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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 was skeptical about the Magic Your Way tickets just like everyone else. I didn't worry about it, though, because on our trip in July we were planning on getting the Standard APs. However, our budget was just lowered by $3000 (we just found out my brother needs orthscopic surgery on his shoulder in August and I'm starting college this year so we decided to save some money), we're there for a month so the food is costing a lot, and we're getting tickets to other places (Universal Season Passes, Kennedy Space Center, Titanic - The Exhibition, etc). The AP rate also just went up from $365 to $420 That's a huge increase for a 1-year difference. So last night my mom, dad and I decided to go online and try out the MYW passes. We were able to get the 10-day tickets with the no expiration option and the Magic Plus Pack for $1000 less than the APs! That's a lot of money to save, which can now go towards doing other things in Orlando! So we have 10 days in Disney (4 at the MK, 3 at Epcot, 2 at MGM and 1 at Animal Kingdom), plus a day at Typhoon Lagoon, a day at Blizzard Beach, a night at Pleasure Island and 2 days at DisneyQuest! We had wanted to try DisneyQuest since my dad and brother love video games and everything but they weren't included with any tickets, so I LOVE how it's now inlcuded! Our tickets would have only costed $900 but the no expiration added on $500. That's the only thing I don't like about these tickets. If you're buying them you should be able to use them whenever you want. It's ridiculous for them to expire Anyway, if any of you are still not so sure about these tickets, they really did save us a lot of money and seemed to be a great deal! I just thought I'd let you all know about our experience, especially for all the skeptics out there
Melissa I don't know how much it would save but if you guys are going to use your tickets all in one trip maybe you don't need to pay for the "no expiration" feature. Just a thought.
I have found the same Melissa- it really is going to be landmark in that for lots of people- they now do not have to pay for features that they really don't want or need.
There is alot you can do with $1000 extra bucks! Seems you have really done your homework with big results. Congrats and happy travels to you!
Thanks for all our comments! Nicole, we thought about that but we'll be in Orlando for a month and the tickets expire after 2 weeks, so we wouldn't want to squish in all our park time into 2 weeks!
From my calculations it looks like we will save around $700.00 with the MYW tix. However, I won't know anything offically until my TA gets back to me early next week. It will be nice to have that extra $700 to spend on top of what we already have saved. You can never have enough spending money at the house of mouse.