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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What, if any, were the alternative names for your kids/pets/house/car/etc.
Geoffie (cat) was very, very close to being Lloyd. Had Wally not been so emotionally attached to naming his son after James Hendrix, I would probably would have named him Adrian, or Frank (Francis is a middle name, for fun sometimes we call him Jimmy Frank.) And of course, there's always Henway.
Claudia was my early frontrunner for a girl. We also both liked RuthAnn!
I asked b/c I recently looked at Jimmy thinking that he could have been Adrian, and it seemed so wrong! Still love the name, but he is *such* a Jimmy to me.
Lexi's full name is Alexandra, but we also liked Chandler and Ashlynn. We didn't choose Chandler because DH couldn't say Chandler...he says it with an -sh sound instead. Heehee.
And we didn't choose Ashlynn because my niece's name is Ashley and we thought it was too close to her name.
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I know what you mean Rachel.
We had both boy and girl names picked out for all three of our sons.
Our first son was going to be named Adam Jared - whenever he was born, because I love that name. I had that name picked out long before I ever thought of becoming pregnant.
But our last two - we changed their names a bit once they were born.
I don't know - it was just, once we looked at them and held them, it was as if we needed to change them. Does that make sense?
For our middle son, we had Zachary Ryan picked out - but once he was born he was definitely a Zachary Andrew! My father asked me if I realized that I gave him the name of two presidents?! No - that was just who he was!
And our third son - I wanted him to be Alexander Nathan. But dh was determined that once he was born - he was Nathan Alexander! And he is now Nate. It fits him perfectly!
I love thinking up names - even now.
To be quite honest - I am so glad I had boys - because I only like one out of the three girls names I picked out!
By the way - I think Jimmy is perfect for your very handsome guy!
If Alexa was a boy, she was going to be Nolan. Not sure if I like that now or not. If Colin was a girl, I think he was going to be Aleen, or Abigail. Honestly I can't remember, other than it was an "A" name
I would have been Michael David had I been a boy (which I don't get as my mom promised to name her child after her dad, which is why I'm Antonia Michelle... my grandfather's name was Anton Michael.. so I don't get it!)
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For DS, it was supposed to be Miguel Eugene after both of his grandfathers, but since I had a fallout with Bio-Dad, DS became Tyler Eugene *Eugene was MY dad's name* For DD, I had wanted KC Leigh but her dad, didn't like it so he named her. Yep thats right HE NAMED HER.... Samantha Lynn but I got my maiden name and married name for her last name, my maiden name first since we weren't married at the time.
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My youngest daughter was going to be Chloee. But somehow she looked more like a Cheyenne! I couldn't imagine her as anything else now.
Had I been a boy I was going to be Bernard. BERNARD!?!?!?
Oh well, my sister was going to be Buford! Can you imagine....Buford and Bernard! What in the heck were my parents thinking....and thank God we were girls!
We had the usual girl boy names selected before out daughters were born. DD #1 (DaraLynn) would have been Darren Lucas and DD #2 (Diana Lanette) would have been Dane Lucas. We were set on the initials DLH since both DH and I have those initials.
As for Lucy (my yellow lab) I went back and forth between Lola and Lucy. Everyone wanted me to name her Lola, but when we got her, I just knew she was Lucy! DH was dead set on naming his yellow lab after his mother, so there was no debate; Aggie it is!
My DH drummed up a huge campaign to have one of his grandbabies named "Bret", but alas, DD #1 and SIL chose Tristan Harley and Carter Allen.
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DD1 would have been Nicholas Eric. DD2 would have been Eric David. DD3 was going to be Eric David, too, I couldn't let that one go, but when DD4 came along she was going to be Gavin Nathaniel. We knew names early on in the process as it was important to me to have that settled. DD1's initials would have been NES either way, so I called her Nessie, esp when she was doing somersaults in my belly!
Had I been a boy, I'd have been Derek to continue with my parents "D" theme (ugh )
Our dog, Zoie, came with her name, although, "nonobaddog" gets tossed around quite a bit along with "outnow".
Well DD might have been Olivia, Sophia or Emily. The middle name was always going to be Frances
so that never changed. Then I finally talked DH into Eleanor Frances but sometimes we call her Ellie.
If we were having a boy then she would have been named Ethan Franklin. My DH is Edward Franklin
so the middle name would fit and Frances is the girl version of Franklin. So now DH and DD are both EFF.
We had names we liked, but didn't make a final decision until after we met out kids and let them tell us who they were. No, they're not adopted from childhood, they are all "natural" children - although I don't like that way of explaining. Adopted kids are natural also!!
So - Samantha Nicole (mine and my high school boyfriend's "Love Child") was the only one to be named what we had decided. He picked the first name for a girl, I picked the middle, and if it had been a boy - Patrick (my pick) Justin (his pick). We called her Nikki for about 6 weeks, but Prince's song "Darling Nikki" came out about then, and it was a (clears throat) "little" suggestive. Samantha it became. And I've never really liked the name. But, she is NOT Sam!!
Kathryn Ann was almost Rachel Kathryn. Don't remember if we ever had a boy name picked out - just knew it was a girl.
Lauren Marie was Ellen Mabel or Troy Alexander until she looked at us and said "Nope, it's me: Lauren"
We had names we liked, but didn't make a final decision until after we met out kids and let them tell us who they were. No, they're not adopted from childhood, they are all "natural" children - although I don't like that way of explaining. Adopted kids are natural also!!
Thank you! Someone asked me if Ryan was my "natural" child once and I said, "Well, he's not a robot or an alien so...yes!"
Had Ryan been a girl, he would have been Meaghan Anne. Ryan was really the only boy's name we both loved. Apparently, I was supposed to be Julie until I was born in a rather "drama queen" fashion (breech and backwards, emergency c-section) and my mother named me Sara after the actress Sarah Bernhardt. Little did she know...
I was going to Isobel but got it changed to Alison as the parents thought Isobel was too common. My Aunty alway insisted on calling Izzy as a child. My sister, I think had the worest deal, if she had been a boy Hubert Clarence - named after the grandfathers. Luckily she was a girl and got called Alexandra (my choice as the parents couldn't decide between Elizabeth or Elysbeth)
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Had Wally not been so emotionally attached to naming his son after James Hendrix, I would probably would have named him Adrian, or Frank (Francis is a middle name, for fun sometimes we call him Jimmy Frank.) And of course, there's always Henway. 
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My father asked me if I realized that I gave him the name of two presidents?! No - that was just who he was!
)
Thank you! Someone asked me if Ryan was my "natural" child once and I said, "Well, he's not a robot or an alien so...yes!" 
Little did she know... 
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