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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Did Mark get the genie to appear out of that lamp? And while we're on the subject of Mark, did his teasing of the characters get past the language barrier?
As they all seemed to speak fluent English and Japanese, don't worry, that wasn't a problem...
Please explain about the characters and that the Japanese line up to see them. At WDW, people line up for character meets (sometimes a stray person just steps up) and there's a handler there too. So I'm not seeing a character handler in your photos so is that the difference? Were there single file lines to see the characters or did they just take their turn better?
There is no handler, you're right and that's the main difference. Literally, the way it works is that people just surround the characters and then take it in turns to have their photo with them. It's amazingly civilised and people defer to others. You just cannot imagine that happening anywhere else in the world. :
It's amazingly civilised and people defer to others. You just cannot imagine that happening anywhere else in the world. :
I Japanese culture more with every update I read!
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Tinkerboo (or in the real world, Toyah) Reading Challenge 2015: 0/84
Follow my journey from sweaty panting mess to running goddess (I hope!) Out walking with The Boy...
I have really enjoyed reading this TR. I usually don't read a lot of them, but this trip looks amazing! Tokyo is definatley on a "wish list" for me... The parks and monorail are gorgeous!!!
I am just blown away by Tokyo DisneySea. WOW! It looks so amazing! I can't believe it is Disney. It doesn't look like anything else anywhere. I am now hoping we get stationed in Japan so we can easily visit a few times. I can't wait for your next installment.
Friday 10 April – part five: Disney’s world of mythical magic!
The show was billed as introducing us to the world of mythical creatures, including unicorns and dragons and that’s pretty much what it did but in some serious style. They really know how to put shows on here. There were jet skis and five floats, featuring dancers and the five main characters, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Donald and Pluto, with Mickey on the main stage in the centre of the lagoon.
Then you also had floats of the mythical creatures come out and the detail on all of them was breathtaking. We couldn’t understand much of the story, as it was all in Japanese, but despite that, it was wonderful and we had a great view of everything going on, which partly made up for the fact that we had frozen waiting for the show, especially Mark.
When the show was over, we headed down into Mediterranean Harbour to visit some of the shops to see what they had. The Cast Members were doing a brilliant job of directing traffic:
I still wanted a T-shirt with Tokyo Disney on it and that was proving hard to find. I knew Mark was interested in the hats. We went and had a look and decided what we wanted, but it was all dependent on us being able to fit it into the cases....
It was very cosy, but I wasn’t sure it was me, so I never got this..
We headed out to the front of the park and finally got a photo by the globe there:
It was back to the room next to complete the depressing job of packing. That took a long time, as there was a lot to fit into some very small spaces, but we got there in the end and now that was done, we could go back and get what we wanted.
While we were up there, we saw some of the park entertainment from our room:
We watched the sun set.....
... then we headed down to try and arrange some food. Mark had liked the look of Oceano before, where we had eaten breakfast for the last two days, so we went to enquire there, but there our dining luck ran out, as all she had was 8.00 and she told us that there was no way we could watch BraviSEAmo, Tokyo DisneySea’s night-time show, and then make that time. The only other time she had was 9.00 and that was too late for us, as we would have to be up early tomorrow to get the airport bus.
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Unicorns and dragons and jet skis, oh my! That show must have been amazing~~how was the music with it? Pity you didn't know the story to go with the floats, but still, it must have been amazing to see. Too bad Mark was so cold as the weather looked gorgeous for your last day.
Are you going to share what it was you purchased for a t-shirt (and Marks hat, too. He's modeled some real "corkers"!) or are you waiting until December to "unveil" it?
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And while we're on the subject of Mark, did his teasing of the characters get past the language barrier? 
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Japanese culture more with every update I read!
There were jet skis and five floats, featuring dancers and the five main characters, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Donald and Pluto, with Mickey on the main stage in the centre of the lagoon. 
Especially the Mickey and Minnie one. Were they for sale or just decorations on the walls?
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