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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great update and loved how you tricked Maddie with the Cars Mug.. I do stuff like that to the kids when they were little.
Love how none of you seem to notice that Zack is doind all these poses. I find them quite funny.. just from knowing Zack through these trip reports. He has to have gotten his humor from karen as I always loved reading her trip reports and her account of things that happen. Can't wait for more
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Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
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We said to DCA for the time being and hopped over to DL for the rest of the afternoon. Our first stop was at Indiana Jones for FP’s. The height restriction of 46” was a new one for Maddie, so we measured her first and she passed with flying colors. She had no idea what we were going to ride, but she was happy that she could ride it!
The girls wanted to check out Tarzan’s tree house, so Thom, Zack and I accompanied them on a quick walk through.
Zack pointed out that Mrs. Potts and Chip seemed to have gotten lost in Tarzan's kitchen.
There was a PP photographer near the end who took some of my favorite photos of the girls.
From there, we rode HM and then PotC which was so much better than its DW counterpart. When you enjoy a ride already (like DW’s PotC), it’s hard to imagine how it could be better, but riding the original will quickly show you how it could. Not that I won’t continue to enjoy the DW version!
Posing by the Dream Suite hoping that someone would let them in!
Believe it or not, we had done every bit of this before lunch and it was finally time for our lunch ADR at Blue Bayou! Once we were checked in, Karen ran for Splash Mountain FP’s. When she returned, she was standing beside me reading FB updates on her phone. She suddenly looked at me and said “You saw Mary Louise Parker?” I absolutely died laughing - - and she did too - - when I told her “Yes and you were standing right beside me!” She probably missed the entire thing because she was making sure that we were still on schedule!
The setting of this restaurant is absolutely beautiful . . . even though we had a table by the bathroom instead of by the water (however, if you think about it, that’s kind of like water front table ). You felt as if you were dining outside by the light of the moon . . . in the bayou, of course.
The menu looked so good that I had a very hard time choosing. I kept going back and forth between the jambalaya, the Monte Cristo and the crab cakes, but when I saw that I could have gumbo as an appetizer that made my selection a bit easier. I decided on the gumbo and the crab cakes.
While we waited for our food, we filled Eileen in on what she had been missing. Of course, we included our excitement from that morning. Maddie was sitting there chin in hand taking it all in. We apparently were emphasizing too much that we had done the “right” thing because Maddie all of a sudden piped up in a very matter-of-fact tone “If I had that money I would have done the wrong thing.”
We.all.died.laughing. It was pure Maddie and I’m still not sure if she was entirely serious or not because she does love money.
When our food arrived, we were still laughing but we finally settled down to eat the delicious food. Everything was so good and I didn’t second guess my order . . . unless I looked at Zack’s Monte Cristo or Eileen’s jambalaya. It was not an inexpensive meal, but the quality made it worth it.
After our full lunch, we passed on dessert. Once everyone (including Sharon ) had a bathroom break, we headed outside where I would have the chance to meet a new Passporter friend.
Still cracking up over Maddie and the " I would have done the wrong thing" comment. So funny. You all did get a lot done that Morning. I do love DL version of POTC .. amazing ride there. Glad that EVEn Eileen is with you completing the group.
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Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
I accidentally posted on another TR what I meant to post here. Oops! So here it is. I love your TRs! I'm impressed with your ride mojo. Cool celebrity sighting too! Carsland looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!
Yay - I'm so totally squeeeeeeing with joy over seeing those pictures!! (Even the HIGH-larious ones on Screamin' and Cars. Oy...the faces I can make!)
And the "I woulda done the wrong thing!" still has the power to set off a crazy bout of the giggles. That little minx!
The jambalaya was delicious, and the chef brought out the yummiest freshly made GF rolls for me. *sigh* Lordy lou, but I was filled up to the brim after that meal. And thanks again to the Koenigs for picking up the check!
That really was a fun (and busy) morning! But I must make a minor correction. I didn't go to the bathroom at Blue Bayou. I ducked out early to meet Jeannie, who was waiting outside for us!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Indiana Jones is my favorite ride - love, love, love it - but don't ride it often because my back can't handle it these days. But POTC and lunch at Blue Bayou - now that's just classic!