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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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1-15-14 Question of the Day!
Keeping with the travel theme......
Do you have a travel category in your weekly or monthly budget?
Do you have a travel budget?
If money is needed for an unexpected expense in your life, do you take the money from
your travel savings??
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We don't really have a set budget when we travel, per se. We see how much we have saved/will be able to save before we go and then go from there.
We have a separate savings account that has $75 every two weeks automatically transferred into it then we will add more to the account if we have some extra money hanging around. It is "mostly" for travel but if a big expense comes up and we need that money, travel gets pushed to the side and that money gets used for the expense.
When we do smaller trips (a couple days at WDW or visiting friends somewhere) we don't do a budget. Usually however we have a "big" trip in the works that we are planning for a year or more (like our current one for Brazil this June which has been planned for 3 1/2 yrs, but real reservations and stuff started last August), we start putting more inti our savings account after we determine the likely cost. We also try to somewhat stagger when we pay for stuff so if something else pricey (a home repair etc) comes up, there is plenty of money available for that too.
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
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I absolutely do a budget and save money every week so I have all the money I need when we go away. Have never/will never do a vacation on credit (I use my credit cards of course to book hotels and airfare but pay them off immediately. I have one savings account I just keep a tab in the back of my bank book as to what money is for what. And yes I would steal from the vacation fund if I needed to for emergency if the money in my emergency fund wasn't enough to cover it. (I'm a single parent and try to be prepared for everything)
This is a timely QOTD for me. We do have an account for travel and I did have to tap in to it for an emergency recently. The dh and I were planning to go away for New Years but on 12/09 our furnace died. We are now rebuilding our travel & emergency funds !
We have a travel savings fund we pay into each month and we also allow for travel expenditure as part of our usual monthly expenditure, as travel is such a big part of our lives. If I had to target the travel fund for cash, I would, but it would really be a last resort.
I don't have travel built into my monthly budget, nor do I have a travel account... However, when planning a trip- I do try to figure how much money it will cost and save accordingly....
we do automatic deposits from our paychecks into a vacation club it gets transferred to our savings on June 1st . I also try to put extra into the account each week, When I can. This is set up as a vacation club so I don't know if I can access it before the June date.
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