"Let the Good Times Roll" June 1-10 Travel Day! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our first day traveling started out as usual. Everyone was off from work except for me. I work at a church doing accounting and we always have a deposit to be made from the Wednesday services so I went in to take care of that before we left. At home, Scott was working on getting things together and getting Logan ready to leave. Honestly, life was easier when I could get Logan dressed myself. His teenage years have him moving at a snails pace so I was glad to be at work!
During the meantime, my mother was picking up some last minute things and I ended up leaving work earlier than expected and arrived at the house before her. After Scott got the CRV loaded, I believe we ended up leaving around 1:00 pm or so. Logan had received some birthday money before we left so we stopped at the bank on the way out to get his checks cashed.
My mom always wants to drive so Scott and Logan sat in the backseat and watched movies on the way. It was really an uneventful trip for the most part. We started getting hungry and ended up stopping in Perry, GA at an Applebee's to eat. For some strange reason, I ordered fish and chips there. Why I don't know. We were on the way to the beach where we could get good seafood and we had a reservation at Rose and Crown where I always get fish and chips so I am not sure what prompted me to order it. Anyway, it was pretty awful fish and chips. The fish was like cafeteria style patties and they were very greasy. I managed to eat a little of them but note to self....don't ever order fish and chips at Applebee's again! Yuck! Everyone else enjoyed their meal so it wasn't a big issue.
Back on the road, we ran into a terrible storm. By this time it was dark outside and we were going through a construction area. The rain was torrential and with cones and barricades to each side there was no shoulder on the road to pull off and you had no room for errors either. I was trying to watch ahead for my mom as she drove because you literally could not see 5 ft in front of the car as you drove. Finally after what seemed like an eternity it ended and we made it to Valdosta for the night. I was never so glad to see a hotel in my life.
We checked into the Clarion Conference Center right off the the interstate. It is our go to hotel for every trip on the drive down. The prices are very reasonable and the rooms are nice and clean. They even have a pretty good breakfast buffet. Our room was on the upper floor and we took our luggage up. Scott and Logan ended up running back out for some drinks and snacks before we finally settled in and called it a night.
In the morning was a few more hours down to Disney's Vero Beach resort so we went to bed fairly early. At least we were officially on vacation!!!
UP NEXT: A stop to shop and arriving at Vero! (pictures to come also, I didn't take any of this leg of the trip!)
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Glad you arrived safely. Looking forward to hearing about Disney Vero Beach. When my parents owned a house in Vero, we would always make it a point to go to the Disney resort there just to feel like we were in Disney
Hope you are coming back soon - we leave for Vero in less than 2 weeks. Our first stay there. Hoping to learn as much as we can before we go. Normally, we spend a week at HHI, and know our way around well now, so feeling a bit unprepared going someplace new!
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I work at a church doing accounting and we always have a deposit to be made from the Wednesday services so I went in to take care of that before we left. At home, Scott was working on getting things together and getting Logan ready to leave. Honestly, life was easier when I could get Logan dressed myself. His teenage years have him moving at a snails pace so I was glad to be at work!
Why I don't know. We were on the way to the beach where we could get good seafood and we had a reservation at Rose and Crown where I always get fish and chips so I am not sure what prompted me to order it. Anyway, it was pretty awful fish and chips. The fish was like cafeteria style patties and they were very greasy. I managed to eat a little of them but note to self....don't ever order fish and chips at Applebee's again! Yuck! 
Everyone else enjoyed their meal so it wasn't a big issue.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity it ended and we made it to Valdosta for the night. I was never so glad to see a hotel in my life.
)
ANGIE
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