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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It was really cute because at one point at Versailles, each of the kids took off with cameras (Rory took Hazels, I think, and Meri took mom's) and they ran around taking pictures of each other, the fountains, the statues, etc. It was hilarious to see them taking pictures and then checking each other's shots out on the cameras.
I can't wait to see those photos - Hazel, maybe you can add some from Rory?
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Lunch was fabulous. Hazel - Gemma and Peter are fabulous! Very comfortable and mature while meeting new adults, and very funny (and sometimes a little snarky). It was such fun to chat with them!
I was really, really, really tired (I'm surprised there are no photos of me all but dozing off in my meal, lol) but it was just so relaxing and pleasant to listen to the conversation and laughter with a full belly!
There aren't any photos of you looking tired, because despite you saying that you were, you really didn't look it.
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Saturday 8 June – part six: so how is the famous crème brulee?
There was some debate about what we were going to have for dessert, especially when they brought us a menu packed with ice cream options. I did jokily say that I’d get two desserts, the crème brulee and some ice cream, but I decided to be sensible in the end and just stuck with the crème brulee. After all, that’s what we came here for, and it would be silly not to try it. I think all of the adults, with the exception of Graham, did the same thing, although there was a choice between vanilla and caramel. I opted for vanilla, as I thought the caramel might be a bit too sweet, and to be honest, having had a bite of Mark’s, I was right, as that would’ve been too much for me. The vanilla one was just perfect.
Now the big question? Was it as good as Hazel had said….? it was – I have never tasted such good crème brulee in my life, so it definitely lived up to the hype. I’m sure she was relieved when we all agreed on that, as I know she was worried that perhaps it wouldn’t be good enough for us – I can assure her it was!
I’ll say here that, while we were happily chatting away, lunch did take quite a bit of time, and I noticed our server disappear about halfway through our meal with a jacket on, so I assume his shift came to an end. It was a bit odd all the same, and after that, we struggled to get anyone’s attention. We waited ages for them to bring the dessert menu to us, and eventually we had to call someone over. I was really surprised by that, as it wasn’t that busy in there.
The eagle eyed amongst you will realise that there’s no score for value for money, and the reason for that is that Hazel and Graham picked up the tab for all of us, which was so sweet of them. very much for that guys!
We wandered back towards the supermarket, taking our time, and stopping to look at some of the shops on the way, which had some wonderful things for sale. Shame most of them were shut by now.
This shop was closed, so I couldn’t buy him!
At least Carrefour wasn’t shut, and we quickly found the wine I like that Hazel introduced me to, so we got a box of that, while the others all grabbed bits and pieces, and we checked out, all having fun with the automated tills.
Now it was sadly time to say goodbye to Hazel, Graham, Gemma, Peter and Rory – well for us, until the next time we see them anyway, which hopefully won’t be too far away (July or August I believe! ).
We were taking Melanie, Meri and Nadine over to our hotel at La Defense, as I knew that the Metro station was right by it, and that would be a lot easier for them to get back to their apartment. The drive was very pleasant, and it’s a nice area of Paris.
The closer we got to La Defense, the more the scenery changed and we saw more and more modern buildings…
Getting to the hotel was a bit of a nightmare, as we literally felt we were going round and round and back on ourselves to get there. Honestly, it’s not easy at all. Thankfully, we did get there and figured out where the parking was (you’d think they’d make it more obvious! ). We parked up and got all our stuff out and headed for the exit for the hotel, except as we went through, I noticed a sign pointing back towards the car park, saying the elevators were that way. Luckily, a hotel employee came down, and took us to the exit we needed. Ok…
It got weirder when we got out of the elevator. We expected it to bring us up at reception, but you had to walk outside to enter the hotel, which was a bit odd….
We said our goodbyes to Melanie, Meri and Nadine, as right in front of us, you could see the Grande Arche and I knew that the Metro station was there, so I figured they just needed to walk that way…
We went in to check-in and were waiting, when they arrived. They’d tried that plan and it hadn’t worked out too well, as apparently you need to come into the hotel, take the elevator to a certain level, then walk across. Oh how obvious – not!
We said goodbye to them for a second time and checked in, and discovered that the only free Internet is in the public areas, which I thought was a bit cunning, as I understood free Internet to mean it would be in the rooms, but
With that news, we headed up to the seventh floor, where we found we had a partial view of the Grande Arche…
I felt really bad I meant to make sure you knew how to get where you were going before you left mine. However, what with sorting out the car seat and needing to get my sunburn out of the sunshine I completely forgot. Glad you made it without too many mishaps. La defense is a real confusing place to drive I have been driving there 2 years and still only know the bits I need to know.
I felt really bad I meant to make sure you knew how to get where you were going before you left mine. However, what with sorting out the car seat and needing to get my sunburn out of the sunshine I completely forgot.
Hey - that's fine, we made it. We were talking about you yesterday. We were taking Mark's mum somewhere and we put the wheelchair in the boot (trunk to the Americans reading this ) and she saw the car seat and was asking us about it, as obviously she didn't expect us to have one! We were explaining all about it...
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Glad you made it without too many mishaps. La defense is a real confusing place to drive I have been driving there 2 years and still only know the bits I need to know.
It is confusing - Mark did suggest at one point to me driving into Paris that night and I just said way, as I knew we'd never find our way back to the hotel in the dark...
Mmmmmmm You can tell just by looking at it that the creme brulee is the real thing! I'd be in trouble if that restaurant were in my neighborhood! So glad you all had this wonderful time together. What a confusing time getting to the hotel, and then getting into the hotel!
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There are more but i got a virus in the middle of posting them that came in through photobucket so I had to stop and do a virus scan. All posted now.
Hope the computer's ok!
I love the photos - especially the ones of Meri! You're right - you should give Rory the camera more often if it means more photos.
On that subject, I hope you'll take lots of photos when you go to Tuscany and you will do a trip report, right? I'm looking to tour some of Tuscany when we come back from the Med cruise - hence why I'm asking!
By the way, any chance you can send me that photo of the four of us or put it on Facebook, so I can pinch it?
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You are terrible Hazel! 
I did jokily say that I’d get two desserts, the crème brulee and some ice cream, but I decided to be sensible in the end and just stuck with the crème brulee. After all, that’s what we came here for, and it would be silly not to try it. I think all of the adults, with the exception of Graham, did the same thing, although there was a choice between vanilla and caramel. I opted for vanilla, as I thought the caramel might be a bit too sweet, and to be honest, having had a bite of Mark’s, I was right, as that would’ve been too much for me. The vanilla one was just perfect. 
very much for that guys! 
Luckily, a hotel employee came down, and took us to the exit we needed. Ok… 
Really not sure where we got these angelic kids from. 
This is the start of Rory's pictures 
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