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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We had been warned that line-jumping was common at Paris Disneyland but we did not experience it at all this past summer. Everyone was friendly and polite.
Suzie
I love how we can discuss these delicate topics here in a civilized way. In the "other board" , this is a very hot topic and after a couple of pages the thread is closed. That's why I love Passporter so much.
As for the line cutting, I've never personally experienced it, I really don't know how I'll react. I did, on my last trip, have this man wanting to sit on my spot while waiting for Spectromagic. I had gotten up to throw away some trash in a can that was about 2 feet away. My family was there sitting. Then comes this man out of nowhere and sits between my DH and DM. I said, "excuse me that seat is taken". And he answered, "that's not a seat, that's a sidewalk". So I told him a bit more sternly, "well that sidewalk is taken, I just got up to throw some stuff in the garbage". He got up and left kind of angry, but oh well...
Wanting to post about the autistic/sensory sensitive people... I work in a Pre-K class w/some children who have these overloads as well. Sometimes you can distract them or adapt the situation to help them. Yet, this is not always possible. I like the idea of a quiet area or room for the children or adults experiencing this situation. It would be great to have while the others (besides the caregiver who is with the person) wait and have a card to give up front. There is ALOT going on in the parks and in the lines. For most of us, not an issue, but those w/ special needs and sensitivity, WOW... WAY TOO MUCH FOR THEM. And once they peak w/ emotions, it can, at times, take alot of time for them to calm back down. Fidget toys help, but also calmness and quietness too. I wonder if headphones (big ones) or even ear plugs could help some w/noise overload (muffled sounds and noise)... we are going to try this for a few of our kiddos in our room just so the rest of the kids can have music time. Good Luck to all and may no line-jumpers cross your path ....
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Wanting to post about the autistic/sensory sensitive people... I work in a Pre-K class w/some children who have these overloads as well. Sometimes you can distract them or adapt the situation to help them. Yet, this is not always possible. I like the idea of a quiet area or room for the children or adults experiencing this situation. It would be great to have while the others (besides the caregiver who is with the person) wait and have a card to give up front. There is ALOT going on in the parks and in the lines. For most of us, not an issue, but those w/ special needs and sensitivity, WOW... WAY TOO MUCH FOR THEM. And once they peak w/ emotions, it can, at times, take alot of time for them to calm back down. Fidget toys help, but also calmness and quietness too. I wonder if headphones (big ones) or even ear plugs could help some w/noise overload (muffled sounds and noise)... we are going to try this for a few of our kiddos in our room just so the rest of the kids can have music time. Good Luck to all and may no line-jumpers cross your path ....
My 23yo brother is autistic, and we have noise-cancelling headphones we take with him to restaurants and the like. We used to not be able to go to certain restaurants with him because they were too noisy and there were too many people, but the headphones have been wonderful! I assume they'd work great at WDW as well.
Wanting to post about the autistic/sensory sensitive people... I work in a Pre-K class w/some children who have these overloads as well. Sometimes you can distract them or adapt the situation to help them. Yet, this is not always possible. I like the idea of a quiet area or room for the children or adults experiencing this situation. It would be great to have while the others (besides the caregiver who is with the person) wait and have a card to give up front. There is ALOT going on in the parks and in the lines. For most of us, not an issue, but those w/ special needs and sensitivity, WOW... WAY TOO MUCH FOR THEM. And once they peak w/ emotions, it can, at times, take alot of time for them to calm back down. Fidget toys help, but also calmness and quietness too. I wonder if headphones (big ones) or even ear plugs could help some w/noise overload (muffled sounds and noise)... we are going to try this for a few of our kiddos in our room just so the rest of the kids can have music time. Good Luck to all and may no line-jumpers cross your path ....
A few things that I found that help with my DD9 is last trip she had a pair of sunglasses that she used to help her cope with uncomfortable situations. This was her own self soothing discovery. It was quite a breakthrough. Recently she has began to use an ipod shuffle to help cope. It is full of showtunes, Disney tunes and ...gulp Big Time Rush (They're handsome Mom") One of the nice things is I don't have to worry about the volume because she is sensitive to volume , so she keeps it low. The Ipod has been a blessing And will definately be with us on our next trip. Another technique that I use is to redirect her attention. I have her focus on me and I calmly sing a song or ask her questions about a book or show, etc. Mirroring like that would only work with some ASD kids I realize. Worth a try though.The GAC helps tremendously, but as mentioned, there are some rides where the line's seem to merge. Once that meltdown occurs she is done for a long time.
A few things that I found that help with my DD9 is last trip she had a pair of sunglasses that she used to help her cope with uncomfortable situations.
Hence my thought of a mask or facepaint. Native traditions from many parts of the world have held that wearing a mask of a creature allows one to take on the attributes of the creature itself, becoming "not yourself". And truly, wearing a mask gives people a small sense of "distance" from the events around them. Obvioulsy in your DD's case, the shield of the sunglasses - hiding her eyes, as well as creating a visible reminder via the darkening / tinting of what she sees, is creating that same psychological "at arm's length" effect, at least in a small way, between her and the world around her.
And if that tiny bit of perceived "distance" is what she needs to help her cope ... great!!
So, in Disney ... some big ol' Disney sunglasses, and one of those Goofy hats (or similar)_ ... might work as a sort of psychological "armor", to provide a buffer to social-sensory overload. Or so my inexpert thinking goes ...
in this type of situation, when I do have to wait in the standby line for any reason, I just lean my body slightly left or right towards the chain, that prevents anybody from cutting past me. I only allow a parent and one child to get through, nobody else. Too bad, too sad for everyone else, wait 2 minutes for the next ride vehicle!
Hence my thought of a mask or facepaint. Native traditions from many parts of the world have held that wearing a mask of a creature allows one to take on the attributes of the creature itself, becoming "not yourself". And truly, wearing a mask gives people a small sense of "distance" from the events around them. Obvioulsy in your DD's case, the shield of the sunglasses - hiding her eyes, as well as creating a visible reminder via the darkening / tinting of what she sees, is creating that same psychological "at arm's length" effect, at least in a small way, between her and the world around her.
And if that tiny bit of perceived "distance" is what she needs to help her cope ... great!!
So, in Disney ... some big ol' Disney sunglasses, and one of those Goofy hats (or similar)_ ... might work as a sort of psychological "armor", to provide a buffer to social-sensory overload. Or so my inexpert thinking goes ...
Well it is exactly that
It is the primal thought that if I can't see you then you can't see me..then I am invisable.
You can see toddlers play that game all of the time. I am hiding at the end of the couch, so I am invisable.
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Last edited by guitardiva; 01-01-2011 at 01:19 PM..
Just know that Disney's dress code policy is not to allow masks-- even during the Halloween parties. (I believe it's a safety issue -- blocking the visuals of the wearer, as well risky in the case of potential kid snatchers.)
Facepaint is very much allowed and they have several places around each park where it can be done.
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, this is a very hot topic and after a couple of pages the thread is closed. That's why I love Passporter so much.
I wonder if headphones (big ones) or even ear plugs could help some w/noise overload (muffled sounds and noise)... we are going to try this for a few of our kiddos in our room just so the rest of the kids can have music time. Good Luck to all and may no line-jumpers cross your path .... 
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