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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thank you for bearing with me! I finally have time to get back here with some more info!
Our Itinerary:
June 11 – Fly to Manaus, Brazil (Flight times aren’t too bad at all; nothing like our 17 hr flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg!) We fly from Jacksonville, FL to Miami (super short flight), then Miami to Manaus (only about 5 hrs).
June 11 – 15: Manaus
June 15 – Fly from Manaus to Natal
June 15 – 20: Natal
June 20: Fly from Natal to Recife
June 20 – 27: Recife (actually staying in Porto de Galinhas, about 35 km south of Recife)
June 27: Fly from Recife to Brasilia
June 27 – July 1: Brasilia (the capital of Brazil)
July 1: Fly back to Manaus
July 2: Fly home
For those who aren’t too aware of Brazil geography (I couldn’t have pointed out anything but Rio on a map before we started our trip here, so don’t feel bad!), here’s a little info on these cities.
Manaus is actually located in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest! How cool is that? It’s a big city, but it is pretty isolated. It’s in the northwest of Brazil, very close to the equator, so despite the fact that it will technically be winter when we are there, the average temps for June have highs in the high 80s, lows in the 70s. It is also very humid here. (Sounds pretty much like we will be right at home, coming from Savannah!) There is a really cool effect in Manaus where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Solimoes to form the Amazon River. The two rivers are very different in color due to the different types of sediment they carry. The Rio Negro (as you I’m sure can tell by its name) is very dark, almost black, and the Rio Solimoes is a very light tan color. When these rivers meet, there are several miles of river where the waters have yet to mix and are completely separate, with one color on one half of the river and the other color on the other half! I think this is really neat and we plan on taking a ferry that is offered onto the river to check it out.
Natal is a city on the Brazilian northwest coast. It has beautiful beaches, and I am definitely a beach person!! (I told Kyle how excited I was that we are finally going on a major trip that includes tropical beaches! Not like we don’t live 30 min from Tybee…but how exotic and cool does a “Brazilian beach” sound?) Natal was first visited by Portuguese explorers in 1501, and then a fort was established there in the late 1500s, so there are also some really cool historical sites we plan to visit. The weather should be slightly cooler than Manaus, being by the coast, but not by too much because we are still close to the equator. Low 80s for the high, low 70s for the lows. June is their rainy month, but I have been told by people who live there that it is usually a rainstorm in the afternoon each day and that’s it. Sounds like Disney in June, no?
Recife is also on the coast, and is actually quite a large city. It is about 300 km south of Natal. We are actually staying in Porto de Galinhas (which means Port of Chickens, which I find hilarious for some reason), because it was pretty close to impossible to find accommodations in Recife. It is just fine with me though, because Porto de Galinhas has gorgeous beaches. It has actually been voted “Bes tBrazilian Beach” for the last 8 years running. This is where Brazilians go for a beach vacation, the way people in the US go to Florida. It is renown for its beautiful pools that are formed by coral reefs that are very near the shore. Brazil has a big problem with sharks (I will NOT be going in the water in Natal), but this area has much fewer issues because it is protected by the large reefs.
And finally, Brasilia. Brasilia is located in what I guess you could call “east-central” Brazil. (The country is an odd shape, so it’s kind of hard to assess cities in the middle.) It is the country’s capital. Brasilia was a designed and planned city (just like my SavannahJ ) and looks absolutely stunning in pictures I have seen. I am not usually one for big cities, but I think I will enjoy Brasilia immensely.
So those are the cities we’ll be visiting! I know what you might be thinking… “Wait! You mean you aren’t going to Rio?? But it’s BRAZIL!” Rio actually was originally in the plan between Recife and Brasilia. However, when the draw for the World Cup happened (when they decide which teams will play where and on what days), we realized that if we stayed in Natal instead of going to Rio for a few days, we could see a second US game. The USMNT won that decision, as they pretty much always will for us when it comes down to it. Sorry, Rio.
Speaking of the matches we will be seeing in the World Cup, here they are (we had our tickets prior to the draw, and added the second US game afterwards. We like to plan our trip around where we would like to go, then work the games in):
6/14: England vs Italy (in Manaus)
- this is funny to me for two reasons. 1. England was also the first team we saw play when we went to South Africa for the 2010 WC. 2. England is my least favorite team in the world (sorry, Cheryl!!!), and from my experience their players tend to play really poorly when I am in attendance (be it for a national team game or a Premier League game). I am ok with this.
6/16: US vs. Ghana (in Natal)
- this is the US’ first game in the group stages for WC 2014. Our last WC game in 2010 was also against Ghana. I was also at that game. I am SO ready for revenge, I cannot even begin to tell you. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS GAME!!!
6/19: Japan vs. Greece ( in Natal)
- this is going to be a fun one. We saw two Japan games in WC 2010, and they have exceptional fans. We really had a blast with them. In fact, the only non-US shirt that will be coming on our trip is a Japan shirt that Kyle got for this game. (I am just happy that it’s still a red, white, and blue shirt. ;-) )
6/24: Croatia vs Mexico (in Recife)
- Two things about this game: I am a HUGE Real Madrid fan, and one of their most outstanding players this year (Luka Modric) is on Croatia’s team. Also, I hate Mexico’s team almost as much (like within a hair’s breadth) as I hate England’s team. I think you know who I will be rooting for here.
6/26: US vs. Germany (in Recife)
- I am very excited about this game. It will be the US’ final group stage game and likely extremely tense. We beat Germany in a friendly last summer…I’m just gonna leave that out there for the haters. I will also say that I was at the US’ final group stage game in South Africa when we HAD to win and did. That was the 91st minute game. I am not entirely sure my heart/brain/stomach can handle another one of those.
6/30: 1E vs 2F (Round of 16 game) in Brasilia
- Don’t know who will be in this game yet, but WC games, especially in the knockout stages, are ALWAYS exciting.
Ok, I was going to add a few more things about our preparations, but this has gotten ridiculously long for one post, so I think I’m going to stop here for now. I hope you all haven’t run away! I should be able to post more this weekend. Please stay tuned!
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
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