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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well hello to all of my fellow PP'ers!! Welcome to my newest PTR! This is going to be a very exciting trip and oh so much fun! And, can you believe it won't be to WDW?!?!?! I know. I know. Take a deep breath...............
Still with me? Good I look forward to sharing all of my pre-trip planning with you all and welcome any and all suggestions you may have!! Now, you are probably wondering what this FABULOUS trip is all about and, most importantly, WHERE it is going to be. I don't want to leave ANYBODY in suspense so here we go!
This trip will be the first of it's kind for my little family. The three of us are going to be visiting New York City (3n), East Hampton, NY (3n), and Pennsylvania (3n). That's right...a 9N/10D vacation. That is our longest family trip to date! Now, before I get into more details, let me introduce you to my little trio.
Me (Shellie)-27 (28 at the time of the trip)- Lover of all things Disney. I love to plan and plan some more. And when I'm done planning....I plan something else I am from Lancaster, PA (yes, as in where the Amish live) and have not been back to PA since 2003 when we had to say goodbye to my Grandmother, Meme. It wasn't the best trip back for obvious reasons so I am looking forward to a good reason to be back home. Even though I lived so close to NY, I have NEVER been. So NYC and East Hampton will be all new to me
DH (Mike)-28- He is my high school sweetheart. My one and only We have been together since the beginning of time (actually, since Freshman year of HS). He is my hard working best friend. He was born in East Hampton, NY. He has not been back to NY since 1999. He has family in EH (Aunt, Uncle, cousins, Grandmother) so that is who we will be visiting. Mike plans to show us around where he grew up and create some memories there with his own son.
DS (Aiden)-5 (6 at the time of the trip)-- Believe it or not, Aiden has NEVER left the State of Florida. So this trip will be filled with Firsts for him. First plane ride, first time out of state, first time meeting my family, ect... He is very excited and we can't wait to show him around and off
The reason for this trip is pretty simple: We want to introduce Aiden to where we are from and to visit family.
I have a pretty solid itinerary set up already so my next post will be that....so stay tuned!!!!
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Nice start to your PTR and look forward to more details! Hopefully, it won't be too cold in the northeast during your stays!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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So, I bet you can guess what this post is going to be about.....PLANS! The meat of the vacation. I suppose the best place to start would be the night before.
February 28th- Mike will go to work early that day and Aiden will go to school. He will already be missing a whole week of school due to this trip so I don't want to him to miss any more than he already will. On this day, I will make sure the house is clean, sheets are cleaned, fridge is cleaned out (unless Stevie and Angie stay to watch the animals), set up any bill paying that needs to be done while we are gone, go to my nail appointment and then be home in time to get Aiden from the bus stop. I will take him to taekwondo because it will be his sparring class and then we will go get dinner out with Mike Less dishes for me to have to clean. We'll go home and get our bags because this night we will be staying at the hotel IN the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:00am and we didn't want anyone to have to get up at 3am on our account. We will take our car home OR park it at my FiL's or MiL's house since one of them will be taking us to the airport. YAY for not having to pay to park! We will check in and then go to bed.
March 1st- Our flight on JetBlue leaves at 6:00am so we have to be downstairs and to the terminal by 5 since it is a Saturday. And depending on where the terminal is in location to the hotel, we may have to take the "monorail" over. We will fly into JFK and we have a towncar set up to pick us up from the airport. This is the NYC leg of our trip. We will be staying in Times Square at the DoubleTree by Hilton. So, we will check in and then take a taxi (one of MANY for this portion of the trip) to the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island isn't expected to be open yet but if it is, we will visit there too. We thought of going up the statue and into the crown but we thought that might be too much walking up stairs for Aiden. So we will stay in her pedestal and Aiden will take part in a Forest Ranger activity to get this merit badge from the island. After our visit with the Lady, we will be taking Aiden to one of his first surprises on the trip. There is a HUGE three story Toys R Us in TS right down the block from our hotel. Inside is a ferris wheel and a child's fantasy world. We will take him on the Ferris Wheel, and he will be given gift cards from family to get something special in the store. After that, we will be heading to the Disney Store in TS (didn't think I would miss out on a Disney opportunity while in NYC, did ya? ) and then finally head back to the hotel. We plan to stop for some real authentic NY pizza for dinner.
March 2nd- Today, we will head to the 9/11 Memorial. I've wanted to see it and I think it's important to go and show respect. From there, we will head to Yankee Stadium for a tour. After that, we will go to Grand Central Station to show Aiden (he has seen in in movies and really wants to see it). From there, we will be heading to Rockefeller Center to see the Lego store, and the 30 Rock building, ect... After that, we will head back to the hotel.
March 3rd- Today we will be heading to Central Park to go to the Central Park Zoo. We will wander around some of the park and then head down to 5th Avenue. Here, my WONDERFUL husband is taking me to Tiffany's to get me a necklace that I saw that I wanted. I know I could get it here, but it seems more special to get it from the flagship store in NY. Mike wants to do some shopping here and then, when it gets dark, we will head to the Empire State Building to go to the observation deck to look out and see the city all lit up. From there, we will head back to the hotel and pack up because the next day, we head to East Hampton.
Your NYC plans sound great. That toy store is amazing and Aiden will probably be so stunned by it all he'll have a hard time choosing something! It definitely will make your necklace all the more special buying it together on Fifth Avenue! Nothing like leaving Tiffany's with a little blue box!
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