portobello.
Happy Mother's Day! Time for me to get ready for bed because tomorrow we're going to Disney!!!!!