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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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How much time did you spend with your teen driver going around parking lots and residential areas before going out on main roads? I'm scared to take DS on the streets here because they are so busy and people don't drive well. He also doesn't feel confident (not sure he ever will) so I don't either.
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My sister was not a confident driver, and even though she took her drivers ed class in high shcool she did not drive until she was out of college! She was very intimidated by others drivers and figured that she would be better off the road than on. Her job was the thing that forced her to behind the wheel... and she is an excellent driver now!
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DD drove out on the roads from day one! We lived in a quiet residential area, so there wasn't much traffic to start out with. She is almost 21, and only within the last year or so has she felt comfortable driving on freeways (mostly because she now had to drive on them!) In fact when I helped move her down to Arizona last year, I drove the entire 2200+ miles by myself (she was a passenger the entire time listening to her iPod ) as she didn't want to drive on the freeways of major cities or in areas of road construction of which there were many. I would say that the sooner your DS gets some real driving under his belt, the more confident he will become. Good luck!
i am of the mindset that you hit the roads when you are ready....
i am teaching my little brother to drive, and my husband taught me...i drove on the streets LONG before i got my liscense (yea, i know, but i still have never gotten a ticket, and the only accident i have ever been in was the OTHER drivers fault completely)
he is a confident driver though, so as soon as he is legal, he plans on hitting the road
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You hit the streets when they're ready - and they feel like they're ready.
Like you, we live in an area where there's sooo much traffic, so when DD and I were practicing, she stayed in parking lots until she felt confident with the basics of turning, backing up, parking, etc.
Then we let her drive on some of the back roads (i.e. 'country roads') from the parking lot to our house until she felt comfortable with that.
We have lots of big highways/Interstates here, but until DD gets more experience under her belt, she's confined to the smaller roads and highways. At least, I think she's still driving the smaller roads - now that she has her graduated license, she's on her own in the van!!
I drove on roads from the day of my 17th birthday, when you can learn to drive over here. Before I turned 17, my dad got my driving around our road a bit (it's privately owned, so you can do that) and a local farmer took me over to an area she owned to teach me a bit as well. Having said that, our roads then were pretty quiet, so I don't think my parents worried about me going out on them with an instructor or with them.
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After I got my permit and I had gotten the basics of the stick-shift down in parking lots, I would take my car out after school up and down our road, which is definitely a back country road. I would practice starting and stopping on hills and backing up (turning around our neighbor's driveway, who happened to be a highway patrolman thinking back, that was kind of gutsy, considering I only had my permit!). The interstate is a good hour away from us, so I didn't get much practice driving on it until I was in my senior year of high school, and I would go to Raleigh to visit my boyfriend in college. By then, I felt comfortable on the slower highways and roads.
My uncle taught me when I was 11 and my cousin was 15. He said he on;y wanted to teach it once. And I drove in the sticks from 11-15 on a manual (stick shift) When I started drivers training, I was one of two who were completely comfortable. The town where I learned to drive is so small the post office doubled as a bar and the nearest neighbor was about a mile away. There was one restaurant and one gas station, in the next town. DH on the other HATES to drive and has ever since he started. Now when we go somewhere I drive.
My dad took me out to "learn" the stick shift on our quiet side roads. I conked out at every corner (but that's a differen story!). If you have busy roads, I would only go out when the driver feels they are absolutely ready. We live in a small town, so it's not such an issue here. Good luck!
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*~*Tina
Picking up our Brasilian exchange student at the a/p
How funny that you posted this! I just paid for my DD to go to driving school last Saturday. I just know that between all of the traffic here in Phoenix, and her natural blondness (read -- dingy ), that I probably would start yelling or something. So now she has her permit, and she will get 6 hours of driving instruction from the school. GREAT investment, as far as I am concerned. When I start letting her practice, at least she will have an idea and not freak us both out!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
At the time the DDs were learning we had a small stick shift. Drivers Ed did not "do" stick shifts, so that became my job. We spent a lot of time on the school campus, going up and down the hills, stopping on hills, starting on hills, etc, etc, etc. We also had a lot of time in parking lots doing the starts and stops thing. The girls started driving "for real" when both of us felt they were ready, and it never crossed my mind that there would be any problem! They gave me just what I expected - additional drivers so that I could FINALLY be a passenger in a car!
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She was very intimidated by others drivers and figured that she would be better off the road than on. Her job was the thing that forced her to behind the wheel... and she is an excellent driver now!
) as she didn't want to drive on the freeways of major cities or in areas of road construction of which there were many. I would say that the sooner your DS gets some real driving under his belt, the more confident he will become. Good luck! 
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And I drove in the sticks from 11-15 on a manual (stick shift) When I started drivers training, I was one of two who were completely comfortable. The town where I learned to drive is so small the post office doubled as a bar 
and the nearest neighbor was about a mile away. There was one restaurant and one gas station, in the next town. DH on the other HATES to drive and has ever since he started. Now when we go somewhere I drive.
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