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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 have been feeling as though I need to duck when I read how families who have children with autism feel dissed by Disney. I have a 26 year old son with autism, only slightly verbal, and we visit every year. Although no one place is ideal, we feel well served by Disney.
So what do other parks do? We live 90 minutes from Kings Dominion in Virginia. We have visited this park twice in the past, but did not find it served our needs very well, as there were few attractions my son wanted to experience, and no companion restrooms. Recently I received information about an autism day at the park, coming up on April 12th. When I read the information, however, I wondered how happy some folks would be. For my son, not being able to wear his usual "headphones" or shooters ear muffs on rides would be a problem (you must use the disposables provided by the park). Here is a link to their assistance card and wait line policy. What do you think? One difference I see from Disney is that only three people can advance through the line with the ASD person. https://www.kingsdominion.com/plan-a...g-pass-program https://www.kingsdominion.com/plan-a...h-disabilities
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YA Librarian
Last edited by yalibrarian; 04-02-2015 at 04:10 PM..
Some parks, not plagued by the abuse Disney faced, do better/more. Some do worse or even nothing. Most are probably about comparable to Disney, overall. ::shrug::
It's a hard thing, trying to honestly accommodate the special needs of people you don't know, and can't ask for proof of disability from ... and yet, also try to stem the tide of inevitable abuse and misuse that the innumerable inconsiderates out there will perpetrate.
Reading about the guest pass, it sounds pretty much like Disney's DAS so if we were to go someplace like that, I would use it. We won't go as usually places like that are "coaster heavy" and Abby just doesn't like them. She'll do BTM, the mine train and Barnstormer but that's it at Disney. The headphones, like you, could be an issue as Abby does like being able to put them on quickly if need be.
The only other parks we have visited were Storyland and Canobie Lake park in New Hampshire and I forget what they did for Abby. At Canobie, I remember her wearing a wrist band and being able to ride the rides twice in a row but I don't remember where we waited or when we boarded. I don't remember anything about Storyland but maybe we were going when it was slower and lines were short. Once we started going to Disney, we stopped going to both parks. Storyland she loved but she got bigger and the rides didn't (they really were designed for smaller people) and at Canobie, there wasn't enough that Abby really liked, especially once she got too big to ride the kiddie rides she really liked (just like at Storyland).
Yes, Darlene, I thought is sounded pretty similar to Disney's. And Sean, I also agree that it is very hard to please everyone. It makes me sad that so many people are really, really angry about the changes at Disney. I know we all have different needs, but I really don't see what they have come up with as especially unfair, given the number of people they have to deal with. I sure don't expect everything to be given to my son just because he has a disability. We found the FP system, old and new, to be very helpful, and the new arrangement means I can guarantee, short of a ride breakdown, that my son can ride his favorites.
I personally look at a venue's policies and decide for myself if it is doable for us. So if my son wants to go to this KD event, I would take him, but we would do some prep work beforehand, and I would be sure we were prepared to leave if necessary, just as on our two previous trips.
The only other park we've visited with him was Universal Islands of Adventure, and at the time, it never occurred to me to ask for accommodations. We just assessed what might be possible for him and did that.
Sean, I also agree that it is very hard to please everyone.
No, it's not so much that I'm saying "it's hard to please everyone". I'm saying,it's hard to please most people AND be resistant to abuse and misuse.
I still firmly blame the cheaters for what Disney had to do to the old GAC, turning it into the less-helpful (but MUCH more abuse-resistant) DAS. They took a really good thing, and ruined it ... for everyone, not just disabled guests.
They took a really good thing, and ruined it ... for everyone, not just disabled guests
I wouldn't necessarily say the cheaters ruined it for everyone - they did and they didn't. Getting the DAS instead of a GAC isn't a huge problem at all for us. After using it last year, both Lenny and I felt it's actually a better system than the GAC. Sure we had some concerns over it before we left but now knowing how it works, it just went really smoothly so we have no complaints about it.
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Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio....
They give a sheet with rides listed. I would take my youngest to the exit and speak with whomever was there, show him the "GAC" ironically named, right? And the employee would write a return time down next to the ride name. We were allowed to do this once per ride....,and the return time always equaled the wait time of the cue. When we were at the return time, we'd walk to the exit and he would get on the ride...if it was something he needed to be accompanied, we could have up to two people with him. Usually, I'd wait in the shade while everyone else got in the stand by line. By the time we came in through the exit, we'd be able to ride together.
Cedar Point also sells front of the line passes for a crazy amount of money and encourages GAC users to take advantage of this paid option.
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The Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Vacation, 3.0 http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post4472933
Ch-Ch-Changes July 2015
[URL="http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/sharing-adventure-disney-world-trip-reports/288847-ch-ch-changes-ptr-july-16-24-a.html"]
This was a newer policy for Cedar Point....the previous policy allowed anyone with the person to arrive via the exit without a wait. I'm not sure when they changed, but given that the current head of operations there is a former Disney CM...
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The Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Vacation, 3.0 http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post4472933
Ch-Ch-Changes July 2015
[URL="http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/sharing-adventure-disney-world-trip-reports/288847-ch-ch-changes-ptr-july-16-24-a.html"]
Six Flags has a similar return system to Cedar Point, and Universal. I was personally glad when Disney switched to this type of system. It reduces the illusion that someone is getting an advantage rather than assistance and makes it possible to enjoy my time with my kids.
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