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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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This will hardly be much of a trip report, but hey, why not?
EPCOT is swinging and I'm...swaying. Kind of. I don't know how long my battery will last, but I'll try to provide updates. Just waiting on the 11:00 British Invasion show and seeking out my next Beverage. Cheers.
BGK +8
Last edited by BaconGreaseKid; 12-31-2009 at 10:40 PM..
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My battery did run dead about ten minutes to midnight, and I figured I could wait until I got home to type on a full-sized keyboard.
I've been talking about going to EPCOT for New Year's Eve since I moved to Florida in 1985, and now I'm really sorry I waited so long.
Illuminations was a one-off show for midnight. The regular show started at 11:40 and ran until about 11:52. Then the (upbeat) announcer said how most of the world had already celebrated the new year, and told the EST times that most of the World Showcase countries had local midnight. As they announced each one, the pavilion lights came on, there were fireworks behind the buildings, and a musical piece "native" to each country played, like Grieg's "Peer Gynt" for Norway. Each display lasted about a minute and was mostly starburst shells. Definitely different to see shells exploding behind each country. The display skipped Canada and Mexico. By then, it was less than a minute until midnight, and there was a 10 second countdown on the Reflections of Earth globe. At midnight, the biggest single barrage of shells I've ever seen went off from all the barges at once. The sky was whiteout bright and the sound was literally staggering. The crowd went nuts cheering and everyone was pretty well blown away.
I guess there were far more people in the Italy-America-Japan area than I thought because I was pretty much stuck on the bridge for 15 minutes. It wasn't bad because everyone was in a really festive mood, and there was no pushing or rushing at all. There were about a dozen boats moored under and around the bridge, so I passed the time toasting and yelling to them. The crowd thinned out enough that I could join the second rush deeper into the park, and I ended up taking one lap around World Showcase. There was a high-energy Latin dance band and dance floor in the America Gardens Theater. There was a techno-Euro DJ and dance floor in Italy, and the shooting flames from China were from a world-music dance floor there. All around the lagoon the sound system was playing a kind-of-sort-of electronica loop which had different instrumental accents for each country.
I left about 12:45 through the International Gatway and walked back to the Yacht Club by way of the Boardwalk. Lots of people were still lining the path and still enjoying the last of the good weather. There was a DJ stand set up at the Boardwalk in the courtyard at the base of the stairs from the lobby and about a thousand people...well, calling it dancing would be charitable. But hey, why not?
EPCOT was definitely awash in Beverages, and people without one in hand were in the minority. Quite a few people were half-in-the-bag (including yrs. trly.), but I can't say I saw anyone rude or disruptive. Definitely the best party crowd I've been in in ages.
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