Disney Officially Retires The Lights of Winter Holiday Archway At EPCOT! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Devastated. This was hubby's and my absolute, very favorite memory, walking under the lights on the way out after our 'date' on our first trip in 2003. It became a tradition and if he wasn't here, if I was, I'd have to call him and "walk" with him on the phone. It will seem so empty now...
What a bleak, dark day this is and how dark and bleak will it be when in Disney for the holidays without those glorious lights twinkling so brilliantly! I will miss them.
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Wow. I wonder if they're putting up something to replace it, or if it's just a product of the poor economy, much like this year's Food and Wine decor. I can't say I really buy the statement that "the tech to operate them has become obsolete."
I can't say I really buy the statement that "the tech to operate them has become obsolete."
Why is that so hard to believe? I bought a new computer last month and my old printer which still worked perfectly well didn't plug into the new computer in any way at all so I had to replace it.
So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated? Actually when I saw the Lights of Winter last year, they didn't seem quite as nice as they had in years past. Plus we've never once gotten a decent shot, photopass or otherwise, of them.
Why is that so hard to believe? I bought a new computer last month and my old printer which still worked perfectly well didn't plug into the new computer in any way at all so I had to replace it.
So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated? Actually when I saw the Lights of Winter last year, they didn't seem quite as nice as they had in years past. Plus we've never once gotten a decent shot, photopass or otherwise, of them.
It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
AMEN!!!! Thank you for saying that. I am also sad that I never got to see them.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mystic
Why is that so hard to believe? ...So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated?
I'm not trying to start an argument, and perhaps I'm cynical, but I find it hard to believe for a lot of the reasons Matt outlined above, but mostly, because I'm not alone in noticing that since the economic downturn, Disney's done a LOT of cost-cutting, not only with their workforce, but especially in their decor. For 2 straight weeks, all a certain DISney Podcast could talk about was the huge lack of decorations for Food and Wine this year, as compared to years in the past. On our trip 2 weeks ago, I saw for myself just how little budget they had for decorations (even though they were pretty much recycled from last year), and other areas within Food and Wine. Further, almost all free events were eliminated from F&W (with the exception of the Sam Adams seminar), but a ton of "pay to play" events were added.
Or the fact that, while Disney has added a lot of D23 "cost" events, they've practically eliminated any Annual Passholder events such as the ones they had last year, where you could tour the Cinderella's Castle Suite, or check out American Idol before it opened to the public.
Also, one only had to take the Yuletide Fantasy Tour last Christmas, during the height of WDW decorating, to see that they were making MASSIVE cutbacks on the decorations you saw in the parks (or you could've read the boards, where people were also upset about some of the more obvious decor cutbacks). During the tour, we got to actually visit the warehouse where all the holiday decorations are stored display-ready. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that in the middle of December, that warehouse was at least still 40% full of wreaths, swags, bows, topiaries, trees, etc. - all fully decorated and covered in plastic. Hanging on each shelf, underneath the sign designating what area on property these particular displays belonged to, were hot pink print-outs for each area that stated, "Do not put out due to cut-backs."
So again, not trying to start a fight, but those are my particular beliefs as to why I'm rolling my eyes at Disney's "techno-fail" excuse.
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Devastated. This was hubby's and my absolute, very favorite memory, walking under the lights on the way out after our 'date' on our first trip in 2003. It became a tradition and if he wasn't here, if I was, I'd have to call him and "walk" with him on the phone. It will seem so empty now...
I can't say I really buy the statement that "the tech to operate them has become obsolete." 
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