A Grown Woman Crying--Our First Trip (Finally Posted!) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Another great update! Illuminations is my favorite fireworks show of all time! Since I've learned the back story, I can't help but cry every single time I see it. A few years ago my DSis and her family went with us and I quietly commentated the acts to her and had her crying with me before it was over.
A question -- what convention were you attending? I attended the NCTE conference back in November and some of yours sounds like mine.
A question -- what convention were you attending? I attended the NCTE conference back in November and some of yours sounds like mine.
you hit the nail on the head! i teach 8th grade language arts. it was my second NCTE convention--we went last year when it was in philly, as we live less than an hour away. what did you think of this year's convention?
Great update! I learned about the backstory for Illuminations once we got home. We were not in a good spot for the show anyway but your spot sounded perfect. I will have to remember that for our trip in May. I will need to do some research and read up on the story so I can fill in DH during the show.
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here:
you hit the nail on the head! i teach 8th grade language arts. it was my second NCTE convention--we went last year when it was in philly, as we live less than an hour away. what did you think of this year's convention?
I really enjoyed the sessions, but the Exhibition Hall was better the year NCTE was at Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Many more free novels that I could read and then decide on whether to teach or not. I got some really good novels that year. Just wish I had known you were there at the same time.
Great update! I love Illuminations and I tear up when I hear the music . . . and then I sing along with the end--I imagine it bothers the people around me, but I usually just nod and smile because I was there first!
What an amazing update! You had me a little teary eyed reading about YOU being teary eyed about illuminations. I don't know the story behind it, so I'll have to research that.
Great update! I love Illuminations and I tear up when I hear the music . . . and then I sing along with the end--I imagine it bothers the people around me, but I usually just nod and smile because I was there first!
I usually try to sing - but soon find it makes me cry harder!
great report love reading it! Haven't made a rope drop yet but hope too and I do believe I will cry too! Kids tease me about my crying but one day it will be them and their wives are crying! FYI we are pratically neighbors! I live in Catasauqua, I am about 3 minute drive to the airport! small world.... LOL
Man, it sure is taking me a long time to finish this trip report! Sorry!
Ok...this is the second to last post, I promise...
By our final full day we were exhausted--and out of park admissions. I did consider adding on an extra day for something like $45 total (for the two of us) so that we could check out DHS after convention sessions that day, but decided against it. we were SO TIRED. i don't think i can express how exhausting combining a work trip with a disney trip is. just imagine working a full day--and by 'working' i mean 'learning and taking notes and networking and carrying large quantities of books vast distances'...and THEN going to a disney park. by this last day, despite the fact that i love the NCTE convention, i was looking at people on actual vacation with more than a little envy--i was practically turning green.
for our evening's festivities, we decided to hop the (free) bus to (free) downtown disney (can you sense a trend? we've NEVER spent so much money out of pocket on a work trip, and our credit card was positively smoking at this point!) i had made reservation at fulton's crab house, and i was anxious to check out DTD.
my husband had something else on his mind...
DTD was ok, i guess, and i wish i'd had more time to explore it--but the husband had one goal--direct me towards the DTD movie theater for the next available showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (it had come out the night before and he was DYING to see it). so i sat in the theater with him and enjoyed the movie much, much less than i would have had i been at home--i kept thinking 'we're never going to be here again' (silly me!) 'and we're wasting our time in a movie!'
after the show we strolled back to fulton's for our dinner reservations. i was not impressed by fulton's. we were seated in what can only be described as 'the hallway outside of the restrooms' and it took over and hour for our food to come out. when we first (finally) got our meals, we were both disappointed--see photo below--at the very small amount of food (for the very large amount of money). however, it was really good. i've had better crab, but only once (and, to be fair, that was alaskan king crab at a dockside restaurant...in alaska...) and the waiter was so nice it almost made up for the wait--he even brought us a complimentary crab cake appetizer (that was quite good) to make up for the wait (and we didn't even complain--everywhere else on earth could learn a thing or two about customer service from the lovely folks at disney world!)
After dinner, my husband insisted on visiting the pub that (i think) was attached to raglan road. when the man sees a pub that may be british in some way, he must find out of they have cider on tap. this place did, and for once i was pleased that he has such an odd obsession. being able to sit outside (at night! in november!) and people watch was a great way to end a fantastic trip.
we slept in the following morning (thank the gods!) and made our way to the airport around noon. i was sad to go--so sad, in fact, that i used the free wifi at the airport to begin my research for our next trip. and this time, it would be a vacation!
one more post to come...preliminarily titled 'lessons from a mouse'.
Photos: 1. The husband outside of the Leggo store. 2. Me with Mr. Potato head (I have a coworker who loves Potato heads--I took this pic and texted it to her on the spot! 3. Dinner at Fultons (see why we were disappointed?) 4. Me, happy, at the pub at Raglan Road.
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