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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I just booked a 4 night Bahamas' cruise March 12-15/2014 on the Wonder. It has an asterisk *at the bottom of the page and says "this port requires tendering". What does that mean? Does Disney not have a home on the main slip at the port of Miami? Is that why they give guests check in times? Any answers would be appreciated.
Did it say that Miami required tendering? I have never heard of having to tender at the port of embarkation They give you a port arrival time to try to manage the check in lines at the port.
Hmmm - I just checked the DCL website, and it looks like you go from Miami to Nassau, Castaway Cay, and Key West. It didn't show anything about tendering (which is why you were probably surprised). I believe the Wonder docks at all of these ports.
I'm sure you will get on the ship at the Port in Miami without tendering - on our cruise last year, they had a nice (but plain) Terminal at the port. We went to Grand Cayman, and that did require a tender, so maybe it's just an error for this cruise.
You might want to email or call DCL just to verify.
I double checked on the DCL site and saw nothing about tendering at any of your ports. There must have just been a glitch in the system. Some ports do require tendering and maybe this was a footnote coming thru from another page.
It means, if a port of call is marked with an asterisk, then it requires tendering. If no ports on the itinerary are marked, no worries.
The only frequently-visited DCL ports of call that routinely require tendering are Grand Cayman and Villefranche (Mediterranean itineraries). Even Sitka, Alaska, which has traditionally been a tendering port, now has a cruise pier - something which cinched DCL's first (and so far, only) visit to that port, coming in May 2014.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Ok, I'm sorry in advance for this since I'm a cruise newbie, but what is tendering? Ship to boat to land? Or a fee to gain access?
Tendering is when you need to use a small boat to get the port instead of walking down a ramp, because the port isn't big enough or deep enough for a cruise ship to dock in.
Here's a couple of pictures of some in Cabo San Lucas to give you an ide of what they look like.
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You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality.
- Walt Disney
Thanks for all the answers. We have cruised with Disney a few times and know we tender in Grand Cayman but I thought it was really odd to see it for Miami. Must have been a glitch. Not going to ponder it any more. This was a last minute decision and since we are not travelling with the kids we will go with the flow!