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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 know I mentioned somewhere else that Lenny's truck needed work. He got an appointment for yesterday because I told him to try for this week. I have the week off from work and I told him if he needed my car, this would be the easiest week for him to have it. So we dropped it off yesterday morning and left. A little while after we got home, the service department called saying they couldn't duplicate what the truck was doing so Lenny went back (this place is about 20 minutes away to begin with) to make the truck do it's thing. A little while later, we got another phone call from them. They still hadn't started it because they wanted another service guy to look at it but at some point in time yesterday, Lenny was given the quote for the repairs (double what I expected ) and told it should be done by 5 pm today because they wouldn't get the part until today. Okay, that's fine. So fast forward to just a couple of minutes ago. The service department just called. "We don't have the part, it should have come in already and didn't. It might still come in today but we won't start work on it. You may not get your vehicle back until the day after tomorrow." If they were going to get the part today and the van repaired today, why can't they get it repaired tomorrow if they get the part later today or even tomorrow morning??? I sure as heck hope they don't decide to charge us for every day the van sits there and takes up space (and it wouldn't surprise me if they do charge for things like that) because they're already charging us what I consider an arm and a leg to do the repair.
Did you take it to a dealership or a local mechanic? If you had to take it to a dealership then I can understand the high cost. They always seem more expensive than a local mechanic. If they are replacing parts, it's wise to let them know you would like to see the part they removed so you can see how it was damaged. And don't let them charge you for anything other than the replaced part and the hourly labor to replace it. One dealership tried to charge my Dad for a "cleaning fee". (whatever that is) Luckily, he noticed it before he paid and had them remove the additional fee.
Maybe they have too many other appointments tommorrow already and that's why it will take an extra day?
Yes, we took it to the dealership. The local mechanic doesn't just do his job. For example - when we got this van, there was something with the spark plug wire but instead of replacing that, he replaced our brand new spark plugs telling us they were the wrong kind (which they weren't), that one was cracked (which is wasn't) and there was nothing at all wrong with the wire (which there was - once the wire was replaced, by the dealership I might add, we had no more problems). As for being booked tomorrow, they could be but it just really irks me when they say "you'll have it back tomorrow" and then that tomorrow turns into 2 days later. Tell me upfront it might take two days to get the part and they might have my vehicle all week before I get it back and it's easier to swallow than the promise of tomorrow which then changes to another day.
And thanks for the tip about "extra" charges. I'll make sure Lenny looks over the invoice carefully before he pays for it.
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The dealership should have given you the option of coming and getting the vehicle until the part came in, so that you had access to your vehicle for a couple of days.
Dealerships often don't know when they'll get a part. DH works for an auto parts supply store and they supply many dealerships. Here's the way it works:
Dealership finds they need a part they don't have
Dealership calls around to find best price and who can get it there faster
Dealership orders part from store they do business with, whether that store has part or not
Store orders part from warehouse or from another store - sometimes nearby, sometimes a state or more away
Store sends employee "driver" to pick up part.
Driver brings part to store and it's entered into stock, then "sold" to dealership
Driver takes part to Dealership
Often, dealership finds out they ordered the wrong part. Whole process begins again.
Sorry about the van, but it sounds like they want to do a good job-better take the extra time than have to bring it back again. Ask me how I know? And like lots of other situations, something could have come up that messed up everyone's schedule.
A few years back my turn signals kept flashing, without any input on my part. It took almost a week to get the rather inexpensive part in. The mechanic disconnected the turn signals and I had to use hand signals, which I doubt anyone paid attention to.
I do agree that maybe they should have given you the option of taking the car home.
What they should have done and what they did do is a moot point now. I got another call from them today - the truck is all apart, but now there's a new problem. Some of the parts that needed to be removed to get to the original problem disintegrated in the kids hand as he was working on it. The new estimate is now TRIPLE what I expected. The original estimate was going to make things tough but I could do it. I have no idea what we're going to do to pay off the new estimate. I was right on one hand though - it seems like every day they have it, the price goes up. I hate to think what it will go up to if we don't get it back until Friday or Saturday.
If your van is older a part could have very well disintegrated when they tried to take things out. I love my older cars, but I don't think they always know what is going to happen. One question I have always has to ask myself is the repair worth the money? there comes a time, when it just doesn't make sense to keep putting money in.
I absolutely loved my 1994 Camry wagon and would have driven it forever, but it got to a point where the repairs were coming to close together and I knew the NE salt was going to eventually win out.
Can you go on Cartalk.com and see if there is a good mechanic in your area? It may be worth driving a little to find someone reliable. I have also decided that some things are just hard to figure out. I actually have one mechanic who is great for simple things and another for more complicated issues.
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Last edited by Huntermom; 12-28-2011 at 03:14 PM..
If your van is older a part could have very well disintegrated when they tried to take things out.
I wasn't doubting what the kid told me. As I said to Lenny, to me he sounded genuinely sorry that he had to call and tell me there was something else wrong. As for make and model, it's an 02 conversion van and since they don't make them anymore, we really would like to keep it running as long as we possibly can - it's a $40,000+ vehicle and since we haven't even put 1/4 of that money into repairs, it's not too bad. What we put into it compared to what we paid when it was new to us is a different story but right now it's still worth it - an huge ouch, but worth it to keep it running
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) and told it should be done by 5 pm today because they wouldn't get the part until today. Okay, that's fine. So fast forward to just a couple of minutes ago. The service department just called. "We don't have the part, it should have come in already and didn't. It might still come in today but we won't start work on it. You may not get your vehicle back until the day after tomorrow." 
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