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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Three weeks to go, and the worries are starting in..... tonight's topic is "How do I keep from losing my kids?" DSs 4 and 11 have ADHD and tend to bolt off when something catches thier eye. I know disney tends to be a pretty safe place, but So far my plans include:
Dressing them both in orange or yellow. Or lime green. EVERY DAY!
Keeping a firm grip on DS4 after fireworks or parades. Or shows. Or rides....
Drilling them to stay put until they are found, and to look for CMs with nametags.
If I can figure out a way to lash them to a stroller, I will.
What other strategies would you suggest? What is the best way to put my cell phone number on them and still be safe? I'm thinking the bottom of a shoe with a permanent marker....
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All it takes is faith and trust, and a little bit of pixie dust!
I used 5963 labels and put my DDs first name, my name and cell number, DH's name and cell number the name of our resort and left a spot for our room number which I wrote in when I got there. I printed out enough label sheets for each of my girls for the duration of the trip and then I had them lay on their stomach on the bed every morning and then folded their shirt up halfway and put the label on the very bottom of the shirt so if they got lost the person who found them would just have to fold up the bottom of their shirt to read it. It worked great they never came off and since the label was on the bottom of the shirt where their shorts/pants were they never even noticed they were there. DD Shannon (age 7 at the time) did get separated from us in EPCOT at the China Pavilion when the acrobats were performing. She kept her cool, found a mother with kids (like I told her to if she couldn't find a CM) and told the woman that she was lost and that she had a label on the inside of her shirt. The woman got our number off the label and called us and we had her back in just a few minutes (long enough to give me a few gray hairs though ) Hope this helps!!
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My Irish Princesses !!!
Irish Fall Festival, North Wildwood, NJ
September, 2007
I used 5963 labels and put my DDs first name, my name and cell number, DH's name and cell number the name of our resort and left a spot for our room number which I wrote in when I got there. I printed out enough label sheets for each of my girls for the duration of the trip and then I had them lay on their stomach on the bed every morning and then folded their shirt up halfway and put the label on the very bottom of the shirt so if they got lost the person who found them would just have to fold up the bottom of their shirt to read it. It worked great they never came off and since the label was on the bottom of the shirt where their shorts/pants were they never even noticed they were there. DD Shannon (age 7 at the time) did get separated from us in EPCOT at the China Pavilion when the acrobats were performing. She kept her cool, found a mother with kids (like I told her to if she couldn't find a CM) and told the woman that she was lost and that she had a label on the inside of her shirt. The woman got our number off the label and called us and we had her back in just a few minutes (long enough to give me a few gray hairs though ) Hope this helps!!
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Your Welcome!! I was reading some of the newer posts and I just wanted to add that I used the labels inside their shirts because I was afraid of predators getting their names from a bracelet or necklace and gaining their trust and this was something I thought of that could be hidden but my girls knew was there so they could tell the person who found them. It worked great for us!!!
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My Irish Princesses !!!
Irish Fall Festival, North Wildwood, NJ
September, 2007
I agree with the not putting names on the child. I regret getting them the varsity jackets from Dis and putting their names on them. I really should have put their initials. I just thought there would be no confusion at preschool and Kinder. with them. I really limit them wearing them in crowds though, I figure at school this year they are picked up by me though. I saw on one website you can buy the tags that go in their shoes. When we were children my mother had dog tags for us with our name, address and phone number. I wonder if you can still get these. the chain was long enough it was under your shirt. We wore these for years!
When I took my DD last summer (she was 11 then), she had her own cell phone with her so that if we got separated we could just call each other. We did have to use that a couple of times when we were in the shops and got separated. We will be using that again when we head back in June.
DD will be 2 1/2 when we go next September, and I plan on putting something on her, probably around her wrist (unless someone has a better idea?), with her first name, my name and my cell number. I don't plan on losing her, lol, but kids are fast, and it just takes a second for the little stinker to dart off.
I think that for your kids, since they're older and can understand the concept a little better, a label on the inside of the tshirt at the bottom with your contact information is a great idea!
Im so glad I read this post. This is one aspect of planning I hadnt even thought about yet. DD will be 23 mo when we go to WDW and although, as you said, Im not planning on loosing her but no one does! She will be too young to understand the consequences of darting off and no doubt I'll be crammed up her butt the whole time as the whole thing makes me terribly nervous! I'm definatly going to need to label her somehow, but Im not sure a label would get noticed unless someone looked for one, and Im kind of afraid that a bracelette wouldnt fit her tiny little wrists (although I definately like the silicone bracelette idea for when she's a smidge older!!). So, how does one go about labelling a toddler? Oh just thinking about her getting lost brings a big lump to my throat!!
Im so glad I read this post. This is one aspect of planning I hadnt even thought about yet. DD will be 23 mo when we go to WDW and although, as you said, Im not planning on loosing her but no one does! She will be too young to understand the consequences of darting off and no doubt I'll be crammed up her butt the whole time as the whole thing makes me terribly nervous! I'm definatly going to need to label her somehow, but Im not sure a label would get noticed unless someone looked for one, and Im kind of afraid that a bracelette wouldnt fit her tiny little wrists (although I definately like the silicone bracelette idea for when she's a smidge older!!). So, how does one go about labelling a toddler? Oh just thinking about her getting lost brings a big lump to my throat!!
