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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'm kind of excited that we've got some things sorted out for our trip next August! I figured I'd share because dh certainly isn't excited with me.
I've decided that I'm going to take one day off our tickets. We're going to be at Disney for 8 days and 7 nights. I had purchased 7 days worth of park hoppers. I had figured that if we get an early flight on our arrival day or a later flight on our departure day, we might have time to go into a park. The more I think about that, the more I doubt we will. I know people do it all the time, and maybe we will when the kids are older, but not next summer. That'll save us something like $200.
I figure we'd pack our bathingsuits in our carry-on and spend whatever time we have after arriving at the hotel until it's time for dinner in the pool. Depending on our flight time on departure day, I may have everyone swimming again and then have plastic bags for our wet suits on the way home.
We're going with a big-ish party. It will be the four of us, plus two of my sisters, two nieces, and my parents. We're flying, probably from Providence. One sister and one niece are flying from Hartford. One sister, one niece, and my parents are driving from Connecticut. We will all be arriving at different times. We decided that our first meal in would be at O'Hana if I could get it. A big celebration dinner to start the beginning of the trip.
I also decided that, just for the four of us--dh, ds, dd and me--I would book the Wishes Dessert Party one night. I know this is something my sisters want to do, but I wanted to do something special for just us.
My sisters were all excited to take a day and go to Universal for HP. I decided against it for myself because I don't want to take time away from the kids.
I also went through and outlined the things that I wanted to do and picked days to do all those things based on Touringplans.com. This way if people don't want to hang out with us, they don't have to.
My kids are early risers, and so is my dad. I'm thinking that several days will have my dad coming to a park super early with the four of us, and then meeting up with the rest of the crew later in the morning. I'm also planning on mid-day breaks. I'm not sure how many of the people we're going with would be ready for a mid-day break.
That's a lot! Way more than I thought it would be. Thanks for being excited with me!
You have some good plans! But I have to ask, are you sure about dropping the day on your PHs? It should only be a difference of around $3 a day for each ticket -no way would it cost $200 for your family of 4!!!! We fly to MCO from BDL and even if you don't get the earliest flight in/last flight out (which is what we always get), you should still have time to go to a park on one of those days. We always plan on going to a park on arrival day because we cannot be sure that our rooms will be ready when we get there. Then again, others prefer to go to DTD. I just thought you would like to know that the day won't cost you what you think it will.