The Continuing Story of the Adventures of a CM! - Page 91 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Has the "no extension" been confirmed officially to you?
If your internship can't be extended, this will allow you to concentrate on finding a permanent post rather than your attention being diverted in trying to extend your temporary position.
The bottom line is Disney needs you. No company, no matter how large, can afford to let truly committed, talented, dedicated personnel slip through their grasp, especially in the current economic climate. They need to get value for money when it comes to their human resources, and by the power of pixie dust they've gotten a good one in you!!!!!
I know things may seem a little on the dark side at the moment, but it's always darkest before the dawn (no pun intended!), so, like I've said in an earlier post, "keep your chin up".
And if the worst comes to the worst I bet there's more than a few Passporters who'd be more than willing to put pen to paper and write to Disney singing your praises!!!!!
And if the worst comes to the worst I bet there's more than a few Passporters who'd be more than willing to put pen to paper and write to Disney singing your praises!!!!!
I know I would be more than willing to do this. You spread the magic for me even though I wasn't there. You sent my BFF's son a postcard "from" Mickey and helped reinforce his good behavior. He LOVED the card BTW.
Do we need to start a "Give Grey a permanent job" petition?
Sorry I've been out of the loop for a few days...had a mini-vacay with a birthday celebration for youngest DD. Let me tell you about some Magic...
Hubby came in Wed and we went to Ft. Wilderness (have now stayed in every resort or resort "family" at WDW ) for one night. Underimpressed, but it just wasn't our speed. On Thurs, we moved over to Wilderness Lodge. I went to check us in early b/c we were heading to SeaWorld for the day (yes, I know, I cheated on WDW!). The CM asked me if I knew what gold keys meant and I fibbed (I wanted her to have her Pixie Dust moment!) and she announced we'd been upgraded to concierge! And...not JUST concierge, mind you, but we could see the Castle from our balcony! I went immediately up and explained my predicament about getting Crystal Palace for DD's b-day dinner (Eeyore is her FAVE) and guess what??? Table for 4 at 540pm! all around! I couldn't contain my excitement, so I told DD as soon as I got back to the car. She was over the moon.
Did SeaWorld, DDs rode Manta (scared me to death watching them) and we did all the biggies. I was reminded that I wasn't in WDW anymore with the employees there being somewhat less than magical. And the Atlantis ride was a wee bit of a, ummmmm, joke. (except it was a bit wild to the point of uncomfortable for me). DDs decided they didn't want to bother with Kraken. I sure hope their Polar Express thing is fun or I just blew a bunch o' money on tickets...
Went back to the room to discover our lovely view and have some cheese and fruit in the concierge lounge. We went back later and collected some desserts for a private HalloWishes fireworks viewing, only our room wasn't situated in quite the best place for that. we enjoyed it all just the same.
Friday was THE birthday and the plans changed with the new dinner arrangement. We went to Epcot first and rode Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and Test Track before hitting the WS for some food at the festival booths. We ate our way around there, then caught the monorail to the TTC. We were stuck on it for 45 minutes while they took another out of service, which stressed everyone out.
Ferryed to the MK, then hit Buzz, TTA (disappointing change of narration, now it's just a tour of the attractions/shops, no more Tom Morrow ), Pooh, Mickey's Phil, Peter Pan, Small World, and hubby took them on Splash and BTMRR while I went to check on a b-day cake at Crystal Palace.
I was originally told we could be seated early, but we wound up being seated on time (we waited about 45 minutes). Dinner was fine, but DD's face when Eeyore came was priceless. It took quite awhile to get to all the characters. Don't know what it is with this one, but every single time we go, we're waiting fairly long after the check is paid.
Wandered out of the MK as the Halloween party was starting and went back to the room. We found a hallway that had shutters that opened where we could watch ALL the fireworks, so we did that last night before hitting the hay.
DDs and hubby flew home today and I worked this evening. There's been an interesting development at work that I can't go into (and, yes, it's confirmed, no extension for me). In the meantime, I'm brushing up my resume and have applied to Hobby Lobby as well as a few other places.
I also got the lowest score I've ever gotten on anything in my life in my current class. It was a group project and we got 8/15. I'm feeling belly-punched over it as I don't know if I'll be able to salvage my grade at all. I'm feeling very unmotivated right now to do anything and I have a HUGE paper due on Monday that I haven't even started yet.
3 more days of work and I fly to Ohio to soak up some cooler weather and then bring DDs back home. These few days with hubby were particularly bad for some reason. His annoyingness was amplified. I think I've been numbed to it, but when I look around and see how other men behave toward their families and then see how he does, it's striking. And annoying. 13yo was not happy that she had to go with him. 11yo was only interested in going to hang out with her BFF all week. It also didn't help that we had breakfast at 7am (continental, concierge stuff, no protein, per se) and at 2 something, they still hadn't had lunch. That pushed me beyond annoyed.
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I'm so sorry about the extension Dawn, but I do think that maybe it happened for a reason as the perfect position might open up that will be permenent. Glad though that you are already putting those resumes out though so you will be ahead of the game.
What a magical weekend for DD's birthday, what a wonderful upgrade and how great there were able to get you in at CP for dinner. That must have made her day.
Hope that whatever the development at work is ends up being in your favor. Sorry about your grade, it is really hard when you work in those groups (I had to do that at UOP when I did my degree) and it gets so frustrating becuase your grade depends on everyone and many times you just get stuck with people that just do not have the same work ethics as you so either you are stuck doing all the work or getting a lower grade becuase of everyone else.
Sounds like a wonderful B-day celebration for anyone, let alone a little girl in love with Eeyore and The World! Funny, mom, Dsis and I were underimpressed with WL and loved Ft. Wilderness! Different tastes and all that, I guess.
Sorry about the extension, the grade, and the DH acting like - himself? Must have been a bit of a bummer. I know what you mean about motivated - I have a test on Wed. I haven't studied for, and it's over 11 chapters of Maternity and Newborn care. Can you say CRAM?
Did you and the kids get the chance to take in some of the shows at Sea World? We loved some of them, and really thought the Shamu show was just way too over the top. Yeah, the Atlantis ride is a bit lame. I actually liked Kraken, and Manta was pretty nice.
Cool thing being able to see the fireworks from your room. Too bad it wasn't a great view. But, at least it's the World!
Hope your girls enjoy their time at home. It may seem pretty cold to them after all that time in Florida! Are they looking forward to seeing their grandparents? I remember you said one of them really missed grandma.
Thanks for the update - I was wondering how you guys were. Pixies that Disney suddenly realizes they can't function without you and offers you a permanent job!!
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At Disney World I can visit Japan. Please check-out my web site for wheelchair travel, 
) for one night. Underimpressed, but it just wasn't our speed. On Thurs, we moved over to Wilderness Lodge. I went to check us in early b/c we were heading to SeaWorld for the day (yes, I know, I cheated on WDW!). The CM asked me if I knew what gold keys meant and I fibbed (I wanted her to have her Pixie Dust moment!) and she announced we'd been upgraded to concierge! 
I went immediately up and explained my predicament about getting Crystal Palace for DD's b-day dinner (Eeyore is her FAVE) and guess what??? Table for 4 at 540pm! 
), Pooh, Mickey's Phil, Peter Pan, Small World, and hubby took them on Splash and BTMRR while I went to check on a b-day cake at Crystal Palace.
That pushed me beyond annoyed.
PassPorter Guide Author
Concierge and the Crystal Palace - it doesn't get much better than that. 
Sorry about the group paper. 
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