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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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For all of you out there that are taking a cruise on the Magic.....just so you know that the travel kit they sent out, the booklets are brown and wrapped with a black band (like a large scrunchie), the age groups for Oceanquest and The Stack are WRONG.
I have been planning my cruise for over a year now and based on the information that Disney Cruise Line sent me, Ive been telling my son and daughter that they can spend time in The Stack...the teen club. Based on the travel kit, the ages they specify in the kit are 13-17 yr olds and the ages for Oceanquest are 10-14 yr olds.
Well after several answers I got on here I decided to call and was told that the ages changed last summer so that The Stack is now 14-17 yr olds and Oceanquest is now 11-13 yr olds.
My question is , if the ages changed LAST SUMMER, why are they still sending out these travel kits with the WRONG information. I received these kits after the summer time. People are planning dream vacations and now I have to tell my son that he won't be able to hang out in the same place as his sister. THIS REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't tell you how mad I am right now. I will be taking the travel kit with me and speaking to someone when we get on the cruiseship.
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Wow, that's not good! I just checked the Disney TA site and it also says The Stack is for 14-17 year olds. I would definitely let someone know what happened.
Well I was so mad that I had to call Disney Cruise Line back and talk to a Supervisor. I spoke with a very nice lady who stayed on the phone with me listening to what I had to say. I told her that I have been planning this cruise for over a year now and have been telling my 13 yr old son that based on all the information I had that he could go to the teen club. She even went on the website with me and saw that on the website even that consider a teen 13-17 yrs old. Also on the website , when you go to The Stack , it doesn't specify an age range. She also noticed from the reservation that just days after the cruise he will be turning 14. She said that if he is within a month of turning 14 they may let him into the club. But she said she would check and get back to me next week. Im crossing my fingers again.......
It IS very annoying when anything is advertised one way and then it changes on you. They should do something to take care of this - and it sounds like they're working on it.
Well I was so mad that I had to call Disney Cruise Line back and talk to a Supervisor. I spoke with a very nice lady who stayed on the phone with me listening to what I had to say. I told her that I have been planning this cruise for over a year now and have been telling my 13 yr old son that based on all the information I had that he could go to the teen club. She even went on the website with me and saw that on the website even that consider a teen 13-17 yrs old. Also on the website , when you go to The Stack , it doesn't specify an age range. She also noticed from the reservation that just days after the cruise he will be turning 14. She said that if he is within a month of turning 14 they may let him into the club. But she said she would check and get back to me next week. Im crossing my fingers again.......
I totally understand planning a vacation around your child's age. We made our plans because our kids wanted to be in seperate clubs, so the 13 and 14 year cut off is very important to us. We cruised last summer on the Magic, so I've been responding to threads on here about the age groups when I see it wrong.
I know they can't guarantee you that they let your son in the Stack, but I think his chances are extremely good, especially being he's so close to 14. Here's our experience when we sailed for the first time in 2004. My youngest DS is very mature and was a month away from being able to bump up from the O. Club to O. Lab. I talked to the counselors the first day and they said they would keep an eye on him and if it seemed like he was mature (and I would guess if he was well behaved), he could move up. After the first day, they said it wouldn't be a problem, but my DS decided he didn't want to because that would put him in the Lab with his brother. My son just stayed in the O. Club for things he wanted and had us paged if he got bored and it all worked out fine for everyone. I was very appreciative to the CM's for being so understanding of the whole age thing. For some kids, it could make or break the cruise. For me, when I spend so much money on a vacation, I want it to be the best it can be. Oh, one other thing they did stress though was that kids couldn't move back and forth between clubs. They had to be registered in one or the other and stick with that decision.
Good luck with this and let us know how it all turns out. Sorry you've had to go through this.
I don't think its gonna be a problem, they have let younger kids who are a month from the age cut off to go into the kids club. So I think they will do the same for the stack.
I do find it frustrating that they never changed the printed product to reflect the change though and can understand your frustration with that.
But I know that he wants to spend time with his sister, but I am guessing they will each make friends with others and they may not need to be together every minute of the cruise so it might not be as big of a concern as you think.
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I'm not condoning lying (well not really) but do they ask for proof of age before they let kids into these clubs? If not, just say yes, he's whatever age to get in there. I know years ago my mom lied to Disney a couple of times about my age.
I'm not condoning lying (well not really) but do they ask for proof of age before they let kids into these clubs? If not, just say yes, he's whatever age to get in there. I know years ago my mom lied to Disney a couple of times about my age.
I don't know for sure how it works for the teen clubs, but I know I had to register my kids before they could go to the Oceaneer's Lab and Oceaneer's Club. The registration process draws on information from your reservation, which contains every passenger's birth date (which may be checked against the birth certificate or passport you present before boarding). I'm fairly sure passengers' ages are also encoded on their Key to the World Cards (to prevent underage drinking, for example). So, the cruise staff can find out how old a kid really is.
That said, when our son was 7 1/2 we were able to enroll him in the Oceaneer's Lab, which has a typical minimum of 8, because we explained he was in 2nd grade and most of his peers were already 8. If a kid will be just a month shy of 14, it's quite possible, though not guaranteed, that he'd be allowed in the Teen Club, especially if he acts mature.
Vent away! We can handle it. I'd be mad too!
Im glad you are getting some responses from Disney. Everyone makes mistakes, so to me it is important how willing a person or company is to fix it. Sounds like you are getting a good response from them. That's one of the things I like about Disney.
The registration process draws on information from your reservation, which contains every passenger's birth date (which may be checked against the birth certificate or passport you present before boarding). I'm fairly sure passengers' ages are also encoded on their Key to the World Cards (to prevent underage drinking, for example). So, the cruise staff can find out how old a kid really is.
I didn't realize that you have to give the birth dates for everyone. The one and only time I was on a cruise (back in the 90's) dad did all the work so I don't know what info he had to give.
I totally understand how frustrated you were when you found out about the age range change. That being said, I'm pretty sure they'll let your son into the teen club if he's just a month shy of being 14. Good luck!
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My son just stayed in the O. Club for things he wanted and had us paged if he got bored and it all worked out fine for everyone. I was very appreciative to the CM's for being so understanding of the whole age thing. For some kids, it could make or break the cruise. For me, when I spend so much money on a vacation, I want it to be the best it can be. Oh, one other thing they did stress though was that kids couldn't move back and forth between clubs. They had to be registered in one or the other and stick with that decision.
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