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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My kids are really into the savings idea for our Disney fund now. We are buying coffee in the smaller 1 pound cans, and then I print off pictures of Mickey and we make "Mickey" vacation fund cans out of them. My youngest DD even put her birthday money in one of them today...I told her to keep it for herself but she said she wants us to save it for her for the WDW souvenirs. By making these "Mickey" cans, the kids seem to want to save more and not ask for anything at the store, that helps.
My son's school sells Scrip (gift cards) - we purchase a Disney Gift card each month (bonus, his school gets a percentage from the card, we get to use the full value of the card). It's cool because we help the elementary school, and at the same time, we save for our vacation. To purchase the Scrip, we save change...some months we've saved enough for a $50 card, others a $25 dollar card.
This bank is one way which is nice because it is visual and my 4 yr old even knows thats where we save for Disney. Each time it fills up we take it to the bank to be counted and deposited to our Disney account.
I am also buying GC's to put towards our stateroom credit... builds excitement (plus I get to go to the Disney Store!) and will help hubby eliminate "sticker shock" or statement shock I should say when it's time to pay up.
This is a very helpful thread! Thanks for all the links and ideas!
We also have created a "Mickey Tin" (an old can decorated with Mickey) that we put all our extra and found money into. We say we have to "feed" Mickey something everyday or he will be hungry and get upset. My kids are always keeping their eyes open for lost change on the ground/floor while we are shopping. Once I was short for lunch money and needed $0.45 for my daughter, she freaked out and yelled, "No! You can't take money from Mickey!" I learned NEVER to do that again! Now I make sure to have enough loaded on the school ID so they always have lunch money instead of me needing to send in cash. Maybe I've trained them too well, LOL!
This is a very helpful thread! Thanks for all the links and ideas!
We also have created a "Mickey Tin" (an old can decorated with Mickey) that we put all our extra and found money into. We say we have to "feed" Mickey something everyday or he will be hungry and get upset. My kids are always keeping their eyes open for lost change on the ground/floor while we are shopping. Once I was short for lunch money and needed $0.45 for my daughter, she freaked out and yelled, "No! You can't take money from Mickey!" I learned NEVER to do that again! Now I make sure to have enough loaded on the school ID so they always have lunch money instead of me needing to send in cash. Maybe I've trained them too well, LOL!
If that ever happens again, just do like in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...you know, "Mickey" charges interest against borrowing.
We're participating in our town's All Town Garage Sale tomorrow....this is one way we hope to save a chunk for the Disney Fund....it was a pain to gather all the stuff together and price everything and lug it to Grandma's garage in town, but maybe we can fill up another Mickey can with some serious loot!
We're participating in our town's All Town Garage Sale tomorrow....this is one way we hope to save a chunk for the Disney Fund....it was a pain to gather all the stuff together and price everything and lug it to Grandma's garage in town, but maybe we can fill up another Mickey can with some serious loot!
That sounds really neat! I wish our town would have one of those. Good luck with your selling!
Funny, OneLittleSpark I'll definitely have to remember that.
In the book, if you have never read it. The family has a can nailed down in a closet, it's their buying a piece of land can. Sometimes the father has to borrow 10 cents for a dickie to work, and when he gets home he has to put 15 cents back in the can. (He is a waiter.)
Well the all town garage sale went pretty well yesterday, we sold about 2/3 or our stuff and deposited $127 into the Mickey Mouse can for our Disney Fund. Every little bit helps.
I was thinking about more ways to save for Disney. I don't take my kids to the grocery store anymore... I bet I save at least $25 each time just sticking to the things on my grocery list. I cook at home most of the time, no take out except for pizza on Friday nights. I think that saves us maybe $100 a week, just not eating at restaurants or doing repeated take out. And taking my brown bag lunch to work 4 out of 5 days a week, saves me about $30 to $40 a week. All of these savings go to the Disney fund.
These are all good tips to save for. I have been doing online surveys and saving that money strictly for spending money. Then I do ChaCha and am depositing that straight into our fund on a weekly basis, its a quick way for me to build it up and I dont have to take anything out of our family income. I usually have some student loan money left over and I deposit a big chunk of that into our fund as well. I sell a few things on eBay from time to time and every penny from that goes in. I dont have much luck with putting the change into a can as I always find myself dipping into it. I have been locking mine into Gift Cards and such so that its not around to tempt us.
I was thinking of doing this myself, my bank does not have vacation club accounts, just xmas club accounts.
i also wanted to look into the bank that takes your extra change and puts it into a savings, if i got that info right
My bank doesn't have dedicated "vacation" club accounts anymore, but they offer a goal setter savings account - you set a goal and once you reach your goal you get a higher interest rate. I set a goal of $500 to get to the higher interest rate earlier. This account can be deposited to at any time, but withdrawls can only happen in person, in the bank - so it helps with the "out-of-site, out-of-mind".
The goal setter savings account sounds like that would be ideal for vacation savings....because physically having to go to the bank to make withdrawals adds a deterrent to taking money out! I need all the help I can get! Good luck to you adding to your savings account.
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