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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 my outside temps are probably a heat wave to you all (2 C/wind chill -15)-when you have your sub-zero temps with wind chills in the -40's region, how do you guys get around? Will your cars start? Do they close up shop everywhere? I'm certain if you're used to it it's one thing, but I just can't fathom how cars will run/furnaces keep up with that much cold? How on earth do you go OUTSIDE and not freeze to death?
I thought I'd die on my way home this AM-I had the heater on high and usually I can bump it down after ten minutes or so; today it stayed on high almost the whole way home!! I've lived here all my life but as I get older I can't deal with the cold as well!!
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I'm in Canada, but not in the artic region . Ottawa is about 90 minutes from the US border in upstate NY.
Right now our temp is -2F but with the windchill it feels like -18F. We do see temps like this last anywhere from a couple of days to up to two weeks! Nothing closes up here unless there's a severe ice storm and/or power outage. Outside recess will be cancelled as it's too dangerous. Older cars will have something called a block battery that can be plugged in and charged. I do believe that the newer cars and batteries are made to withstand very cold weather. I could be wrong on that account, but the newer cars we've had haven't needed to be plugged in.
Well, I'm in Alaska, and the temp here was 43F! It was actually raining! We've had some bizarre winters for the last decade or so.
When it does get really cold, it was -23F one day last week, we do what most people do in extreme weather. Run from one warm place to another as quick as possible! The cars are not happy in the extreme cold, most people who have to park outside for any length of time will have block heaters to keep their oil from getting so thick that the engine doesn't want to turn over. Another necessity....remote start! That way you stand inside and start you car and hopefully it will be a tiny bit warm by the time that you jump in!
My DH has worked far up north in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, and they keep their trucks running at all times when the weather gets really bad. You wouldn't catch ME working up there!
We've been in the -40 to -45 windchill range for the past 4 or 5 days. When it gets this cold the news always takes a camera downtown and asks people what they think of the weather and you always get some smartypants who says "Nah, I don't mind it, it's Winnipeg. We're tough here." He's probably drunk. If they asked me I'd say "It's Winnipeg. I wanna get the h-e-double hockey sticks outta here!!" It's kind of funny when your breath freezes your nosehairs -- breathe in, they freeze; breathe out, they defrost. Fun. It's aggravating when your eyelashes ice up though because it's hard to keep them open with ice weighing them down.
Do they close up shops?!!! No way. If they closed stuff when it hits 0F or -10F or whatever, businesses would go broke. We have winter for 6 months. The only thing affected is usually the school buses in the country won't be operating and recess (city or country) is indoors. Other than that, it's business as usual. I went grocery shopping on Saturday. It was 40 below. I just dressed warmly. Winter boots, gloves and a down-filled jacket. Did anybody see the football game last night (Giants vs Packers)? The windchill there was -20F. The way the people were dressed in the (packed!!) stands is just what we do. *shrug* You can't do anything about it, so you just deal with it (and grumble a bit ). We try to not spend much time outside if we're not dressed properly. When you get to the true Arctic, you won't believe the good gear they have for up there. DH works up there a lot and has neoprene face guards, boots good to 60 below, long warm down-filled coat, gauntlet style warm mittens, etc etc.
As far as the cars go, yeah, they can get a bit cranky with the cold. You see cars driving around with extension cords wrapped around the side mirror so that people can plug the block heater in wherever they park. The newer cars, like Deena said, seem to handle the cold a bit better, we didn't plug our van in on Saturday and it started up fine (it was inside an unheated garage which helped a little); but DD's '92 Grand Am was parked on the street all day when she was at work and she needed a boost to start it at the end of her shift. She called CAA (AAA) but there was a 4 hour wait, so I guess hers wasn't the only one! We don't idle our newer gas engine cars much anymore because it's not good for them and gas is over $4 a gallon, but older cars need to idle - we're thinking of getting a remote starter for DS's '78 Malibu so he doesn't have to run outside to start his car 10 minutes before he needs to drive anywhere. Used to be that people wouldn't turn off their diesel-powered vehicles but I don't know if that still holds true now that diesel is so expensive.
Usually we don't freeze anything when we're outside, although it does happen. I've had mild frostbite on my ears, cheeks, toes and fingertips when I was younger. And I was one of those really mean kids who made my sister put her tongue on a metal railing when we were little. (In my defense, I didn't realise it would be so bloody and painful and I got into a LOT of trouble for it afterwards!!)
