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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So I'll throw this into the mix. First maybe they are trying to include MORE Tier 1 choices for folks that don't like the current ones. You'd feel like you were getting more for your money.
As to not getting to ride without a reservation - how is that any different than back in the old ticket days except that now you'd be guaranteed a ride? It's sort of like an electronic ticket. Now I would HATE for Disney to go back to that, but in some cases when we had the old ticket books, you ended up doing some of those A and B ticket rides just because you had the tickets. And some of those were part of the experience. Now I don't think I would like to have to schedule ALL my rides - the parks would lose a lot of their charm if you were rushing to make an appointment. But would the disappointment be less if you knew if you were going to get on a ride, or meet a character BEFORE you arrived? (This is not taking into consideration that an attraction may go down)
True, you may find the less-popular rides you rather get stuck with are more fun than you thought they'd be.
You can always be quitters like we were last trip--did Test Track and neither of the others. We'll probably still just ignore the rest now that you can get a 4th FP anywhere once all your three times have been used or expired.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I agree that the spontaneity is disappearing and that does sadden me to some extent. However, with the amount of money people spend on a disney vacation, I think disney is trying to ensure that people are getting to experience what they want to rather than just 'hoping' that they'll get to do the things that they want to.
I do think with this whole FP+ thing that disney is at least trying some things out and listening to feedback about what is and isn't working and making changes accordingly. I at least give them kudos for that!
This only makes my decision to always do Character Meals even more sensible. I've never been one to wait in line to meet characters...I feel it's a waste of time when there's so much more to do at the parks (we're a "ride" family), so going to the meals where you know you'll get time with the characters is perfect. We always do Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's so that we are certain to interact with our favorite characters without any stress.
This only makes my decision to always do Character Meals even more sensible. I've never been one to wait in line to meet characters...I feel it's a waste of time when there's so much more to do at the parks (we're a "ride" family), so going to the meals where you know you'll get time with the characters is perfect. We always do Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's so that we are certain to interact with our favorite characters without any stress.
Imagine how much harder those character meal reservations will be to get if your only other option was to use a tier 1 FP for a character greeting.
My first thought when I saw this thread today was the thread a while back where someone saw something that said character meals would no longer be included in the dining plan. Supposedly that was a "computer glitch", but I can't help but wonder if these are in some way connected.
That's just crazy! Oh, how I wish for the days when you'd just happen upon the characters out and about. I know that's not practical any more, but I agree-- out of control.
Spontaneity used to be a big part of the Magic . . .
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When we were there, they hadn't implemented it yet. However, the magic band scanners were at the entrances of those meet-n-greet locations, and a CM said it would be taking affect soon, it had just been delayed at the moment.
My first thought when I saw this thread today was the thread a while back where someone saw something that said character meals would no longer be included in the dining plan. Supposedly that was a "computer glitch", but I can't help but wonder if these are in some way connected.
That was my thread, and we later found that it only said "Dining plan not accepted" on the app but not on the Disney website, weirdly. Apparently was a glitch as I checked a week or so ago (suspicious sort that I am) and found that the app had been corrected.
We can relax our suspicions, I think.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
We decided to do several character meals on DGD (3yrs) first trip and just not worry about meet and greets. It really is fun to meet the characters but I just do not enjoy waiting so long with young children. I would be highly upset if they took character meals off the dining plan. I think if they are adding M&G to fastpass system, they should have several characters available and include some different characters.
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Spontaneity used to be a big part of the Magic . . .
Mary - not enough trips!
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