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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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On a whim I invited my Mom to go on our trip in Nov and could hardly believe it when she was interested. I think it's going to be a blast to have her along. The last time she went to Disney was over 20 years ago and while she enjoyed it, it wasn't well planned and not as much fun as it could have been. So I'm looking for ways to make this the trip of a lifetime for her and would appreciate any suggestions you have. Also she's excited about the trip now, but it is so far away that I'm afraid some of that excitement will disappear before the time gets here. Any ideas on how to keep her interested? She is a big kid at heart and adheres to the motto "growing older is mandatory, growing up is optional," so I'm really looking forward to this trip (even more than before). [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]
Have her read these message boards! I haven't found another with so many people who have one thing in common.........their love of anything Disney!
Show her the websites of Disney. I am surprised at exactly how many there are. I have 20 sites bookmarked!
november is a long way off but it will be here before you know it and we are already at the end of the first month. Have you ordered your free vacation planning video? They're pretty neat. I think I have 5(for the last 5 years) but I don'tthink they change too much.
Those "on a whim" invitations are the best and if she accepted right away, Idon't think you'll hve a problem with the excitment dying down!
Good luck! Sending lots of pixie dust to you!
P.s. I invited my mom to go with us in June and she said maybe, then decided no. So i am really happy for you!!! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
Order a planning video at www.waltdisneyworld.com and have it sent to her house. Print out some menus from wdwig.com and clip them together by park, type of food, or whatever and have her choose several she's interested in. What fun! [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
Wow! What great ideas! So far I've ordered the planning video and I'm going to let her have my 2002 copy of passporter and some highlighters! Great suggestions...keep them coming! Thanks so much!
That is great !!
With the exception of my Honeymoon I have NEVER been to the world without my Mom! I wouldn't even think of it. I always order her the "grandparents" vacation planning tape. She loves it and it always gets her misty. I make an itinerary for her with the menus to get her psyched. We look at albums of pix of past trips. We pull out the Autograph books, postcards, pins we collected, scrap books and Passporters from previous years.
It is such fun!!!!
Have a wonderful time.
If you're wanting to keep her excitement up, you could do something I did for my kids. I made a Disney countdown calendar. I think I started with 50 days. I checked out some of those free clip art sites and copied pictures of different Disney characters. Then I made a calendar page for each day with a different character. I think I made 6 calendar pages on one sheet of paper, then cut them and stapled them together so you could tear off one sheet a day. Examples are Aladdin and Jasmine saying "Come to a whole new world in 35 days!" Or the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland saying "I'm late, I'm late, only 20 days left!"
Every day it was a surprise for them who would be on the countdown calendar. I think I had more fun making it!
There are different videos geared toward grandparents, parents of young children, adults traveling without kids etc. They have the same basic info., but each throws a different spin or emphasis on it. The grandparent's video is made so that grandparents will be touched and weepy and want to take the grandkids. The adults video emphasizes that WDW isn't just for kids etc.
Grandparents planning video? You mean there are different ones? [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] When I ordered the video for her I put down that she would be traveling with a grandchild-I bet that's what will get the different tape-right?
Hi Tiggergal: We ahve taken my MIL and FIL twice now. Both trips were great as the first trip first day they learned the ropes on how to get around WDW and with our walkie-talkie communicators they would sleep in and get themselves ready at their own pace and meet us out at the park by lunch and they then were at full power for the entire days worth of activites and during the morning strech we could do the hard core rides and faster pace stuff. I am now trying to get my Dad to make a trip with us as he is a big kid at heart and I know would have a blast. Good planning and Remember the Magic. Jerry [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
Since she's not connected to the web and can't get to the best Disney boards in the world-Passporter- I'm going to do some searches and find some great trip reports (thanks for the tip Mel&Richard). I'm also going to try and find some of the threads about great cast member/character stories because they always get me in the Disney mood. I've ordered matching shirts for me, her and ds so that we can have our pictures made together. I've heard that the DS is having a great sale on pins and since she has always collected hat pins of all kinds I thought I might get her a head start on her Disney collection this weekend [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] . You have all offered wonderful suggestions. I'm so excited about going with my Mom I'm such a big baby [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] .
If your Mom is really into pins, buy lots of the cheap ones at TDS, plus a lanyard (if your store has them, our's seem to be out), and get her into pin trading - she can trade with CM's for better pins, meet some really interesting people, and have lots of fun doing it - pin trading was one of the highlights of my last trip!
Congrats on taking your Mom to WDW - I'm taking my 85-year-young Mom for her very first visit in March - she's really excited, and wants to leave yesterday! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Have a fairy godmailer send her a postcard from a favorite Disney character. And plan some fun mother daughter things like the tea at the Grand Floridian, and a character meal if your mom enjoys the characters.
My mom and I are going this October. My second vist, her first. I'm really looking forward to making it magical for her.
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