Our Penny Pressing Plans Pre Trip Report - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The plans look great! Congrats on getting all the ADR's you wanted.
Thanks
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Your ADRs sound great. And the more cake, the better!
My head agrees, but my middle doesn't
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It would be great to see photo's of the cakes when the time comes (but no pressure now)
No, no pressure at all . I personally feel weird about taking pictures of food, but I'll try to remember as I know I'm not the only one wondering what they look like. I'm not promising though.
Even though it seems things went smoothly from the time I booked our vacation until now (ahh, the magic of writing), that was not the case. We had a lot of bumps along the way. I won’t bore anyone with too many details but here’s the long and short of what we’ve gone through since I booked the vacation.
At the end of February, right before I booked our vacation, we bought a new conversion van. On April 1st, Lenny got into an accident with it which he was found at fault for (which upped our insurance). The van wasn’t drivable and had to be towed to the collision shop where the repairs took longer than we expected. During this time, mom and the women I work with kept giving me their opinions on the van repairs even though I didn’t want them which added to my stress level. Finally on June 9th (after we paid our 500 deductible), we had the van back, but the check engine light came on indicating a misfire on cylinder 3. Lenny replaced the spark plugs, the wires, the rotor and the cap but the light came on again. So 2 service shops and another 500 bucks later, the light was still on. Lenny felt it was the injectors but neither service shop listened to him and tried to replace what he had just put in (namely the plugs and wires). Lenny then bought some fuel injector plugs (start simple is what he thought) and once they were in, we were good to go. The light hasn’t come on since.
Other interesting bumps include the fact that 2 of our computers completely crashed and I lost ALL of my Disney info because it wasn't backed up on disc. One computer Lenny got working again but the other one we had to replace (ouch!). Lenny’s job cut everyone’s paycheck by 10% and took away our dental and prescription reimbursement funds (a bigger ouch). I also was informed that my hours at school would be cut as well (only 15 minutes a day, but a cut is still a cut). And I have to mention that Disney hours for August didn’t come out when I (and a lot of others) expected them to either.
All of those "bumps" really started wearing on me and all the unexpected expenses had me rethinking our vacation. At my lowest I didn’t care one iota about Disney anymore and I was very close to picking up the phone and canceling but I knew Abby would have been crushed had I done that, so I didn’t do it. I kept thinking "maybe I can still make it work somehow." I also thought that if I could still make it work it would be a much needed vacation.
Ouch ... those are not good bumps to hit for sure. I am glad that you were able to keep your Disney plans though. All those things mean that the trip is that much more sweeter to do. The train part sounds like so much fun. maybe someday.
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Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
Oh my! You need a vacation to Disney after all those bumps. I'm glad you didn't cancel your trip. Sorry you had to go through all of that. Off for a fun time in less than 10 days!
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All of those "bumps" really started wearing on me and all the unexpected expenses had me rethinking our vacation. At my lowest I didn’t care one iota about Disney anymore and I was very close to picking up the phone and canceling but I knew Abby would have been crushed had I done that, so I didn’t do it. I kept thinking "maybe I can still make it work somehow." I also thought that if I could still make it work it would be a much needed vacation.
This is a much deserved vacation and I'm glad you're sticking to your plans and going. Maybe a little Disney magic us just what you all need.
Great plans Darlene, glad you were able to work through the bumps and make this trip a well deserved reality for you and your family. Can't wait to hear more.
Sure were some big bumps. Glad to see that you were able to get through them. Now all you need is a fun trip to smooth everything out. Looking forward to reading your TR when you return.
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. I personally feel weird about taking pictures of food, but I'll try to remember as I know I'm not the only one wondering what they look like. I'm not promising though.
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
This is a much deserved vacation and I'm glad you're sticking to your plans and going. Maybe a little Disney magic us just what you all need.
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