Feature Article: Finding Answers - A Disney Guide - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Finding Answers - A Disney Guide by ennifer and Dave Marx
Have Disney Questions? Chances are good that the answer is available somewhere! Here are our top ten ways (in order) to find answers to your questions about Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and general travel 1. Read the Manual! Check the PassPorter guidebook! You probably already have one if you're reading this and virtually all our readers tell us its a great resource. We keep a copy right by our computers -- yes, we wrote the book, but do you think we actually remember everything we've ever written in it? Anyway, when we're looking for an answer to a question, PassPorter is the first place we check. We use both the table of contents and the index to find what we seek.
2. Check the Archives. Search our newsletter archives (you are subscribed, right?). We've been doing newsletters for years now, and every issue has a feature article as well as lots of updates and news. To view the archives, visit the Newsletter Stand. If you haven't subscribed, you can do so quickly at the same page -- it's free!
3. Call Disney and ask. We do this frequently when we have a question we haven't addressed in the PassPorter guidebook. Here are some helpful phone numbers:
General Walt Disney World information - 407-824-4321
Dining at Walt Disney World - 407-939-3463
Tours at Walt Disney World - 407-939-8687
Orlando International Airport information - 407-825-2001
General Disneyland information - 714-781-7290
Dining at Disneyland - 714-781-3463
General Disney Cruise Line information - 888-325-2500
You'll find more numbers in the back of the PassPorter guidebook, too. And here's another list of helpful numbers elsewhere on PassPorter.com, plus one from AllEarsNet. 4. Search the Boards.. Do a search the PassPorter message board -- chances are very good someone else has asked the question already! To search the message board, click the Search link at the top of the board, type in one or two words that relate to your question, and click Search. For example, if I wanted to check on renovations at the Disney resort hotels, you could type "renovation" to get several hits. If you don't find what you're looking for, consider alternate words, for example "rehab" instead of "renovation."
5. Ask Others. Post your question in the appropriate forum on the PassPorter message board. Our members and moderators enjoy answering questions, and most questions get several replies. To post your question, first locate the forum that it best fits into, click it, then click the Add New button, and type your question. Please keep in mind responses won't be immediate -- it may take hours or even days to get a reply, especially if your question is esoteric. We have no policies that require questions to be answered by our members or our volunteer Guides, but we all try our best! If your question hasn't received a reply after a couple of days, feel free to return to it and reply with something like, "Still searching for the answer to this question -- can anyone out there help me? Thanks so much!" Replying to your original question in this manner will force the topic to the top of the topic list in that forum and make it more visible to members.
6. Google It. Search for it on the Internet. We recommend the Google search engine for excellent results:
7. Go Web Surfing. Visit specific Disney-related Web sites for information on your topic. AllEars.net (http://www.allears.net) is a particularly good repository of information which we recommend you check. You'll find more good Disney Web sites at: http://www.passporter.com/wdw/webunofficial.htm. And don't forget http://www.disneyworld.com.
8. Check Other Forums. Search other message boards and discussion groups for information on your topic. Here are our recommendations:
9. Ask More People. Post your question on one or more of those same boards or groups we mention above. Different people have different experiences.
10. Ask Us. Send us an e-mail at jenniferanddave (at) passporter.com. We will do our best to answer you! We do received hundreds of e-mails a day, however, so we can't promise anything. But we will try!
When you do find your answer, we encourage you to post it here in the message boards for others who follow to find. The more you contribute, the more you (and everyone else!) gets out of it.
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
I love listening to your podcast every week. I agree with boycotting shopping on Thanksgiving evening I am truly disgusted at the greed of these companies. MA has a blue law in which you can't sell liquor on Sundays and they aren't allowed to open retail stores on major holidays but we are very near to NH in which their stores are open. I posted on my Facebook page my anger at what is happening and I must say everyone agreed with me.
I have one question there is a supposed link to respond to the podcasts but when I click on it I am brought to the podcast page and there is no way to link a message to the podcast. How should I respond to the podcast?
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