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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What little things have helped make your trips magical? Any interactions with a cm or other guest that made you smile a little more than usual? Anything you have done for another guest that was normal for you but brightened their day?
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I love this picture because my daughter's facial expression matches the Queen of Hearts exactly, and it was completely unintended!
I like to give stickers to kids waiting in line for the Magical Express! It drives my daughter crazy - she thinks people are going to think I'm a nut - but I don't care! It really makes me smile when I see them get excited with a Minnie Mickey or Goofy sticker while they wait that LAST LITTLE BIT before getting to Disney!
We've given pressed pennies before to kids staring at the machines as we do some pressing. Even though it was at Sea World, this year I gave a kiddo the 51 cents so he could press his own as the adult with him (I think it might have been his grandmother but don't want to assume) was having trouble finding change in her purse.
We were sitting on the Magical Express ready to leave for the airport when I realized that I forgot to pick up our photos that had been delivered to the gift shop at SSR. The driver wasn't on the bus yet and so I ran to the gift shop and told the first available cashier that I had packages to pick up and that I was supposed to be on the ME.
She hurried to the little stand and pulled out a binder to look up my name, all the while asking about the package details. She started to look through the book to find my info, changed her mind, slammed the book shut and RAN back to the room to get my photos!
A manager saw her run by with me following, asked me what was going on, and was happy when the cashier handed over the packages!
I'm sure ME wouldn't have left me, but it was so nice that the cashier realized I was in a hurry and just got the photos/packages quickly instead of following every procedure. Even better was that the manager was encouraging her!
We buy a balloon for each of my girls, or sometimes even a few more - and they enjoy them for about 10 minutes. Then, we walk around Main Street, USA or Fantasy Land and give them to other children.
It amazes me how much this means to my girls! Last month I told them we really didn't have time to do that, but Kathryn and Samantha headed out to MK and took care of it.
The kids are now 27, 18, and 13 - but we've been doing it since before the youngest was born, and the girls really get upset if we don't do it.
One of the things we always love is to find Guitar Dan in Camp Minnie/Mickey at AK. He's just a riot, and such a rare find!
During my trip in February I finally remembered to not only pack but then bring with me in the morning the two Tinkerbell pins a CM at DL gave me several years ago so that I could give them away. One morning I was talking to woman who was there with her dh & two adorable dd's. The woman I talked both in line while waiting for the bus & on the bus & somehow the fact that it was the girls first trip to DW was mentioned so I pulled out the pins, explained how I came to have the pins & asked if I could them to her girls. She said yes so I did. I got thank yous from both girls & mom & dad. It made my day & hopefully gave the girls an extra sprinkle of pixie dust. Hmmm. I think I might have to start getting a few pins to give away each trip.
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I love to offer to take pictures for people. I think it shocks people at first that I would offer, but most people are excited for the whole family to actually be in a picture. It brightens their day and mine!
I LOVE to give out glow sticks during the wait for the night time parades or fireworks. I buy canisters of 100 so I have plenty to spread the joy!
I do this as well. I usually get the bracelet ones, so my little gal has them on dark rides and then at night. If there's a child that looks like he or should could use a little sparkle, we share.
As for CMs, one outside the Crystal Palace saw Joc stopping to collect all the Mickey Confetti a few trips back and came over. She acted like she was just trying to show Joc the bubble gun she had, but every time Joc bent over to pick up a piece of confetti, the CM sprinkled more of it on the ground (and on her) while she wasn't looking. Joc had pockets full of the stuff by the end of that little visit!
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Disney World Trips So Far: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016a (2016b in planning)
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I love to offer to take pictures for people. I think it shocks people at first that I would offer, but most people are excited for the whole family to actually be in a picture. It brightens their day and mine!
This is so nice of you, someone did this for us on my last trip and it was so simple yet I was SO grateful. I'm going to have to start doing this to return the pixies!
We've given out FastPasses we weren't going to use. Sometimes people are suspicious, like there's some sort of catch! LOL!
I've given away FPs and have encountered this, too.
One of my favorite Disney moments was last summer in Epcot. We had early dinner ressies for Le Cellier but had gotten a walk up at the new Via Napoli for lunch (it had just opened the day before) so we weren't even close to hungry. I stopped by the check in kiosk at the top of the path and told the CM that we had ressies but would need to cancel them. He didn't know what to do as I'm guessing that it doesn't happen much . There was a woman sitting nearby on the bench. She heard me and was flabbergasted that I was giving up this ADR as she had been trying (unsuccessfully) to eat here for several trips. I offered to give her our ressie. She was so excited -almost giddy . We had to go into the restaurant to let them know to change the name on the ressie. This lady was so happy! It was a hot day and she even went and grabbed a glass and poured me some ice water while I was talking to the CM. She thanked me profusely, over and over again . It was nice to make someone's day like that.
my magical story: We got into pin trading in a bad way the last full day at the parks. On our way to MNSSHP, we were talking with a woman about the pins her two kids had. They had not done any pin trading because the Mom had paid full price and just couldn't let them go. I explained to her what I had just learned earlier that afternoon - buy the pins on clearance and trade those! We gave her a few of our clearance pins, then traded with her kids. We saw her the next morning before we left, and she had wiped out the gift store of some of their clearance pins She was so happy to have a way for her kids to trade without it costing her so much money! It was obvious that this had been a point of contention all vacation long between her and the two kids. Glad that we could help them out.
I LOVE to give out glow sticks during the wait for the night time parades or fireworks. I buy canisters of 100 so I have plenty to spread the joy!
That's awesome! We just got back from WDW 11 days ago and I had brought glow stix for our evening at the Sci-Fi Drive In. We had a couple left over so we gave them to the CM waitress. She was thrilled!
My daughter also left something different at her table... all the members of the kitchen crew took pictures of it. She's so creative! (see attached pic)
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The driver wasn't on the bus yet and so I ran to the gift shop and told the first available cashier that I had packages to pick up and that I was supposed to be on the ME.
. There was a woman sitting nearby on the bench. She heard me and was flabbergasted that I was giving up this ADR as she had been trying (unsuccessfully) to eat here for several trips. I offered to give her our ressie. She was so excited -almost giddy 
. We had to go into the restaurant to let them know to change the name on the ressie. This lady was so happy! It was a hot day and she even went and grabbed a glass and poured me some ice water while I was talking to the CM. She thanked me profusely, over and over again 
She was so happy to have a way for her kids to trade without it costing her so much money! It was obvious that this had been a point of contention all vacation long between her and the two kids. Glad that we could help them out.
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