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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The easy answer to your question is terrorism and violence can happen anywhere. I agree that bags are not checked that well when entering. I think for the most part though, WDW security is pretty good as most people has said in previous posts. Unfortunatly if there is a will there is a way for these people set on hurting others and creating violence.
I lost my faith in WDW when someone was trying to enter my first floor room at the Contemporary and WDW argued with me about it happening. I was petrified and definitely could hear someone trying to open the slider and the front desk and security (when I was finally put through) told me it couldn't be happening at WDW. They eventually came out and I could hear security talking to someone but they never got back to me to tell me what it was.
If you don't think there can be a problem, you are unlikely to uncover one. I suspect it was someone who had too much to drink and couldn't remember what room was his but I was there with two kids (10ish) and did not need someone trying to get in my room.
I think that what makes it so hard to accept is that Disney has always been the place I could be to get away from the reality of the world outside. I've always called it my happy place - because we are shut off from the news and basically, most of reality while we're there. The Disney bubble always seems safe and secure, but the truth is that it's just as vulnerable as anywhere else. The good thing is, there was a thread I believe on the DisBoards awhile back with pages upon pages of stories about undercover security at Disney. People telling about how plain-clothes guards/officers are everywhere in the parks. People have witnessed them cordoning off an area after a backpack was seen dropped on the ground. That fast they jumped into action. It was quite an interesting read, and at least gives a little bit of relief knowing that while the bag checks are kind of a joke (at least to someone as unsuspicious "looking" as myself), they do have security stationed all throughout the parks. It may not prevent something from ever happening, but then again, it very well could.
I grew up in a small Massachusetts town where we left our doors unlocked and even at night, we'd go to bed with just the storm door locked and the inside door wide open. Anyone could have gotten in without much effort. These days, I immediately lock my apartment door as soon as I get in the house. Same thing with my car. Sadly, it is the world we live in.
All of my adult life, I knew that "it could happen anywhere", that basically no place was really safe. If evil people want to do bad things, they will. It is the ugly truth.
Even after 9/11, and with the connection that Boston had to those events, I knew that Boston could become a target at any time. But I refused to stop living my life. I love working in the city and I love coming in for Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics games. I love riding the MBTA (ok, maybe love is a little strong, but it's a feeling like no other) and I feel a very strong sense of pride whenever Boston is mentioned. My husband and I watch Boston's Finest every Wednesday night (think it's on TBS) about, well, Boston's Finest...the men and women of the Boston Police Department. I love seeing the Boston skyline. This is my home (even though I live about 35 miles outside the city.)
So yes, I knew that something could happen here. But you don't really know what it feels like until it does and even then, you still can't even explain the feeling. This morning, I posted to my blog about what it felt like the last few days, or I at least attempted to put my feelings into words. As much as I knew, there was always a part of me that wanted to believe nothing would happen here.
After 9/11, 2 weeks to the day, I got on a plane out of Logan Airport. Many people thought I was nuts to not only fly, but to fly out of Logan, where 2 of the planes originated from. But I refused to stop living my life. I still feel that same way today. I still got on the train yesterday morning and I made my way into Boston. I see the police, homeland security and members of so many other protection agencies that you probably never knew existed, all around my city. I still went for a walk at lunch yesterday and I'll do it again today.
And in November, I will get on a plane and I will fly to Florida. I will spend a week at Disney World. And I'll know that anything could happen there, but I will still go and I will cherish every memory that I make becaase nobody is going to take that away from me. I'll still hold onto that piece that believes "it won't happen here" even though I know that it could very well happen there. I have to hold onto the hope and the belief that we are safe because I refuse to live in fear.
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Raquel
November 2007
Last edited by kelleigh1; 04-17-2013 at 12:07 PM..
Well said. My husband and I lived outside of Boston for 4 years before we moved to Virginia in 2010. We were finish-line volunteers at the Boston Marathon that year, runners who could not qualify for Boston yet (him), or even if we tried (me).
Over a dozen people from my husband's former running club were running on this past Monday, as were several people from Virginia that I worked with. People we worked with in MA and went to college with in New England were either working in Boston or spectating at the race. It hit home for us pretty hard.
Not to make this "all about us", but it's one of those events that happens that if it were in say, California somewhere, it would be awful, sad, heart-wrenching, but not hit home as much as it did when you can look at the images and say "I've been there." We'd buy our running shoes from Marathon Sports, and glasses from the Lens Crafters next door. We'd walked that sidewalk plenty of times, shopped the stores along Boylston, even on Marathon Monday/Patriot's Day. It's a hard thing to see when it's a place you know well.
