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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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5-3-15 Question of the Day!
I am sure that you all have had wonderful, memorable experiences while on a Disney vacation!
What is one of your very favorite experiences while vacationing at a Disney resort/park?
This has been a fun week of Disney questions!
The QotD will be heading to WDW tomorrow morning bright and early! I will try to post a QotD from there! It might be posted very late at night for the next day!
We plan on being on the go from early in the morning to late at night! We are only there 4 nights/5 days! Have a great week!
Can I pick 2? One of my favorites will always be our first trip. DD's reaction the first time she met, and hugged, Mickey still makes me misty, 21 years later. The other one also involves my DD. As her graduation gift from college, she wanted a mother-daughter trip. Standing in MK watching Wishes, she wrapped her arms around me and said, "I'm so glad you're here with me!"
Ann, thank you for your dedication. While it's fun, we wouldn't be crushed if you decided to forgo QotD while you are on vacation.
We just got back yesterday and one of the coolest moments of our trip this time was when we went to AK. We rode Expedition Everest standby and got the front seat and then immediately got back on with our FP+ and got the back seat. Cool! DH videoed them both and you definitely hear me screaming more from the front seat! Oh and kicking DH's butt on Toy Story. Although he beat me on Buzz....I believe I had a faulty button.
My most favorite memory is riding Space Mountain for the first time with my brother in 1978. You couldn't get me on the thing now but then...it was fun.
Another memory was just something I saw and my friends and I still talk about it. We saw kids pushing a mom in a double stroller. She was all sprawled out. It just struck us as hilarious and it was a sight that I can not unsee.
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I have a few favorite experiences One is while celebrating my birthday and having all the CMs in the French Patisserie sing happy birthday to me. And the other happened on my last trip getting to see my niece meet Anna and Elsa. That was the highlight of the trip for everyone!
I have so many. One of the best was a trip we took for DD Samantha's 18th b-day, a day we had been told repeatedly we'd never get to celebrate. We took 17 people to WDW. It also happened to be Thanksgiving week, so people wouldn't have to miss too much work or school. During Thanksgiving dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern, we went around the table and answered "What are you thankful for?". A young man who had been friends with Samantha since she was 2 answered "Rainbows, and kitties, and puppy kisses, and sunflowers." Yes, he was joking, but he was also being very real.
One of the others was when I took DD Kathryn (for her 18th b-day), a friend of hers, and my niece on the Backstage Magic tour. It was horrid. The tour guide was awful and boring. We called our VIP tour guide to come rescue us. The bus was on the road behind AK when I saw Tom's van behind us. We yelled for the driver to stop the bus and he did. I quickly explained to the BMT guide we were leaving - and as we were fleeing the bus, LOTS of other tour goers BEGGED us to take them with us!! It was actually very funny.
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The first thing that came to mind was my son's first trip. He was 5 years old, and he wanted to meet his favorite character, Buzz Lightyear. These were the days before much technology, and we never seemed to be able to find him out at MK. Finally, on the 5th day of our 7 day trip, we were at MGM (still the name of it back then), outside the now-defunct Al's Toy Barn exterior. Buzz and Woody were there. That photo was the only one we bought that trip. I've often told people that it was about a million degrees that day. It was really about 95. That photo of my sweaty little five year old boy, in a moment where he was speechless, remains my favorite WDW photo.
My absolute favorite memory is when we first took Logan to WDW in 2012. We weren't even sure that he would like the princesses, but we stood in line for Snow White because it was short. She was the best and gave him a 'magic' kiss, which I had to continue to show to Logan for the rest of the day on my iPhone. Also, I was not allowed to wash his face the rest of the day.
My favorite memory is from 2009. It was my second trip & my mom joined me for four nights for her first trip. Her first day (she arrived at night) we went to Magic Kingdom & early in the day (I don't think we'd there more than maybe 90 minutes at the most) we came across Goofy doing a meet & greet near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Since there was only maybe 5 or 6 people in the line we went ahead & got in line to meet Goofy. It was our turn & my mom went first & Goofy starts dancing with her. Then after he's done dancing with her, it's my turn & at the very end I kissed his nose. He then started staggering around with his hands over his heart & ended up several yards away from me on his knees like he was going to propose. I managed to get what turned out to be a great photo of my mom & Goofy dancing. It's my favorite picture of all the pictures I've ever taken at both Disney World & Disneyland. In fact I uploaded it to Snapfish & had it turned in to a 16"x20" printed canvas. I know have that canvas hanging across the room from my desk so I see it any time I'm at my desk.
One of my favorite memories was when DH and I had taken our then 5 year old niece to WDW with us. On our first day we went to the Magic Kingdom. We were walking by the castle and we noticed the ugly stepsisters. As we all stopped to look at them, the 3 of them came over to our niece and started whispering and then immediately surrounded my niece. It turns out that our niece had put her dress on backwards and they quickly helped her turn it around so it was on the right way. The stepsisters told DH and I that we were horrible for letting our niece go out looking like that. She still laughs about that moment.
Have fun on your vacation! I have many favorite memories that I have written about on my trip reports but I am going to write about one that I haven't shared before. My son and I had one day at Disneyland when he was 7. We had never done anything Disney before that. It was late at night and we were on Peter Pan's Flight. As we were soaring over London he looked up at me with that innocent face and said, "Mommy, we're flying! We're really flying! It IS magic!" Right then and there I fell hook, line and sinker in love with Disney. And that is why it is my favorite ride.
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First, I just have to say that I loved reading all of these posts! And many of them made a bit misty-eyed! I love happy Disney stories!
I have so many wonderful memories of times with my family at WDW over the years. I guess that's the reason why I love the place so much! One of my favorites from when I was young, was at Epcot with my mom, dad and sister. My sister and I were young teens (me about 13, her 16) at the time. A handler was walking with Chip and Dale, they were on their way backstage from wherever they had been. They walked up to my sister and me and Chip "kissed" my hand and then put his arm around me. Dale hugged my sister, and then they both started walking away with us, leaving my mom and dad "chasing" after the 2 chipmunks kidnapping their daughters!! They were quite persistent and almost had us behind the door they were leaving through before finally letting us go! It was so funny and we all still reminisce about it all the time!!
But my favorite memory is definitely when my DD was 3 and met the princesses for the first time. I will never forget the look on her face! The pure joy and wonder of that day will stay with me forever.
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"Any wish is possible. All it takes is a little courage to set it free." -Jiminy Cricket
It has to be my 30th birthday, when my parents called the Grand Floridian as we were having dinner at 1900 Park Fare. At that time, Eeyore was there, but we hadn't seen him yet. He ended up bringing a cake out to our table and it was such a magical experience.
Mine would have to be when Katie was 2 and she met Pooh Bear for the first time. We have a pictures of him holding her Pooh Bear and my favorite of the two of them heads touching. Katie wants to recreate this picture when we go back....it will be 20 years later.
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