I defer to Donna on this subject as we were just discussing it the other night and she wins! LOL. But it does get darn cold here. Right now it's -2 - haven't checked the windchill. I'm assuming it's still around -25. I've never had a problem starting my vehicle - even when I used to park outside for 8 hour shifts at work. Life goes on as usual. You have things to do/places to be, you just do it
__________________
*~*Tina
Picking up our Brasilian exchange student at the a/p
One more thing about cars.... my Dad ingrained in me that you keep the gas tank at least half full at all times. If you get stuck in the middle of nowhere, you need a fighting chance so if you have half a tank of gas you should be able to keep the car running off and on until help arrives. We also carry a Survival Kit in our cars. Ours has a sleeping bag, 2 empty coffee tins, candles, matches, granola bars and a small collapsible shovel. The sleeping bag is for warmth if you get stuck. One coffee tin is to hold a burning candle, the other is to collect snow in to melt for water using the candles and matches. And the granola bar is for a bit of energy. The shovel is obviously to try to dig yourself out of a snowbank, but sometimes that's impossible, so you need to clear the snow away from your exhaust pipe so you don't gas yourself as the snow builds up around the car. Some people have been stranded for a couple of days because they were driving in a blizzard and got lost/stuck/whatever and they have survived because of their Survival Kit. When it gets this cold, we pretend like we're blasé about it, but really, we take it pretty seriously.
I live in Central MA now and it's cold today - about zero with a windchill of 6 below. I went to HS in Northern NH by Mt. Washington and 40 below was common there during the winter. Like Donna, I was taught as soon as I got my license about keeping the gas tank half full at all times which I still do. I also still carry snacks with me and in my trunk as I write this are spare snow boots, coats, scarves, hats and mittens for each of us as well as blankets, jumper cables and flares. I figure if its all with us nothing will happen but with a 40 mile one way commute each day through no-man's land I want to be safe.
It's weather like this that made us decide to pay the extra $50 a month for garage rental when we moved to our new apartment last summer. When we can't park inside, we try to park with the engine facing a building (to block the wind), which the car seems to appreciate.
As far as going outside -- I'm okay with just plain cold temps (down to about 10 or 15 below). As long as there's no wind, and as long as I don't have to stay outside too long, it's not so bad. Dress warmly, keep moving, not a huge deal. And of course living here my whole life has thickened my blood. LOL
Wind chill, however, is another story. When the wind is so cold that it literally takes your breath away -- I'm not so much a fan of that!
No experience here, and I proudly admit that I am a weather weenie. I don't think I could move north. Or south for that matter, I don't like Florida weather from mid May to the end of September.
Oh Donna, you are much too sweet to have done that to your sister!
East Central IL has been cold too. We managed to get to freezing today with lots of sun, but the wind was still cold. We are suppose to get a few inches of snow tonight, but we'll see. We have been having a very dry winter here so far. I love snow so it's very frustrating!
Keep warm everyone, before you know it we'll be complaining about the heat!
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. Ottawa is about 90 minutes from the US border in upstate NY.
We've had some bizarre winters for the last decade or so. 
The cars are not happy in the extreme cold, most people who have to park outside for any length of time will have block heaters to keep their oil from getting so thick that the engine doesn't want to turn over. Another necessity....remote start! That way you stand inside and start you car and hopefully it will be a tiny bit warm by the time that you jump in!
No way. If they closed stuff when it hits 0F or -10F or whatever, businesses would go broke. We have winter for 6 months. The only thing affected is usually the school buses in the country won't be operating and recess (city or country) is indoors. Other than that, it's business as usual. I went grocery shopping on Saturday. It was 40 below. I just dressed warmly. Winter boots, gloves and a down-filled jacket. Did anybody see the football game last night (Giants vs Packers)? The windchill there was -20F. The way the people were dressed in the (packed!!) stands is just what we do. *shrug* You can't do anything about it, so you just deal with it (and grumble a bit 
). We try to not spend much time outside if we're not dressed properly. When you get to the true Arctic, you won't believe the good gear they have for up there. DH works up there a lot and has neoprene face guards, boots good to 60 below, long warm down-filled coat, gauntlet style warm mittens, etc etc.
When we can't park inside, we try to park with the engine facing a building (to block the wind), which the car seems to appreciate. 
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