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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 will notice that I did a lot of layering with pictures using washi tape. I saw this technique in several smash books that I saw online and on You Tube.
Each day, I glued a park map into my book and listed everything we did in that park beside the map. We went to a couple of parks twice, so there are two copies of the park map in my book for some of the parks. This really helped me keep up with all of the attractions we rode.
One thing I did, I printed mickey shaped heads in four different colors. Each evening, I asked them to write the best thing about today on a Mickey head. I had designated one color for each person in the family. This worked well and I will try to do something similar in future trips and journals.
Here are some more sample pages.:
I saved a wrapper from a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich and a paper cup to glue into my book.
I used some of the small pockets sold with SMASH book supplies to place our room keys, tickets and photopass cards.
On the last page, I glued the thank you card we received after we returned from our trip.
I had a few pages left, and I tore them out of the book, since my book was quite full by the end.
Here is the final result:
This homemade smash book worked well, and I may try to do something similar for a future trip. I made time at the end of each day to write in my smash book and this worked well. I also used the supplies that I took to glue in the stuff I had collected during the day. By this point, I kind of know what I am going to put in a scrapbook and what I won’t.
I like that this book is more of a “hands-on” scrapbook. I can easily look at the park maps and look at my receipts and other memorabilia. It would be good as well for someone who doesn’t want to do a full scrapbook, but wants a record of their trip.
I like it! I always save all the stuff, but never find time to actually put it in a scrapbook. I will have to adopt this for my next venture to The World.
__________________
Sharon - Kitty and me
2013 Scrapbook pages count: 631 / 350
2014 Scrapbook pages count: 60 / 250
I really love this idea and how you've filled in your smash book. I think I'd like to use some of your ideas in October instead of my usual trip journal. for sharing!
I really love this idea and how you've filled in your smash book. I think I'd like to use some of your ideas in October instead of my usual trip journal. for sharing!
This evolved from trip journals that I would keep in a small notebook. But as I said, I collect so much stuff that is just sitting in a box. Why not make it part of my journal and enjoy all of it!
also I've never heard of smashbooks before and I've never had the urge to scrapbook even though I loved the idea, scrapbooking was just too much for me and I'm not super crafty or creative. I always save a lot of different things from Disney and I would love to document my trip in a more practical way!
Love it! When I went to Ireland for the first time in 2004, a friend gave me a beautiful leather-bound journal for my travel diary. I took along a roll of double-sided tape and pasted various things in the journal as I wrote the day's entries. All sorts of little bits--receipts, tickets, napkins, brochures, stickers I picked up along the way... It was before I'd ever heard of a Smash Book. It's a bit willy-nilly, though. I love the way you organized yours. It's a wonderful keepsake!
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Elizabeth C
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Pixie Dust
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for sharing! 
I love the way you organized yours. It's a wonderful keepsake!
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