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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We are cruising with 2 teens and a 10 year old. That's five of us going in different directions. I've heard you can somehow use the Disney Cruise ap to use your phones to send texts to each other. Is it reliable? Do we need to get additional Wave Phones? Thanks so much!
The disney cruise app for smartphones and tablets cannot "talk" to the wave phones, only to others using the app on your cruise [whose userid you have so you can connect to them]. The app has a "chat" function that works a lot like text messaging, but is within the app (i.e. it does NOT use your phone's actual text/SMS messaging function; think of it like how you used to be able to send private chat messages to someone within the facebook app -- it is contained within the app, not using actual text messaging).
We found it reliable for the most part -- sometimes there is a time delay between when a "chat message" is sent and when it is received, usually no more than a few minutes, but it can IME be longer. Usually we did not find a delay, though.
Finally: the app has a whole bunch of other features that make it vauable and useful on a cruise. Deck plans, menus for all the restuarants (for all the days, too, so you can look ahead), schedules of activities (for all the days), etc.
For our family (2 adults) we only use our smartphones with the app and do not even touch the wave phones.
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So, out of the whole group of three families everyone will have cell phones except the three 9 year olds. Does that mean all of us would be able to communicate via phone except the littler ones? If we got a pay by the minute type phone for the younger ones, would that work, too? Just wondering what would work the easiest. The 9 year olds won't be able to check themselves out of kids club, so we might have to carry the wave phones, too? Thanks so much!
We tried the app past cruise and found it reliable. We needed to add the others guests (we were in 2 stateroom) into the chat and used it to communicate between us. But it does not link to the wave phones. We were traveling wth my niece (6y) who did not have a smartphone - but my daughter(12) loved the ocean club and lab and decided to stay with her once that was her last year there. And she sent us messages when she needed someone to get our niece out of the club.
My girls and I used the app on our last cruise and it worked great. They were tweens and went their own way most of the time. In your case I would use the app for everyone but give the little one a wave phone and either you or another adult keep the other wave phone so that someone is always in touch with the youngest. It's not like there is a lot of texting back and forth(at least not for us) just usually come down for lunch sort of thing.
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Do the 9 year olds have ipods? Like an ipod touch? Any wifi enabled device that uses apps can use the Navigator app to text. When my son was 10 before he had a phone, we used his ipod.