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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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
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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.
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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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Early in the webcast today, Karl Holz mentioned that he also oversees ABD, and alluded there being some kind of connection between the two, or ABD-type experiences on DCL, or something like that. I cannot recall exactly what he said.
Who would like to venture a guess as to what this might entail? An ABD+DCL vacation similar to Land-&-Sea? Or simply ABD-style excursions? Other ideas?
Or did I misunderstand him?
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I missed the webcast, and I can't find a link to it currently (at least, at a Disney-owned site - anyone have one?), however, I've discussed the "synergies" in the past.
Holz's group has DCL, ABD, and the new off-property resorts being built in Hawaii and Washington DC (more of those are probably in the works). The grand scheme of things seems pretty obvious to me:
ABD will gradually (or even quickly) move to become a guided tour business that supports DCL and the new off-property resorts, as well as the free-standing tours we now see (well, there is the Disneyland/Hollywood excursion currently). For example, some of the other cruise lines in the Alaska trade operate their own hotels and guided tour add-ons to their cruises, rather than farm them out to independent companies. If DCL doesn't start that immediately, I suspect it'll come along pretty quickly. For 2011, DCL is offering round-trip cruises. Other lines offer one-way cruises with substantial add-on stays in Alaska, since folks want to see more of the state than they can see during a few days of port-of-call visits. After DCL "tests the waters" who knows what'll come next.
I see the same sort of thing happening in Hawaii and DC. In essence, instead of building more theme parks, Disney gets to use the hotels as home base for "virtual theme parks." So, they'd get the lodging money and the excursion money and a goodly chunk of the food money, and on a per-day basis, that's about as much (or even more) than theme park guests spend on a daily basis, without having to build a park.
On top of that, DCL can visit many of the places they're building hotels (or are likely to build hotels). For DC, they'd cruise to Baltimore, and the Hawaii hotel (Ko Alina Resort) is adjacent to a port facility. That means the Land/Sea package is alive and well, no matter where Disney may build its hotels, and with relatively high-priced excursions available in each of those destinations, too... The sky may be the limit (or maybe not - with sub-orbital tourist flights in the works now, maybe the sky isn't the limit )
With Disney's reputation for quality, the company has the potential of making serious inroads into the regular excursion business in many big tourism-focused destinations, giving companies like Gray Line a run for their money.
Where might Disney build more hotels in the future? I'd look at the current ABD tour selections. They're already cherry-picking some of of the most popular guided tour destinations in the business. A Disney-owned hotel with DVC units in... New York, Boston, somewhere in the Southwest, the Jackson Hole/Yellowstone region, Tuscany/Venice/Rome, Ireland, outside London, New Orleans....
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I had an impression like Dave...they will be offering high end "Disney exclusive" tours for cruise guests. Since they already have guides in parts of Alaska that may be the ideal testing ground.
I see the same sort of thing happening in Hawaii and DC. In essence, instead of building more theme parks, Disney gets to use the hotels as home base for "virtual theme parks." So, they'd get the lodging money and the excursion money and a goodly chunk of the food money, and on a per-day basis, that's about as much (or even more) than theme park guests spend on a daily basis, without having to build a park.
On top of that, DCL can visit many of the places they're building hotels (or are likely to build hotels). For DC, they'd cruise to Baltimore, and the Hawaii hotel (Ko Alina Resort) is adjacent to a port facility. That means the Land/Sea package is alive and well, no matter where Disney may build its hotels, and with relatively high-priced excursions available in each of those destinations, too... The sky may be the limit (or maybe not - with sub-orbital tourist flights in the works now, maybe the sky isn't the limit )
This is an interesting point I hadn't thought of. I live in the Northern VA/DC area and know about the hotel that Disney is building. But I never thought that perhaps they'd have a sailing or so out of Baltimore that connects with a DC hotel stay or ABD trip. Something to keep an eye on!
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