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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi all! We'll be cruising for the first time this year and I've heard about FE exchanges. Most of my search for this has taken me to the Disboards, but is there a thread like that here on PassPorter? I'd like to participate, but I'd like to exchange with members of this board preferably
PS - I tried to search for this on the PP boards, but I couldn't find what I was looking for.
Me too!
I'm cruising on the Magic in July and the FE on the other board has 26 cabins involved. Way too many for a first timer like me. On that board they have 57 groups of guests doing the same cruise as my family and here on PP I haven't found anyone (yet)...
I'd love to be involved in a small FE group just to get my feet wet!
That's one of the things that got me a little nervous too. The number of groups involved would be overwhelming for me! Maybe we can start our own thing here on PP
But maybe split off at groups of 10-20? Sure sounds fun though...
Your trip is coming up so soon!
Folks have tried to organize Fish Extender Exchanges from time to time, but it can be challenging, as it's a rare cruise that has more than a handful of PassPorter staterooms (we have more guidebook readers than that aboard, but they may not be participating in the community). Rather than focus on a specific activity, we feel it's best to use the Who's Cruising threads to locate fellow cruisers, and then work out amongst yourselves just what your "meet" activities might be.
A community the size of DISboards will have a fair number of members on nearly every cruise (or so it seems), so a specific activity like Fish Extenders can become a self-sustaining tradition. On the other hand, the small-town feeling that makes PassPorter Boards so appealing means we're not likely to have the "critical mass" to do something like the FEs on an ongoing basis.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Its been my experience that if the FE groups get too big for a particular cruise they will divide the participants into 2 or more groups of 20 or less. For example, on my June 1 Med Cruise on the Magic, there is one group of 19, a second group of 18 and a third group of 6. We had the option of participating in all the groups or just one. Since DD and I love to get gifts in our FE every day we joined all three groups. But, because a lot of people overlapped (participated in more than one group) we only need to get gifts for about 32 cabins, instead of 43. If this sounds confusing, don't worry, it will make sense once you sign up.
That said, I would really encourage you to participate, especially if its your first cruise. You don't need to give fancy homemade crafts (I am not crafty). Some people give candy, stickers, pens, notebooks, hand sanitizer lotion or other things you can find in a dollar store. No one will measure you by the size or quality of your gift. I had no idea what we were in for the first time I signed up but I gave it a try and loved it. We have received a lot of cool things, including frames, custom magnets and notebooks, book markers themed to our cruise and even Disney drink coasters.
Our standard "gift" is a Pirate themed rubber duckie from Oriental Trading, a few pirate stickers or tattoos, and a Disney themed pen or pencil. We put them in a pirate themed goody bag (Target) and distribute our gifts on Pirate night.
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Margaret and I got to see the Cubs play in October. They won!
I'm a PPer at heart, but I have done FE's and meets with DISers on cruises.....our first cruise was a 3 nighter and the group was just the right size (fairly small). We LOVED our group and doing the FE's.
That being said, the last time DH and I cruised on a 7 night, the group was just too big, idk, maybe I just missed our orig. group. LOL (who, by the way we're all still friends and talk quite regularly and have also cruised together since as well)...
I WISH there were enough PPers on each cruise! I always check, but there doesn't seem to be anyone posting as Dave says.
You both are right. It would be great to get your feet wet in a smaller group here on PP!
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Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
I guess I'm just lazy, but to me the FE deal is just too much work while I'm on a cruise! I'd probably enjoy it if it were a small group of people I "knew", like the PPers, but spending money and thought and suitcase-room on little gifts for people I don't know and then receiving a bunch of little favors to re-fill my suitcase or discard...... nope.
I guess I'm just lazy, but to me the FE deal is just too much work while I'm on a cruise! I'd probably enjoy it if it were a small group of people I "knew", like the PPers, but spending money and thought and suitcase-room on little gifts for people I don't know and then receiving a bunch of little favors to re-fill my suitcase or discard...... nope.
This is exactly why we didn't do it for our last cruise. We hadn't really connected with anyone in our group.
But when we did do it, it was loads of fun, it wasn't too many rooms, so it didn't take too much time and we loved coming back to the room and looking in to see if we got anything.
In fact on our last cruise, DH was like..."aww, I miss our FE" LOL.
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Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
My first FE was great 8 cabins. It was fun doing, coming back & finding a little tokens in your FE. My September cruise there are 30 cabins. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm not crafty it is called the dollar store
This is exactly why we didn't do it for our last cruise. We hadn't really connected with anyone in our group.
But when we did do it, it was loads of fun, it wasn't too many rooms, so it didn't take too much time and we loved coming back to the room and looking in to see if we got anything.
In fact on our last cruise, DH was like..."aww, I miss our FE" LOL.
I don't read the DISboards often, but I guess I didn't realize how many people they have over there!
Quote:
Originally Posted by queen2
My first FE was great 8 cabins. It was fun doing, coming back & finding a little tokens in your FE. My September cruise there are 30 cabins. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm not crafty it is called the dollar store
The dollar store is awesome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm just an old curmudgeon! If the FE appeals to you, that's great! Just call me Garbo...... "I vant to be alooone."
You crack me up Laurie! (You know I had to say that quote out loud over and over)
we did this on our first cruise in "11" and our next cruise is 2013 and to be honest i did it after everyone went to bed it took about an hour but it was fun plus getting learn the ship was another thing i learned while doing this . and since i ran it i did it twice and the second time i got up early before breakfest to do this it was alot of fun my daughter helped it was fun .
as per what i made we bought a $1.00 photo albaum and covered it with my own DCL with mickey and the date of our cruise . Next year im making door hangers with my own disney touch to it ? they are alot of fun we only had about 15 people in our group
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