Confessions of an Unlikely Disney Fan - April 2010 Trip Report - Old Key West - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Listened to all of your podcasts and loved them! Hope you'll start up again. I had already read the Flo Fab article (found it a few months ago while looking for anything Disney related in the NYTimes) - isn't it great?
I've been absent for weeks - work has been crazy busy so no time to write up the last two days of our trip. MEANWHILE, we made an offer on a DVC contract at Saratogo Springs.... and just heard today that we made it through Disney's ROFR!!
We're planning on a trip in January and have already bought our plane tickets. Here's hoping the closing goes quickly and we can get a reservation at OKW or SSR for our dates. Can't wait! Can't believe I've gone from a Disney skeptic to buying into a Disney timeshare after only one visit!
More soon on the last bit of our trip... and then I'll have to start a pre-trip report.
Welcome to the DVC club! It's definitely worth it to be able to stay in the lovely resorts that are DVC resorts. We always stayed in moderates before buying into DVC, and they were great-don't get me wrong-but making reservations at BW, BC, AK, etc with our points is much more exciting Now the fun of banking, borrowing and overall juggling of points begins.....
Our final day was just the girls and me. Said goodbye to DH around 8:30 a.m. He caught the Magical Express to head to Detroit. We finished packing up our things and went to the Hospitality House to check out and store our carry-on luggage. Our goal was to make it to Mickey’s Toontown Fair by 10:00 a.m. Made it through bag check around 9:50 a.m. and hightailed it to Toontown. We arrived just at 10:00 and got in line to meet the fairies. Posted wait was 45 minutes, but I think it only took about a half hour. DD (10) had Tinkerbell sign her hat. (Did I write earlier about her fun with the hat? I wasn’t sure she would be enthusiastic about collecting signatures in a book, so I bought her a $5 Tinkerbell baseball cap at Walmart before we left. I figured if she didn’t want the autographs at least it would keep the sun off her face. We had a magenta Sharpie and she loved getting the hat filled with signatures.)
By the time we got to Tinkerbell, her hat was almost full and Tink signed it right on the brim. “It’s my hat, you know,” she said, “so I get the place of honor.”
After exploring the rest of Toontown, we camped out at the castle hub to wait for the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade. Not quite as much fun as the earlier one we saw as the park was much more crowded. But the girls did get to dance with Donald Duck – can’t beat that.
We had to be back at OKW by 3:00 p.m. for the Magical Express. It was a short day in the park, but with only the three of us it didn’t feel rushed. After the parade we wandered around Fantasyland, watched Philharmagic, and rode the carousel. On our way out of Fantasyland we saw the Fairy Godmother come out to begin a meet and greet and DD got one last autograph on her hat.
We waved goodbye to the castle not knowing if we’d ever return…. But now I know we are heading back in just a few short months! We’re working right now on planning two trips… one for MLK week in January and another the following year for New Year’s Eve through the first week of January. We may even get annual passes.
I learned a lot on this trip and will do some things differently… but I think by the end we had an approach to the parks and to a Disney vacation that worked well for our family. I’ll start a pre-trip report soon so that I can benefit from Passporter boards advice and feedback.
Last edited by deerislemom; 11-14-2010 at 08:38 AM..
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Wonderful bonus day at Epcot and MK! 
Now the fun of banking, borrowing and overall juggling of points begins.....
Linear Mode
