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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Maybe a little introduction is in order to start. There's me, a complete disneyphile, who has put dear old Walt in my personal pantheon, my hubbie who likes Disney just fine but doesn't get my blantent love for almost anything disney and our lovely two and a half year old daughter. (Later on my mother, who loves Disney too, will be added to the mix)
We're going to go to Disney World in December (well actually in November, because we arrive the 30th of November) and we are staying 3 weeks. The reason for the long trip is that it is very far away for us Dutch people (nine hour flight and a 6 hour time difference)
I have been to Disney World a few times in my life (4 to be exact, which is a lot for the avarage dutch person who tend to visit Disneyland Paris more often, it being closer) my husband and my daughter have never been. The last time I went to disney was almost 10 years ago (januari 2000)
There will be a lot of 'firsts' for us this time. First time trip for DH and DD, first time staying onsite for all of us. We're going to stay at the AKL and I am still in awe that we'll be staying there. Originally we were going to stay at the POP, which is already a lot cooler than the seedy motels (I'm talking glasshards in the swimmingpool area here) I have stayed at before being a student, but thanks to my mum, who will be joining us on December 8th, we are not staying at the AKL. My mum is chipping in and she likes a little bit more luxury (who am I to complain)
So I started to look up all sorts of information about Disney. And it is hard to plough through peoples opinions. There are so many mixes reviews out there. It even had me worried a little about the AKL. Some people say the rooms are to small, too dark and the location is too far away. But then again when I read those comments I think... last time I was in a seedy motel, this will be heaven compare to that. And we're renting a car, distance is not a huge problem (again, it can't be further away than the offsite dodgy motel)
One of the things I am very very excited about that we are going right before christmas. I love christmas, (my favourite holiday) and what better place to enjoy the decorations than disney? The sad thing is that we will be missing a very big dutch holiday when we are on holiday, called Sinterklaas (Saint Nicolas) which is a bit like Santa Clause with presents and sweets, but I don't think my daugther wil mind, she still very young and she gets to go to disney and celebrate christmas for about a month now Plus, she will get tonnes of disney presents, also for her b-day in february
And what else will we be celebrating (besides Sinterklaas)? Our wedding anniversery. We did not get the time this year to celebrate the fact that we were married for 5 years. My husband promised he would think of something romantic for this trip (not that you can get real romantic with a two year old and your mother on the trip, but I will settle for any form of romance right now, abstract or no) At our anniversary I actually had to work until late in the evening...
As I mentioned before, my mum will be joining us after about a week. She has more grandchildren and one of them has a birthday in December, so she is coming straight after. We have got 21 day disney tickets (my mum 14 day ones) that allow us to go to all the disney parks, water parks and disney quest as much as we want for 3 weeks. I think that will be great with a two year old to go for only a few hours and then rest and go back another day. We also have Seaworld (1 day) tickets and Universal (Island and studios 2 day hopper) tickets.
recently I made our ADR at an insane amount of restaurants. I have never done a character meal and now we are going to do several (Chef Mickey's, CTR, 1900 PF, CP, Donalds Safari Breakfast, Ohana) and we are so curious what that will be like. We're also doing Hoop dee Doo musical revue, and restaurants that are supposed to be fun like 50's primetime cafe, wispering canyon cafe or sci-fi. We have no idea what to expect
So right now we are counting down. My mum told my daughter that we are going and she keeps asking me WHEN? She is determined to hug Cinderella (who she has adopted as her favourite princess) and she wants to talk to Nemo (I don't even thinkt this is possible)
I will also be at WDW at the same time as you. If you want to, we are having a Passporter meet on Dec. 2nd in ECPOT at the Italy pavilion. We would love to meet you. I too am Dutch by blood. So this would be great to meet someone else who is. I am also bringing my mom on our trip. So we have more in common.
What a wonderful trip you have planned! How exciting for your DD...
Can''t wait to hear more! I think you will find AKL just beautiful!
My Father's mother was Dutch (Amon) and used to tell us all about Sinterclaas when we were very young!
You have a incredible trip planned! AKL is my favorite resort, and though it is a bit farther out, I appreciate that quiet when it's time to relax and sleep. The character meals you have chosen are some of my DDs favorites so I hope your DD enjoys them, too.
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I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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What a great start and it sounds like you will have an amazing trip. With three weeks you can definitely take it easy and relax, letting your daughter enjoy everything but also give her time for rest when she needs it. How cute that she is so excited for Cinderella and how she wants to talk to Nemo. She will probably love Turtle Time with Crush then as she can talk to Nemo's Turtle Friend...
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I will also be at WDW at the same time as you. If you want to, we are having a Passporter meet on Dec. 2nd in ECPOT at the Italy pavilion. We would love to meet you. I too am Dutch by blood. So this would be great to meet someone else who is. I am also bringing my mom on our trip. So we have more in common.
Oh that is so cool!! What time are you all meeting? It would be nice to meet some fellow disney fanatics (though I doubt they'll be hard to find in the disney eutopia of the world )
I love to plan, but I am realistic about the fact that we will probably end up doing only half the stuff we planned! That's okay, no big deal, indeed there is always a next time.
This is also the reason why we are going 3 weeks. I think we can get a reasonable amount of Disney magic in that time. I have planned everything for 'half' days. And we intend on getting plenty of rest during the afternoons. I intend to act like a toddler myself and get a little nap in the afternoon and go to bed early at night (with a few exceptions)
Hurray for getting intouch with my inner child, *grin*, I will be skipping and hopping through disney world in a little more than 2 months
Last edited by Chanti; 10-22-2009 at 03:25 AM..
Reason: bad spelling ;)
I love plan, but I am realistic about the fact that we will probably end up doing only half the stuff we planned! That's okay, no big deal, indeed there is always a next time.
This is also the reason why we are going 3 weeks. I think we can get a reasonable amount of Disney magic in that time. I have planned everything for 'half' days. And we intend on getting plenty of rest during the afternoons. I intend to act like a toddler myself and get a little nap in the afternoon and go to bed early at night (with a few exceptions)
Hurray for getting intouch with my inner child, *grin*, I will be skipping and hopping through disney world in a little more than 2 months
You're right - you'll definitely get a good amount of Disney magic in three days and I like your idea of the naps in the afternoon.
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Some dutchies go to Disney World
The reason for the long trip is that it is very far away for us Dutch people (nine hour flight and a 6 hour time difference
)
)
Plus, she will get tonnes of disney presents, also for her b-day in february
At our anniversary I actually had to work until late in the evening... 
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