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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
My husband just got the same phone..and is in love with his also..I will have to take a good long look at his and see what apps he had downloaded to his and get back with you on any good ones..I know there are a lot of free apps, like Pandora, a radio station. I will let you what I find out..
Just what exactly do you love about them? DH was saying he was interested, but I'm not sure. Sell me!
Imagine a phone that also is Internet, good camera, and calendar. That is just the basics. I have full Internet access 24/7 and my email is just a tap of a key away. I have full control over what is on each of the seven screens, and buttons are 99% where I want them, not eight screens deep. It is like the marriage of a phone, my gmail account with calendar and documents, a PDA, and a small camera for quick shots.
I am about to go to Disney and I can look up wait times on my phone on the way to the parks. Just need to get a park maps widget.
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Imagine a phone that also is Internet, good camera, and calendar. That is just the basics. I have full Internet access 24/7 and my email is just a tap of a key away. I have full control over what is on each of the seven screens, and buttons are 99% where I want them, not eight screens deep. It is like the marriage of a phone, my gmail account with calendar and documents, a PDA, and a small camera for quick shots.
I am about to go to Disney and I can look up wait times on my phone on the way to the parks. Just need to get a park maps widget.
Nice summary! You hit the nail on the head. We started looking at the phones when DH was considering a laptop (he really just needed a way to check emails on the go), and found this to be a better choice for us. And actually I've been really impressed with the camera. I think it's 10 MP, takes great pictures (as long as the light is bright enough) and I find myself reaching for it rather than my actual camera because with 1 touch I can upload photos to facebook! Very handy!
Imagine a phone that also is Internet, good camera, and calendar. That is just the basics. I have full Internet access 24/7 and my email is just a tap of a key away. I have full control over what is on each of the seven screens, and buttons are 99% where I want them, not eight screens deep. It is like the marriage of a phone, my gmail account with calendar and documents, a PDA, and a small camera for quick shots.
I am about to go to Disney and I can look up wait times on my phone on the way to the parks. Just need to get a park maps widget.
You see, I have all that on my Blackberry Curve (which I love) and can't justify getting new phones just because Verizon says we can. I will admit I kind of like the idea it is more like a laptop than my Curve, but I'm still very not sure. I also like the idea that the camera on the Droid is a full 10 mega pixels. That's what my camera is. My Curve is only something like 3 or 5. Not very good pix most of the time. Does the Droid have a flash? That's something my Curve does have. It's nice for indoor pix. I like receiving my e-mails right on my phone (most of the time. Lately though...). And from two diff. accounts as well.
I'm not a big apps user. I have a few on my Itouch and on my Curve, but for the most part, for me anyway, it's a phone first and foremost.
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My 19 year old hero! Hurry home! (A.K.A. D_Stitch)
Last edited by Dale_Loves_Mickey; 04-10-2010 at 11:25 PM..
You see, I have all that on my Blackberry Curve (which I love) and can't justify getting new phones just because Verizon says we can. I will admit I kind of like the idea it is more like a laptop than my Curve, but I'm still very not sure. I also like the idea that the camera on the Droid is a full 10 mega pixels. That's what my camera is. My Curve is only something like 3 or 5. Not very good pix most of the time. Does the Droid have a flash? That's something my Curve does have. It's nice for indoor pix. I like receiving my e-mails right on my phone (most of the time. Lately though...). And from two diff. accounts as well.
I'm not a big apps user. I have a few on my Itouch and on my Curve, but for the most part, for me anyway, it's a phone first and foremost.
I switched from a Curve, so let me give you my take on it. Preface: I got a curve in the first place b/c I needed internet on the road. I needed to be able to access my grad school coursework and process credit cards. I had also been told I could tether at no extra charge. Yeah, not so much. I was outside the return period when I discovered the salesman's "exaggerations". I decided to take a leap of faith that I was going to get my own Disney leader Blackberry some day and I could use the technical skills.
I found it to be a tremendous frustration. It takes FORever for internet pages to load and navigating can be difficult. Pages which are not optimized REALLY stink (i.e. my bank). If the track ball ring breaks and the ball falls out, it's $50 to replace the unit, IF you have insurance and are lucky and have someone who will take pity on you because you are travelling. The screen is only half the size of the face. I'm not ready for bifocals just yet. Let's not even discuss the Blackberry outages.
I was ready for my upgrade and was seriously considering downgrading to an email phone and saving some $$$. Then I started doing some research and wound up getting the Moto Droid. I just got it yesterday, so am still a major noob, but so far, I really like it. The screen is the full size of the face (awesome). It does everything my iTouch does except play iTunes videos and my reader apps. I'm OK with iTouch for those. 2 features I like better than the iPhone: removable/replaceable battery and a slide out real key qwerty keyboard. The camera does have a flash and there is an app that activates the flash as a flashlight (haven't gotten that one yet, but I will today as I needed it last night). I haven't tried the camera yet at length, but it feels more like a digital camera than a cell phone, so more control over the shots. Set up was a breeze; I have 4 email accounts coming in.
I guess I didn't have the battery fully charged before I headed to work last night, b/c it died overnight. This AM, I fully charged it and added a widget to help with battery and it lasted all night and is still at 70%, although I didn't do much playing with it as I was busy all night. I did read an article recently that said SmartPhone users have to rethink charging habits, so I carry the USB with me.
Still being relatively new to this area plus doing some road trips this year, the GPS/map/directions feature was important to me. I hate VZ Navigator and won't pay extra for it on the Blackberry.
I would strongly recommend anyone who gets a full-screen phone to get a screen protector and a snap-on case. For my Moto Droid, I got the ZAGG InvisbleShield and the Seidio Innocase (in purple, of course, a very Disney color! ) It's protected from the start and looks great.
One disappointing thing has been I haven't been able to figure out how to use my .WAV files that I have for ringtones. It's not the end of the world and I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, but it's been a small fly in the Droid ointment.
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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I decided to take a leap of faith that I was going to get my own Disney leader Blackberry some day and I could use the technical skills. 
) It's protected from the start and looks great.
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