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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Somehow this idea is in my head but I just don't do it....but it sounds Exciting! And yes as I am planning my trips- there are times I just want to do something TOTALLY DIFFERENT!
I have heard others do this, go to the bus stop at your resort and whatever bus comes up that is where you go. I think this would be Exciting, however I am just so ....Chicken! LOL
Have you thought about doing this? Maybe one day?
If you did....would love to know how.
Thank you for Participating!
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Kate in PA All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them- Walt Disney
Go somewhere I haven’t planned????? This is something I’ve just never considered. What about my FP+? Don’t say to not book them!!! That’s even less planning!!! Oh, this all just makes my mind reel.
Stop it, Kate!!!!!
Let me just say I don’t see how this is possible for me.
If we didn't have ADR's we wanted to go to - and if we actually took the buses places - I might be tempted to do it but we do our ADR's and drive so I don't
I think it all depends on what you want to do and how long you plan to be in the park. We don't do an extensive plan but we do plan what park we are going to do everyday. The biggest thing we do when planning is to avoid parks with EMH since they seem to be less crowed.
Go somewhere I haven’t planned????? This is something I’ve just never considered. What about my FP+? Don’t say to not book them!!! That’s even less planning!!! Oh, this all just makes my mind reel.
Stop it, Kate!!!!!
Let me just say I don’t see how this is possible for me.
Sorry Susan.... I was just thinking out LOUD.... and I know people do this!
I don't know about the fast passes.....
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Kate in PA All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them- Walt Disney
If we didn't have ADR's we wanted to go to - and if we actually took the buses places - I might be tempted to do it but we do our ADR's and drive so I don't
Darlene, in your case you all get in the car and then decide what park you would go...without your plans! Flip a coin?
I am not seriously thinking you should do this.... just for Fun!
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Kate in PA All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them- Walt Disney
We book ADRs for nearly every meal since we rarely eat QS, and that’s about it for definite plans.
Once we have our master list of where we want to eat, we figure out a pattern of ADRs so we aren’t eating Italian back to back, for instance. That’s when we decide roughly which park for morning and which later in the day, focused around how we’ve sorted ADRs throughout our stay.
ParkHoppers are essential for us as a result.
Anymore, we rarely schedule more than 1 or 2 FPs per day. Just not that many things we’ve gotta do.
We simply don’t plan a particular park per day, wouldn’t stick with it if we did. Occasionally, we’ve gotten to a park and decided to go to another, so we do.
Neither of us enjoys riding buses much, so we’re unlikely to hop on the next bus. However, we generally go wherever the magic inspires us whether to a park or another resort. We may get on the monorail thinking we’ll head to Epcot and decide to get off to wander through the shops at the CR instead.
How do you leave so much open to whim? You just try it and see if you enjoy that more than detailed planning.
Really, I can’t imagine having single-park tickets. Seems like a terrible bore being stuck in one park for an entire day. It’s just so much fun going wherever you feel like heading when you think of it.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
As for me, I’m reading these other posts and going, “Are you guys serious? You really do make detailed plans and follow them?”
Quite serious. Have you ever read my PTR's? That will tell you how serious I am with my planning but I have an Autistic kid too that I take on vacation. That makes a big difference in how one takes vacation. I'm sure Susan (Joelsmom) agrees with me
Honestly, it isn’t as if we don’t do anything spontaneous, but we do stick to the ADRs, the FP+ choices, the planned park or parks each day, all of that. Part of it is Joel’s autism, but part of it is my own comfort with it, too. I really am a major planner, and I just love knowing what’s happening. When it doesn’t work out, we take a detour and regroup, but we really like our plan. Sometimes, the plan is to go with the flow, of that makes sense.
Okay, I can understand the need for definite plans when a family member is autistic. That makes sense. Merely preferring to follow a detailed itinerary and hardly deviating from it just doesn’t to me.
Not saying it’s “wrong” to tour that way, just couldn’t do that myself. It would feel far too restrictive.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
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