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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Dates: Thursday 5 December Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (40) and DH Mark (48) Destinations: Paris Resorts: None – it’s a day trip only! Meets: Hazel (thomhazel) and her DH Graeme for lunch Celebration: it was a good deal and we’ve never been to Paris in the run-up to Christmas!
This trip actually started life during our Switzerland road trip in September, when Eurostar released some special offers for the next couple of months. Unfortunately, our Wi-Fi connections weren’t that great, so I had to wait until we got home to have a look, and of course, by then, all the weekends were already gone. Friday night deals were also unsurprisingly gone too…
However, £60 (c. $95) each for a day out to Paris was just too good a deal to pass up, as usually prices are usually more like double that. I had a look, and worked out which dates the deals were on, and on which trains, and we discussed it, and decided to go for a Thursday, as then we’d only have a Friday back in work. We both asked for the time off work, got it, so we were set, and booked our day away on Thursday 5 December.
We could’ve gone for an earlier train, but we didn’t want to have that early a start, so we went for the 8:12am train, which after you add in the fact that Paris are an hour ahead, means we arrive at 11:17am, which is fine.
Our return train leaves at 6:13pm, getting back into the UK at 7:18pm (again, because of the hour’s time difference). When we booked, we could book our seats, so I got us seats that seem to be at a table (it’s a bit hard to tell from the website), with us both by the windows, and we’re near power supplies, not that I plan on taking the laptop with me, as it’ll be pretty heavy to carry round all day, but you never know… we might need it for something.
So those are our train times. The first thing I did was to let Hazel (thomhazel) know what date we’d be coming over, and we’re going to see her and her husband Graeme for lunch.
She came up with various ideas of things she’d like to see, and actually she gave me some great ideas. She suggested the Place des Vosges, which I have to confess I’d never heard of before It’s one of Paris’ oldest planned squares, and when I looked it up, it did look amazing. Some photos:
Apart from that, the real priority for me is to get to a Christmas market, and the best one looks to be along the Champs Elysees, so that’s another must-do, and hopefully it would be nice to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in its Christmas lights. We may have time to visit either the Museum of the Middle Ages or the Conciergerie, but we’ll play it by ear on the day, and see how we’re doing for time. I just love the idea that we can just nip over and spend seven hours in Paris!
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Field trip! Sounds like a lovely day. That square is beautiful. I hope you get to see lots of Holiday lights. Can't wait to hear, and see, it all!
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Tanya
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Sounds like a fun day! I love the European Christmas markets. It is nice living where there are lots of different countries on your doorstep. When I was living in Athens we'd sometimes go to Turkey, Italy or Morocco for the weekend. That was in the days of ultra-cheap student airfares and train passes.
Sounds like a fun day! I love the European Christmas markets. It is nice living where there are lots of different countries on your doorstep. When I was living in Athens we'd sometimes go to Turkey, Italy or Morocco for the weekend. That was in the days of ultra-cheap student airfares and train passes.
Oh that sounds heavenly. Thankfully there are still a good few cheap airfares around, although nowhere near as cheap as say a decade ago...