If anything like that happened in Disney, it would hit us all, even if we aren't there.
That said, I can't even imagine what it's like for those injured, or the families of the victims. Just so, so awful. My husband said to me last night that he's even more determined to qualify for Boston, and I'll be there cheering him on.
I am 100% certain that the bag check is the least of their security measures. It is the most visible part, and most people believe that it is the most important part. But I doubt that it is.
Absolutely, without a doubt my sentiments. My husband is in law enforcement and the "general public" has no idea how much behind-the-scenes work (Disney and other places) goes on day in and day out. Just a small example, our friend is a detective in the NYPD and takes the train to/from work everyday. He drives home from the train (1/4 mi.) the other night and pulls into the driveway followed by local police. He had a nuclear medical test done earlier in the day and a plain clothes officer had walked through the train with a radiation detection "machine" that sounded an alarm when he passed our friend. Now he's a Detective and didn't notice the plain clothes officer. My point, you don't have to see security for it to be there.
When you start thinking if something bad could happen, remember that things have always happened. In 1961, my mom was terrified during the Bay of Pigs in Cuba because we were living in Miami and she knew that was ground zero. Fortunately, nothing happened. In 1996, we woke up to hear about a bombing in Olympic square in Atlanta during the Olympics. We were terrified because my sister in law was assigned to work right there. Fortunately, she was on the way home when the bomb went off. As soon as she heard about it in the radio, she went back to the park and stayed and helped. She even drove a complete stranger home to Fayetteville (south of Atlanta) which was in the exact opposite direction from her home. It took us a while to get in touch with her, but it was very scary. So I get it. But over time, that scary feeling dissipates. And that important part is that we don't let the cowards make us afraid to live our lives.
And in November, I will get on a plane and I will fly to Florida. I will spend a week at Disney World. And I'll know that anything could happen there, but I will still go and I will cherish every memory that I make becaase nobody is going to take that away from me. I'll still hold onto that piece that believes "it won't happen here" even though I know that it could very well happen there. I have to hold onto the hope and the belief that we are safe because I refuse to live in fear.
I totally agree with you. I am going to continue to live and enjoy all that life has to offer, going places with my grandchildren, traveling with my husband and just going about my day to day business. I am not going to live in fear and "what ifs". Life is too short!!
Yes, of course it could happen at Disney or anywhere else. I wouldn't be surprised if something happened in Seattle which is about 40 miles south of me or even Everett which about 10 miles south of me. Honestly, imo anyplace where there are large numbers of people gathering (Disney, a major marathon, a protest etc.) is likely to draw the attention of those extremists & wackos that believe they're are making some sort of a statement or furthering their cause by doing something to cause destruction, injuries/deaths, chaos, fear & panic. To me it's not a question of if but of when & where. However, I don't let the possibility of something bad happening stop me from doing the things I want &/or need to do. I could get hit by a crossing the street, be on a plane that crashes on my next trip, get mugged or any number of other bad things just going about the daily business of living. The odds of me being in that particular place at that particular time that something like the bombings at the Boston Marathon or the Olympics in Atlanta happen are very slim so I refuse to worry about it.
I think about this whenever we go to Disney or on the plane or any big event, the thought is always on my mind. I think we are learning that this is something we need to be aware of.
I am one of those that they do check at WDW and I look as normal as anyone else out there, and yet, my bags are checked quite good. I admire them for doing that. I think they are making an effort that others aren't. I often look at hte CM's and wonder if one is an uncover police sweeping the roads, and wondering how much they like or dislike their assignment.
How many of you think twice when going to a movie???? Remember what happened in Denver (we were there and dh almost took ds to that movie that night), and yet, people continue to go...even though someone could again pull something as stupid as that off.
My main hope is that there is no jumpiing to conclusions. That the people are caught. I hate living in the fear of another war etc. It amazes me that no one has stepped forward to claim this..usually this happens.
I always tell my kids...live a good and fun life. Go out, and take calculated risks but live life and enjoy it.
I also try not to think about it but it also crosses my mind. I think the past week has made me a bit paranoid, and I am hoping that passes. I know the parks have unseen security and things are probably tighter there than we know. But what about the buses? Bags everywhere, no checks, shoulder to shoulder people, kind of scary. Will I stop riding the Disney buses? Probably not. But I think everyone, including Disney, is going to have to up the effort to keep people safe.
The plain truth is that your chances of dying from some ordinary, everyday cause like a car wreck are significantly greater than those of being in the wrong place when some fanatic decides to set off a bomb.
I say live each moment as fully and well as you can. Worrying about the bad things that might happen only prevents you from enjoying life.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
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