The Great Big East Coast Adventure - PTR - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Okay...now we HAVE to get Meri and Jason to meet at some point. That is Jason to a tee!! No matter what we do whether it's going to a movie, or if he's doing something at school that they don't normally do, or if we're going to the library to get a new book to him it is always and I quote "The betht day ever!!" They seem to have the same excited view of the world.
I would LOVE to get them together! I wish we could get together on this trip! On the next trip, unquestionably we must have a meet up!!
Well, it's been a while, sorry... there's been just a whole lot going on here. Between the end of the school year, the day job being crazy, picking up more night shifts AND starting a new relationship (), I feel like I've barely been able to THINK about the trip! Meri does, however, ask me every day "how many sleeps mommy?"
In aggravating news, the flights to Boston STINK for the day I want to depart. As you know, I'm flying standby. I looked into regular tickets, but they're about 6 times more expensive than my standby cost, so I had to say no to that. Worst case we cut off a day and arrive Monday. I just hate to do that because then we'd really be cramming. *shrug* I guess we'll do whatever we have to.
Either way, I've now decided to put off buying my train fare until I arrive in Boston. I'm hopeful we won't have an issue... but it's best to be prepared. Ah the joys of flying standby... everything is always up in the air. *eye roll*
Other than that... all is still on course! I'm really excited! We're starting to throw some things in the suitcase, which is making it seem so real!
I wish I had more exciting things to report, but it's going to be likely pretty dull until this turns "live" on 5/22. I still plan on attempting to get out on Sunday, even if the flights look awful. So you may get some sleepy posts from me from the airport, lol. My beaux is dropping us off at 5am (since I won't have checked luggage, we don't have to get there early).
I'm still stressed out at those five words. "I won't have checked luggage". I am the queen of over-packing. How on earth am I going to survive??? LOL! I feel so nervous! But I can do it! It will be a great adventure! I'll post pictures of my suitcase before I go, lol...
Have I mentioned how excited I am? I'm just too busy to think about it usually. Phew. This vacation will be SO needed!!
I am quite the over-packer too. I always figure, if we've got a suitcase, may as well pack it full!
Good luck and some for your stand-by flight! You sound so busy that these couple of weeks ar just going to fly by. Unfortunately, it won't seem as quick for Meri...time just draaaaags when you're a kid and can't wait for vacation.
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I am quite the over-packer too. I always figure, if we've got a suitcase, may as well pack it full!
Good luck and some for your stand-by flight! You sound so busy that these couple of weeks are just going to fly by. Unfortunately, it won't seem as quick for Meri...time just draaaaags when you're a kid and can't wait for vacation.
I'll give a little bit of info about the beaux below (and I'm sure I'll text you, also)! And as for time dragging, you're so right. Fortunately she's got quite a bit of activity happening (including school) as well, so she's kept busy, though not as busy as me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I'm intrigued by the new relationship as well....
for the standby flights - I hope they work out for you.
Thanks! Flying standby is a blessing and a curse. Works well when it's empty and you fly first class for peanuts. Doesn't work so well when it's oversold and you've got awesome plans that you don't want spoiled!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Good luck for your flights!
Thanks for the pixies! I'll need em!
Well, even though I said I wasn't going to do it, I bought the train tickets from Boston to NY. I figure that regardless of when I arrive (Sunday or Monday), I'm still leaving on Wednesday, so I might as well just go ahead and get them now.
They're refundable, which is good (less a 10% fee, but whatever, I can live with that). So, I booked 2 business class seats for myself and Meri. That will give Meri a tray table and a power outlet, so we can plug the iPod charger and the portable DVD charger into it. I'll have a power strip with me, so hopefully the plug at the seat will be a three prong one, and I can just charge everything at once. I'm pretty sure it would be a 3 prong outlet, though, because business travelers use this train, and therefore use laptops... and laptops have 3 prong cords as a rule (at least my two do).
My basic plan is to board, go to the snack car to get food, then get settled in our seats and get situated. It's a 4 hour train ride, and it should be quite the adventure! I'm really very excited about it! I haven't been on a train since I was, gosh, maybe 8?
Now, we just need to get to Boston!
I'm absolutely appalled at how small my suitcase is, lol. I still cannot get over it!! It's so TINY! How the heck am I going to get anything in there? LOL! Good thing it's summer. Tshirts and tank tops!
Ok, now for the new relationship... lol. He's someone I've known for about a year now through my second job, and he's recently out of a relationship (she cheated, he ended it). We're moving quite slowly - just movies and lunches, but he's absolutely wonderful. He's got a little girl who is 2, and we had a play date with the girls. They got along well, and it was a nice day all around. Phew! First obstacle (and most important) out of the way! Meri absolutely adores him and has for quite some time now (she has met him multiple times when we go to my work to eat).
Anyway, there's not MUCH to tell right now. It's not even really "officially" a relationship, though we've both agreed that while we're testing the waters here, neither of us are testing the waters with anyone else. Maybe some day he'll be lucky enough to stick around and make an appearance in a future TR... lol!
Until then, he'll just make a brief appearance in the live TR, probably rating a mention when he drops us off at the airport, lol.
So that's my update for now... more to come, I suppose.
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So I just found this today and therefore all caught up! Sounds like you've got a neat tripped planned for you & Meri. (I need to go back and read about your NY adventure. I'm getting SO behind!)
Not sure if you found out anything about the car seats, but this site State Child Passenger Safety Laws shows the child safety seat laws for all 50 states.
Verrrrry interesting about the new relationship! Gotta send you tons of that the flight works out. If you end up arriving on Monday I won't get to meet you both and ride the swan boats! Good luck with the packing. Keep an eye on the weather outlook. The highs today were only in the 50's, so we haven't hit summer yet. The temps should warm up in the next week, though. The rest of the country seems to be having above average highs. Sounds like you're way too busy!
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So I just found this today and therefore all caught up! Sounds like you've got a neat tripped planned for you & Meri. (I need to go back and read about your NY adventure. I'm getting SO behind!)
Not sure if you found out anything about the car seats, but this site State Child Passenger Safety Laws shows the child safety seat laws for all 50 states.
I know the feeling about being behind. There are a TON of TR's and PTR's I've started and lost track of. I need to catch up! Thanks for the car seat info. I decided not to bring mine. My cousin is letting me borrow hers while we're in NY and I have a friend letting me use one while in VA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Verrrrry interesting about the new relationship! Gotta send you tons of that the flight works out. If you end up arriving on Monday I won't get to meet you both and ride the swan boats! Good luck with the packing. Keep an eye on the weather outlook. The highs today were only in the 50's, so we haven't hit summer yet. The temps should warm up in the next week, though. The rest of the country seems to be having above average highs. Sounds like you're way too busy!
I am definitely hoping to get in on Sunday so we can have our Swan Boat ride together!! I will continue to keep you posted. Thanks for the weather outlook - I haven't checked yet but I guess I'm nearly in the 10 day range, so I can start tomorrow!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Congrats on the new relationship!!
Hope you'll be able to flight out on standby
Congrats on purchasing your train tickets!!
Thanks, thanks and thanks!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Sounds like everything's going nicely so far with the new relationship!
So far so good. Of course, it's still in the new and cute little "everything's great" stage, lol. I'll keep you all posted, for sure!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy
Finally all caught up. I am very excited to hear all about Boston. That city is on my bucket list!
I admit that while it's great to see family in NY, and I'm glad to see friends in VA, this part of the trip is what I'm most excited about! I love new places!