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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My husband and I are taking our first cruise over Labor Day. This is our first trip away without our two children (23 & 19). I trust them explicitly, however, I am concerned as a "mom" that I cannot just call and check in. I know they will be fine but I am also looking for some peace of mind as well.
Is there any way they can contact us at all while we are out to sea? I understand DCL has changed and some companies now have cell phone access. I was wondering which companies and how this all works. I know I would have to put international calling on my cell phone. What other charges would one expect to incur? Can you text message and not incur charges assuming you do have service on your cell?
If DCL has Cellular @ Sea, you can always use that if you have a supported phone. We have AT&T and it worked last year on our Royal Caribbean cruise. Roaming was $2.95 a minute, but text messages were the same price as normal. I also notified AT&T and turned on World Roaming. We didn't use the phones on land for voice, but did send SMS, also at the normal rate. The roaming rate was $1.35 from the Caymans and $.49 from Mexico. AT&T uses GSM. Cellular @ Sea supports GSM and CDMA. This means AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. I thought I saw Sprint listed, but I think they are TDMA. Only GSM is supported outside of the US.
While you're at sea your costs are high to contact home, but it can be done (and has been available all along). You can telephone from your stateroom phone, at $6.99 per minute. Cell service may be available on the Wonder by the time you travel - it was added to the Magic first. You won't need international roaming for that. There will undoubtedly be some sort of charge for text messaging, as a third-party company handles the cell service on board. Whether you can use international roaming in your ports of call depends on which ports, and which phone services you use.
If you have your own laptop computer and it's setup for voice, you can phone home using Skype. Then all you have to pay for is the internet service (which is cheaper by the minute than any of the phone services).
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
it did give a specific date for the Magic and only says mid-summer for the Wonder. i suspect there's a lot of work involved getting something like this to work with all the machinery on ship. the cellular service will only work inside the stateroom.
Quote:
Guests who choose to use the network will be billed by their cell phone provider and rates will vary according to the carrier's plan. The ship's network will be enabled, while the ship is at sea, allowing guests to make and receive phone calls as well as utilize text messaging, email and other cellular services. While in port, the network will be disabled, allowing guests the ability to access local cell phone providers.
i wonder how flat rate cellular modems are impacted by this.
according to the internet section in the 2007 DCL PP, Voice over IP applications are blocked 'reportedly'
and according to deb wills on her site:
Quote:
Skype does NOT work on the ship. I read this from those on the transatlantic cruise so did not bring my headset. I have not heard of anyone with success on Skype, DCL has blocked it.
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