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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Dawn. There is a way for your daughter, now in the U.K., and the other Girl Scouts to get telephone calls from the U.S. to the U.K. for only .8 cents (less than one cent) per minute.
As it is off subject I can not tell you here. If you or anyone is interested PM me and I can make a post of it.
Just tossing out another idea...maybe the mother of the other girl scout didn't realize her DD took the phone on the trip until it was too late...like they're out of the country? How old are these girls? Some kids just don't listen to their parents in a case like this. As a former GS leader and having the no electronics rule on trips, we've had girls bring their ipods and phones only to find out they snuck them in their luggage without mom/dad knowing. I think in this case, I wouldn't just assume the mother broke the rules without regards to others.
So does this girl have the electrical converter for her phone charger? If not, it's going to run down soon and that will be that.
DH didn't need to go off on you just because you follow the rules and others don't. And I agree w/ Teresa, I wouldn't offer to pay for the call. They were the ones who broke the rules.
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Pat (a.k.a., PFlamingo) "We are the people our parents warned us about."
Sherri is right it might not have been the mother breaking the rule. It might have been the 14 yr old. I've seen plenty of kids my dd's age that never listen to anything their parents tell them to do - or not do. I wouldn't offer to pay for the call. If the girl brought her phone when she wasn't suppose to and then lent it out let her pay for the calls then maybe she will be more willing to follow the rules next time.
Changing the subject here....but when I was in Girl Scouts I never got to do a trip like that. WOW that is amazing that they get to do all that in Girl Scouts. My biggest trip in GS was to Disney and we stayed at Fort Wilderness camping. That is another whole story LOL. Im so glad that your daughter is getting tosee the world like that. She will remember that forever.
Although my kids don't realize it, their cell phones are something I provide to them for their safety. They think its so they can text their friends 24 hours a day but thats another story. I agree with the mother allowing her child to have her phone on the trip. If that was my child she would have her cell phone too. I would not want my child to not be able to get ahold of me because the other kids don't have phones or because they don't work.
I agree with the mother allowing her child to have her phone on the trip.
Even though there was a rule that said no cell phones? You'd still allow one to be taken?
I for one would not offer to pay for the phone calls. 1) the phone wasn't suppose to be there and 2) your daughter made the call knowing the rules. If when everyone gets home and the mom of this other girl wants payment for the phone calls your daughter made, I would make your daughter come up with the money. She knew the rules but she chose to ignore them and make the phones call anyway. She's unfortunately just as guilty as the girl who brought the phone IMO.
My DS is off on a major trip with the BOY scouts right now. Typically the leaders say no electronics/phones etc. However this time, "small electronic devices for listening to music" (aka - iPods) were allowed especially for the travel portion of their trips (our boys had around 14 hours to travel from Alaska to Washington DC). They were also allowed to bring cell phones to contact their parents and for those boys without phones, the leaders are allowing them to use theirs. Also, once they get to the Jamboree site, I believe that AT&T has set up a booth to allow cell phoneless boys to contact their parents if necessary and to recharge phones for the others. Getting the occasional text message from DS has made having DS on the other side of the country/continent much easier to deal with.
As an aside, I have noticed quite a few differences in the rules/what is "allowed" for Boy Scouts vs Girl Scouts. I realize they are two different organizations, but it bugs me. One summer our boy scout troop set up a Monkey Bridge at the Girl Scout Encampment as something fun for the girls to do. With some of the left over wood, a trio of our boys were putting together a catapault as well...well, they had saws and axes and under the direction of one of our leaders were going to town sawing and chopping and lashing stuff together, having a great time. Well a couple of girls saw this and darn near freaked out on their own leader because "they have saws...why can they have saws....we can't have saws...." It almost turned ugly. I also noticed that the activity booths they had set up were all very prissy....almost exclusively arts and crafts, sewing, painting, etc......only one on astronomy. What's with that???? When we went to Boy Scout camp, DS did Geocaching, Shotgunning and Archery. There was also a zipline and rock climbing! I think the girls should be allowed to do this kind of thing too!!!! It may not be this way all over, but I was underwhelmed by the Alaska Girl Scout Council at the GS encampment. Okay - sorry - not trying to hijack!
