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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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akleos' PassPorter family question inspired this one :
If you could unload that one relative that makes you embarrassed/horrified whenever you realize you share the same family tree, who would it be? It's dark and a little mean, but cathartic, too, to get it out.
Walt has this one aunt. Ugh. I'm sure his family thinks I'm a shrew, but I'm so glad my MIL put a stop to the aunt thinking it was okay to just show up on our vacations because her kids put up with it. Her third husband is no prize either.
I have an aunt who could benefit from an intervention, but at the first mention of her little "drinking problem", she becomes defensive, nasty, and outright violent defending her right to be a sot who is ruining her marriage and embarrasses her own children. The family is kind of afraid of her. I'm content to just avoid her and pretend she's not my aunt until she comes to her senses and dries out.
So, there you have the two bad apples on our family tree.
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He's had a serious drinking problem for YEARS, his wife is just as bad, he's got hardly anything to do with his son anymore, he's goint to end up in jail, doesn't have a job but still has bills to pay, so he defaults on his bills and, being that my grandmother is either a co-signer or is an authorized person on all of his accounts, the companies he owes money to call HER and make HER pay because he won't. His wife also can't cook for anything, so he wants his MOTHER to cook for him. The guy's in his late 40's!
It embarrasses my dad to no end because he's the asst. police chief and here his brother's getting pulled over all the time and getting DUIs and what not . . . There's not much communication between those two, that's for sure.
He's a real piece of work, that one. Thankfully he's the only one that's really bad.
[Note: first the quick prayer that it's ok to not love everyone all the time, even if they are related ]
I have a crazy sister. I was adopted by my aunt and uncle when I was a baby, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me... they had two children of their own before me. Their first born is a musical genius, but socially... well, lets just say not so much. She ruined every get together I can remember by causing a scene, geting huffy, demanding to be taken home at the worst possible moments -- like when everyone was settling down to eat dinner (she never learned to drive -- thank goodness!), commenting very rude things just to embarrass my parents -- didn't matter who was there. I almost died at my wedding when she chose to take the very front row aisle seat (reserved for my parents), but she was actually well behaved that day! Wore, no still wears, that 1950's blue eye shadow painted on from lid to brow, with the huge black eyeliner. It was very hard on my parents, and turned me into an "angel" because I did everything I could to make up for it. She's still very odd, but settled down some, now that she's past 60.
Hmmm. My family puts the fun in dysfunctional, but luckily no immediate family members have embarrassed me to the point of "forgetting" them - yet. I have tons of "eccentric" family members (like my cousin Wade who burns his entire yard every New Year's for "good luck" and my great-aunt Norma who won't stop having face lifts even though her eyebrows are up to her hairline), but most of them are harmless and having crazy family members is just part of being Southern, I think.
My dad's brother (actually, my step-dad's brother ---- I always call him my dad, but I'll clarify that now so you don't think I'm blood-related to his relative ) is quite the embarrassment. He's a real winner. Apparently, he used to be kind of normal, but when my (step) grandpa (his father) retired after 35 years with the postal service, he decided he would retire too. So he just sits at home on his sorry butt and tries to figure out ways to swindle money from folks and checks himself into hospitals a couple of times a year for imaginary chest pains. He also spends a lot of time coloring over addresses on used envleopes with an ink pen so he can reuse them. He gets a humongous disability check every month (we can't quite figure out WHAT his disability is, though), but seems to never have any money - I think he spends it on hookers. Luckily, he lives about 30 minutes from us and the rest of the family -- but unfortunately, he comes to town fairly often, usually to buy things (like cars), knowing he'll never make the first payment on them and that, since he bought it in our small town, the dealership or whatever will call his 83-year-old father instead of the repossession agency, and his dad, who is totally respectable and sweet, and will "take care of it" to save the family of embarrassement . My dad doesn't get along with his brother very well at all. :
My uncle (my real father's brother) has a crazy wife, Debbie, who makes up craaaaaaazy stories that are just out there all the time. She's a real loon, but mostly harmless, and they live out-of-town, so I don't have to deny knowing her very often.
Mine is not a blood-relative, but I think it still counts. Mine would be my step-mom. Ever since she and my dad got married she has treated my siblings and I horribly. As we get older she is getting a little more tolerable, but not enough to want to keep around.
My biological mother. She's an alcholic who's been to rehab more times than I can count...she took me out hungover to bars when I was a kid...she is now married for the 4th time to a drug addict. She makes me so proud that she's my 'mom'. Needless to say I never talk to her.
You know, I think MY family is the odd one out. My parents don't socialize. They are nuts. They go to parties with their own families and they sit quietly in the corner at a table and talk to NO ONE. Ugh. It's annoying. Don't even get me started. And my Mom makes things up out of the conversations you have with her. It's like she has trouble piecing it all together. Classic example... we invite my parents to the holidays at our house. Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm not kidding you this is an actual conversation I had with my mom...
MOM: Well I wanted to talk to you about the holidays (long pause)
ME: So...? Do you think you'll be coming over?
MOM: Oh, well, I don't really know. I'm not sure about Thanksgiving. (mumbles incoherently)
ME: Ok, that's fine.
