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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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DD Kathryn will be living and working in Nancy next school year. I'm hoping and planning on going with her to help her get settled (and to make it easier on me to let her go).
I know Nancy is World Heritage Site, and have seen quite a few things about it on-line, but I'm looking for real-life experiences and recommendations.
Anyone ever been? What was there to do? Any tips on short trips DD can make to explore later on? She'll be there Sept-Jun. We're probably going to bring her home for Christmas, but that's it.
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Hi Teresa, my DD lived in France for her junior year in college last year( August 2013-May 2014) For first semester she lived with a family in Nice on the Riviera and second semester she attended the Sorbonne and lived with a family in Paris. She traveled all over Europe, England,Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland while she was there. One of her favorite trips was in December to the Christmas markets in Strasbourg and Colmar. These places are in the Alscase Lorraine region which I believe isn't too far from Nancy. She also loved Lyon.
Hi Teresa, my DD lived in France for her junior year in college last year( August 2013-May 2014) For first semester she lived with a family in Nice on the Riviera and second semester she attended the Sorbonne and lived with a family in Paris. She traveled all over Europe, England,Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland while she was there. One of her favorite trips was in December to the Christmas markets in Strasbourg and Colmar. These places are in the Alscase Lorraine region which I believe isn't too far from Nancy. She also loved Lyon.
Thank you. Kathryn has been on numerous trips to France with either her elementary and high schools or with us (Paris, Monaco, Corsica, Alsace, Normandy) - all over the country. She stayed with a family in Alsace (just outside of Strasbourg) for 2 weeks and it was one of the best experiences of her life. We still talk to them on a regular basis, and they've invited Kathryn to visit them while she is in Nancy.
Just wondering what there is to do in and around Nancy. I had forgotten about the Christmas markets! Dsis often travels to Basel, Switzerland for business and loves them! I'll make sure to recommend those to Kathyrn.
We visited Nancy on a trip a couple of years ago on the way to Switzerland and spent a couple of hours there over a lunchtime. It's a beautiful place and the centre is stunning. It's a couple of hours drive from Basel and we loved it there. Elsewhere in Switzerland, I'd thoroughly recommend Montreux and Lake Geneva and Lucerne - both absolutely beautiful. Here's a link to the trip report where we spent time in Nancy (page 6 onwards).
I think, as has been said, all of Europe is within easy reach, depending on what flights/trains there are from Nancy. You're close to the German border there, only an hour and a half from Luxembourg City - again, well worth seeing and Belgium is also an option.
We visited Nancy on a trip a couple of years ago on the way to Switzerland and spent a couple of hours there over a lunchtime. It's a beautiful place and the centre is stunning. It's a couple of hours drive from Basel and we loved it there. Elsewhere in Switzerland, I'd thoroughly recommend Montreux and Lake Geneva and Lucerne - both absolutely beautiful. Here's a link to the trip report where we spent time in Nancy (page 6 onwards).
I think, as has been said, all of Europe is within easy reach, depending on what flights/trains there are from Nancy. You're close to the German border there, only an hour and a half from Luxembourg City - again, well worth seeing and Belgium is also an option.
Yes, she may be a very well traveled young lady by the time she returns home! Good thing we just got her a new passport a year ago.
I hadn't realized Nancy was so close to Basel. We'll have to look into rail travel. We have some friends who moved to Switzerland a couple of years ago, I can't remember the city now, but we'll certainly look them up. Plus, some friends in Paris and an aunt and uncle of mine in London, DD Kathryn's former teacher in the Monaco area, and another in Brussels, and I think we'll be set for touring the French speaking countries. Now, to find someone in Germany.......