Independence Day week in our Nation's Capitol -- UPDATED 8/22 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like a great start. Our family loves DC. The Folklife festival is great. There is also a restaurant that we love everytime we go, Matchbox. They make the best mini burgers and wood fired pizzas. Getting hungry justing thinking about it. We haven't been able to get there yet, but I have heard great things about the spy museaum. Have a great time. Wish I was going.
Great start Sarah! I am so the planner as well and couldn't get by theout a general idea of what to see. I haven't been to DC since I was in the 8th grade and I know I didn't appreciate it like I would today. Looking forward to living through youtr TR!
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PRE-TRIP . . . PART 2 . . .
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Did I forget anything? Make any last minute tweaks? And how on Earth is this “day-by-day planner” going to make it without a day-by-day plan?!
Well . . . to answer the question about last minute tweaks, of course the answer would be yes. We always do, it seems. OH . . . and not just ONCE did we change the plan, but THREE times.
In mid-May, when Mike got home from one his trips out on the ship, we got to thinking about the fact that his leave ended on July 3rd, but he still had a whole 3 day weekend ahead of him after that. I was really thinking more along the lines of things we could do around our own house/area . . . but, he suggested (and I agreed . . . am I nuts? ) that we extend our stay by a couple of days and leave on July 5th instead. So we were able to easily adjust our dates to extend it 2 days. No problems there. He can check in from leave while we are there and as long as he is within a 500 mile radius of the base, we’re still good to stay there (unless there is some sort of global/national crisis and he has to report back immediately). So, now we’re staying June 27th to July 5th . . .
Yes, that’s right folks . . . the original plan was to AVOID the crazy Independence Day crowds in the Capitol . . . and now we are going to be PART of the crazy Independence Day crowds in the Capitol.
At the end of May, his squadron headed out AGAIN. Originally, the dates they were out for were scheduled to be from June 4 until 24 . . . then it changed to June 2 -24 . . . then to May 30 – June 24 . . . and finally, from May 30 through June 27. Yes, they were now not scheduled to return until the day we were supposed to be leaving to go up to DC.
It wouldn’t be so much a problem if it wasn’t a 3 ½ hour drive up there . . . and the squadron isn’t due to fly back in until 8-9pm. Of course, there will be 3 of the people in Mike’s shop that have to be sent home a couple of days earlier due to a class they have to take before they deploy in September, but due to the fact that he is the boss in the shop, he, of course, isn’t one of the ones who gets to come home early.
SO, we had to change the dates AGAIN . . . this time moving our arrival date to June 28th and changing our departure now to the morning of July 6th. The bad thing about having to adjust the reservation the way we did is that our rate had to change.
We had originally booked a room with double beds and that included the breakfast plan for the mornings (2 adults and kids under 12 could order from the buffet or restaurant and it was included in the room rate) but that rate wasn’t available for the entire stay any longer. Instead, it had to be changed to a lesser nightly rate but that would change us to a room with one king size bed and the possibility of a rollaway bed (Emilie likes to sleep in her tent anyways though, so we plan on bringing it along) AND the original breakfast plan could not be included, so we had to change to a “Kids Eat Free” promotion instead. In the end, the budget ended up being about the same though, as the extra money we would have spent per night for the room with the other rate, just transferred to breakfast each morning instead.
We’re now a week out from our trip . . . HOPEFULLY this is the last time we have to make an adjustment to the reservation . . . HOPE-FUL-LY. As far as I am concerned, at this point, the dates are set at June 28 – July 6.
Keep your fingers crossed for us that they Navy doesn’t go and change things up on us again and we can get going on time!
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for no more Navy changes....I know those well! Not only must our Navy members have sea legs, we must too in order to deal with the constant changes.
I'm sure you will have a great time, just remember to carry lots of water...and if you decide to venture to the mall to see the fireworks....plan on getting there early....bag checks take time!
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We're home! We pulled into our driveway right about 5pm yesterday evening after a morning that started at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial then on to the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of the Air and Space Museum at Dulles airport) . . . then a 3 1/2 hour drive home in the (mostly) pouring rain.
Catching up on laundry and all that fun stuff today, and will be working on pictures later on this evening. After I got rid of the blurry pics, the "not so great" pics and the "Whose head popped up in this picture?!" pictures, my final count was 998 photos for the week. That is actually pretty tame for me.
I am getting all of my notes together from the trip (as usual, I kept a notebook and made notes all throughout the day each day ) and will hopefully have the first installment of the report up in the next day or so!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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OH . . . and not just ONCE did we change the plan, but THREE times. 
PassPorter Guide Author
I hope you enjoy being part of the mad fourth of July crowds. 
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