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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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On Sunday I realized (via my daughter's countdown) that we have 14 days until we leave! I suddenly got this urge to do Something! Anything! I sent DH a text asking him what he thinks I should do... His response... Sleep. Which is probably a very good idea, but not in my type A, gold personality world.
I got the brillant idea to start packing non clothing items.. Diapers, meds, sunscreen, things that were overflowing my bedroom floor. I got all of that organized. Then I moved on to well.... I could pack Tyler, he doesn't need anything "Nice" to wear for the next 2 weeks, play clothes will be good enough.. And after about 2 hours, Tyler was packed.. THEN I thought... I should try on my clothes and see what fits and what I want to pack... Which lead to me packing myself mostly all the way..
DH found out I was packing and told me to "pack lightly. So we can bring home more memories." YEP! That's not happening.. Nice concept though.
Then I took a break... for about.... 30 minutes... And decided to clean out the van...
Van clean.. I started cleaning the house.. And cleaning... and cleaning.. And I somehow have this really dumb idea that I will be able to keep it clean for the next 2 weeks.. This is completely unreasonable because I can pick up constantly and with three kids, there is always a wrapper, a clothing item, a crayon, a toy appearing in my nice clean area moments after I've finished!
I don't know if I'll keep up my power kick or not. I'm trying to organize work stuff today for the people that are covering for me..
Anyway I've been getting alot of grief from people for packing this early. But I have 5 people to get packed! 5 and I have little hands unpacking and packing with me.. A couple weeks ago we went to visit my parent and I found out cordless house phone in my suitcase! Trying to do it all in one day would be very stressfull!
When I take trips (to WDW or anywhere else), it's usually just me packing for myself, and I always start at least a few days early. Waiting until the last minute means you don't give yourself time to remember an item here and another item there, so you end up arriving and needing to find/buy all sorts of odds and ends. I can't imagine coordinating the packing for five people, and a two-week head start seems like a minimum to me!
And the cordless phone thing is hilarious.
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Walt Disney World has become a touchstone for me, a constant in a world where everything changes. Again and again I have come back to this place, grounding myself, communing with all the people I've been.
we pack early to. since we vacation in our pop up camper we have started a list of things to bring. seems like every trip we end up adding about 3 more things to the list that we forgot to pack that trip. So I am hoping by Dec 27th, 2011 we will have the list down to an art
I've been doing the same thing for the last week - making myself crazy! The problem is, the more I pack and re-pack I keep thinking of more little things I "should" pick up for our vacation and end up at Target every day. At least I probably won't forgot anything. The climate here (barely getting out of the 60's before 2) is different enough from WDW's current temps that it is easily 2 different wardrobes :-)
And my house was spotless last night too, from crazy pre-vacation I must come home to a clean house frenzy... I swear it messed itself up overnight while we were sleeping!!
Congrats on the packing! I start the serious packing about 2 -3 weeks out and start packing what we won't be needing, like clothes or toiletries in the suitcases. But I actually start gathering up travel size toiletries, and things we need as soon as I book my trip. Then usually 1-2 days before we leave, after I do the laundry, all I have left to pack then is the rest of our clothes & unmentionables.
I've got my list pretty much perfected after all these years. I spent Sunday going through my list and crossing things off as they went into the suitcase. I'm about 85% packed for my trip in 12 days! I have the short list of things like all the electronics and chargers, and other things I'm using up until the end. I have the luxury of 2 suitcases this time, since I'm flying SWA. Will have to pack tighter in January when I will only get 1 suitcase. Takes a lot more strategy and thinking!
So yay for all us early packers. I'd hate to be stressing about it in the last few days. Well, I need to get it done since I'm planning a Disneyland visit 2 days before I leave.
Don't feel like you have started too soon. We don't leave until December and the suitcases are open on the guest room bed and the clothes are being gathered. I do have to admit though that part of this thought process is to help with my current weight loss. Having it sitting out where I can see it, makes it very real and reminds me that it will be here before I know it.
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Jun 93-off site, Aug 99-CRS - Jun 00-GF, Aug 04-CBR, Aug 06-POR, Sept. 08-WL, Dec. 10-POFQ, Aug 12-AoA & DCL, Nov 12 Paradise Pier DLR, Feb 13 AKL, Oct 13 CBR/YC & DCL, Sept. 14-BC, Sept. 15-ASM
Our trip was in January, so as we put away the summer clothes, they went into the "tub" for Disney!! I started putting things in the tub as soon as we booked the trip. Got the suitcases out about 2 weeks before the trip, and two suitcases were already FULL from the tubs!! Just had the unmentionables, toiletries, snacks, and electronics left!! I can't wait to start filling our tub again!!!
I know how your feel. It is just me and my DH and we are 38 days out, but I can honestly say I have us all packed except for our clothes. A week before we leave I will do the final check list just to make sure we have all we will need. It is never to early to start packing. Happy Packing!!!!!
I have a notebook that is in a leather binder. It has my "lists" in it. One is "to do" & one is "to take". This includes things that i need to buy for the trip. I have a carry-on that I put toiletries in like shampoo, conditioner, q-tips, etc. I basically start working on that pretty far in advance so I know if I need to re-stock something. I keep some things in it all the time so it is ready to go. I don't start clothes too early, but I don't think 2 weeks is too early. I think you are doing well. My husband says that I am a combination of OCD & anal retentive, but we never(almost never) get to our vacation spot without something that we need. I do most of the packing for all 4 of us. I have started letting the kids (who are teenagers now) & DH pack their clothes, but I go over the list to make sure that they have everything. Once DD forgot underware & we had to find a Walmart. Once DH surprised me with a trip & it scared me to death because I didn't get to plan anything! He even packed my clothes & woke me up in time to leave early one morning.
I've got about 3 weeks left, and my suitcase has been out for about 2 months now. I just keep putting stuff in it that I won't need anymore this season (I can make do with wearing my older Summer clothing for a few weeks).
I'm sitting here tonight, wondering what the heck I can do / plan / pack now! I can't just sit still and wait for three weeks to drag by!!!
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I suddenly got this urge to do Something! Anything! I sent DH a text asking him what he thinks I should do... His response... Sleep. Which is probably a very good idea, but not in my type A, gold personality world.
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. It is just me and my DH and we are 38 days out, but I can honestly say I have us all packed except for our clothes. A week before we leave I will do the final check list just to make sure we have all we will need. It is never to early to start packing. Happy Packing!!!!!
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