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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 am really in need of opinions on this one. My son will be entering the 1st grade this Wednesday. Right now our vacation is planned from October 30 - November 6. He would miss school 6 days (the 30th and the 31st as well as the 3,4,5,6). He would go back to school for 1 day (the 7th of November) and then have off a 4 day weekend because of Professional Development Day for the teachers and Columbus Day on the 10th and the 11th of November.
DH and I sat down and called Disney to inquire about changing our plans. All they had that would work into our schedule is November 9 - November 16th. If we did it this way we could plan to arrive late on the 8th and stay at one of the AS and get a full day on the 9th instead of only a couple of hours. This will also mean that Andrew only misses 3 days of school compared to 6 since we would be gone for over the 4 day weekend for Professional Development day and Columbus Day.
The problem is that a good friend JUST planned his wedding for November 15th. This vacation for us comes after a very long year with a chronically ill baby. This vacation is much needed for our boys as well as us. DH says he doesn't want to plan a family vacation around a wedding. Part of me agrees and part of me wants to be at the wedding.
What do you all think? Is it worth missing a wedding so Andrew only misses 3 days of school?
How flexible is your school district &/or teachers about missing day from school? In our district they encourage educational trips & I've never had a problem taking the boys out of school for 2 trips to WDW per school year.( usually 4-5 days each time) We are getting a new Principal this year so she might try to give me a hard time but I doubt it. My kids don't miss many days due to illness ( fortunately) so usually their only absent days are WDW.
One other thing you might want to factor in is the crowds .. Would Columbus Day be exceptionally crowded at WDW due to everyone having off from school. We were at WDW during Presidents Day weekend & it was a zoo ( it was also Daytona weekend as well)
Is there no way to go & come home the 14th & still be able to attend your friends wedding?
Sorry I'm not much help.. I guess it's a gut feeling for you type decision... BUT ( & this is just me) WDW usually wins out over most anything [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Sorry I couldn't be more help but
Hi!
I am a mom of four, and we take an annual trip to WDW the first week of December every year. I have been pulling my children for 5 days, sometimes 6, because that is the time my DH can shift his work schedule to have a vacation. We have NEVER run into any problems with school, my guys maintain an "A" average, and when they were little, we always bought a special scrapbook for each one. We gave each child an inexpensive one-time use camera, and each day, they would choose 2 or 3 favorite things, take a picture, and in the evening, we spent about 20 minutes having them "journal" it on 2 pages of their book. (DH and I also took pictures, so we could supplement if needed!) Epcot was wonderful for this. We would stop in every country, and their job was to learn one new thing about that land. The cast members loved it, and gave so many wonderful ideas, and free trinkets to add to our books.
When we returned, the guys would share these books with their classmates. I have never, in 15 years, had any teacher be anything but supportive.
I DO NOT take my children's education lightly, and we do not allow skipping school or less than your best effort, BUT I also CHERISH my family, and Disney allows us the chance to reconnect with each other in a way we simply cannot do with day to day stresses. I vote to take your little ones, and go! Unwind, let Disney embrace you with wonder, and know that the memories you are creating will last forever, and be passed down for generations!
Good luck, and whatever you choose, have an amazing time!
P.S. Enjoy Disney through your children's eyes! There is plenty of time to be an adult later!
I would do whichever works out better for your family schedule - and not worry too much about missing school for 1st grade. Just be sure to give the teacher lots of notice, and take along some level appropriate books. If he takes a little time each day during down time to read for 5-10 minutes, and then to write a journal entry (Most first graders write a journal page each day at school, so he will be familiar with this - usually 1-2 sentences with a picture.), then he will not lose any ground.
We have taken our girls out of school for at least 4-5 days for a Disney vacation each year for the last couple of years. Take advantage of this now - it gets much more difficult when they are older!
We are actually going down Nov 9-16th this year ourselves, thanks to the 4 day weekend. My oldest is in high school now - Sept & the beginning of Oct are field hockey season, the end of October is Midterms, Dec is concert season, and on it goes! I'm very glad that we took our vacations when we did, as this may be our last opportunity to do a school year trip!
I say, if your family needs this vacation - take the earlier vacation, and don't worry about Andrew missing school. Then you can come home and relax, and enjoy your friend's wedding!
