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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cast: DH, 28 & Me, 26 (This will be trip #8 for both of us J)
When: Friday 5/6 – Monday 5/16
How It Came About: As self-proclaimed Disney addicts, being D23 members comes with the territory. DH loves to read the D23 e-mails we get and check out the special member events that they’re offering (even though we’ve never been able to attend one since they’re usually short notice). When the Disneyland Scavenger Hunt was announced, he was SOOO bummed that it wasn’t feasible for us to go. So, you can only imagine how excited he was to see the announcement last fall for the WDW Scavenger Hunt! I think he checked the D23 website daily to see if there was anymore info posted besides the “Coming Soon” heading Needless to say, we were registered within minutes of registration opening and another Disney trip was in the works J
***To Be Continued***
P.S. I have to share...my sweet DH made me a countdown for our trip for the last month or so before we leave. On some leftover scrapbook paper, he wrote out cute little Disney facts that somehow correspond with the # of days remaining and made a paper chain out of it. Now I get to remove a link each day, get a tiny slice of Disney magic and a reminder of how sweet my DH can be Since we're already several days in, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites so far and maybe share more in upcoming posts. I'm not 100% sure where he came up with the info and I think a few might be slightly outdated, but seriously, with something as adorable as this--who cares!?!?!
26 - 260 different types of grasses are used at Animal Kingdom
25 - 25,000 costumes are created in the costume department each year
24 - 24,409 miles of paper towels are used on property annually
21* - 3.37 million gallons of water are in the moat surrounding Cinderella Castle (*DH said he didn't like anything he found related to the #21, so he "cheated" and instead called this the 3 Week mark )
20 - 20,000 different colors of paint are used on the various attractions, restaurants, shops and etc. throughout WDW
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Thanks so much for all the sweet remarks! Here is the next installment:
Just to Clarify--Background on Why “We Definitely Need a Vacation”: It has been a crazy couple of months in our household! Between snowstorms that stranded us at work for 3 days, crazy family that just doesn’t know when to quit (mine), out-of-town trips for work, studying for the CPA exam, DH is changing jobs again for the 2nd time in 9 months (with the same company at least J) and various family, friends and co-workers with sudden illnesses and deaths……something seems to be coming at us everyday and we just need to get away! Can you blame us?
Getting Started on Planning: Once we determined the dates of the Scavenger Hunt, we knew what time frame we were working with and started planning almost immediately. Initially, our trip was supposed to be much shorter than the 10-day extravaganza that it is now, but it’s just blossomed and grown, and overall we’re pretty stoked about what we have planned.
While DH was obsessively checking for further details about the Scavenger Hunt, he came across the info for the Destination D event that is taking place that same weekend. After reading the details, I was stoked and stipulated that if we were doing the Scavenger Hunt, that DH had to agree to go to Destination D with me too So now we’ve got 4 straight days devoted to pre-scheduled events…that didn’t work with the 6-day trip we were originally planning if we wanted to spend much time in the parks on our own. This is how our trip slowly morphed from 6 days, to 8 days, to it’s current (and FINAL) total of 10.
***To Be Continued***
For anyone who is curious, here’s today’s countdown link:
18 – 18 months of moving dirt were needed just to prepare the MagicKingdom site to start building
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
Thanks so much to everyone for your encouragement! Here's the next installment of our planning adventure:
More on Planning: Our next major decision was where to stay. So far, we’ve always stayed on property at a moderate or deluxe resort. This time we’re trying to get the most bang for our buck, so we’ve decided to give one of the Value Resorts a try and will be staying at Pop Century. We’re both a little nervous, purely because we’ve never stayed at one of the Value Resorts before, but I think in the long run it’ll be fine J We had originally booked our hotel as a room only ressie to take advantage of the 40% discount they were offering on the website, and then we got a PIN CODE in the mail for free dining! So we went through the process of canceling our room only ressie and making a new package ressie with free dining and park tickets. What a headache! (But so worth it :-P) Actually, come to think of it, the main reason it was such a headache is because we paid for our trip using giftcards…quite a few giftcards.
We discovered a giftcard bonus pack at Sam’s Club where you could buy a $100 DisneyWorld giftcard and get a bonus $10 disneystore.com giftcard for free and with tax it was just under $100. We figured if we were spending $1700 (or whatever the total was) on our package, we could totally use a free $170 to the online Disneystore, so we took advantage of this deal. DH got stuck calling to change around our ressie with our PIN Code and had to read off all the giftcard codes to the ressie lady on the phone…Poor Hubby! At least now we’re fully booked and PIF J
***To Be Continued***
Some more recent countdown links:
17 – 17 attractions at Animal Kingdom (not sure if this is still current, but A for effort)
16 – 16 miles of railing are used throughout Pop Century
15 – 15 million miles are driven by the WDW bus fleet each year
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Needless to say, we were registered within minutes of registration opening and another Disney trip was in the works J
Since we're already several days in, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites so far and maybe share more in upcoming posts. I'm not 100% sure where he came up with the info and I think a few might be slightly outdated, but seriously, with something as adorable as this--who cares!?!?!
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Pixie Dust
Very neat countdown! 
DH!
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