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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Pre-trip report: what shall I get Mark for Christmas?
Dates: Saturday 4 – Monday 6 May Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (40) and DH Mark (47) Destinations: Sorrento, visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum Resorts: Hotel Prestige, Sorrento Meets: none Celebration: Mark’s Christmas present and a return to Pompeii for the first time since 2007
Each year, I wonder what to get Mark for Christmas and his birthday. Sometimes I’m not sure how I come up with the idea, and that’s the case here. The thought came into my head somewhere in summer 2012, when I remember thinking how we’d commented all the way back in 2007, when we took the first ever Disney cruise around the Mediterranean, that we wanted to go back to Pompeii. Then, we’d taken an excursion to Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii. It hadn’t quite worked out how we’d expected.
We were told before we left the Magic that day that we wouldn’t be visiting Capri, due to rough seas. Ok, that works for me, as neither of us likes rough seas. Well, we certainly found them. We took a hydrofoil from Naples to Sorrento, and it was horrendous. Honestly, about 60% of people on board were physically sick, but not me, thanks to the wonderful woman who gave me some new travel sickness tablets. I’ve sworn by the things ever since. When we finally reached dry land, I really wanted to kiss the ground, it had been that bad. We were given a credit back off the excursion by Disney, the experience was that bad.
As a result, we didn’t really enjoy our time in Sorrento, as neither of us (and especially not Mark – the whole thing messed with his head ) were feeling that great, but at least by the afternoon, we felt a bit better for the bit we really wanted to see – Pompeii! We loved our time here, but it was only two or three hours, and it wasn’t nearly long enough for us. When we came out of there, and I later looked at my Naples guidebook, I realised that we’d barely scratched the surface of this place, and we hadn’t seen some of the areas that the guidebook recommended as highlights. That’s when I realised we’d need to go back…
As I say, where that memory came from, I don’t know. But it was the impetus I needed, so I went ahead and started to look for flights out from Gatwick to Naples. I was stunned to discover that British Airways had a flight out that was reasonably priced over the Bank Holiday weekend in early May. It’s a three day weekend, with Monday a Bank Holiday – hence the name of the weekend, so I went ahead and booked flights out on Saturday morning, with the return flight on Monday evening.
I did some shopping around, and looked at the prices for booking car rental, and hotels separately, and it ended up that I could get the hotel cheaper, but not the car rental, so I added that on to my booking. We’ve always talked about getting a convertible car in the States, but it’s never practical, as they don’t have too much space in the trunk, because of the mechanism needed for a convertible, and we always have too much luggage. Knowing this, I figured that a convertible would work here. After all, we were only going to be gone for two nights, so we’d only have one case with us, so I went ahead and booked one. There just seemed to be something right about the idea of driving around the twisting, turning roads of Italy in a convertible!
I had a look through TripAdvisor to see which hotels would be good for our stay. I wasn’t sure where to stay, as although we’d be flying into Naples, Pompeii is south of the city, and Naples really wasn’t somewhere I wanted to return to. I know there’s a lot to see there, but for a long weekend, it would just be too much. In the end, I had a look around the Sorrento area to see what hotels were available. After much debating, I ended up going for the Hotel Prestige, which had some great ratings on TripAdvisor, and yet it was still a very reasonable rate. It looks like a superb place to stay, and I can’t wait to sample it. I will admit that the roads leading to it certainly look very twisting and turning, so I’m not sure how much I’m going to enjoy that…
As far as our plans for our time away go, well the first most obvious thing is Pompeii. I want to allow as much time as possible for that, so it seems logical to head there on the Saturday. I figure we’ll be there for a long time, but I’m hoping that maybe we’ll have enough time later in the day to then head for Herculaneum. This isn’t as well known as Pompeii, although it too was destroyed in the same eruption from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. However, where it’s different is that it was buried so deep that even the upper storeys of buildings remained intact. The hotter ash there also preserved ordinary household objects, like beds and doors. Additionally, it was a richer town, so bearing in mind the amazing colours that you occasionally caught a glimpse of in Pompeii, I’m sure Herculaneum will be even more vibrant.
So that leaves a couple of half days either side then. The plan for Saturday is pretty loose, as we don’t get in to the airport until 12:30pm, so we probably won’t make it to the hotel until at least 2:00pm or later, so we’ll see how we feel. We may even want to go for a swim, because at the moment, the forecast for the weekend is for temperatures all weekend in the mid to high 70s. Considering at home, temperatures are in the low 50s this week (we got up to the low 70s last week, then it dropped back like a stone ), that’s going to feel pretty hot to us!
On the Monday, I want to head down the Amalfi Coast to visit Positano, as it looks amazing in every photo I’ve seen of it. I know it can get exceptionally busy though, so I figured we’d head there first thing in the morning. I want to ensure we can park there, rather than having to walk down the steep cliffs to get there, as then we’d have the walk back up again. No thank you!
So those are our plans for a long weekend away, exploring the history of this area, and seeing some of its beauty. I can’t wait!
Sounds like a great trip! I love Sorrento! I stayed at a hotel on the cliffs and had to climb out the window to get to the balcony--from which there were amazing views!
Sounds like a great trip! I love Sorrento! I stayed at a hotel on the cliffs and had to climb out the window to get to the balcony--from which there were amazing views!
Oh wow, that sounds like an amazing place to stay.
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Exploring the Amalfi Coast in a convertible will be wonderful-- and scary at times! I did the drive many years ago in a Triumph Spitfire two-seater and if the views weren't so drop-dead gorgeous would have had my eyes closed much of the time! You'll have a great time, and your hotel looks wonderful.
Exploring the Amalfi Coast in a convertible will be wonderful-- and scary at times! I did the drive many years ago in a Triumph Spitfire two-seater and if the views weren't so drop-dead gorgeous would have had my eyes closed much of the time! You'll have a great time, and your hotel looks wonderful.
That sounds like an amazing experience - I can't wait to do it for ourselves.
Who knows why things pop into our heads. But they do, and I'm looking forward to hearing all about this one!!!
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We took a hydrofoil from Naples to Sorrento, and it was horrendous. Honestly, about 60% of people on board were physically sick, but not me, thanks to the wonderful woman who gave me some new travel sickness tablets. I’ve sworn by the things ever since. 
When we finally reached dry land, I really wanted to kiss the ground, it had been that bad. We were given a credit back off the excursion by Disney, the experience was that bad. 
) were feeling that great, but at least by the afternoon, we felt a bit better for the bit we really wanted to see – Pompeii! 
We loved our time here, but it was only two or three hours, and it wasn’t nearly long enough for us. When we came out of there, and I later looked at my Naples guidebook, I realised that we’d barely scratched the surface of this place, and we hadn’t seen some of the areas that the guidebook recommended as highlights. That’s when I realised we’d need to go back… 
It looks like a superb place to stay, and I can’t wait to sample it. I will admit that the roads leading to it certainly look very twisting and turning, so I’m not sure how much I’m going to enjoy that… 
Considering at home, temperatures are in the low 50s this week (we got up to the low 70s last week, then it dropped back like a stone 
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