Something we ended up doing, pretty much by accident that might work for a toddler...I had made a heart-shaped dog tag for DD to wear on a bracelet that had our contact info on it, but it was too big and kept falling off. So instead, I threaded it around one of her belt loops...it was out of her way and she completely forgot about it, but if she had gotten lost, it was also very obvious. On a couple of days when she didn't have belt loops, I threaded it through the laces in her shoes.
You can see the heart-shaped tag in this picture, hanging off her belt loop, just to give you some idea....
Something we ended up doing, pretty much by accident that might work for a toddler...I had made a heart-shaped dog tag for DD to wear on a bracelet that had our contact info on it, but it was too big and kept falling off. So instead, I threaded it around one of her belt loops...it was out of her way and she completely forgot about it, but if she had gotten lost, it was also very obvious. On a couple of days when she didn't have belt loops, I threaded it through the laces in her shoes.
You can see the heart-shaped tag in this picture, hanging off her belt loop, just to give you some idea....
We did this as well. We looped it through his shoe and put his name and my cell phone number on it. He knows if he gets lost he just has to show it to people and ask them to please call his mommy.
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They caught us all smiling and looking at the camera!!!
Something we ended up doing, pretty much by accident that might work for a toddler...I had made a heart-shaped dog tag for DD to wear on a bracelet that had our contact info on it, but it was too big and kept falling off. So instead, I threaded it around one of her belt loops...it was out of her way and she completely forgot about it, but if she had gotten lost, it was also very obvious. On a couple of days when she didn't have belt loops, I threaded it through the laces in her shoes.
You can see the heart-shaped tag in this picture, hanging off her belt loop, just to give you some idea....
What a great idea!! I just got done making personalized lugagge tags out of print-able Shrinky Dink paper- looks like I have another project for our trip! Thanks!
Im so glad I read this post. This is one aspect of planning I hadnt even thought about yet. DD will be 23 mo when we go to WDW and although, as you said, Im not planning on loosing her but no one does! She will be too young to understand the consequences of darting off and no doubt I'll be crammed up her butt the whole time as the whole thing makes me terribly nervous! I'm definatly going to need to label her somehow, but Im not sure a label would get noticed unless someone looked for one, and Im kind of afraid that a bracelette wouldnt fit her tiny little wrists (although I definately like the silicone bracelette idea for when she's a smidge older!!). So, how does one go about labelling a toddler? Oh just thinking about her getting lost brings a big lump to my throat!!
Seriously? Get one of those "kid leash" things.
During one visit to family, lord, almost twenty years ago now ... my then-seven-year-old sister (well, actually, the half-sister of my half-sisters, but PFFFT, family is family!) actually insisted that she felt safer wearing the leash. (That one was just a springy rubber or silicone coil connected to two bracelets - one kid-sized, one adult-sized).
If nothing else, it gives you something to follow to her, if she moves out of sight. And, yes, it gives HER something to follow to YOU, if she loses sight of mommy and daddy!
Finally: if it's a nice, visible sort of affair, it dissuades people from moving between you and your daughter, so you should have far less instances of "suddenly, the crowd closed in and I couldn't see her" moments of uncertainty.
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Finally: if it's a nice, visible sort of affair, it dissuades people from moving between you and your daughter, so you should have far less instances of "suddenly, the crowd closed in and I couldn't see her" moments of uncertainty.
You know, thats a really good point. I hate it when people walk between a parent and child- clearly they have never tried to keep tabs on one before!! Im still unsure of how I feel about the "leash thingies"- I guess its something every parent stews over. On the one hand, you worry what people will think but on the other, you have your kid on a leash Actually, DH and I talked about trying to find one like we saw the other day- it was the back pack kind with a chest buckle (to keep your little wiggly one from wiggling out) that looked like a monkey and the "leash" was its tail that the toddlers mom held firmly in her hand. The wrist- to- wrist kind sounds pretty cool too. Hmmm, time to check 'em out online!
You know, thats a really good point. I hate it when people walk between a parent and child- clearly they have never tried to keep tabs on one before!! Im still unsure of how I feel about the "leash thingies"- I guess its something every parent stews over. On the one hand, you worry what people will think but on the other, you have your kid on a leash Actually, DH and I talked about trying to find one like we saw the other day- it was the back pack kind with a chest buckle (to keep your little wiggly one from wiggling out) that looked like a monkey and the "leash" was its tail that the toddlers mom held firmly in her hand. The wrist- to- wrist kind sounds pretty cool too. Hmmm, time to check 'em out online!
Even if it's "belt to belt", rather than some sort of harness (the appropriateness of such depends on the child's age, I bet - the shoulder-and-back harness is probably better for toddlers, whereas a wrist/bracelet setup is better for older children) it's basically just a way to always have contact with your kid .... and more importantly, it can serve as a security blanket, because it means the kid one always has a connection to YOU, as well.
Just remember that it probably has to come off, during most rides! ^_^
The labels in their shirts are a good idea with their name, your name and cell phone number. There are also tags that can be attached to laces of the kids shoes. I don't remember what web site I saw this on.
I would make sure that your 4 year old at least knows your name so that he can tell a cast member who to contact.
Will your 4 year old wear one of those straps that attaches to his wrist and you can hold on to him while giving him some room to wander?
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Actually, DH and I talked about trying to find one like we saw the other day- it was the back pack kind with a chest buckle (to keep your little wiggly one from wiggling out) that looked like a monkey and the "leash" was its tail that the toddlers mom held firmly in her hand. The wrist- to- wrist kind sounds pretty cool too. Hmmm, time to check 'em out online!
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