Pre-Pre TR: The Trip That Couldn't, Didn't and Hopefully Finally Will - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Pre-Pre TR: Stop Sulking and Get Back on That Horse!
Well, it's been a long time since my last post. In some ways I fell off of the face of the earth. I absolutely loved finding this website. It was so informative and inspiring. So when I began planning my trip that was to begin September 17th and end September 24th, I visited this site each day to help me build ideas and share experiences. I felt personally connected to so many of the posters here. Each day my DD (7) would find me on the laptop and she'd say, "Let me guess, Passporters".
Then it happened. Really it was more like, what didn't happen. It felt like each day something would strike our finances bringing us further from our beloved trip. Trust me when I say that this post is not about a pitty part for me...moreso a revival of what should have been. I know this happens to people all the time...vacations get postponed or canceled and life goes on. For me it sent me into complete disbelief. I kept thinking, somehow things would come together and it would work. I was in denial.
Next up: You don't want to go to Disney World?
I don't know if anyone has ever done a Pre...Pre-Trip Report...however, this is my way of getting my groove back. It is my hope that I will once again gain that connection that I have been missing over the past few months with the wonderful and proudly obsessed people who treck through these pages each day.
I can't wait to see if your trip finally comes together, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. After a crazy summer for DH and myself (what went wrong did), I sort of know how you feel....hopefully life for you and your family will be back to a routine soon (that was a big help for us) and you feel back in your groove again.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Okay so although I was in complete denial and sulking in self-pity there was one very important piece of business to attend to. How would I tell the kids??
I am one of those bad mommies that occasionally used our trip to Disney as leverage for good behavior. (I am not proud of this especially now and I will NEVER do this again!)
So...what would I say to them so that they would understand that it was not their fault that we could not go?
I felt them out on a few occasions by asking them to engage in Disney talk to see how excited they would get...inevitably they were always jumping up and down excitedly!
I told DH this was going to devastate them...and in doing this would crush me and make me feel terrible.
Then...it happened
I was in the bedroom going through clothes to donate to charity when my DS (7) came running into the bedroom screaming, "Mom...Mom... please please can we go to Darien Lake instead of Disney?"
Darien Lake is a small amusement park in western NY and it doesn't even come close to Disney. So, before speaking I really had to think of what I was going to say.
Finally, I said, "You don't want to go to Disney?"
DS, "I do, but we've never been to Darien Lake and I would like to go someplace new."
Me, "Well I think we will have to sit down and discuss this as a family tonight."
He then runs out of my bedroom to find his twin sister and begins probing her for what she thought. All I can say is this, there was screaming throughout the house and I was beginning to think that everything was going to be okay!
So later that day we sat down, and of course I had already filled DH in on the happenings of the day and so we were prepared for what was about to happen.
In a short period of time we resolved our problem of breaking their hearts by making their year and planning a trip to Darien Lake and another small amusement park nearby. They were elated, and our hearts were saved of devastating our children!
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