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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I don't know if these things are related at all . . . but Mousefest disappears only moments before D23 and its Expo are announced? Conspiracy theorists have at it!
I look at them as two completely different groups/avenues. D23 is the Disney company. Mousefest was a group of independent Disney lovers who were coming together. I don't think it's related at all!
neither side will admit to something that's not true. Dave posted on mousefest.org exactly what happened with it this year. I imagine he's plenty busy enough with the passporter thing.
D23 isn't looking to replace anyone. It would have the opposite effect of what they're going for. both marty sklar and dave smith have gone on the record that they will continue to support groups like the NFFC.
neither side will admit to something that's not true. Dave posted on mousefest.org exactly what happened with it this year. I imagine he's plenty busy enough with the passporter thing.
D23 isn't looking to replace anyone. It would have the opposite effect of what they're going for. both marty sklar and dave smith have gone on the record that they will continue to support groups like the NFFC.
I didn't say that it was or was not true. I merely said that if it were, unless one side admits to it, we will never know. It makes no real difference to me one way or the other.
There's definitely no connection between MouseFest's hiatus and D23. Please, send the conspiracy theorists somewhere else.
It's really hard to know whether D23 will hurt or help NFFC and events like MouseFest. On one hand, it seems to be competition. On the other hand, as I learned long ago, people tend to take their vacations when they prefer to go on vacation. Folks who like to go to WDW in October generally don't switch their vacation time to be at WDW in early December, and vice versa. In both cases, special events (NFFC Orlando convention in October, MouseFest and/or other community meets in December) tend to be the icing on the cake - events that can draw a good crowd because Disney is already drawing a special crowd (Food and Wine Festival in October, holiday merriment in early December).
I suspect that the D23 convention will draw a crowd that is mostly separate from those that head to WDW in the fall - a good number of folks from Southern California, plus those of us willing to travel long distances simply because we can't resist what Disney is dishing out.
Will it hurt NFFC? It could hurt their July convention in Anaheim, but it's more likely that Disney, with all it's marketing muscle and cachet, will draw a huge number of people that never joined NFFC or attended its convention, while NFFC will continue to do what it does for its loyal membership (perhaps with some "tweaks" to make its convention distinctly different from what Disney's doing). In the end, as often happens when a big company puts huge promotional resources behind a "product," the overall market for the product will expand, and all the smaller fish may actually benefit from the larger pool of potential attendees. Folks may very well join NFFC to get even more of what they get from D23. The "little guys" are often able to find special niches that the big guys are too big to address (or care about).
If you've watched the development of Disney fan events over the past five years or so, you probably recognize that there has already been a substantial increase in interest in meets and conventions. As MouseFest grew, additional, similar events started to come together at other times of the year. None of them seem to have "competed" in any serious way - if anything, each seems to have paved the way for greater attendance at every other event. It became more of... "My friends had a great time at MouseFest, so I bet Magic Meets is going to be a blast!" (and vice versa).
I suspect it'll also be a whole lot like the Birnbaum's Guide vs. Unofficial Guide "thing." Folks love to get the official word from Disney, but they also love to be independent-minded when it comes to corporate behemoths. So, a lot of folks buy both of those books (and, of course, a certain blue-covered guidebook, too).
I guess all we can do is wait and see.
__________________
Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Folks love to get the official word from Disney, but they also love to be independent-minded when it comes to corporate behemoths.
Well said, Dave!
I'm totally in love with all things Disney, but sometimes the "velvet handcuffs" chafe.
What I think is terrific about MouseFest is that we all come together from disparate cultures, backgrounds, affiliations and -- without much Corporate Disney involvement -- we celebrate what we love about The Mouse, each other, and our respective communities.
Eileen
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