Another aside - they (the BS Council) say no electronic devices on (most) trips and YET.....the new BS class A uniform has a pocket on the left sleeve that is just the right size for an iPod and inside the pocket is a small round hole (with button hole like stitching) that is designed to have the headphone cord go thru and up the back of the shirt to the ears.......Does this make sense to anyone out there???
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!! OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
I am one who normally follows ALL the rules but when my comes to my children's safety I have to do what I feel is best for them. I can understand them not wanting 10-15 kids on their phones. My child would have instructions that the phone does not come out unless its an emergency or it was to call home.
As a Cubmaster of a cub scout pack I completely agree with how much cooler boy scouts are over girl scouts. I was in girl scouts until I was a cadette. We have several sisters that come on camping trips and do alot of events with us. They love it just as much as the boys. I know that when girls turn 14 I think they can join venturing which is girls and boys and run by the BSA. I have a 3 year old girl and cant wait for her to join girl scouts and I have already said I will most likely become a leader because I wnat to go camping and do all the fun stuff. Cub scouts get to have a Pinewood derby and we do a cubmobile also. They are such fun events.
Michael I actually agree with you. My oldest son just turned 12 and then I also have a 9 year old. When we went to Disney in Sept we got them both cell phones. We would never let them go by themselves but just in case they got seperated they would be able to reach us. My oldest also does alot with boy scouts so we let him take it on his trips where he gets service. We live in the mountains so we dont even have service at our house. They have their phones for safety reasons and for that reason I would let them take one. I could just imagine that one of the kids gets seperated and they have no idea what to do in a foreign country. You just never know with kids.
Although my kids don't realize it, their cell phones are something I provide to them for their safety. They think its so they can text their friends 24 hours a day but thats another story. I agree with the mother allowing her child to have her phone on the trip. If that was my child she would have her cell phone too. I would not want my child to not be able to get ahold of me because the other kids don't have phones or because they don't work.
I agree. I think it should have been up to the discretion of each family as to whether or not to bring cell phones. There could have been rules in place as far as making sure they weren't a distraction. From a safety point of view, I would want my child to have ready access to a phone on a trip like that. London is a large city, and while I consider it to be fairly safe, it would be nice to know that she could call for help if she got separated from the group or something happened. My guess is that she probably was a little homesick, and just wanted to say "Hi!" and hear the familiar voices of her parents. JMHO
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I just wanted to follow the rules and told her to buy a phone card. She could call me whenever. The girl that had the phone...it was her father's international business phone so his company paid for it. Had I known that all the ADULTS had their phone I would have said the heck with it and got the international calling plan for my kid. In the end, I didn't have to give the mother any money and all was well.
I agree with the Boy Scout/Girl Sout thing. I find the girl scouts really boring. When I was a girl scout, We went to summer camp and used saws, etc. Needless to say I have 3 small scars on on my index finger and thumb from sawing wood.
We also used bunsen burners to cook food...I have a burn on my elbow from that one. I wasn't cut out for girl scouting!!! I would have loved to have done archery and junk like that. Of course, they would've had to clear the area!!!!!
I agree with the rules of the Girl Scouts. That's actually a good rule. Use calling cards. They should have made sure none of the girls had their cell phones before they left the U.S. I wouldn't offer to pay. You aren't in the wrong and your husband shouldn't be mad. This isn't your fault that one girl and her mother messed it up for everyone on the trip.
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I would have loved to have done archery and junk like that. Of course, they would've had to clear the area!!!!!
Katie's graduation
They should have made sure none of the girls had their cell phones before they left the U.S. I wouldn't offer to pay. You aren't in the wrong and your husband shouldn't be mad. This isn't your fault that one girl and her mother messed it up for everyone on the trip.
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