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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Yes, yes, I know... I haven't posted in a LONG time. (Sadly, it's been a long time since we've been to any of the parks - and we live just 4 hours up the freeway from DLR.)
Anyhoo, we are currently trying to plan a BIG trip to WDW in early December (post Thanksgiving/pre Christmas peak seasons) of 2014. We homeschool our two boys - who will be 9 & 13 when this trip finally happens.
The reason for planning way ahead? Financial wisdom - we'll be completely out of debt next summer (thanks to Dave Ramsey/FPU) and want to begin wisely saving for this once in a lifetime cross-country visit to the Mouse.
That is more than 3 years away... but I know that there have to be some of you who are experienced with this kind of planning. I'd love to hear advice, tips, suggestions, whatever! from y'all...
Me too!! Planning a trip first part of december 2014 with all my grandchildren...they will be 5, 5, 6 and 9....and my two daughters.....love that time of year....we have figured out what we want to book and are putting at least that much away in a savings account....we know the prices will increase a little each year but by estimating now we won't have sticker shock as it were....Mickey's very merry christmas party is on our list saving for that too....hoping for some sort of discount but have budgeted like there won't be one just incase......we will buy things for the trip a little at a time and on clearance.....any specific questions the boards here are great for answers.....oh and I read trip reports too....
I love the fact you're planning so far ahead. We've been planning a return to Japan for 2013 for the last two years and it gives you time to plan everything and try your best to save money (although trust me, life has a nasty habit of getting in the way sometimes... )
(although trust me, life has a nasty habit of getting in the way sometimes... )
You got that one right!!!!
Now on to my thoughts for the OPP.
1. you will need to be oragnized, so get a planning notebook (3 ring binder) and deviders. Deviders can be used for things like dinning, savings, parks, hotel, and so on.
2. checkout themouseforless.com! this site has some good downloads that you could use. they have what they call a planning kit, you can use that to start to kinda guestamate what things are going to be based on this year's price and then update it each year when new prices come out.
3. Deside what parks you would like to go to. Is it just going to be Disney or are you trying to put in US/IOA, BG, Discovery Cove and so on. this way you can make a devider for each in your binder and collect information on each.
4. Read the boards here...you can get alot of info from them.
5. Buy a copy of Passporter for WDW and passporter freebook e-book. yes things in them may change but they have alot of info in them that may help you. The passporter freebook e-book (not free you have to pay thats just the name of it) has things in it like a site that you can go on to earn airline miles.
6. Check out allearsnet.com! they have good info on there also. they also have sample menues that will help in your planning.
7. Saving:
Open a savings account JUST FOR THE TRIP. Put so much in it each week no matter what. As you debt go's down incress the amout that you put in there.
you could also check to see if your bank has a vacation club account that could also help ya.
you could open a christmas club account also (sounds dumb I know, but there is something behind the crazyness of it ). you can open on for say 5.00 a week, on top of the savings account dep you put 5.00 a week into the x-mas club, in Oct/Nov they give you a check for the christmas club you can put that into the savings account OR you can reinvest it in another x-mas club account. I suggest this because even though it is not a lot of $ (about 260.00 if you do a 5.00 a week one for 52 weeks) BUT it is $ you can not touch no matter what because they only give it to you one time a year.
8. Home Schooling-because you are planning really 3 1/2 years ahead of time it will make some good school lessions for your sons. here is just a few things that I came up with to show you what i am talking about (there is a few people on here that I see home schools their children so they may be a better help for this department then me, but this is just what I came up with off the top of my head) MATH: you can get them into the planning of it and they can come up with the budget for the trip and also help keep track of the savings (or you can open each of them up an account to put money in to save for the trip for things they will want). You can also do a field trip to the bank with them and teach them about opening the account and such. I am sure if you call and talk to someone at the bank they would be more then willing to help with a "field trip" to the bank, while their you could get them to open the savings account for each child. ART: you can get them to make something to count down the days until the trip. That also ties into math. you can also get them to do journals for the trip. you can also get them to do their own autograph books too. (once they are done you can take then to staples to bind them at a good rate.) History: they can learn about Walt Disney and the history of the parks. So i am a little lack in this subject, it is just past 3 am what more can ya ask for? Map Skills: you can order OR get someone to get you some maps from Disney and get them to find things...like say Splash mt is in this part of the park what direction would you go to get to astro orbitor? and things like that. IF you are driving then get a map of the US and get them to plan how they would get from where you live to WDW. Gym: you can find out who far it is from your house to either the resort you may stay at, MK or just Orlando in general (from city hall in Fresno to city hall in Orlando it is between 2,646 to 2,729 miles, depending on what route you take based on Google Map). you can find out how many mile(s) a day it is between now and when you leave and they have to run, walk or ride a bike (or what have you) that far each day. I think on this board somewhere one time people that wanted to lose weight they did from kingdom to kingdom it is based on that train of thought. Health: you can get menues off of all ears and talk about the "healthy" choices on the menues and such. the gym idea would also fall into this one as well. Music: you can get them to learn some of the songs they will hear at WDW and sing them for your family. Or if they play insturments then they could learn to play some in the insturments. Reading/writting: you can get them to read up on the parks and get them to write a paper on each park. this could also tie into history.
If you are driving you could see if someone could help them learn how to check things on the car to make sure it is safe to drive across the US.
If you are flying, maybe see if there is someone at a near by flying school that would teach them alittle about flying and such. Scinece: you could find out about the things Disney is doing to save the earth and get the kids to learn about that and see if you could do the things around your area to help. this could tie into reading/writting also because they could write letters to Disney to see if they can give them information.
Hope you can make heads and tails of this post and it helps you. In the end the most important thing to remember...have fun planning your dream trip and have fun on that trip. Now that I am done this I need to go do my paper for school!
Happy Planning. We are planning several trips far out as well. Love getting information and working out details so that when we get there all we have to do is relax.
Thanks for all the encouragement & ideas... keep 'em coming!
The boys & I watched some of the Disney Vacation Planning DVD last night - began talking about how long away the trip was & that we'd have to save for it. They're onboard!
Though it is starting to get a little closer, we've been planning our May 2012 trip to WDW since last year....I admire your even longer range plans! One thing my DH and I did was to schedule a monthly "Mickey Meeting" where we go out for dinner and talk about how we need to plan the trip...I bring a calender and a calculator and we try to stick to one topic per meeting (accommodations, etc.). We also do a $$ update during our meeting. We've been saving change since last year and I believe we'll be able to pay for our entire trip with just change that we've put into our "Florida Jar!"
My dh and I go out by ourselves to have our meeting as we are keeping the Disney part of our trip secret from our five year old...otherwise we refer to it as our "Florida trip" around the kids.
I also love crusing the boards with a notebook handy...I write down all the cool tips I find here and file them in my "Mickey Notebook!"
Have fun planning and I hope you have a great trip!!!!
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