Has anyone seen this about the Disney Store? - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 hope our local store gets the upgrade! I love going in to the DS to shop.
Just a thought (although not really logical of course just brainstorming here ok) Would it not be great to have acorner of the store become a special pirates and princesses eaterie? The food could mirror disney park type goodiesand we all know the food is the BEST, the theming of the place could be over the top since that is what Disney does so well which I could see being a big draw ongoing for not only family meals, but also for special occasions like birthday parties and little girls teas etc. (hmm then maybe for the princess teas they could add on a little magic with a hair do session (not exactly a full scale BBB or anything, just a little special attention, with dress up stuff to wear during the special tea time)...I think Disney would rake in a mint with a dining establishment to add more magic to the city it is located in....they could tie in the idea of this being just a taste of things they could experience if they visit a Disney park, and for those of us who have travelled there, it would be a bit of magic to tide us over until our next trip.
I would frequent a Disney Dine often ( at least once a month!)
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I'm a little late to this thread; I completely missed it for over a week!
Quote:
“Dream bigger — that was Steve’s message,” said Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products.
Classic Steve Jobs, though it fits in with Disney's traditional motif, too.
But I have to agree with the fears that the Disney executives voiced initially - it's big, it's cool, it's fun, but just because stuff is fun doesn't mean Mom and Dad will buy you stuff when you're there. A lot of parents WILL use the new stores as daycare while they shop, and wind up buying nothing from TDS when they finally drag their kids away to go home.
On the other hand, if some of those experiences were not free, but fee-based, maybe the whole thing could live up to the description "Theme park in a store." Leave some stuff free as a way to draw in customers, but have a few pay-to-play experiences, too.
And the idea of selling travel in the stores makes worlds of sense to me, but it doesn't sound like this new concept goes anywhere near far enough. WDTC needs a retail outlet with true Disney travel experts, graduates of the College of Disney Knowledge who can really help people plan trips to WDW, DLR, and DCL, as well as sell park passes and packages. Instead of an interactive kiosk - who books a $5,000 trip at a stand-up kiosk in a shopping mall? - they should have a whole corner devoted to WDTC and its destinations, and at least one full-time vacation planner/travel agent in the store. Oh, and they can pull their brand from a lot of those low-end travel agencies who don't know the dif between the Grand Californian and the Grand Floridian, or who think that you can ride a monorail from MCO to the Magic Kingdom, and let their brand be sold by truly KNOWLEDGABLE Disney CMs at TDS.
On the other hand, if some of those experiences were not free, but fee-based, maybe the whole thing could live up to the description "Theme park in a store." Leave some stuff free as a way to draw in customers, but have a few pay-to-play experiences, too.
I think this is a good idea! We have a place like this in one of our malls (not Disney-related, though). One half of it is a restaurant, huge fish tanks, and a gift shop, all pretty entertaining in themselves. The other half has a small admission charge and includes a pet-the-sting-rays tank, carousel, midway-style games, and other such entertainment. Some have separate costs and some are included in the admission cost. We enjoy both sides, but we are much more likely to spend some money on the side with the admission charge than in the gift shop, because it is an experience instead of just more "stuff".
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