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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I neglected to put this in but I guess I should start off with the who and when, etc for people who may not know us.
The who:
Me, Darlene - definitely a Disney Fanatic. My first trip was at age 4 and this will be my 13th trip to the world. The first 8 were with my parents and variations of family members. This will be my 5th trip as me being the parent.
My hubby Lenny - somewhat of a Disney Fanatic. He loves to go but his excitement comes and goes. Before his first trip at the age of 45, he was the biggest Disney Downer that I knew. Somewhere during that first trip however, he got the magic and the rest is History. This will be his 5th trip to Disney
Our daughter Abby - also somewhat of a Disney Fanatic. She loves going but with her Autism, a lot of things in life for her are "out of sight, out of mind." This will be her 5th time also
The when: July 20th to July 27th
The where: AS Sports Resort
The why: Because my mother knows how much we love Disney, especially Abby, and she was willing and able to pay for us to go
Anything special:
Only that this will be our 4th trip in 4 years despite the fact that I have said many times that it would be several years before we go back. This time I mean it - we won't be going back until Fantasyland is done in 2013 (and if you don't believe me, just look at my ticker)
This was to be the year of no Disney vacation for us. I had made up our minds that we weren’t going to go back until the construction walls were down and Fantasyland was done. None of us were overly happy with that , but we all accepted it. Besides, I knew it would be awhile before we had enough money saved and the construction just made it that much easier to accept not going back.
So with that acceptance, I looked into what we could do this summer. With an Autistic daughter and mobility challenged husband, there just wasn’t much to do IMO. We could do day trips - a day at the beach, a day at the aquarium, a day at the museum, possibly do a Duck tour but that was about all that was interesting and that would fit into the budget (the less we spent, the more for our next Disney vacation I figured). Then I started thinking about my Aunt up in Maine. My uncle just passed away New Years Eve and while she’s doing okay all by herself, I felt we should go see her this summer instead of just talking on the phone. I ran it by Lenny and Abby (and my aunt too of course) and we all wanted to go see her despite how hard we knew it would be and I made our reservations. Lenny put in for the days off so we were all set.
So other than the short trip to see my Aunt, we pretty much had in mind what we were going to do this summer. Lenny didn’t want to put in for any more time off so anything we did would end up being on his normal days off. And being day trips, there was next to no planning involved so unlike the previous 3 years, it seemed really strange to not be planning something . It would have been nice having something that needed planning but it worked out well. Abby still struggles with certain homework assignments and because I have to help her with it, no planning meant plenty of time to help her without feeling stressed (well there was stress but not that I need to plan but Abby needs help more stress).
Things were actually going fine up until April though. Weather from the winter was improving (it was a tough winter - many of you know that first hand though). We were still fine with no Disney and we were looking forward to seeing my Aunt up in Maine. Then one afternoon (it was April 8th to be exact), I was talking with my mother about the summer and she came out with "I don’t think your aunt wants to see you this summer." My jaw dropped open in shock and I said "why, what happened, what’s wrong?" Mom hemmed and hawed and finally came out with "because she wants to go on a cruise that week instead." I actually wasn’t surprised by that comment though. Back when my uncle died, Suzanne (my aunt) had mentioned that maybe she would take the time to go on a cruise this year to get away. Mom was on board (no pun intended) with the idea because they would go together and while I wasn’t thrilled, what could I say? No, she can’t go, I want to get away too? I could never do that especially since mom wanted the cruise and Suzanne needed to get away.
Of course the big thing about this cruise business was that my aunt would need a passport. Although she said she wanted to go, it would cost her some time and money and often when she stops to think about something, she changes her mind. So on Saturday the 9th, mom called Suzanne and she (my aunt) had spent most of the day looking at the ship, looking at excursions and she was really looking forward to going on this trip and she was planning on getting the paperwork for her passport in motion. With that news, I knew going to Maine was definitely not going to happen this year. With Suzanne having to come down here for the cruise, I felt it would be kind of pointless to go and spend 3 days in Maine with her. We’ll see her here and getting away from her house would do her far more good than staying there to see us. So while it might sound like I was upset, in reality, I wasn’t. With gas prices climbing and a big van to feed, it was actually kind of a relief to know we wouldn’t be going there. Besides, it had been a long time since my aunt had been excited for something so I was happy for her that she was going to do that and that’s what I want to see - my aunt happy.
