Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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01-14-2009, 02:19 PM
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#11
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Community Rank: Sightseer
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Lancashire, UK
Concierge Level: 4
Posts: 66
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16 Days, 12 Hours and 53 minutes to go........
Well, I didn't want to post anything more on here until I'd something significant to say really.
So, here's our update so far.
First of all, just before Christmas I'd sent off an application to a UK Charity called "Dream Come True". We're not the sort of people that are constantly on the look out for handouts and so I wrote to them explaining that we'd already booked and paid for the holiday but was there anything they could do to make the holiday a bit more special for Tom & Charlie.
Anyway, we heard back from them asking us to write in with a list of other things they'd like to do and some costs. So, we did just that. We hadn't yet booked our tickets for Sea World, Universal etc as yet so we listed those. That was another £500 on top of what we had already spent and we were actually wondering whether to give those parks a miss and spend the money on other things........
But, joy of joys, we got a phone call from a lovely lady called Wendy at Dreams Come True saying our application had been sucessful and that a cheque for £1800 was on its way to us to treat the boys to EVERYTHING we had put on our list! Now that was some Christmas present!
So, we upgraded our holiday to include the Orlando Flexiticket for us all and this morning, we had an envelope int he post from Virgin...... I was really excited but actually inside were just a few paper vouchers to exchange for our holiday hotel accommodation, park tickets and so on. I was expecting there'd be more so I was a little disappointed.
For the last 10 years, we've been on holiday to France in the Summer with a Company called Eurocamp, we would stay either in tents or more latterly in holiday mobile homes and we absolutely love those holidays. We have one booked for later this year and the total price for all of the family of 4 including caravan hire, channel tunnel crossing and much more comes to under £1000 for 2 weeks.
Every time the Eurocamp holiday pack arrives, it is a major source of excitement for the whole family as it is a big pack and includes suprise free gifts, nothing major but nice stuff that you'd use on holiday such as a beach bag, travel rug, a suitable gifty for each of the children and so on. I suppose I was expecting similar from Virgin but not so. Plane tickets still to arrive yet so maybe there's more to come......
I've been playing on iTunes and found some podcasts on WDW in there so I've been catching up on what's changed in the last few years around the place and I must say, we're all getting more excited by the day.
I'll post again when I've more to report but I guess that'll be just before we depart. I also hope to do some updating whilst on holiday but it all depends upon internet access & costs I suppose.
Thanks for reading :-)
Pete
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