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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
The soft opening will be later this month. Do you get the PassPorter newsletter? It had an "invitation" to the soft opening.
You will still have to buy access. The "invitation" doesn't allow you a trial basis to see anything or explore it to know if you want to purchase it. You just have to decide whether you want to fork over money on an unseen product,
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Originally Posted by dolphin041599
You will still have to buy access. The "invitation" doesn't allow you a trial basis to see anything or explore it to know if you want to purchase it.
Yes, of course, Jennifer is not handing over her life's work for nothing. Guess I should've spelled out that it's not free, although I believe you'll be able to see the first chapter before buying it.
The LIVE! Guide is identical to the hard-copy book, but it's better in many ways: you can make "notes" and link it to her Trip Planner tools (which actually are free), and you can print out the pages you want. They won't be exactly the same printed out, as many of the digital pages are longer and the info will run onto another page. But everything saves to the cloud, and you can access it in the parks or pretty much anywhere, without lugging an actual book around with you!
Plus, the LIVE! Guides are updated in real time, so you'll see what's really going on at the parks, not what was going on on the publication date.
I'm disappointed at not having a hard-copy book, too, but I see so many real advantages to the digital editions that I'm getting over that. I hope lots of PassPorter Community members support Jennifer in this new endeavor so she can keep giving us Disney addicts our fixes!
Yes, of course, Jennifer is not handing over her life's work for nothing. Guess I should've spelled out that it's not free, although I believe you'll be able to see the first chapter before buying it.
I never said I expected Jennifer to "hand over her life's work for nothing." However, when I got the invitation for the Cruise guide, I couldn't see anything, so I just wanted to point out that if there isn't a free trial period (1 week) or a Chapter 1 preview, and she would have to pay for access to view anything, I really didn't expect a "reprimand" for just pointing out that you are basically buying unseen. And for those of us who find online reference guides difficult, buying an untried/untested product is not an easy decision.
But it only shows the Disneyland and Disney cruise live guides. I don't see Disney world available.
PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2017 LIVE! Guide will go into soft opening this month (January). I'm working my tail off on getting it ready for everyone. I underestimated just how much information I pack into it, or it would be done already.
Once you get the invitation later this month, you'll receive a link that lets you go directly to the LIVE! Guide and you'll have the ability to read the first 22 pages for free. I think I will also have a PDF preview available, for those who want to see what it looks like when they choose to make their custom PDF from the LIVE! Guide.
I am really excited about the LIVE! Guide. Besides all the other bells and whistles, a travel guide that is always up-to-date is an amazing thing. We've been updating the Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line editions since they came out and it feels SO GOOD to have updated information out there for all readers. I always disliked the idea that the print guidebooks were already out-of-date the day they were printed.
I hope more of us will trust that Jennifer is still the caring, thoughtful person she's so often demonstrated that she is on these boards.
I'm confident that she has thought of concerns like wanting to look over a sample segment of the LIVE! guide format before buying. After all, these new guides could hardly appeal to newcomers to the site who've never seen a copy of the books without giving a reasonable sample of what one includes.
I hope people who've used the hard copy guides and loved them will take a deep breath and remind themselves that they already know the PassPorter format is the most user-friendly one available. Why would we abandon a trip planner we know is that good?
Now that I'm getting past my reluctance to let go of my old friend, the hard copy Deluxe refill, this new format seems to me to have tremendous potential. I'm willing to give it an opportunity to win me over. I hope others will, too.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
And I have subscribed to the cruise line addition of the live guide and I do like it. There are a couple things I don't particularly care for but I had that with the paper copy too. The live guide is a wonderful edition.
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