Knowing we weren’t going to Maine, my mother asked me what we would do for vacation this year. I told her nothing - going to Maine was vacation for us. We’ll stick to our day trips. But mom kept pushing despite my saying we wouldn’t do a vacation this year. "If you could go on vacation this year what would you do?" I just looked at her and said "Do I seriously need to answer that question? You know exactly what I’m going to say." Mom, being mom, just looked back at me and said "just tell me where you would go." "Disney. Where do you think we’d go?"
But mom kept pushing despite my saying we wouldn’t do a vacation this year. "If you could go on vacation this year what would you do?" I just looked at her and said "Do I seriously need to answer that question? You know exactly what I’m going to say." Mom, being mom, just looked back at me and said "just tell me where you would go." "Disney. Where do you think we’d go?"
Love it!!! What a wonderful Fairy Godmother you have in your Mom
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Love it!!! What a wonderful Fairy Godmother you have in your Mom
Thanks. Sometimes I don't always realize what a great mother I have but yeah, she is great.
Quote:
Darlin'
Do you think you can make it two years without going to Disney????
Excited to here about the rest of the trip. Hope everything goes well!!
Do I think I can make it? . Will I have to? After this trip, yes as we seriously won't be coming up with enough money to go anywhere next year let alone Disney.
We're excited too and hope everything goes well but I guess everyone is going to have to stay tuned to see if it does or not.
Yay, I've been so excited to read your PTR!!! It's amazing how things have a way of working themselves out and here you are less than a month away from WDW!
Yay Darlene your TR has begun! I have been waiting for you to get started on it.
I am so glad that you, Lenny and Abby have this trip to look forward to. Way to go mom!!!
Great start! I think a trip to Disney has to be one of the presents ever!!! How kind of your mum to surprise you with this trip. Your DD must be so excited
Yea Darlene another TR from you! How exciting for Abby to get to fly for the first time. This will be a different trip for you as you usually take the auto train and have your own vehicle while there. It will be great though! Can't wait to read more!
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but I guess I should start off with the who and when, etc for people who may not know us. 
- we won't be going back until Fantasyland is done in 2013 (and if you don't believe me, just look at my ticker)
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Pixie Dust
, but we all accepted it. Besides, I knew it would be awhile before we had enough money saved and the construction just made it that much easier to accept not going back.
and while she’s doing okay all by herself, I felt we should go see her this summer instead of just talking on the phone. I ran it by Lenny and Abby (and my aunt too of course) and we all wanted to go see her despite how hard we knew it would be and I made our reservations. Lenny put in for the days off so we were all set. 
. It would have been nice having something that needed planning but it worked out well. Abby still struggles with certain homework assignments and because I have to help her with it, no planning meant plenty of time to help her without feeling stressed (well there was stress but not that I need to plan but Abby needs help more stress).
and I said "why, what happened, what’s wrong?" Mom hemmed and hawed and finally came out with "because she wants to go on a cruise that week instead." I actually wasn’t surprised by that comment though. Back when my uncle died, Suzanne (my aunt) had mentioned that maybe she would take the time to go on a cruise this year to get away. Mom was on board (no pun intended) with the idea because they would go together and while I wasn’t thrilled, what could I say? No, she can’t go, I want to get away too? I could never do that especially since mom wanted the cruise and Suzanne needed to get away. 
and she (my aunt) had spent most of the day looking at the ship, looking at excursions and she was really looking forward to going on this trip and she was planning on getting the paperwork for her passport in motion. With that news, I knew going to Maine was definitely not going to happen this year. With Suzanne having to come down here for the cruise, I felt it would be kind of pointless to go and spend 3 days in Maine with her. We’ll see her here and getting away from her house would do her far more good than staying there to see us. So while it might sound like I was upset, in reality, I wasn’t. With gas prices climbing and a big van to feed, it was actually kind of a relief to know we wouldn’t be going there. Besides, it had been a long time since my aunt had been excited for something so I was happy for her that she was going to do that and that’s what I want to see - my aunt happy.
NEW: 
(Miss Molly)
. Will I have to? After this trip, yes as we seriously won't be coming up with enough money to go anywhere next year let alone Disney.
How exciting for Abby to get to fly for the first time. This will be a different trip for you as you usually take the auto train and have your own vehicle while there. It will be great though! Can't wait to read more!
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