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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew are on a Meddeteranian cruise right now. They are supposed to return late this Friday. I got an email from my Dad over the weekend that said:
Hi: we are stranded in Civitavequia, Italy, close to Rome, the cruise liner struck a rock and broke the propellers when we were departing a port in France. We been here five days and they cancelled four ports of call.we are trying to find the way to Venice but it does not look good.The whole thing has been a disaster. The company will reimburse us. Mom is very disappointed, everybody is.
My other brother who is home like I am got a separate email from them that said that the day they spent in Barcellona (the day before the cruise departed and the port city they few in to) my neice had her bag stolen which had her I-pod, camera, etc in it.
So guess what I am going to be thinking of for the next 2 months and probably while on board the whole time too for my upcoming Disney cruise in Sept (first ever)?
Bad weather I can understand but SHIPWRECKED!!!!????
Does anyone know if something like this ever happened to the Disney ships in the Carribean? I know I am being paranoid and nothing will probably happen except us having a good time but now I am a little nervous....
No, nothing like this has ever happened to a Disney shp in the Caribbean. Certainly things can happen and that is one of the reasons for the safety drill on the first afternoon. But the Disney Cruise Line has an excellent safety record.
Disney takes very good precautions with safety and their safety record is very good. While things can happen to anyone at any time Disney prepares for safety very well.
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Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust! Studying Hard to Make a Difference!
I know this won't sound reassuring, but no cruise line is immune from trouble. While there isn't a case where a DCL ship damaged a propeller or ran aground, there was a laundry room fire some years back on one of the ships that caused disruptions, and there have been docking incidents where some small damage was done to the ships. None resulted in the kind of trouble described by your family members, though. Storms, of course, have required major changes to itineraries.
There's just no way I can promise that something bad couldn't happen on any given cruise line. All the major cruise lines operate to very high standards, so I'm not sure it's fair to say that Disney is less likely than others to encounter problems. One reason Disney has been involved in fewer incidents is that it's currently a two-ship cruise line. The other well-known cruise lines have far more ships, so problems will, on the average, show up more often on the big lines. Their percentage of problems per ship may be quite similar to Disney's, though.
The real issue isn't whether stuff happens - it does - but whether it happens often enough to reconsider your vacation choices. It doesn't. Travel will always entail some potential for the unexpected, whether you're driving, flying, cruising, taking the train, or even walking. It helps if you embrace those possibilities, so you'll be mentally prepared to deal with them when they arise. Definitely be mentally prepared for the possibility of a change of itinerary. Nothing's a sure thing, but as long as you're willing to accept that as part of the adventure of travel, you're usually able to land on two feet and have an extra tale to tell around the dinner table back home.
All I can say is, if I had been "stranded" in Civitaveccia (Rome) for four nights, I would have been thrilled to have a chance to do something cruise passengers almost never get to do - really explore the port-of-call city in depth. I would have spent a day at the Capitoline muesums, another at the Vatican museum, another day or two exploring ancient Rome in-depth... and still not have run out of things to do. And with the ship staying in port, I might have stayed out late a couple of nights in town, to dine and explore the city's night life. It may not have been what I expected when I booked passage, but it's almost always possible to make a silk purse out of that kind of sow's ear.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Carol went to France (Aix en Provence) in September of 2001. She "returned" on Tuesday, September 11th. They were stranded in Paris for four days in the Paris Hilton.
Celebrity has quite a few more ships than DCL, so they have a higher chance of something happening. Of course, Celebrity seems to have had a recent record of lots of things "happening" (drunk master, several pod failures, an engine fire, etc).
Luggage gets stolen from tourists all the time, everywhere. In the late 90s/ early 2000s, when cruising was really taking off, you used to be able to put your tags on your luggage when you checked in at your home airport and the cruiseline would deliver it to your stateroom. Well some industrious souls bought cruiseline clothes and took suitcases right off the conveyers in Miami. For several years it was the luggage theft capital of the world, topping even Rome. MCO has a low theft rate. San Juan, OTOH, is quite high. Israel has practically none.
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Certainly things can happen and that is one of the reasons for the safety drill on the first afternoon. But the Disney Cruise Line has an excellent safety record. 
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