Feature Article: Our Very Own Amazing Race - Adventure Travel By a Disney Fan - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Feature Article: Our Very Own Amazing Race - Adventure Travel By a Disney Fan
Our Very Own Amazing Race - Adventure Travel By a Disney Fan by Justine Fellows
Disney fans are an unusual bunch.
What sets us apart is often our love of planning, dreaming and absolute obsession with creating the perfect trip. We also love the feeling that unexpected surprises may be around every corner. Disney brings us the ability to enjoy all of these passions, but what happens when you want to go somewhere else? Are these quirky attributes transferable? My family absolutely loves to watch the Amazing Race, a reality show that features teams of two racing around the world to reach amazing destinations, or “pit stops.” The ultimate goal, after many weeks of travel and eliminated teams, is to make it to the final three groups, racing home for one million dollars. The show involves travel, puzzle solving, out of the ordinary foods, and facing one’s fears; often in the form of heights. Our family constantly talks about wanting to run the race. Would we be good at it? Which family member would do what task? What travel tips would we know that could help us along the way? In fact, pretending to play the race has come in handy when dealing with unexpected airport delays or lost luggage; we just say, “This happens on Amazing Race, what would they do?”
After spending some time this summer putting together a holiday trip to Puerto Rico, I realized that sitting still just wasn’t going to work for someone like me. I needed to know everything about the island: customs, foods, events, the language, best places to visit, and more. As I began my research and started sharing information with my daughters, my youngest popped the question, “Mom, can you make this into the amazing race?” And in my mind I thought, “Heck yeah I can!”
And so it began… Step one, we already had a nice condo on the beach, a rental car and plane tickets…what do we need to make this into a race? The answer: adventures, funky foods and help from the locals. I started with the adventures. We were heading to Rincon, Puerto Rico, and after some research I was able to find a wonderful young couple who own a vacation planning business for the area - http://www.rinconvacations.com/. I knew immediately that I had found a good match when the owner called to talk about my needs and wasn’t thrown off by my mention of planning the Amazing Race. Within just a few days of e-mails back and forth we had booked the following:
• A two-hour horseback ride on the beach through an almond tree forest
• A four-hour eco-tour complete with six ziplines, a 70-foot rappel, and a boat ride into a cave (complete with fruit bats)
• A snorkel trip through mangrove groves followed by a swim in a bioluminescent bay
• A private chef to teach my two daughters how to cook Puerto Rican dishes (and yes, I am brilliant, two hours of babysitting with a full meal to boot!). In Puerto Rico these were all very reasonably priced, but if cost is a factor, it was easy to be creative and find free options including snorkeling, surfing, public beaches, and more.
So now I had my adventures, but how in the heck was I going to reproduce the race? Probably the most important piece of the show is the envelopes. The teams are always running towards clue boxes where they have to retrieve a distinct-looking envelope with an even more distinctive pull tear. Inside are clues that include road blocks, fast forwards, and detours. I knew that I could spend a chunk of time creating these, but with some searching online I came across this little gem of a web site and rejoiced in the fact that I had just gained about ten hours of time! The site gave me beautiful templates that fit perfectly into the tear envelopes, complete with a link to buy them.
Now the fun began – my forte, planning! I started “Disney-style” with a nice big spreadsheet. I then entered our travel time, meals at restaurants I knew that I wanted to try, the four scheduled adventures, and some down time. Each day involved between two and five different clue envelopes. The most clues were on travel days, to help keep the kids amused during the “boring” parts. Some were individual tasks and some involved different variations on teams.
My detours, fast forwards and road blocks included:
• Finding facts about Puerto Rico in the airport bookstore
• Splitting up into teams to shop for two separate lists of groceries
• Finding shells and sea glass
• Completing the four adventures
• Serving Mom and Dad dinner after a cooking lesson
• Tasting a different food – plantains, roasted pork from roadside vendors, empanadillas, coconut
• Writing down Spanish words, facts about Puerto Rico, and what they had learned
• And much more…
Here are some tips we learned along the way:
• Include the directions, grocery list, confirmation numbers, and contact information on the cards. This made our lives really easy (just like the PassPorter pockets!) The girls ripped open an envelope and everything we needed was inside. We were ready to go
• The kids not only loved the race, but it actually eliminated complaints and fears. They took it seriously, and did what they needed to finish the tasks. My youngest, who hates being sticky, didn’t even mention the four hours spent covered in sand and salt. My oldest conquered snorkeling because she was determined to complete the road block.
• Travel time to our destinations became fun. The excitement of the race made the time in the car part of the adventure. The kids helped with maps, and used our iPhone GPS to follow where we were going.
• Even people who didn’t know the Amazing Race were happy to help us. I had to do a lot of “clue distribution,” which usually meant slipping a clue to a random person – security guard in the airport, flight attendant, horse-back guide... I just said “We are playing a game, would you please give this to the girls” and they were happy, sometimes elated, to participate. The excited JetBlue flight attendant actually delivered the clue in the big basket of snacks.
• The girls knew that the race wasn’t real but they pretended it was. They never even questioned it. When plans didn’t work out or we decided to skip something there were no complaints.
Our final "pit stop" was on Christmas Eve (wow, my kids are spoiled), complete with the Travelocity gnome waiting out front, the final clue written on the bottom, and Grandma and Grandpa waiting on our pit stop mat. We just couldn't justify the $40 for this little number. So, the moral of the story? You can be a Disney planner anywhere. I find great joy in organizing, planning and dreaming, so this was a perfect challenge for me. Amazing Race made our trip into an adventure we will never forget.
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
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