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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I'm pleased to announce the creation of a special PassPorter Photo Archive online, which we've been working on for several months now. We have tens of thousands of detailed photos taken over the years, primarily for research purposes. We find that photos truly tell a thousand words, so we regularly take 3000-5000 photos per trip. We decided to begin sharing the best of these photos with you now that we've found a way to compress them for general viewing. We know you can learn a lot from these photos, as well as just enjoy viewing them in anticipation of a trip to come or in memory of a trip already taken. The images in our Photo Archive are primarily taken and intended for informational purposes, rather than aesthetics, though we do have some pretty shots, too.
Right now there are almost 800 photos uploaded, categorized, titled, and described, but many more will be added in the coming months. We have paricularly comprehensive photo collections of the All-Star Music Resort, Pop Century Resort, and Fort Wilderness currently online, along with some miscellaneous photos of the Magic Kingdom.
Anyone may view the photo thumbnails, but only registered members of our message boards may view the photo at medium resolution (approx 400 pixels -- the standard size for our board's photos and other web sites' photos) -- you'll need to login with your message board member name and password. Also available are SUPER SIZED photos, which are only accessible to PassPorter's Club passholders due to high bandwidth requirements. The SUPER SIZE photos are really cool as they are VERY, VERY large (up to 2000 pixels wide) and you can really see fine detail -- they also make great desktop wallpaper for your computer. Club passholders: To view a photo at super size, just click it and a new window will open with the large photo. Club passholders may also choose a Print View, which is a large format photo without any extra information -- look for the link near the bottom of the photo display window.
The photo archive software we're using has lots of great features, like searches, keywords, ability to save your favorite photos, and so on. You can also rate photos, as well as leave comments/questions. Another cool feature is the ability to send photo postcards -- it would be fun to send postcards to traveling party members in anticipation of a trip, I think! Oh, and there are handy links below each photo so you can paste photos you like into the message board.
Naturally, we request that photos be used only for your personal purposes -- details on what is and is not acceptable usage is detailed in our photo usage guidelines.
Please take a look and give your feedback, either here or by leaving comments with photos. Requests for specific photos are welcome, but I can't promise I can upload them immediately.
Thank you! I've now finished putting our All-Star Music Resort photo collection online -- there are nearly 300 photos, all taken within the last three months.
I've completed the upload of our Pop Century photo collection -- nearly 300 photos, including some photos from the sneak peek media event back in October 2003!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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Excellent addition to the PP boards Jennfier. WOW! Thanks so much for adding such a cool archive. Loving Disney photo's like I do, this is a super bonus to an already super website!
I discovered this afternoon that I hadn't enabled the COMMENT system in the Photo Archive (I wondered why no on had left any comments). It's now turned on and all registered members can leave comments and questions with photos. Oh, and did you know that comments left with photos in the Photo Archive count towards your post count here in the boards?
I slipped in a little photo hunt in my signature this afternoon, and DisneyLifer was the first to post a comment with the photo -- congrats! I'll do another little photo hunt later this evening.