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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I noticed this at the store at AKL, they had allot of really form fitting shirts, more geared to Junior sizes rather than ladies sizing.
I have to say, I just love your pic of your dog & cat!! There's no way my dog or either cats will cuddle up like that! So cute!
That's what I've been reading about the sizing. That they are all very form fitting shirts. I guess the adults aren't the target demographic. Ha.
Thanks for the compliment on my pic. The dog has lived with the 5 cats since he was 7 weeks old so I think he thinks of them as small, annoying dogs. That cat is a bit odd. He gets the dog to bathe him so he's perpetually covered in dog drool.
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I too am Pooh sized and found it rather difficult to find comfortable clothing on property. If Disney is looking, here is our opinion: Please more selection in the bigger, comfy sizes.
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My 19 year old hero! Hurry home! (A.K.A. D_Stitch)
Back in 2006, I found clothes were getting hard to come by. The same size shirt I bought, different graphics, but same size, were not fitting the same. Then they were becoming all the same and just boring stuff(this also could be a product of so many trips). But I noticed on the April/May trip that there is way more on offer than back in 2005 and 2006 and I'm actually looking forward to maybe purchasing another t-shirt!
Other Disney message boards really do seem to exaggerate and be negative, that's why I love PassPorter!!
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Overall, I have noticed a slimmer selection of merchandise in the parks over the last several years. That's not to say that I can't find stuff to spend my money on... because that certainly is never a problem... but I will admit to finding fewer "must-haves" in recent years. There are definitely ride-specific tees for the big rides, so don't worry about that, and you can find a pin for just about anything.
I will also agree with others who have noticed that the sizes are getting slimmer, too. I'm average size and find myself looking for XL in some of the ladies shirts because they are so form-fitting. I do like ladies styling (like v-necks, etc.), but I don't need to highlight my "form" at age 42!
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I didn't really notice the selection of ride clothing but I must agree with you an the fact that it would go against the idea of dumping you out in a gift shop at the end of the ride. I agree with you on the sizing issues with the disney store as I am a large but find the xl is a better fit. Not much better it is a little big but better then a little small.
On a different Disney board, there is a hullaballoo about the lack of merchandise in the parks now. I've learned that the other board tends to..umm...exaggerate things a bit so I wanted to check in with my level-headed Passporters on this issue.
The hullaballoo is that the only thing you can buy at the parks now is all princess, Hannah Montana, Jack Sparrow and Jack Skellington and nothing else.
In general I would ignore that but several people have said that you can no longer find any ride specific shirts/merchandise. I'm wearing my favorite RnRC shirt as I type this. I really want to get my DH a new Mission:Space polo this trip as his old one looks kinda ragged. I am going to be very heartbroken and will save a lot of money if they have stopped selling that merchandise.
But, I'm really questioning that since wouldn't that defeat the entire purpose of the rides dumping you into gift shops? But it would certainly explain why the park merchandise numbers are in the toilet.
Anyway, set me straight and tell me that the other boards are just exaggerating as expected and that I will still be able to get my DH his polo shirts and me my T's from our favorite rides and characters.
I just got back from my trip a few days ago, now I didn't notice if they had any Mission: Space shirts but I did notice that they do still tend to carry ride specific clothing. I noticed Tower of Terror shirts in DHS etc. I even found vintage looking Small World and Mr. Toad shirts in MK.
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i agree i do not like it when i go to any amusement park and want to by a t-shirt and cannot find my pooh size it is very upsetting to me at times but it is not only disney with this problem there are many places including US and IOA . i spend what they ask for there admission and i cannot even bring a shirt home for my trouble so i always settle for a hat but still not happy.
i agree i do not like it when i go to any amusement park and want to by a t-shirt and cannot find my pooh size it is very upsetting to me at times but it is not only disney with this problem there are many places including US and IOA . i spend what they ask for there admission and i cannot even bring a shirt home for my trouble so i always settle for a hat but still not happy.
Come to think of it we did have that issue with a family member. You are right, even if they don't have every size in every shirt there should be a variety for Everyone!
I also got back last weekend, and I actually thought there was MORE ride specific stuff than I had remembered in the past. For example, my sister got a Haunted Mansion shirt at a cart that was set up right as you get off HM. I recall seeing the cart before, but mostly just toys, not the several varieties of HM shirts they had this time.
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
I will jump on the bandwagon and say the reason I don't buy clothing at WDW is because you just can't find things in larger sizes. The closest I got last year was buying a pair of fuzzy-lined crocs in MK (which OMG, fabulously comfy and I need to buy a new pair this year!). Instead I spent my money on other things like an album and a beautiful peter pan mug for myself and 2 other mugs as gifts. But, if I could find my size I would totally have spent money on clothing.
I've noticed in the last 4 years (been there 8 times) that there is less of a variety of stuffed toys. It seems that every store has Simba, Nala, Bambi, Lady, Tramp, a girl and boy Dalmatian, Stitch and maybe a couple of others, but that's it. Then they through in a different themed Mickey & Minnie here and there.
The quality of the t-shirts and especially sweatshirts has gone from great "Walt-approved" quality to Wal-Mart quality. Between my husband and I, we have about 15 hooded sweatshirts that we've collected in the last 4 years and on our last trip, I wouldn't even buy them, they were so thin and polyester-feeling.
With T-shirts, I'd like to believe that they are just trying to stick with the trends of the thin, snug-fitting, almost see-through styles that you see in every department store. I just hope it changes soon - I'm running out of clothes!
While I'd tend to agree that the "mass marketing of Disney Channel products" is a trend I've been watching happening at the parks (they can sell these same items at the big box chains, department stores, toy stores, etc. and thereby make more money with the same development costs), I'd personally say that Disney's marketing at the parks is still okay, if somewhat homogenized.
What I mean by that is, each individual merchandise location (in the past) had one or two unique items that you could only find there. For the past several years, it seems that they have the same WDW Park-related items in all of the merchandise locations and the individualized stuff is harder to come by. The ride-specific t-shirts and souvenirs are still there (I'm thinking TOT, RnRC, Splash Mountain, etc.) and I can't see them totally going away. Ever. But that's not to say that they don't have less of these items than before -- or that they remain unchanged for far longer than they used to.
It may just be a factor of my many trips over the past few years, but I find less things to tempt me into purchasing them anymore. There are far fewer "must have" items and I often come home with no purchases at all.
Not that I'm complaining!
Eileen
There used to be t-shirts that you could only get at that particular kiosk; now it's 95% generic stuff. And the quality used to be so much better. I still have a t-shirt from my first Disney trip and it's in better shape than some of the newer stuff that's been washed far fewer times
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There used to be t-shirts that you could only get at that particular kiosk; now it's 95% generic stuff. And the quality used to be so much better. I still have a t-shirt from my first Disney trip and it's in better shape than some of the newer stuff that's been washed far fewer times
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