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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It makes me happy that you are still able to write the GOOD part of your TR with such great spirit, and I can tell you really enjoyed it until all of the chaos. How fun that you had your own chauffer to the hotel!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
Too Funny! I'm reading the Vault of Walt right now! Sounds like your trip out was mostly uneventful! I do have to say that your airport food looks much better than my airport food!
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.
Really enjoying reading your trip report, I hope you are feeling better to
Fingers crossed, I think I'm getting there... I've had my 24 hours on fluids and it's been 18 hours since I ate something solid now and so far, so good. I'll be a lot happier once I get to this afternoon, as then I think I'll finally be out of the woods... !
It makes me happy that you are still able to write the GOOD part of your TR with such great spirit, and I can tell you really enjoyed it until all of the chaos. How fun that you had your own chauffer to the hotel!
Fortunately, we had lots of free time during the trip, so I wrote the whole of this trip report while we were in Egypt, which is good, as it's not been affected at all by our journey home. I'm now very glad that I did that.
Too Funny! I'm reading the Vault of Walt right now! Sounds like your trip out was mostly uneventful! I do have to say that your airport food looks much better than my airport food!
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.
Saturday 22 January – part three: wow, this is some welcome!
We piled in and Hamed explained to us about lots of things, including the currency, not drinking the tap water, how the tipping worked, the development of Cairo and the various areas we were passing through, along with details about our hotel. His English was very impressive and he told us lots of useful things.
The journey was quite something! At first, it took us forever to get out of the airport complex, although a lot of it is still yet to be built, but I’m sure that will come in time.
They’re building new roads as well
Then we started to head into the edges of Cairo, with Hamed telling us that this was the expensive area. From the billboards we saw, advertising the various developments that will be coming soon, we could tell that.
We also saw a spectacular sunset with a beautiful, brilliant red sun setting all too quickly.
It was fascinating to get glimpses of Egyptian life as we drove along. Every so often, you’d see people waiting at the side – or indeed the middle! - of the road, and occasionally, people would run from one side of the carriageway to the other. That may not sound too bad, but there was about space for five lanes of vehicles. The Egyptians though seem to have their own way of carving out lanes and in fact, our driver did that from time to time as well. Having said that, he was a great driver, considering the mayhem he was having to deal with. You really have to have eyes everywhere here, as vehicles were just coming from all angles!
At one point, we saw a Carrefour, the famous French supermarket name, and it was huge! Hamed said it’s open from 10am until about midnight and is the biggest in Cairo. Not something I was expecting to see out here.
In other areas, we saw homes that weren’t completed. Hamed explained that it’s a tax dodge and it’s also something to do with the fact that families will live in the bottom levels, then as the next generation become old enough to move into the housing market, then they will move into the levels above. It’s a clever idea.
Soon, we were crossing the River Suez and getting a tantalising glimpse of the centre of Cairo.
advertising is often of Western products and often in English!
From there, we started to lose the light and it became harder to photograph anything. We were then into Giza and, even from a distance, we started to see the familiar sight of the pyramids, but this time, it wasn’t in a photograph or a film, we were seeing them for ourselves. I knew that the pyramids were literally on the outskirts of Cairo, but it was still odd to see them appear and then disappear again all too quickly behind various buildings. Finally, as we neared the hotel, we finally got some good views of them:
I was surprised to see the billbards were in english, interesting! The sites on the way to the hotel were amazing...you don't think you'd see the pyramids in a city landscape , but how cool!
Very fortunate that you had time to write this as you went along. Knowing the end at the beginning would have probably come into the write-up. It's strange reading it, though, kind of like the beginning of a suspense movie where everyone's going about their business happily, but you know bad things are coming!
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Mel sounds like an interesting guy! How 
to have the coach all to yourselves! 
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
- of the road, and occasionally, people would run from one side of the carriageway to the other. That may not sound too bad, but there was about space for five lanes of vehicles. The Egyptians though seem to have their own way of carving out lanes and in fact, our driver did that from time to time as well. Having said that, he was a great driver, considering the mayhem he was having to deal with. You really have to have eyes everywhere here, as vehicles were just coming from all angles! 
, but how cool!
Deb
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