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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Dates: Friday 30 January – Sunday 1 February Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (36) and DH Mark (43) Resort: Holiday Inn, Portsmouth Celebration: A fun weekend away
Pre-trip report:
For as many years as I can remember, Mark’s always wanted to visit Portsmouth and, sadly, for as many years as I can remember, we’ve never actually got around to visiting the city. Nothing against it, it’s just other plans always seem to crop up – many of them involving Disney and exotic stops around the world!
We did get as far as a couple of vacations at home, when we went to visit Cornwall twice in 2007, but that was the exception for us, rather than the norm. To be honest, our explorations of our own country sadly usually only take us as far as London, although in truth, there is a heck of a lot to see there and we could probably keep going many more times and still find things we haven’t seen. It’s a bit like Disney in that respect.
Anyway, that’s our sad history with Portsmouth. It got even sadder, when we did put a date in the diary to visit last year – I seem to recall it was going to be in June sometime and we’d have a nice weekend away there. Those plans were going great, until the car went in for her service and needed something like £300 worth of work just a couple of weeks before we were due to head down there. We hadn’t yet booked anything and, with a bill like that landing in our lands, I couldn’t justify any longer.
Fast forward to Christmas 2008. We’d first agreed to just buy each other stocking fillers, as we agreed that our trip to the Grand Canyon that we took as part of our tour around the States would be our Christmas present to each other. Well, let’s just say one of us stuck to that pledge, while the other forgot clean about it (stand up Mark!) He told me that and, when I heard that, I knew I had to add something else into the little bits and pieces I’d bought him, so I went online and had a quick nose around the Holiday Inn site, as we’re loyalty members with them.
I found a great deal that was only valid until the end of January 2009, but would give us bed and breakfast, not something you usually get at the Holiday Inn (although of course free breakfast comes with a stay at the Express by Holiday Inn side of the business) for the reasonable price of just £54 for the night. I immediately booked one night for Saturday 31 January. I would’ve loved to have booked two, but there was no way I could, as I was due to start my public relations diploma in London on the Friday and I wouldn’t be home until late.
It’s strange how things change though. In mid January, I got an e-mail telling me that course had been cancelled and offering me the chance to enrol on another one in London. That one had different dates and it was starting a week earlier, meaning that I wouldn’t now be studying on that Friday. This meant we could head down on the Friday night after all.
We thought about this and decided to go for it, but when we did, I ran into problems. After having carefully checked (or so I thought! ) that I could book it, because the previous offer that I’d taken advantage of was running out on 23 January, I thought I’d be fine. I logged on the next day and found the offer no longer applied to our weekend and they wanted £78 for the Friday night with no breakfast. I couldn’t believe it.
Mark did no more than phone the hotel directly and explain if we could get the other deal, then we’d be down for two nights. Otherwise, we’d stick with just the one. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the current economic climate, they agreed to give us the cheap deal for the Friday night.
So what do we plan on seeing and doing while we’re down there? There are quite a few things. Mark really wants to go to the Royal Navy submarine museum in nearby Gosport and the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, with the Tudor warship Mary Rose and Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, is a must, as is the new Spinnaker Tower, which I’ve heard offers some stunning views of the city. And that’s really about it as far as the plans go.
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) that I could book it, because the previous offer that I’d taken advantage of was running out on 23 January, I thought I’d be fine. I logged on the next day and found the offer no longer applied to our weekend and they wanted £78 for the Friday night with no breakfast. I couldn’t believe it. 
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