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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We felt DTD was crowded and difficult to navigate at times on our last couple trips but it's going to be worth it once all the construction is done Great that you got to meet Judy and Mike but it's sounded a bit stressful since Claire and Skip weren't all that talkative. It's always fun to finally meet PP friends in person. Loved the vacation mickey t-shirt that you almost bought!!! Looking forward to hearing about your last day.
I have the same t-shirt. I really like it! I don't think I've mentioned yet that I LOVE the matching Disneyland zip-up sweatshirts that you and Claire have! I hope I can find something just as cute when I go to Disneyland this summer. Hopefully they will have some good merchandise for the 60th anniversary.
Your room at OKW looks really nice. Too bad the resort is so big and you're so far from the main building
I love the shirt too. I bought several different shirts that trip and I really liked them all so much.
My friend Cass, who I went to DL with for the conference just got back again from another week with her family and she bought her daughter a really cute one. It's white, but super cute and the zipper pull was even cute.
I think if I had stayed there longer i would've gotten into the swing of things there and how it worked easier. But it was such a short stay there and I was rushed a lot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
I just returned from OKW myself and am with you on your thoughts about it...
Glad you were able to enjoy some time with friends and a great meal at Trex! Sorry about the sweatshirt going MIA though!
It's big thats for sure. I would like to give it another chance, but probably not for awhile.
Dinner was fun!
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Originally Posted by Cam22
I do love the size of the rooms at OKW, but I do agree that it sprawls, making getting anywhere from many of buildings quite the ordeal. Dinner sounded very fun!
It is so huge. Like a little village.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
The dinner meeting was GREAT. Getting to meet you and the family was very enjoyable. It was like we had known each other for a long time. (OK, that would apply to you and me.) I didn't mean to leave Skip out even though I am sue that it seemed that way. Judy has gotten used to my getting sidetracked and talking about Disney so she does not get too upset with me. (At least she says she is not upset.) T-Rex is one of our favorite restaurants even though it is very noisy. Judy and I did not have an ADR for that evening. We are members of the Landry's Club which gives us first available seating. That is what I used to bypass the long line. You would have thought that with both of us carrying DSLR cameras we would have gotten at least one pic with all of us. Glad you caught Judy as the T-Rex. She is a good sport and is always trying on various hats. It would be fun to catch up with you on another trip.
Ahhhh! I thought you had a reservation too. LOL.
It was a nice dinner. Claire is always quiet with strangers and even with some family. Skip can be either way...talk your head off or quiet. Not sure if one is better than the other. I do think he enjoyed talking to Judy though.
I can't believe we didn't do a picture. I know it went through my mind once and then I guess I forgot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
We felt DTD was crowded and difficult to navigate at times on our last couple trips but it's going to be worth it once all the construction is done Great that you got to meet Judy and Mike but it's sounded a bit stressful since Claire and Skip weren't all that talkative. It's always fun to finally meet PP friends in person. Loved the vacation mickey t-shirt that you almost bought!!! Looking forward to hearing about your last day.
It will be neat to see it once it is all done.
Claire is always quiet, but Skip is sometimes like a woman and moody. LOL. Shhh I didn't say that. He was in a quiet mood that night, but later he got talkative.
The meet up was really nice.
Judy and I took our grand-daughter to OKW when she was about 6. That would be about 9 years ago. We were in a 1st floor studio on the back side of the resort. There was a pool at the end of our building and a bus stop across the street. Very convenient. We had a rental car but used the buses all of the time. I do not remember ever going to the main building and I know that we never took the boat ride. From your report and the pix, I see that we missed a lot. Oh well, perhaps in the future.
I always enjoy walking around the Disney resorts early in the morning when other guests are still getting ready in their rooms! The peace and quiet is so serene Beautiful pictures of OKW!
Judy and I took our grand-daughter to OKW when she was about 6. That would be about 9 years ago. We were in a 1st floor studio on the back side of the resort. There was a pool at the end of our building and a bus stop across the street. Very convenient. We had a rental car but used the buses all of the time. I do not remember ever going to the main building and I know that we never took the boat ride. From your report and the pix, I see that we missed a lot. Oh well, perhaps in the future.
I missed a lot too. It' really a huge resort
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Originally Posted by chezp
Beautiful shots from around Old Key West.
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by lindawdw
I always enjoy walking around the Disney resorts early in the morning when other guests are still getting ready in their rooms! The peace and quiet is so serene Beautiful pictures of OKW!
I do too. It's so peaceful
Quote:
Originally Posted by NanaTink
love your shots of OKW!!! Beautiful!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
I was surprised by the size of Goods to Go as well... we couldn't even find it at first
I debated on checking out the pool now or to wait till later when we brought Claire….I figured I would get some shots now while it was empty.
I thought this was a cool shot and it was taken on my phone.
Hello dolphin.
Hidden Mickey.
Boy oh boy…..this hot tub looks fabulous to me right now after the long winter.
I thought this area was really cute.
Let’s check out the laundry room.
I also checked out the restrooms since we would probably need to change in them later.
Looks like the will work just fine.
I was getting a bit hungry. I decided maybe I should get a bite to eat now. I didn’t need anything big, but just something to keep me going. I got some biscuits and gravy.
They were just ok. I probably wouldn’t get them again, but they did fill the hole. I only ate half and saved the other half for Skip.
I then went to the bus stop to wait for the internal bus.
I waited quite a long time before the internal bus came.
I headed back to the room and Skip was up. He tells me that Mousekeeping has already arrived trying to clean the room. Why do they come so early on check out day. We have till 11! He said, don’t worry, they won’t be back till we’re gone because I answered the door in my underwear! LOL
He then asks what we are going to do today…I guess he didn’t listen to me the 10 other times I told him….We are going to let Claire swim, just hang out, maybe shop or resort hop.
Well he didn’t want to. He wanted to do something different. Ok, that’s fine. He said maybe he would do the Richard Petty ride along experience again. He did it a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Sure, that would be great. Claire and I could just do our own thing and he could come back later, or meet up with us somewhere.
So I quickly get online to look that up for him…..and he says so you are going to swim and shop…yep, sounds good to me. He still thinks that sounds boring, but I tell him I am fine with it.
He says maybe we should go to a park. I tell him that it would be really pricey to buy us all 1 day tickets for a few hours. Ok, let’s go to Universal. Again, it’s going to be pricey to do that for just a few hours. He told me to compare the price of the ride along verses the Universal tickets and I gave him a rough estimate. He said if I shopped I would probably spend more than that, so let’s go to Universal. LOL!
Oh shoot! Had I known this earlier I would’ve rearranged the bags and packed everything up and took a shower. I just puttered around for the last few hours and now I had to rush. I quickly showered, got Claire up and ready and got the bags packed and weighed and we got the car loaded up. It was pure crazy. I was fine with going to Universal but it was so spur of the moment. Claire was a little iffy. She had wanted to swim and she was a little upset about it. She was pretty tired today too and it was the last day of the trip and tears seemed to come more frequently today. She had some favorite rides at Universal though and she was excited to ride the Simpsons once again.
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Great that you got to meet Judy and Mike but it's sounded a bit stressful since Claire and Skip weren't all that talkative. It's always fun to finally meet PP friends in person. Loved the vacation mickey t-shirt that you almost bought!!! Looking forward to hearing about your last day.
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I do think he enjoyed talking to Judy though.
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