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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 used the second week of my Christmas break from school plus I worked a little each night this week. And then we got a snow day today, so I was able to finish my October 2009 scrapbook, all 56 pages of it. I could have done more pages, but at some point I've just got to stop. So here it is:
Opening Page
This was our first ever fall trip, first ever F&WF, first ever MNSSHP, first ever Wishes Dessert Party. You get the gist -- lots of firsts for us.
Caribbean Beach Resort (which we all ended up loving)
After two nights at CBR, we transferred to Gaylord Palms where Luke's convention was being held. This is a very, very nice resort and I felt just as pampered as I have at the Disney Deluxe Resorts.
The Gaylor was decorated with monkeys (kind of like hidden Mickeys). They were in the bedspread (pictured), the carpets, the curtains, and several other places.
Toy Story, one of most favorite characters to visit while at WDW and we always get a family photo with Buzz and Woody.
Many of the toys Stefanie requested for Christmas this year were items from Toy Story. I was excited to find this Slinky Dog sticker in the page kit I had bought at WDW as it is one of her favorite gifts from this Christmas.
We also had great character interaction at DHS with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and Russell, Carl, and Dug from Up.
The UP characters are quickly becoming a favorite, too.
The Food and Wine Festival was all I had imagined it would be. And then add a PassPorter Meet and it was truly awesome.
We all three have our favorites from 100 Acre Woods: Cam -- Pooh, Stefanie -- Eeyore (and Pooh), and Luke Tigger.
I finally got to sit down for a entire performance by Off Kilter. True Bliss! And then night fell on Epcot and look got two of the coolest nighttime shots.
We had fun meeting some new characters and some old favorites while at AK.
Chip and Dale at AK are so great! They really spend a lot of time with each kid and show each very special attention.
With our Tusker House lunch reservation we scored up close seats for Finding Nemo: The Musical. Great view!
On Monday while Luke was attending sessions back at Gaylord Palms, Stefanie and I spent time together at Magic Kingdom. We just missed rope drop by 10 minutes.
Wishes Dessert Party
And then Stefanie just being Stefanie. The picture with her tongue sticking out was after a long, hot day at Epcot for the F&WF. We got prime seats at the lagoon for Illuminations, but we'd had to stand for about 45 minutes to score them. I thought she'd be happy and turned to get a picture of my pumpkin pie when she gave me a view of her tongue.
The title for this page is Stefanie -- Enough said!
Our one big goal on our Mother-Daughter day was to get to Pixie Hollow early for a short line. And we did it!
We even got to meet Terrence who is brand new.
We got to Pixie Hollow and visited our fairy friends so quickly that we were able to exit and then head back to get in the line for the princesses.
Belle was my favorite this time as she was so responsive to Stefanie. I think I was teary-eyed for most of this visit.
We had the best time at MNSHHP. The first pages for this are of the Boo to You parade, which is incredible!
Pirates -- POTC and Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion (one of my favorite floats)
Finally, Goofy arrives, complete with loads of Trick-or-Treat goodies.
Sorry this has gotten so long. I'll add more in another post.
I love how bright and colorful your pages all are!! I especially love your Epcot night shots and your Finding Nemo show pics...the one on the left with Marlin is FABULOUS! Can't wait to see more!
I love how bright and colorful your pages all are!! I especially love your Epcot night shots and your Finding Nemo show pics...the one on the left with Marlin is FABULOUS! Can't wait to see more!
I was thinking as I worked that I seem to gravitate towards bright and colorful paper. It seems to inspire my creativity. Luke takes the best pictures and so my scrapbook pages are looking even better.
For Stefanie and me one of the highlights of the night was meeting some of the elusive characters that only come out at the holidays.
We finally met Snow White and all 7 Dwarfs! Score!
And then I got to meet my favorite loin-cloth clad Disney hero, Tarzan.
We caught the tail end of the dance party because Stefanie loves characters and she loves to dance.
In the middle picture on this page, Stefanie once again stuck her tongue out (this time at Luke who was the camera man).
We had the best time all evening chumming around with Matt and Bethany and Molly, Travis, and Joey (fellow PPers).
They were all dressed up as characters from Alice and Wonderland. And they were terrific looking.
I accidentally forgot these pages that came early in the book. I had thought for once I wouldn't do a Kilimanjaro Safari spread, but this is one of my favorite of all rides/attractions at WDW. I just couldn't help myself and I also got pictures of some critters that I don't normally see in June.
I really liked quite a few of our PhotoPass pictures, so I simply made a spread of them with a fall theme.
And then it was time to end the book with one of my favorite pictures of Stefanie.
Wow...Tarzan needs to lay off the spray tan...lol One day I need to hit the dance parties for MNSSHP and shake my groove thing with the characters...but I would need someone with me for photographic evidence.
I too said...I'm not going to take safari pics! And yet, I can't help myself! But when the giraffes are right next to you...it's like, how can I not?!
Another beautiful album!! If you did (or are going to do) a book for Stefani for this trip I can't wait to see that one as well!
Wow...Tarzan needs to lay off the spray tan...lol One day I need to hit the dance parties for MNSSHP and shake my groove thing with the characters...but I would need someone with me for photographic evidence.
I too said...I'm not going to take safari pics! And yet, I can't help myself! But when the giraffes are right next to you...it's like, how can I not?!
Another beautiful album!! If you did (or are going to do) a book for Stefani for this trip I can't wait to see that one as well!
I am doing a memory book for Stefanie, too. Don't know yet when I'll start but she won't let me wait too long now that the big book is done. I found the neatest Tinker Bell Memory Kit at Toys R Us that I got her for Christmas. She has now set it in the scrapbook room as reminder that I need to start it next.
You always have the best title pages Cam! I like the mix of letters on the Gaylord Palms page. And I love love love the diagonal pocket page - what a great idea! The Incredible photos are larger than life! But I love the Chip & Dale photos too!
Wow - your Nemo photos are incredible! I'm in love with the parade pages with Capt. Jack! The letters on the Character page are so cool - I love the variety, and the picture with Jessi & Stef are great!
The last page is just perfect - a perfect ending for a perfect trip! Thanks for sharing!
Cam - Just beautiful - you're an inspiration! I just did a shadow box of our F&WF trip and filled it with our "firsts" because we too had a lot of firsts this year. Maybe it's time to clear off the table and tackle a scrapbook....
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