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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You know, when the story first broke a few weeks back that Disney would be doing a lot of layoffs of execs, I was really amazed. But then I started reading Disney War by James Stewart, and I was absolutely blown away by how many VP's, CEO's, and Presidents the company has scattered throughout all its various divisions. The way Stewart explains it is that because Michael Eisner didn't want any one person to usurp his power, so he just kept giving people titles, but no major responsibilities. Anyway, rambling aside, when I read that there are "600 execs in park divisions," I'm not really surprised anymore, and quite frankly, it's probably a good thing - they're working to trim all the excess created during Eisner's less-than-stellar later years.
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Keep in mind that the park in China is going to be massively funded by the Chinese government...
Additionally, it's a prudent move to reduce manpower in an area of a corporation that is not bringing in the revenue currently while investing in another area of the corporation that has great potential to bring in the revenue -- something China will most definitely do for Disney (at minimal investment to themselves.)
Eileen
just to clarify, there are more than 600 execs. 600 is the number that were asked to leave early (that doesn't mean they'd be left with 0). a little more than half were in orlando (the rest being in anaheim). perhaps it should be more surprising that there were that many for anaheim if anything. (at least in comparison to orlando).
the current move is to consolidate operations for the parks. you'd be amazed at just how separate DLR and WDW are handled and that's probably for good reason. I don't think this bodes too well for WDW or perhaps either park to be honest. it was handled as two separate theme parks for logistical reasons in addition to geographic and now it'll just be putting much more on the plates for those that survive the transition.
While this probably won't effect me (it better not!), it might effect some people I know (such as the spouse of my boss here at the office). Losing a job right now would hurt!
Keep in mind that the park in China is going to be massively funded by the Chinese government...
Additionally, it's a prudent move to reduce manpower in an area of a corporation that is not bringing in the revenue currently while investing in another area of the corporation that has great potential to bring in the revenue -- something China will most definitely do for Disney (at minimal investment to themselves.)
Eileen
I agree with the above, although China may not be as rosey a prospect as Disney originally thought.....
As the rest of the world scales back it's expenditure China's economy is also going to suffer, and as a result of that the disposable income of Chinese "guests" will also be hit. Just look at where most of the merchandice for sale in WDW comes from . . . yep, China!
If the parks in the US are suffering, less is being sold, so less money is going to China, so the Chinese workers are going to have less to spend at their local Disney park. And don't forget it's not just Disney that buys a lot of "stuff" from China, the whole of the Western World (US & UK included) buy a LOT of things from China, and the orders for goods are starting to slow down, or dry up altogether.
There are numerous stories around of entire factories shutting in China and the workers being forced to leave the cities and go back to their rural "agricultural" based economies. There is no doubt that China IS a rich country, but most of that money is held by the government or "select" individuals, much of the population (the VAST population) still live a very basic lifestyle.
It's the nature of our "global economy" that if someone sneezes in Orlando or Burbank, someone'll catch a cold in Beijing or Shanghai!!!!
I don't think there'll be many (apart from the ULTRA rich) that won't be affected in some way by the current situation. Those "risk-taking" bankers who led us into this "crisis" have a lot to answer for!!!!!
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for those being faced with or who have been layed off.
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Losing a job right now would hurt!
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