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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So, for our upcoming trip to celebrate DS high school graduation and birthday, I've decided to book through Orbitz. They offer many options that I haven't seen anywhere else, and we can do a total package deal with them that will include everything except food, and it will save me several hundred dollars over what I would pay separately. My question is, what are your thoughts about these possible add-ons? I will only do one. They have what they call a Grand Tour of Los Angeles, which is the walk of fame, Chinese theater, Hollywood Sign, farmer's market, and several other things. Or, there's Universal Hollywood. We'll be spending four days at DL/DCA, so I think I'm leaning toward the tour of the city. However, if you SoCal vets have advice on this, I would appreciate it.
The Grand Tour sounds like the one we did nearly 10 years ago now (where does the time go?) as you've listed all the places we visited. We really enjoyed the tour and felt it showed us all the big sites in Los Angeles. We've never been to Universal Hollywood, so I can't comment on that.
I have been to Universal Studios several times. They have some great attractions, and, in my opinion, so not-so-great attractions. If it were me, I would opt for the City Tour.
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Originally Posted by joelsmom
So, for our upcoming trip to celebrate DS high school graduation and birthday, I've decided to book through Orbitz. They offer many options that I haven't seen anywhere else, and we can do a total package deal with them that will include everything except food, and it will save me several hundred dollars over what I would pay separately. My question is, what are your thoughts about these possible add-ons? I will only do one. They have what they call a Grand Tour of Los Angeles, which is the walk of fame, Chinese theater, Hollywood Sign, farmer's market, and several other things. Or, there's Universal Hollywood. We'll be spending four days at DL/DCA, so I think I'm leaning toward the tour of the city. However, if you SoCal vets have advice on this, I would appreciate it.
Thanks.
I see you're coming from Tennessee. If you haven't been to California before, and don't expect to get back any time soon, I think you'll want to do the City Tour. It sounds like a fun way to see the highlights. And think of the great pictures!
Yep, we're traveling from East Tennessee. We're not likely to get back to the west coast anytime soon, so I think we will do the city tour. I asked DS, since it's his celebration, and he said it didn't matter to him, so the city tour is what I would prefer. That's the way we'll go. In fact, as soon as I pick him up from a practice in a few minutes, I'm going to sit down and book it!!! How exciting!!! And there goes our money...all has to be paid up front when booking through Orbitz. Oh well, it'll be worth it!!
We did the Disney graduation vacation with my son last year. He was 18 at the time. We did Universal AND a Hollywood tour. Nothing was an add on, we did it on our own. He liked both, but if I had to gage his reactions, I'd say Hollywood/LA tour made a bigger impression him. Universal showed him another theme park, but the Hollywood/LA tour showed him the city.
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