PTR: A LONG TIME COMING – WDW (PO-RS&CSR 18-24 Dec) & Disney Magic (24-30 Dec) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PTR: A LONG TIME COMING – WDW (PO-RS&CSR 18-24 Dec) & Disney Magic (24-30 Dec)
PTR: A LONG TIME COMING – WDW (PO-RS&CSR 18-24 Dec) & Disney Magic (24-30 Dec)
Well, I hope I can do this justice! This trip was booked back in April 2010 just a few months after arriving in Iraq for our 2nd deployment. My husband and I decided that we were going to take the kids and his parents on a trip of a lifetime!! Our kids have put up with a lot over the course of 2 deployments with both parents gone at the same time, numerous moves (for our son – 3 moves in the span of 12 months) and just all-in-all the “routine” chaos of Army life! Soooo……here we go: OUR PARTY: Me (Leah) – numerous trips to Disney as a child, 2 trips in 2008, 1 trip in Mar 11, self-professed Disney geek and family travel agent (my hubby says I missed my calling – that or I have a 2nd career waiting for me after the Army)!!
Hubby (Mike) – became enamored with WDW after our belated honeymoon in 2008 (7 years late – thanks to Operation Iraqi Freedom), this will be his 4th trip! Daughter (Hannah – 14) – took her first trip to WDW this past March. Been counting down the days to this trip since we left the last one! She lives in Seattle with her Mom and step-Dad so was not able to go for her brother’s SURPRISE birthday trip in Dec 08. This picture is from her birthday celebration this past March – it was a great spring break!!
Son (Alec – 9) – this will be his 3rd trip since Dec 2008! His first trip was a total surprise for his 6th birthday. He LOVES everything about WDW!! These are pictures from the Dec 08 trip:
My DFIL and DMIL were supposed to make this trip with us however my DFIL has been diagnosed with cancer and cannot wait to begin his treatment until after the trip (as originally thought). This decision was made just this past Saturday (3 Dec). We have to break this news to our kids this weekend. We haven’t yet b/c last weekend was Alec’s birthday and I just couldn’t do that to him on his special weekend (we weren’t home last year to celebrate with him). OUR JOURNEY:
We are driving from Iowa by way of Chicago to Orlando. Our trip to WDW will be 18-24 Dec and then we head to Port Canaveral to catch the Disney Magic for our 24-30 Dec cruise!!!!!
We are heading up to Chicago to pick up our daughter at O’Hare on the 16 Dec and immediately turning South! It’ll be a little bit of a trip but we aren’t stopping until we hit Nashville the first night.
We’ll get up on the 17th and make our way to Orlando. OUR LODGING:
We are going to stay off-property the first night at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. Then on the 18th we’ll head over to Port Orleans Riverside and finally on the 19th we’ll check into Coronado Springs. We have multiple hotels because we kept adding days onto the front-end of our trip as time went on and we found military discounts for the resorts!!! It’ll be a little crazy hauling out suitcases for the night, packing back up and moving on the next morning but I think definitely worth it!! Especially at the KILLER rates we got!! OUR PLANS AT WDW:
18th – Check-in at PO-RS, REST, and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
19th – Check-in at CSR, Sea World & Downtown Disney (this ended up being an added day b/c we were supposed to be picking up my in-laws at MCO and getting them checked in so we had no real plans to start off with)
20th – Animal Kingdom and ADR at Boma
21st – Epcot and ADR at Les Chefs
22nd – Magic Kingdom and ADR at Tony’s on Main Street
23rd – Hollywood Studios/Pack and prep for cruise departure
24th – Check out of CSR and head to Port Canaveral
OUR CRUISE ITINERARY:
24th – Embarkation day
25th – At Sea (Formal night!!)
26th – Cozumel (we are doing the Catamaran Snorkel and Sail excursion), dinner at Palo’s
27th – At Sea (Couple’s Choice Massage scheduled)
28th – Key West (no booked excursion – just going to do our own thing)
29th – Castaway Cay (Explorer package – bike rental, snorkel gear and stingray feeding)
30th – Back into Port
My guess is that I won’t get this updated until we get back home. But I will do my best to follow up with a post-trip report!! It should be fun J
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I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
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 I've thought better of doing a full day in the park before we head out on the cruise! I'm so paranoid about packing/re-packing and the time it will take to do laundry, etc that I've decided on a "resort" day for the 23rd!! We'll start with Hollywood Studios on the 19th (skip Sea World) and end with the Magic Kingdom on the 22nd! If we get done packing/re-packing, etc and get bored we can always head to Downtown Disney!!
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We are back to reality - and it is a VERY COLD reality here in Iowa!!! I cannot wait to get my post-trip report all typed up!! I just have to say - the vacation MET EVERY EXPECTATION I'VE HAD OVER THE LAST 20 months or so!!! The cruise was AMAZING!!! Getting ready to book an ADULTS ONLY trip on the Fantasy for May 2013!!! :-)
AND THANK-YOU PASSPORTER - YOU WERE A LIFE SAVER ALL THE WAY AROUND!! We would have missed out on so much on the cruise had it not been for your book (which I took with me everywhere the first couple of days!!).
Okay - reality stinks...gotta get caught up at work before I can get to the trip report so I better get busy!!
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