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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Here is my first attempt at a trip report I hope everyone enjoys J
I realized that I could start my PTR when I pre ordered my photo pass CD.
I typed it in word as I went so that I could have a decent PTR and if something happened while I was typing online I wouldn’t cry that it got deleted.
The beginning:
Thought it was not going to happen, but I am finally going and not by myself J (which I was going to do if no one joined me.) This was the year to go and nothing was going to stop me. I figure I would start my first ever trip report, because I will be leaving in 9 days that is right it is time for the single digit dance.
We are going May 5-14 2010, that is right a full 10 days of visiting the mouse. We are flying from CT because that is the quickest way to get there.
We are staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort with a king bed. (We hope we get that because we did pay for it ahead of time)
Our plans for this trip is to have fun, relax (though we don’t expect to do too much of that) and to be big kids again (I will let you know if I let out my inner kid)
Our cast of Characters:
My name is Christine I love Eeyore, am 30, and this is my 5th trip to WDW, and the leader of this adventure. I love amusement parks of all kinds. I love thrill rides and water parks. Though many attractions I may be doing solo.
DBF: His name is Bill aged 31 and embarking on his first trip to WDW. He did go to Disney land a long time ago but he doesn’t really remember much about it. He loves the Pixar movies and has the ones that have come out on Blu Ray. He is not a huge fan of the thrill rides but is going to try to brave at least some of them with me. Though he only plans on doing the lazy river at the water parks.
We will see what he actually does and doesn’t do but I am ready to do it all……
One of my favorite questions from Bill about character dining do they really come over to your table while you eat? My response was yup and that is what will be happening that getting your picture taken at the character meals was all part to dining experience… I will tell you he looked a little uncomfortable at getting his picture taken with the characters while he eats breakfast but I told him what is expected of him on this adventure.
Picture of Bill and I at a wedding figured it is nice to have faces with names because the photos won't start till I come back.
This is how it came to be it all started a couple of years ago when my BFF and I talked about going to WDW but was disappointed when she decided to go to Universal with another friend of hers instead. I have been looking forward to my next adventure at WDW since I went in 1997. That was 13 years ago and I have been disappointed each yearL how can no one want to go with me to one of the most magical places in the world. Where you can be a kid again and can leave some of your worries and responsibilities behind. I thought I was going to have to give up my dream or go solo (which I still want to do it is nice to do just want I want to do and not cater to anyone elseJ).
I am not afraid to travel by myself but in some ways, it is more enjoyable to have someone to share the magic. Well I met Bill and he has never gone on vacation anywhere not even to WDW so I started small and got him to agree to go to an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana…. Well that was easy I shopped around in April got a great deal to go away for a week in October and he was hooked. Well I decided that was easy why not ask if he would be interested in going to WDW I assumed he was going to say no, so I gathered up my courage and ask if he was interested in going to WDW, and guess what he said yes. J
I cannot lie I did a little happy dance and I am not going to lie it was even a little scary. Now this is in May 2009 and we are going in May of 2010 but this one trip 12 months away is all I can think, plan, dream and talk about (I am just a tad obsessed). We haven’t even left on our first trip (to Punta Cana) and I am already planning our next one. I am making him look at everything we get to do. Though he says I talked about the food so much he thought maybe that was why I had wanted to go but that was the biggest part of planning ahead of time was making our dining reservations.
We decided on where to stay with a lot of mind changing but the winner was CBR that was a hard decision we were debating between that and Coronado because we were debating if we wanted to use the fitness center. (We may regret this decision after eating our way around the world on the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan. I am packing sweats to go home in incase my pants don’t fit which is a good possibility.) We went with a 10 day Park hopper with Water Park, because I love going on water slides and Bill would enjoy his time in the lazy river. So we have our tickets and room booked I say what else can there be…..
Up next eating around the world and Dining the Disney way…..
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I haven’t been to Disney in 13 years so I assumed I was done I would pick up a tour book and we would make our plans that way, but no as I started to do my research I realized there were a ton of restaurants that we needed to make reservations. We never did that as a child so I was completely taken by surprise when I started searching that you need to make dining reservations. I was wondering what kind of restaurants does WDW have.
Now when I was a kid we did a lot of the character buffets and I didn’t even know that they had a steakhouse, Asian cuisine, or a multitude of other restaurants that I didn’t know existed because we were always on the go when I was a child (What kid really wants to eat a nice meal instead of riding the rides) to see as much as we can so I had no idea they even existed.
So out came my computer to look over menus and dining reviews to figure out the best way to use our 3 meal credits a day (I know it is too much food but to the DBF he eats every 4/5 hours) However, my decision was reinforced after thanksgiving dinner when 4 hours later he ate a full meal again, because he was hungry. Where he puts it I don’t know. I think this will save us a lot in the long run and I will be keeping track so that we know if it is a good thing to do again or we wasted our money. The only nice thing is I know that everything is paid for in advance almost like an all inclusive vacation and I don't have to worry about how much my meal costs.
He left all the food planning to me I showed him some menus so that he could tell me what interested him the most but told me I can eat where I want. Ok that sounds great right… NOT and here is why. It would have been fine if we were going for a normal amount of time not 10 days; so that means that I had to make reservations for approximately 25 meals.
Planning for the deluxe dining plan is scary because the ADR window was moved to 180 days so that meant I had to pick my restaurants at the beginning of November. That is a lot of meals to plan really early when it is six months away and who knows what we are going to want to eat. The only good thing is I think we are trying every restaurant I want to eat in for my first trip back in 13 years, and booking at the180 days is great because you do get your first choice of places and times because not everyone knows they are going to WDW 6 months out except for us obsessive planners…..
I did warn Bill that my camera was coming out at the meals for hopefully some awesome food photos that I can share with everyone. I did do a test run when we were on vacation I made him let me take a photo of his meal. He thought I was crazy until he saw a couple other women whip out there cameras as well.
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