On the road (2) - beaches, chateaux and castles COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Then it was into Discoveryland, where we were disappointed to still see Nautilus shut. I don’t know why they do this. It’s a nice walk through and yet it seems to be closed for much of the year, only opening at the busiest times. Instead, we took some photos around this area.
Mark even managed to sneak some photos of the foolhardy souls setting off on Space Mountain.
Then we headed off to see if Captain Eo was doing a soft opening. Well, it certainly appeared to be, with a heap of people waiting outside it, but when we walked up, the miserable Cast Member just kept telling us that it was closed until 10.00 tomorrow. Great, but by then I’ll be home, you stupid woman! I have no idea what those privileged few were doing there or if they were ever let in, as they were still standing there, as we left. I was, quite frankly, gutted. I knew that its official opening date was the day after we would be leaving here, but having heard that they would be having soft opening, I got my hopes up – all for nothing. Here’s hoping that it’s still showing in Walt Disney World when we’re there next April.
We wandered back down Main Street.
We stopped to have a look in the Emporium. I don’t know about you, but there used to be a time when you knew you could get just about anything in the Emporium, but no longer. Their selection wasn’t that great, although I did get a Remy toy, which I had been eyeing up for days now. Finally, I could hold out no more and grabbed one.
We headed out of the park, then made our way into the Studios.
We checked the information board first thing to check that we could actually fit some shows in, unlike yesterday and we were in luck, with Animagique at 11.00 and the Moteurs, Action stunt spectacular at 11.45, so it would be a rush, but we could fit them both in.
We headed towards Animagique and it opened up just a couple of minutes after we got there and we were all let in. This show is strictly no photos and videos, which is a shame, as I would love to share this with you, as it’s such a fun show. I always forget just quite how good this show is and every time it pleasantly surprises me. It’s very similar in a way to the storyline of Mickey’s Philharmagic, with Donald heading into the film vault that Mickey had locked up and then meeting pink elephants – anyone who knows which firm they’re from, please let us know, as we can’t remember – before going into the Jungle Book, then enjoying scenes from the Little Mermaid and the Lion King. After that, he heads back to meet up with Mickey for the finale. The difference here is that it’s not animated, it’s all done by puppetry and, despite the fact that I know these puppets are operated by people who are completely blacked out, I looked and looked for them and only found them on a couple of occasions. It’s all very cleverly done.
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I have no idea what those privileged few were doing there or if they were ever let in, as they were still standing there, as we left. I was, quite frankly, gutted. I knew that its official opening date was the day after we would be leaving here, but having heard that they would be having soft opening, I got my hopes up – all for nothing. 
Here’s hoping that it’s still showing in Walt Disney World when we’re there next April. 
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