The Search For My Wits (or, "Toy Story 1-1/8"): a May solo PTR - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
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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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Wheezy:What's the point in prolonging the inevitable? We're all just one step away from here to there.
Ahhh.....ain't that the truth! “Here”, of course, being wherever you happen to be at the moment, and “there”.....well, “there” could only be The World. Disney. The actualization of Walt's Imagination.
My “one step” involved an hour and forty-five minute drive to the airport, then a quick, barely-2-hour flight. My phone alarm was set for 4:30am, as was the coffee maker, but my instincts kicked in just before either went off and I was up and ready to go before you could say Hey Howdy Hey. In the car and pulling out the driveway at 5:00am, and somewhere along the dark stretches of Highway 21, the whole crazy realization hit me and I was full-on giddy. Cue the Dancing Banana:
The flight over was about as perfect as a flight can be. Adding to my anticipation was the fact that probably 80% of the people on the Orlando-bound plane were also heading to Disney! Including the two couples behind me – a 20something couple and what appeared to be a set of parents in their 50s. They all were wearing some sort of Disney t-shirt and they were having a blast! We also were kept entertained by our flight crew and pilot. If you fly Southwest with any regularity, you know they can be really funny! As we were on our final approach to the airport, I saw a tiny little Spaceship Earth in the distance through the haze and knew then that I was almost home.....
Now, my previous trips to Disney have all involved mid-week travel. So this Saturday bit was new to me and I wasn't sure what to expect with the Magical Express crowds. Getting from my arrival gate to Level 1, Side B seemed to take FOR.EV.ER. But, when I finally came in view of the check-in desk, I nearly lost the Disney magic right then and there. They were having most people bypass the desk entirely, and go straight to the podiums where the vouchers were scanned and you were directed to the correct line for your resort. It was a SEA of people....I couldn't even see the signs for the resorts!! The nice man who checked me through made a note of the change to my departure flight, then told me “Right this way, please, to Row 3.”
And Row 3 was EMPTY.....! As in ONE person ahead of me, being directed to the bus!! And incidentally, the lines for the Value resorts – including Pop Century where I was originally going to stay – were absolutely crammed with people....Seriously, we are talking an hour+ wait, just to get on a DME bus! I muttered a silent prayer of thanks that I had decided to switch to French Quarter. This was my first clue that that was a good and wise decision! I will also add here that it was so busy that day that Disney had hired out Mears buses to help with the DME traffic. I actually rode a Mears bus. No neat little welcome movie but it got me where I wanted to go in pretty good time.
Of course there were the obligatory stops at Old Key West and Saratoga Springs first, but when we finally pulled into POFQ, there was no doubt whatsoever that I had chosen well.....It's not unlike being in love, and catching sight of that special someone when you haven't seen them in a while.....I did wonder what people must think of the lady by herself with the big cheesy grin on her face.....
Having also had the foresight to do on-line check in, I was able to bypass yet another line (although this one much smaller than the DME masses!) and went to the special window for people who have, indeed, already checked in, on-line. I handed the nice woman my photo ID, she confirmed my package components, handed me my welcome packet and directed me to my room. I scored a 1st-floor room in Building 3, and was seriously like a 30-second walk to the food court!! It was also on a corner which afforded me more privacy (it was along a hallway, though, not one of the king bed, two window corner rooms). Technically it was a standard room, because you could see the parking lot, a teeny bit if you looked through the bushes, but this is what I saw when I looked out my window or stepped out my door:
When I walked into the room and put my things down, I did nothing but stand and stare and breathe in deeply for several minutes....If you've ever seen the Albert Finney version of “Scrooge,” I felt just like he did near the end when he wakes up from the 3rd and final ghost experience and realizes he has another chance....he is SO giddy and dances around his room and tosses papers in the air and says “I don't know what to do!!”
Neither did I, at that moment.....So I stood....and savored....and took in every last little detail.....
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Susan
Mary - not enough trips!
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