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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 if everyone in my family was a Disney character, DS19 would be Grumpy. Apparantly we are torturing him because we are making him come on vacation with us!! He is a photographer and we bought him a nice amera for Christmas (Nikon D40 and a couple of lenses - expensive for our budget, but not the most expensive I would have liked to purchase). I am trying to give him some down time everyday, and leaving the touring parts of the parks a little open for him. Making him do a couple of family things and ALL MEALS. I think he will be very happy to just go around and take pictures. He is more "artistic" (odd angles, close ups of spider webs, 'can you guess what this is' sort of guy) than "snapshot" (obvious Cinderella Castle, Giant Mickey Hat etc..). I know there is an over abundance of things to photograph, but if you could pick one or two in each park, where would you go?
And how much memory should I get him?
If he is going to be taking a lot of pictures... I would make sure you had a laptop or something similar to download them too so you don't have to have 15 memory cards!
We downloaded our 2GB card after four days...but we only take the typical amount of photos (mom, dad, two kids being cute!). I think I fit about 1000 images or so on my 2GB card at the highest resolution on our camera (Canon SD750).
The D40 is a high-megapixel camera, so I'd get at least a 2GB card (and would actually recommend a 4GB), in case he is going to take a lot of high-res pictures.
As far as the types of photos he'd be interested in taking....
Magic Kingdom - Tom Sawyer Island and Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse offer different perspectives and lots of nature shots.
Epcot - The entrance plaza in front of Spaceship earth - with all the monoliths - could provide lots of interesting shots and Canada's gardens.
Hollywood Studios - Streets of America backdrops could provide some interesting shots
Animal Kingdom - The Oasis and the Maharajah Jungle Trek are fantastic areas to get nature shots.
A 2 GB card would do nicely.
Epcot
Gardens at Canada
Gardens at Japan
Gardens at China
lining up monorail with other objects in foreground / background
If he's a non-riding, photo taking person like I am, he'll find plenty of photos to take just walking around, no matter where he is.
I agree on a 2 gig card, minimum, and would suggest a couple of 4 gig cards. I shoot RAW + JPG with my Olympus DSLR and get about 280 pictures to a 4 gig card. If he's shooting JPG only, he'll get much more pictures on the card.
When it's just Jan and I (without the 2 year old granddaughter), I'll take somewhere between 2500 and 5000 pictures on a 10 day trip and Jan will average 1500-2500. We take a laptop to download to every night, and I have an I-Pod like device to download my cards in the park (I plug the card into it and download to the internal hard drive. Verify they downloaded and clean the card off to use again).
If you need to force someone else to go to Disney, I volunteer
I think a 2GB card would work fine. And I have to narrow it down to just a couple of shots in each park?
OK, my favourites include Main Street USA and Liberty Square (lots of great buildings there) in the Magic Kingdom, all of World Showcase (especially China, Japan and Canada) and Spaceship Earth in Epcot, the area around Echo Lake and the New York Street set in the Studios and in Animal Kingdom, it has to be Asia and Africa, but there's so much else to photograph as well - trust me, I should know, the amount of pictures I take!
I think I'll get him a couple of 4 gig cards. He has a 2 gig now which will be cleared before we go. Maybe get DH to bring his laptop too so we can download. Of course then he might want to work...
...might want to work? If you mean as a photopass photographer I hope not. I've read up on that job, and as a portrait photog myself, it seems a bit... non-professional. And seeing the quality of photos they allow as 'good' photos is just sad. Seems it's quantity vs quality
but i'm getting off teh subject.... I'd just let him wander around and when you are all together take time out if he sees something RIGHT THEN to shoot.
and listen to him, if there's something he wishes he could go back and shoot, let him.
Thanks for all the good advice! (As for working...I meant if DH has his laptop he might try to sneak in working while we are on vacation!) I like the idea of letting him wander around. He is not much of a ride person, though I was able to get him to look at my passporter and he did pick out a couple of rides he wants to do. The rest of the time while we are in line or on a ride I think I'll let him do his own thing.
I saw another thread about bags...need to go explore that one now
if he's able to handle Everest he might enjoy shooting the 'view' from the 'summit' before you plummit down to your death
I didn't last time but I did look... I'm always afraid I'm going to DROP my camera, but in Jan I'm gonna try at least snapshot style (ie point it and shoot and hope it comes out because I'm keeping my eyes closed again lol)
Splash MT. is another good one
ooo! he might already know this, but a good cheap way to make your camera a bit more water proof you can take a ziplock baggie and cut a hole only big enough for your lens to go through... you can rubberband it around the lens (out of the way of the focus and/or zoom functions) and then when you go on rides like Splash or Kali or whatever or it is raining you have a bit more protection for the body and the electronics. As soon as getting wet is no longer a danger WIPE DOWN the lens and take the baggie off so that you don't have condensation (with humidity it's a problem)
it's a poorman's way of having a water proof camera... learned in in photo class it worked well for me, but I got too lazy to keep putting it on and taking it off
I think the AK is my favorite park to take pictures in. I am a big fan of taking close ups of the Tree of Life and all the animal carvings. Plus, all the real animals and plant life make for some interesting shots too. Even the signs and sidewalks in this park are fun to take pictures of. There are just so many little details in this park!
Don't forget about some of the ride queues. Even if your son doesn't want to ride, some of them have great themes and lots of things of visual interest. Kali and EE are two at AK that are my favorites. TOT at DHS is another good one. He can then take the chicken exit out.
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