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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 checked into the policy at my DD's school and they allow 5 days per school year off for family vacation while in the same sentence they say they strongly discourage it. I did consider taking her anyway but decided to put our trip off until fall of 09 since I already plan to homeschool next year after she does kindergarten this year.
WoW!! I talked to my DD principle last week and told her...mind you I didn't ask...that we were going to WDW in December, and her reply, "Well, while I can't condone taking her out of school...I know you'll all have a fantastic time! Turns out our new principle is a WDW fan, having gone their many times of family vacations herself.
She just told us to make sure we told her specific teacher as soon as possible. As I mentioned on an earlier post...our school is not very strict, our kids can miss 20 days before we have to even appear in the Superientendent's office.
WoW!! I talked to my DD principle last week and told her...mind you I didn't ask...that we were going to WDW in December, and her reply, "Well, while I can't condone taking her out of school...I know you'll all have a fantastic time! Turns out our new principle is a WDW fan, having gone their many times of family vacations herself.
This was my experience exactly. Our principal even said to do it now before they hit the upper grades.
I just wanted to throw my 2 cents into the ring here -from the perspective of the child being taken out of school.
My mother, Grandmother and 2 younger bros. used to vaca. at disney almost yrly.(couple times2x yr.) We were all pulled out of school for family vaca. and to my knowledge there was never a problem from the school/ teachers.
One thing you can never get out of school are the memories and "life lessons" you learn from your family, esp on vaca.
My grandmother passed away many yrs ago. As an adult now, I'm am so greatfull to have those memories and pictures of being away with my grandmother. I think all to often family time is highly under-rated. If a child has the opportunity to be away with the family and if the family can afford a magical, wonderful trip to WDW( or anywhere for that matter). Then there shouldn't be any fuss kicked up be the school board.
I realize that there are extenuating circumstances that could make it more difficlt to take a child with special needs or who struggles in school to go, but if any arrangement can be made to make this happen, I'm in favor.
Life is too short to not fit some fun in...Harvard is not going to decline you kids acceptence because back in grade 3 he/she missed a week or two to go on vacation.
Reading all of your posts made me realize just how quick our freedoms are being stripped from us. When laws are passed saying that one cannot take a family on vacation during the school year, something is seriously wrong. Little by little, we lose our rights either because a few abuse the rights, or certain groups would rather decide what is best for all. It scares the living daylights out of me to think what laws will be passed 20 years from now. You can only eat sugar on Wednesdays and no driving on Sunday's. Just think of the freedoms we had 20 years ago that no longer exist.
If I want to take my children, for whom I gave life to on vacation, you better bet your sweet bibbidi that I will and no school or laws or groups of people are going to tell me differently! I pay my taxes, I play by the rules, and I support the troops that are defending our American rights....but what "rights" are at stake now?!?! When do we draw the line and stand up for what should be ours, in this land we call USA; the land of the free and the home of the brave!?!
I agree! Kids need vacation as much as adults. They go to school 7 hours a day 5 days a week! I just told my daughters teacher yesturday we were going to Disney in September, and asked what I needed to do for her homework she misses. And she said she can slowly make it up, she needs to relax and have fun on her vacation. That is my kinda teacher!!
I tell you what, I home school my oldest, but if I lived in some of the areas where the school board was more like a dictatorship, I would pull them all out!
Reading all of your posts made me realize just how quick our freedoms are being stripped from us. When laws are passed saying that one cannot take a family on vacation during the school year, something is seriously wrong. Little by little, we lose our rights either because a few abuse the rights, or certain groups would rather decide what is best for all. It scares the living daylights out of me to think what laws will be passed 20 years from now. You can only eat sugar on Wednesdays and no driving on Sunday's. Just think of the freedoms we had 20 years ago that no longer exist.
If I want to take my children, for whom I gave life to on vacation, you better bet your sweet bibbidi that I will and no school or laws or groups of people are going to tell me differently! I pay my taxes, I play by the rules, and I support the troops that are defending our American rights....but what "rights" are at stake now?!?! When do we draw the line and stand up for what should be ours, in this land we call USA; the land of the free and the home of the brave!?!
Lovin' your attitude and approach to life! We are taking our DD out of K5 1 1/2 weeks after school starts. We'll be gone Monday thru the following Wed. OH well. I will tell her teacher in advance but that is life! We had to reschedule after my DH's back surgery and I'm sure DD will catch up!
I will be taking DS out next year for vacation. I did plan it for the week of Thanksgiving though so that he'll only miss 2 days. They always have a 3 day vacation for Thanksgiving. With him being in the 2nd grade I don't think he will miss too much work. I took him out of Kindergarten for 2 days last year to go on vacation to DW. I don't see anything wrong with it.
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I am taking DS out of school in December for 10 days. We will be vacationing a land/sea disney trip. The school is aware and has so far raised no objections. I did the same last year and DS was given a packet of homework to do while on vacation. His teacher made his homework all Disney related..ie- write a report about Epcot's World Showcase.
we will be taking our 4th grade and 1st grade daughters out for a week mid september (only 30 days-woohoo!). we've done it before, and never had a problem. this will be about 6 weeks into their school year, though. i figure that gives them time to make a good impression on the teachers, and show what good students they are, so the teachers don't balk at the thought of all the make-up work they'll have to do. it's never been a problem in the past, and of course it doesn't hurt to bring back a little souvenir for the teacher either. ;-)
but i will say on the flip side that although i have no problem with taking kids out of school for family vacations, i had a bad experience as a kid being taken out the first week. i did miss the entire week, it was 6th grade (first year of middle school and not being in the same classroom all day), and i was rather shy. so i recognize i was up against a lot, but i will say i had a very difficult time feeling like i had missed a lot socially more so than academically. i was a good student, and i had no problem making up the work, but i really hated feeling like everyone had already made their friends and had someone to sit with at lunch, etc.
it probably wouldn't be that big a deal for most kids, but i really hated missing those first days, and i personally wouldn't do it to my kids (even though i know they would handle it much better than i did). just my 2 cents.
ariel1 - you are echoing my plans (4th & 1st grade sons)except our trip is in December.
I mentioned it briefly to our 4th grade teacher at "Meet the Teacher" night on Monday and she was very casual about it saying she would get some things ready ahead of time for him. I plan to send a note to her, the 1st grade teacher and the office in a week or so just so they are aware, but I did CAREFULLY check the handbook yesterday evening (our 1st day of class) and there was no mention of a vacation absence in it.
I also plan to "teach" them about finances while we are gone. We are starting allowances soon and they can save their money to spend on pins at Disney, or other souvenirs, but knowing them it will be pins. Not to mention, as so many of you have, the memories we will make. Our first plane ride as a family, for one.
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Tami so excited I can't stop jumping up & down!! It's almost here! I was Jingled by shadowryter...Thank you!!!
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We are taking our DD out of K5 1 1/2 weeks after school starts. We'll be gone Monday thru the following Wed. OH well. I will tell her teacher in advance but that is life! We had to reschedule after my DH's back surgery and I'm sure DD will catch up!
Deb
so excited I can't stop jumping up & down!! It's almost here! 
I was Jingled by shadowryter...Thank you!!!
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