"Can I Play on Your iPhone?" A WDW Trip in a Digital Age (May 28 - June 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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"Can I Play on Your iPhone?" A WDW Trip in a Digital Age (May 28 - June 7)
It’s been a long time since I wrote a trip report (even longer since I’ve completed one ), but this trip needed to be documented. So I’m back in the trip report writing fold instead of leaving it to those who write more frequently, and more reliably.
The reasons for this trip were many: a return to Star Wars Weekends, a chance to vacation with the Koenigs, (since we’ve met ‘em in person in 2008 they haven’t been able to shake us! ) and most importantly Zack’s graduation from high school and impending 18th birthday. Zack’s last trip to Disney as a child, an honest-to-goodness, recognized by the U.S. government child, was spectacular: hilarious, thrilling, heartwarming, and bittersweet. And, I feel the need to personally memorialize it as my final act of minor child parenting. Come November, when I’m stuck on day four (hopefully not an overly optimistic projection) in the midst of planning the commando style operation necessary to decorate my house for the holidays, perhaps someone can prod me to prove I’m not a derelict mother by finishing the trip report already, or something similarly subtle. Deal?
My absence from trip report writing has brought me a humbling anonymity, believe me, you have no idea how humbling. And, I don’t presume that introductions aren’t necessary. To most, I’m Eileen, Jill, and Sharon’s friend. Per my handle, I’m Zack’s mom. If those two descriptors were ALL that I was known for… well, that sounds just about perfect, actually! But for some additional details, I’m a single mother of almost 40. But don’t cry for me Argentina! I’m psyched to share my birth year with WDW and every decade has gotten better for me. I can’t wait to see what the next one has to hold!
I work as a budget analyst for a think tank on the Stanford University campus with former Secretaries of State, Nobel laureates, etc. Talk about humbling! But as I’ve said to Eileen, once you pee next to someone, it doesn’t seem to matter what their pedigree is. Bathrooms are democratizing, y’all! As a political junkie, I’m blessed beyond belief to have this job. And when I’m not working, I’m watching the Giants (the off-season is a serious bummer man) or yelling at Zack to finish his homework, usually simultaneously.
Speaking of the fruit of my loins, Zack is a recent high school graduate and last Tuesday became legally allowed to vote, buy cigarettes, get married or join the military without parental consent. I’m hoping he only does one of the above for right now. Zack is an amazing, bright, funny, artistic kid who seriously stinks at inside the box thinking and busy work. High school was a major challenge so he’s planning on taking a year off to work and continue working on some movie ideas before heading to film school. He’s really starting to “get” what’s funny and is getting better at the editing and finishing of a video, so hopefully my dream of becoming a woman of leisure when he makes it big still stands a chance. Here’s his latest creative effort (and don’t ruin my delusion if you think it’s stinky!)
Due to Star Wars Weekends and the Koenigs’ and Weiss’ school schedules, the date decision was easy. We’d head down as soon as graduation festivities allowed and stay as long as the bank account stayed in positive territory. How close did we cut it? Zack’s grad night party was scheduled to end at 2:30 AM on Saturday, May 28… our flight left SFO at 6:51 AM the same day. And, I was budgeted to return home on June 7 with $1.42 in the checking account. Kidding on the second part! But the first is the honest to goodness truth.
I planned for a split stay, knowing that we wanted to go to Universal for a day for the Wizarding World, and knowing that staying on site there would give us a ton of perks. So I booked Port Orleans for three nights, one night at the Royal Pacific Resort, and six nights at the Beach Club Villas in a 2-bedroom with Jilly. But, I couldn’t stand not being at the Wilderness Lodge and when the general resort discount came out, I jumped on it and switched from Port Orleans with the dining plan to Club Level at the Wilderness Lodge with no dining plan (but free booze!)
I moved to dining next, just assuming that I could talk Jilly into doing everything I wanted to do, and made ADR’s for nearly every day of our 10-day extravaganza. Following Jill’s past trips, I planned on lunches out while in club level, figuring we could eat lightly in the lounge for breakfast and dinner. Since we had good dining plan value meals planned for part of our BCV reservation, I de-linked our reservations (I’d booked the first three nights, the Koenigs the second) and added the dining plan to the first part of the stay. Finally, I worked with the fabulous pastry chef at the Contemporary and the even more fabulous Eileen (my personal graphic artist) to design a graduation cake to be delivered to our Wilderness Lodge room the first night. If you want a custom cake at Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness, or a Magic Kingdom restaurant, you can order it from Contemporary private dining and have it delivered at no extra charge. Tip for the day!
For transportation, I had a leftover Southwest credit that was good enough for the return flight home and I booked a one-way ticket on United for our flight to Orlando. I also booked a rental car for a few days from the Downtown Disney Budget office, figuring that would be the easiest way to get to Universal and back for our adventure off-site.
Because we’re such Disney loyalists, we had an unused day on our 2-day, 2-park tickets for Universal from… drum roll, please… 2003. Everything I read online said they’d still be good, but I was setting aside enough money to buy tickets just in case. For Disney, we’re Premium Annual Pass holders for Disneyland already and upgrading to the Premier Passport would only cost about $500 for both of us. They expire in late December, but $250 for a 10-day park hopper with water parks (just for this trip) was the best deal EVER! And, I couldn’t wait to get that shiny Premier card in my grubby little mitts.
With all the trip planning done, there was nothing to do but pack, get the dog all set for boarding, clean off my desk at work, and yell at Zack to finish up all the tests and work required to graduate. I’m happy to say that by 5 PM on Friday, May 27th, we were good to go!
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Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
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Awesome! I know I'm going to learn a lot from your TR...you seem to do be doing a lot of things that I've been thinking about for next year! Can't wait to hear more!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Love the TR so far and Zach's video was awesome! Can't wait to hear of all your adventures especially since they will include those 2 cute little blonde girls of Jill's!
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A Fairy Godmother wannabe -
Look what a little Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo can do!
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About This Page: 
), but this trip needed to be documented. So I’m back in the trip report writing fold instead of leaving it to those who write more frequently, and more reliably.
) and most importantly Zack’s graduation from high school and impending 18th birthday. Zack’s last trip to Disney as a child, an honest-to-goodness, recognized by the U.S. government child, was spectacular: hilarious, thrilling, heartwarming, and bittersweet. And, I feel the need to personally memorialize it as my final act of minor child parenting. Come November, when I’m stuck on day four (hopefully not an overly optimistic projection) in the midst of planning the commando style operation necessary to decorate my house for the holidays, perhaps someone can prod me to prove I’m not a derelict mother by finishing the trip report already, or something similarly subtle. Deal? 
And, I was budgeted to return home on June 7 with $1.42 in the checking account. 
Kidding on the second part! But the first is the honest to goodness truth.
Everything I read online said they’d still be good, but I was setting aside enough money to buy tickets just in case. For Disney, we’re Premium Annual Pass holders for Disneyland already and upgrading to the Premier Passport would only cost about $500 for both of us. They expire in late December, but $250 for a 10-day park hopper with water parks (just for this trip) was the best deal EVER! And, I couldn’t wait to get that shiny Premier card in my grubby little mitts.
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