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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 want to get DD a nice inexpensive point and shoot for her birthday, so she can take her own pics while we're in the world. She's always asking to use mine and it makes me nervous so i thought if she had her own that would work out perfectly. I found a sanyo VPC S1414P 14mp at Walmart for $59 and it looks sturdy enough for her little hands. I've tried buying her "kid" cameras but they take horrible pics and she ends up not using them. Does anyone have any recommendations on a camera i should get for her without spending over $60-$70?
That cheap is going to be hard to find a sturdy camera, you're basically looking at a throw-away if it gets dropped, stomped, or submerged.
Shop around, there are the newer "ruggedized" and "waterproof" cameras for $100-150 out there, that would be my recommendation for a child if you're looking at a "real" camera for them.
I have one of the Olympus "Tough" series, as does my wife, and we both have the Kodak Playsport digital video camera (a ruggedized, waterproof, sturdy camera). When the smaller grandkids want to take the photos we hand them one of those and let them go, they can't hurt the camera and they have a lot of fun.
Every camera manufacturer has their version of a tough camera and I would check them out!
I second the small waterproof camera idea.
My 6yr old has a Fuji Finepix XP10 - it takes great photos dry or wet - fantastic for Kali River Rapids-lol.
I second the recommendation for a tough series camera, even though they are more money then you said you wanted to spend. My DD's like to use my camera, and I don't want them always using my DSLR, so I purchased an Olympus tough camera which can be dropped and not hurt. In addition, it's good under the water, so this summer we got some really cool under the water swimming shots. I carry this one even when I don't want to carry my "big" camera, as it's small and for even 2 - 6 year olds, indestructible.
I got my neice one of the crappy Disney cameras for her fourth bday and she has fun snapping with that, but she prefers a "real camera"... she now has an iphone and uses that (oh, yeah, the five year old needed an iphone... don't get me started). She's been using my big camera with the big lenses for the last three years (under supervision) and does really well with that. She doesn't know all the bells and whistles of that, though. In the next couple of years I think a "real" point and shoot is in order.
Giving my neice the opportunity to grow a photography passion is something I've wanted to nurture since she was a baby... I LOVE photography and if she ends up loving it, too, then I will be so excited.