Originally posted by poohlover: I DO NOT take my children's education lightly, and we do not allow skipping school or less than your best effort, BUT I also CHERISH my family, and Disney allows us the chance to reconnect with each other in a way we simply cannot do with day to day stresses. I vote to take your little ones, and go!
<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Took the words straight out of my mouth! We've consistently taken our children out of school to go on trips - not just Disney. Education is exremely important and it doesn't always happen in a classroom setting.
Follow your heart and don't sweat the small stuff! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
Thanks Everyone [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We decided to change our vacation so Andrew wouldn't miss as much school. Because of all we went through with our twin daughters last winter he isn't up to where he should be so we don't want him to miss that much school.
We are going to miss the wedding but I'll live with it in exchange for Disney any day!
I just wanted to say that you are probably making a very wise decision. As a former teacher, I can honestly say that I believe in my heart that first grade is the MOST important grade of school. It is the "groundwork" of learning (specifically reading)...This is ONLY my opinion, but it is such a crucial year!!! I was trained in early childhood, but I mainly taught middle school, and I still believe 1st Grade is the most important of them all! You would be amazed at what they can cover in 8 days!
In fact, my hubby has been hinting at taking a vacation in August of next year, and my little guy will be in first grade. I have already said NO WAY! It is the "teacher" in me making this decision!
That being said, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Disney World! I never had a problem with parents pulling kiddos out for vacation, especially if the kids were good students. I can also say that as a parent, you know your child better than anyone. If you feel your little one could handle missing several days, then you are probably right.
I just wanted to give you "kudos". I would make the same decision if it were me (speaking from both the teacher and parent side)!
I am a teacher and have said in the past how much I prefer kids not to miss school. For some kids who are the "A" student and whose parents are responsible about school its fine, but so many of the kids who are pulled out at the high school level are the ones who aren't doing well and whose parents we never hear from. I understand it because of value season, etc., but I don't like it.
When my daughter was in 3rd grade, we had to pull her out of school for 3 weeks( I cant drive and my husband deployed, so we had to go home to CA).
I let her teacher know as soon as I was sure my husband was leaving and she gave me 3 weeks worth of "real" work(the stuff that really mattered, vs the busy work and craft stuff that we would not have time for).
While home, we made sure that the basics were done every day(I had my grandma and mom to help w/that) and we did what someone else suggested and made scrapbooks to bring home w/pictures and facts about every place we went(Los Angeles Natural History Museum was a 3 day excursion w/an entire scrapbook and roll of film dedicated to it).
Found things at Disneyland that were educational and resulted in spin off discusions(Ca history. Railroad history in the US, slavery and the civil war because of great moments w/Mr. Lincoln, etc).
We also made sure to send postcards from everyplace we visited back to her class. Her teacher read them outloud and then they discussed where we had been as part of their daily lesson.
Her teacher also made a point to stay connected and called once a week and sent her a package w/pictures and drawings from classmates and a pack of gum or a piece of candy.
The only thing that I think we really "missed" out on was her speech therapy, but even that was supplemented by complete instructions from her speech therapist.
In the end, she was right up to par and maybe even more because she had done so much reading and math "life" skills (if you want this toy, YOU need to figure out if you have enough money and then count it out and pay yourself and if you want to go on this ride, then you must read all the signs on the way and if you want to go to the beach, then you must tell me about 1 animal that lives there, etc)
I think you will be just fine whatever you end up doing in the end!!
Enjoy your trip and send an extra special wedding gift!LOL!!
We always take our trips to WDW off-season, both for lower crowds/heat and cost. My son has autism and really needs a rigid schedule, but he and his teacher use the upcoming trip to talk in class about what he is going to see, look at maps, write, etc. And of course, he gets to follow up when he gets back.
It's probably good not to take a very young child out too many days when they are in first or second grade when much of the basics are being taught. A few days for a small child seems like a very long time. Your friend will doubtless understand that your family has made plans. But you can also regard this as a chance to selflessly shop for a special wedding gift, maybe from one of the countries at Epcot.
[img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
I think you've made a very wise decision. A guy as young as yours misses a great deal when he's out of school for as long as 5 or 6 days. What he learns at WDW in no way compares with what he would be learning in school, and especially if he's been having a tough time of it during the last year, you have made a most responsible and caring decision. Hope you and your family have the most wonderful time.
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