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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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've been working on collecting little trinkets and coming up with craft ideas to help with the countdown of our trip in Dec. It's such a long way out but we've been planning it for a while so the kids are so excited I wanted to come up with ways to keep that excitement alive until closer to.
What does everyone do to prepare and get the kids excited for the trip?
So far I'm creating some "disney mail" from various characters. I got a bunch of Disney scrapbook paper for 3 for $1.00 and I'm going to make little letters to give to the kids. I also got 2 Disney mail boxes for .62 cents each because they are valentines boxes so the mail will "arrive" in them.
I found some Disney lanyards for $1.00ea so I think I might look into the pin trading.
I'm going to make up some Disney dollars so they can earn some spending money for doing various things.
Then I also found some awesome HUGE Disney luggage tags that have Mickey on them and say "On my way to see Mickey!" they were super cheap. I found a pic of them online.
What has everyone else made/done??
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Rose Our little family Hook(DH), Tink(8) & Peter Pan(7), & Piglet 28 months or 24 months corrected.
Our kids are older, so we place a trivia question in their school lunch each day. It makes for a great dinner conversation later and they look forward to using the trivia when we get to the park (ie. where is the exact centre of a park, tombstones at HM, light on in the window on Main Street, etc.)
30 days out, we wrap a little something to unwrap each day that they will need for the trip (mini-sunscreen, toothbrush, puzzle book, mini shampoo, etc)
I think that it's more fun for me than them sometimes
I've been working on collecting little trinkets and coming up with craft ideas to help with the countdown of our trip in Dec. It's such a long way out but we've been planning it for a while so the kids are so excited I wanted to come up with ways to keep that excitement alive until closer to.
What does everyone do to prepare and get the kids excited for the trip?
So far I'm creating some "disney mail" from various characters. I got a bunch of Disney scrapbook paper for 3 for $1.00 and I'm going to make little letters to give to the kids. I also got 2 Disney mail boxes for .62 cents each because they are valentines boxes so the mail will "arrive" in them.
I found some Disney lanyards for $1.00ea so I think I might look into the pin trading.
I'm going to make up some Disney dollars so they can earn some spending money for doing various things.
Then I also found some awesome HUGE Disney luggage tags that have Mickey on them and say "On my way to see Mickey!" they were super cheap. I found a pic of them online.
What has everyone else made/done??
May I ask where you got the luggage tags? They are super cute!
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.
busybee - I got them at a local Liquidation store, they have all sorts of odd things so you never know what you are going to find but these were the best find ever.
This online store has them, it seems like it's the same thing. They are not stickers though it's an actual luggage tag so I'm not sure where the sticker comes in that they describe.
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Rose Our little family Hook(DH), Tink(8) & Peter Pan(7), & Piglet 28 months or 24 months corrected.
-A weekly Disney night with Disney movies and a food item cooked from a Disney Park recipe book (there are several out there but we only have one from 1995).
-A weekly Disney trivia contest - have the questions "mailed" to the kids and the answers must be "sent" back by the following week. Have Disney $$$ as the prize for most correct.
-Make a calendar together (have the kids draw or print off their fav Disney photos for the monthly picture). Cross the days off daily by writing in the square one thing you are expecting to see or do at WDW. Take it in turns as you have so many days left to count down.
-Leave Disney notes around the house where you would like the kids to tidy or clean. When they find & read the note, complete the task then show you, you can reward them with Disney $$ or a small Disney trinket for their trip.
-Decorate a 'Disney box'. Leave in central place and when kids receive an item for their trip they can pack it straight away. Going through the box monthly allowed us to see the items we still needed to get. (Things like cheap ponchos, Disney hairbands, caps, sunscreen & closer to the trip - cereal and disp. bowls/spoons and other snack items for the plane trip and park days).
-On rainy days you can entertain everyone by writing to Disney to request autographs and after planning your park schedule you can get a large sheet of cardboard and set it out like a planner page. Have the kids decorate the days with pictures they find and print from the internet (or photos of past trips) and letters cut from old magazines. This schedule of events we even took to WDW and put up in the room for the kids to easily see what we were doing next.
-In the car on longer trips we played Disney ABCs. We took it in turn to start we each letter and find something about Disney. A - autopia. B - Barnstormer etc. (Make it harder and say where you would find it also).
-Don't forget to ask for a fairygodmailer and then return the favour...
Have fun!
DD's was 28 months on her first trip. Around her 2nd birthday, I got a big posterboard, lots of Disney stickers and some markers. I marked off little calendar blocks on the posterboard one evening, and then the next day DD helped me decorate it with all the stickers and markers. We hung it up on the wall in our kitchen, at toddler height so she could check it out, and she would often ask for more stickers so she could add to her decorating. We put a shiny foil star sticker on the calendar each Saturday evening to mark the weeks passing by. It was a fun little craft for a young toddler to help with. I think we'll do it again soon, and DD is old enough now to do some big-time decorating!
With an over-planner for a DM my kids are easily entertained with shopping bit by bit & hunting down the things we'll need, packing park/ carry-on bags, getting the stuff for the scrapbook in line, listing top ten things to eat/ see/ do. But we also count down the last 30 days with a Disney movie on any time we can (thank heaven for a large family who seems to never be able to think of any birthday/ Christmas present except a Disney DVD)
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It was a fun little craft for a young toddler to help with. I think we'll do it again soon, and DD is old enough now to do some big-time decorating!
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