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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Ok, a little background. I own just about every disney movie made. I have seen Beauty and the Beast on Broadway and I own quite a few Disney books. I Love Disney. My biggest dream has always been to go to Disneyworld. There I was 32 years old and have never, ever been to Disney. I think someone should have called child abuse for that deprivation. Ok, ok, a little dramatic. (Just a litte).
I had tried to go twice before but had to cancel my trips due to financial reasons. The first being that I lost my job. The second reson was that my car died, hence losing my job. At that time I worked about 1 hour away and public transportation was not an option. So on my third attempt to go in 2007, I vowed that nothing would stop me. Believe me there were many obstacles including losing my car again. (please note that I am not mean to my cars, they were just very, very old cars.) In fact this particular car was older than my oldest daughter who at the time was 14. I realize that this is not neccesarily that old but the car had a verly large number of miles on it. (This time I purchased a newer car with a car note. lol) But I digress.
I did not let anything stop me. I purchased the 2007 passporter and planned, and planned, and planned until my children ran the other direction when they say me walking in their direction with the infamous spiral blue book. Due to my track record on bad luck, I prepaid for as much as possible so that nothing would deter me. I stayed on sight so that I would not need a car. I purchased the dining plan so that most of my meals would be covered. I purchased breakfast items to pack. I even brought an electric water kettle for oatmeal and tea in case we were far from the food court. The night before I could not sleep with excitement and anticipation. (I was worse than the kids) I was also worried that I would oversleep, or that I would miss the flight, or I would get upducted by aliens and returned after my approved vacation was over. (Hey, it could happen). But to make an already long story a little shorter, my dream came true and I got to go even though I only had $5.00 in my pocket the day I arrived at Disney.
In order to build anticipation for my upcoming trip, I am going to write about my 8 day adventure from my last trip, then go into my plans for the upcoming one. Since this is already long and probably no one will want to read this novel. I will stop here and continue in posts to come.
Before I get to Day one I figured I would add a little more information about myself. I am actually a single mom of 3 beautiful girls. During the time that I was planning this trip there were many, many obstacles and many broken dreams. I know it sounds silly but I needed this to happen not just for fun, not just for a vacation, but to prove to myself and my kids that no matter what, dreams CAN come true. My mother thought I was ridiculous and felt that my priorities were way out of whack. But I needed this personally. I am a dreamer by nature but I felt like I was losing myself and I needed something to jumpstart my dreams. Now that I have set the stage for the importance of this trip, I will continue to my journey.
Although I could not get my mother on board I found that if you are excited about something enough it can be contagious so people around me became very excited for us. A co-worker had volunteered to take us to the airport. We left my house at 4:30 am for an 8:05 flight. I guess I should mention that the airport is only 40 minutes away. I should probably also mention that it is a small airport. It is nothing like those in the cities. I mention this because it was definitely not necessary to leave my house at 4:30 to catch that flight. I was just so nervous about that alien spaceship or something of the like that I could not help myself.
Like I mentioned in the prior post I went to the airport with 5.00 in my pocket. Since we got there so early we ate breakfast (provided very kindly by my co-worker). It was the absolute worst hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Yuck! But I was too excited to care. We passed the time doing Mad Libs and I don’t know if it was all the excitement, but it was the funniest ever! We flew JetBlue and now I am hooked. My youngest took advantage of free snacks by asking for thirds. She does everything to the limit. The flight was quicker than expected and our anticipation grew. Unfortunately my daughters head was hurting tremendously during the decent but that was soon over and we were in Orlando. Nothing would mess this up for us.
The weather was absolutely beautiful. The very first magical moment was when we got to the magical express terminal. I saw a man waving to us with a Mickey hand. We did it! We are finally here! We are really, really here! My kids looked up at me and saw the tears in my eyes and they knew it was for joy. I know it sounds silly. But to me this was big
I'll be checking in for the next installment! I agree with you that it's important for children (and all of us) to know that dreams can come true and that positive energy and hard work can take you to wonderful experiences.
reminds me of that first magical moment when i saw the buses and realized i was finally there! i'll definitely going to be checking back to read the rest.
I should mention before I begin my story that I was fully aware that I was staying in a “Value” resort and did not expect much more than a clean place to sleep with gigantic Icons. What a wonderful feeling to know that there was so much more.
On Disney Magical Express it was evident to everyone on that bus that we were first timers. We took a ridiculous amount of pictures while riding. We made goofy faces and happy faces and amazed faces. But everything stood still when we reached the All-star Music Resort. I swear it was as if it were in slow motion. When the bus stopped the CM’S actually rolled out a red carpet. My children’s eyes glistened as they felt like celebrities while they entered the resort. Small detail...immense magic in return.
While I checked in, the kids played Disney’s version of DDR in the lobby. Check in was quick and easy and truth be told, I was so happy I would not have noticed anything wrong anyway. If there was a line I did not notice, I was too busy taking pictures and gazing at the walls and decorations. (It was Christmas Season) The kids made me try DDR and I just want to mention that I looked like a frog having seizures. Stupid game was broken! (Only when I played of course.) It seemed to work for everyone before and after me.
We quickly hurried to our rooms in the Broadway building and were wowed by the details they put into everything. Hey, isn’t this supposed to be the cheap rooms? My kids felt the need to point out every detail. “Ooh look, an animal towel” (A dog I think). “Look at the blankets!” “Mommy, Mommy, can I use the Mickey shampoo instead of that stuff we brought?” “Wow!” (Please note that I am forgetting my grammar and cannot for the life of me remember if the punctuation is supposed to go before or after the quotations).
After the ‘wowing’ had subdued, (yes I know wowing is not a real word but it fits), we quickly put on our swimsuits and went to the pool shaped like a guitar. We love music; how very fitting. The funny thing is that those darn caballeros kept surprising me with the random water sprays in the pool. You would think that after the second time I would remember that it would happen again. I just want to mention that my children were by far the loudest kids in the pool. It was kind of embarrassing. I guess I should also mention that I did not have money to buy a new swimsuit for myself and did not realize until I put it on that it was quite tight in the bust area. Hmm it must have shrunk. It could not possibly have anything to do with those pounds I gained. Those pounds do not exist if I pretend they are not there. So I felt quite offensive and ran back to my room to put on a white t-shirt over it. After all it’s not that kind of vacation. J.
Once we had our fill of the pool we went to our rooms, took showers, and got dressed in sun dresses in honor of the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show that we would later attend. We decided that we would look around and explore our resort on the way to the bus stop. I was incredibly impressed with how well kept the grounds were. Beautiful greenery and flowers. (Hey isn’t this a Value resort)? While passing the pool we happened to stumble upon a Disney Trivia Game Show that was just starting. So we entered. You should have seen us. You would have thought we were on Jeopardy playing for money. Finally, watching all those movies, playing Disney Trivia, and reading passporter paid off. We won! There was only one team that was close and they had about 15 people in their family. We won Pirates of the Caribbean Life Game and bragging rights. Wow! What a great start to a dream vacation. We did take the bus to the Magic Kingdom to connect to the monorail to go to the Polynesian Resort for the Dinner Show. But I don’t believe we really needed it. I swear we were so high we could have flown. What a perfect day and its not even over……
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