MOM: (with a little anger) And I really don't think we will be able to go to Walt Disney World for Christmas.
ME: (chuckle) Mom, we didn't invite you to WDW for Christmas. It's just US... Me, DH, DS, and DD.
MOM: Oh. Well. I. Um.
ME: What about Christmas?
MOM: Well, I don't know. I'll have to ask your father. I think it will depend on the weather.
I don't get it. We never invited them to WDW. I have no idea where she got it from. I remember a conversation i had with her when I told her we wouldn't be able to go to their house for Christmas this year because we were going to WDW, and a completely different conversation when I invited them over for the holidays... so...
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Boogie down!!! __________________________________________________ ______ "Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending." from The Muppet Movie
no one in my immediate family. my mom has a cousin who is in jail for life (guess what he did...). she has another cousin that thinks she is the center of the world. we don't socialize with that part of the family, so it's no big deal to us. mainly we just stick to our immediate family, so we don't really notice those family members.
I would love to get rid of my Sister-in-law. She is married to Amy's brother and has made our lives a wreck ever since.
BIL was going to come over to our house to drop off tables for our garage sale. She tags along with both nephews. She says nothing to no one the whole time she is there, except to nitpick my BIL. My MIL asked her if she wanted anything to eat because we were going to pick up fish, no, that was it no. Not no thank you I'm not hungry, NOTHING!! (Little side note, my MIL is great, I would have her live with us no questions asked if it ever came down to it.)
Another time, last week was MIL's B-Day. She ruins everyone's B-Day's she can get her hands on. She will act crabby the whole time or talk down to people. So, BIL is getting ready to leave with the boys and she starts in being crabby. He told her that if she was going to act like that then she should just stay home. She came but didn't say much to anyone but the other SIL that is starting to act like her.
It really ruins things for me because we share the same B-Day! We try to do as little as possible with her because she is so crabby. FIL told MIL that they only got lucky with one In-law and that was me. He said the two girls aren't worth... well this is a family board.
So, if someone needs a crabby SIL, I would be glad to give mine up in a heart beat.
I have a list of family members to add, but I don't want to hijack the discussion. Crazy Aunt, cousin who sleeps around and runs off with hookers and pimps to other states, another cousin who strips, uncle that is a retired police officer who is crazy. The list could go on and on....
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My brother in law. He asked me out when I was already dating his little brother and now, he's cheating on my sister in law, who also happens to be one of my best friends. Actually, all of my in laws are kind of weird... can I pick more than one???
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I would trade in DBF's mother and step-dad (soon to be my in-laws). They're crazy. And by crazy, I mean CRAZY. The mother works as a secretary in one of the college offices; she probably makes less than $20K a year. His Step-dad doesn't do anything. He sits at home all day. Needless to say, they're broke. They own their house (step-dad's mother willed it to them when she died), otherwise, they'd probably be homeless. They've borrowed money from DBF when he was 19 to pay for the stepdad's backed up child support (which wasn't his fault, of course). For Xmas, knowing that they don't have a lot of money, DBF will only ask for practical things like socks and undershirts, etc. But they NEVER get him what he asks for; instead, they get him crap they can find at the Dollar store - like a hammer that breaks out your window if you ever get trapped in your car; or socket wrench sets. But that's not really why they're crazy.
They're religious crazies. And by religious-crazy, I mean they don't attend a church (not strict enough for them); they see visions and speak in tongues. Stepdad sits at home all day and watches The Bible Network and Pat Robertson, and talks about the "homosexuals" and "liberals" ruining the country. Never misses a chance to tell DBF that we're living in sin and he's going to Hades. I'm a Jezebel who's only with DBF for his money (Keep in mind, we've been together for almost 7 years now, and we're getting married, but...whatever). The list goes on and on.
There are so so many of the crazy type people in my and DH's family. But, they each serve some purpose, if nothing more than for me to say "Well, at least we're not as odd as ______"
But - I would have to chuck my Aunt. (sorry mom!) My mother's younger sister. There's a brother in the middle who isn't bad - but Aunt A. is a pain in the rear!!
She HATES her given name, so picked a COLOR to be called! And, she refuses to come to Indiana to visit anyone. Wants us all to come to Korea (yes, as in Asia) where she and her DH live. She says horrible things about my grandparents and mom. She constantly talks about how much she gets "When the old lady finally dies" (Uh - that's MY grandmother - shut up!!). And, she got angry when I told her that I thought her Daughter, who NEVER came to visit and rarely called, etc. and still doesn't shouldn't inherit as much as the grandkids who still keep/kept in touch and SHOWED UP for grandpa's funeral (yep - her daughter couldn't be bothered to come to her grandfather's funeral!)
Oh, I could go on and on.
To be fair, I'd have to say that on DH's side it's his step-mom. She's never treated FiL's grandkids well, to the point that she takes HER grandkids on vacations all the time, and thinks nothing of telling HIS grandkids about it, and how much fun they had. She's also very clear that they are HERS and HIS, not THEIRS - well, HER grandkids are THEIRS, but HIS are HIS!!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.