Living the Dream and remembering the Bagman COMPLETED 5/16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It then moved to the Walt Disney World section, before setting sail on the Disney Dream. This picks up after we’ve just left the parking lot following our cruise.
Friday 30 September – part two: “you called middle, right?”
We made our way over to the airport, getting a low flying one of these on the way…
Can you see it?
We did see quite a few cows, but sadly I wasn’t able to photograph them. In truth, they appeared at the last minute, and I wasn’t up to taking many photos, as I still felt lousy. That must tell you something.
They were certainly still doing a fair amount of construction work…
Soon we were arriving at the airport…
We headed back to car rental return and found a porter there, who once again was a huge help with our cases. We headed to the terminal…
… and did the check-in at the computer terminal, and then we bag checked. We were delighted to find that, after the first bag came in at 51bs (which the woman turned a blind eye to), the other two we were worried about came in at 47lbs and 48lbs. Phew! Now we had no further worries, as Virgin Atlantic have much more generous baggage allowances for Upper Class passengers…
We discovered once we had our boarding passes that I had TSA pre-check, but Mark didn’t. Usually I would stick it out with him, but today as I still felt a bit grim, I took one long at the line, and headed through the other line. I was done 20 minutes before him, so was very relieved I didn’t have to stand for that length of time. It was much easier – no shoes off, no laptops out of bags, liquids could stay in bags etc.
Once we were back together, we headed for the monorail, and made our way over to terminal A…
Mark found this book for me in the bookshop there!
We headed down to our gate, and I assumed everyone sitting there would be soon gone, as we were at 10:15am, and the flight before us to LaGuardia was due to leave about then. After a while, it became clear no-one was going anywhere, and their flight had been delayed until midday.
Something made me go up and ask the woman at the desk whether this would impact our flight, given we were going to the same destination. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. She cheerfully told me and pointed out our 1:00pm flight was now delayed until 3:45pm. Apparently it was all to do with weather conditions at LaGuardia. They’d had some pretty strong winds, and were operating on only one runway as a result.
She suggested I could still get on the earlier flight, as it had space on it, and to head down to the service desk by gate four, so I made my way over there. When I arrived, there was one guy dealing with two sets of passengers who were quite abusive towards him. I don’t know what had happened, and I don’t want to judge, but I felt sorry for him, as he was just trying to do his job.
I gave it my best smile, and explained the situation, and that the woman had told me to come over as quickly as possible to see if our luggage could be removed from our original flight and put on the one we wanted to move to. He was straight on the phone, and I heard him confirming the details, and as soon as he’d done that, he sorted us out with seats on our new, earlier flight. I asked if we’d be able to keep our Even More Space tickets. I wasn’t expecting him to say yes, but he did! I was so pleased with that. We were now row 3, rather than row 1, but heck theoretically if there were no further delays, we’d actually be there earlier. I thanked him profusely, given I’d heard the conversation between the people behind us, and I knew he was about to get another hard time.
I gave Mark the good news, and we settled down to wait. We started boarding not much after 11:30am, and it was quite funny, as they made it clear they’d start with those who needed additional time to board, then Mosaic customers, then Even More Space. I heard that, and I heard when they called us. A guy behind us walked up and said “you called middle, right?” Wrong pal! He was sent back to his seat to wait for his row number to be called…
So even the large birds get crazy and fly low in front of cars. Cripes!
Very good that you thought to ask about delays with your flight. And even better you could still get the preferred seats for the new flight! I wonder if anyone other than you had asked about those seats, if the guy would have said Nope, not available!? I've never understood why people have to be rude to the airline employees. It's not their fault that it's windy in New York!
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Glad you didn't end up stuck at the airport for hours!
'You called middle? ' Did he think they call for those sitting in middle seats? Or is there really a middle call?
So even the large birds get crazy and fly low in front of cars. Cripes!
It does appear so!
Quote:
Very good that you thought to ask about delays with your flight. And even better you could still get the preferred seats for the new flight! I wonder if anyone other than you had asked about those seats, if the guy would have said Nope, not available!? I've never understood why people have to be rude to the airline employees. It's not their fault that it's windy in New York!
Exactly. Don't get me wrong, there are times when airlines get things wrong (and heck, we've seen enough of those examples in recent weeks ) and then I can understand people's frustrations with airline employees, but when it's weather - there is nothing any of us can do about that...
Glad you didn't end up stuck at the airport for hours!
'You called middle? ' Did he think they call for those sitting in middle seats? Or is there really a middle call?
You know how they usually load from the back of the plane (once they've done first class, airline loyalty programmes, special assistance etc.), well he obviously thought they load first in the middle of the plane...
You know how they usually load from the back of the plane (once they've done first class, airline loyalty programmes, special assistance etc.), well he obviously thought they load first in the middle of the plane...
Ah, I see. I haven't been on a flight that loads back to front in years. Now I feel it's randomized, and prioritized based on your frequent flier status. United has 5 boarding groups now. We generally do pre-board for passengers with disabilities, as DH can't get stuck standing in the aisle for too long.
I do think it made more sense when they used to board by row, starting in the back.
Ah, I see. I haven't been on a flight that loads back to front in years. Now I feel it's randomized, and prioritized based on your frequent flier status. United has 5 boarding groups now. We generally do pre-board for passengers with disabilities, as DH can't get stuck standing in the aisle for too long.
I do think it made more sense when they used to board by row, starting in the back.
That's certainly the way Virgin Atlantic boards, and I think other airlines too, as I've heard similar announcements at other gates.
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and pointed out our 1:00pm flight was now delayed until 3:45pm. 
) and then I can understand people's frustrations with airline employees, but when it's weather - there is nothing any of us can do about that...
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