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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Lisbon looks like a beautiful city. I'm sure we'll make it there one day, especially as we aim to visit a new capital city every year and the list of the ones we haven't seen in Europe gets shorter every year.
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Originally Posted by Pris
I love visiting zoos. You got some great pictures.
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Originally Posted by shazza
That really does look like a nice zoo. Glad you had so much fun there.
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Wonderful animal photos! Looks like a very good city zoo. I especially like the photo of the synchronized sleeping rhinos!
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Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Love the animal pics! Very cool to see a real life Tigger!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from the double decker tour and the zoo!
It was a great day, too bad it was nearing the end of our journey.
We enjoyed our breakfast buffet and then headed out to the Vasco Da Gama mall, the site of Expo 1998. There is a large mall, lots of restaurants, and a huge aquarium, as well as a cable car that tours the site. We toured the area, stopping at pizza hut for lunch. We split a pizza and Caesar salad.
The expo site and mall.
We then caught the metro and stopped at a large department store called El Ingles, it was huge. I bought a pair of shoes and we just looked around. We stopped and got a sandwich for later and headed back to the hotel.
DH went and visited with his Tios and had dinner with them. I stayed back in the room, had my sandwich and packed. It was some nice alone time for both of us as we pretty well had been together all month. DH got back and we finished the packing and weighed the bags, nothing was over the limit.
Woke up at 7:30, went and had breakfast, then finished the last minute packing. We had a later flight than usual so we went to the park and walked around, feeling sorry that we had to leave, yet happy to go back and see the DD’s.
We left the hotel at 11:45 and headed for the airport. It was too early to check in so we had some sandwiches and drinks. We finally figured out that if you checked the departures board you could see your check in information. We found our check in counter and then headed to security. We headed to our gate, and because we were heading international we had to go through a second passport check closer to our departure gate. We originally were to leave at 3:40, but we were delayed until 5 pm. We boarded the plane and were served dinner. It was either pork or beef (not sure) and pasta, veggies and cake. I read and then about 4.5 hours into the flight they started the movie The Zoo which I had already seen, then they showed an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and that was it for entertainment. We circled Toronto airport and finally landed at 8 pm (with the time change, it was 11 pm for us).
We had booked a room at the Hilton for the night, as we didn’t think we could make the flight to Winnipeg after getting through customs and getting our bags. We made it to the hotel at 9:30, had some soup and appetizers and headed to bed.
Woke up at 5:30, puttered around and checked out, had breakfast at Tim Horton’s at the airport and caught our flight. We arrived at the Winnipeg airport at 10 am and were greeted by our wonderful girls, and headed home.