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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Southwestern Florida, USA
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 39,153
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Missing friends
Our very dear and best friends from home left this morning after being here for almost 2 months. They have an RV and came down from Indiana to spend January and most of February in a nice RV park just a few miles from us. We have spent every weekend with them and I have spent quite a few days during the week with my friend ever since they arrived. They were supposed to be here through the 2nd week of March, but their daughter is due to have her 4th baby on the 29th of February and they need to be home by then.
So, as we said good-bye to them last night, I got very emotional.
I love having them close by! I miss my friends from home.
Now that they have left, I feel like we will go back to the same boring routine around here.
Living in southwest Florida is nice, but we have yet (after 5 years) found good friends who are here all year round.
I find myself getting homesick and my hubby doesn't understand it. He loves it here.
It is crazy that I am the one who wanted to move here and he was the one who dragged his feet! The whole situation has reversed itself! I miss home, friends, church and he doesn't!
Sigh.....I wish we could afford to retire so that we could travel more.
But unless we sell the house we just bought 2 years ago, the possibility of traveling more isn't an option!
I am actually thinking about talking to him about selling the house and buying something that costs less so that we have more flexibility to travel and see our friends and family, than having this house!
Well, thanks for letting me vent!
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PassPorter Guide Author PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Navigator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Ohio & Florida
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 6,129
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I'm sorry, that stinks! We moved a fair amount with the military, and you have to really put yourself out to make friends. At least in a military community, lots of other people are in the same boat. Otherwise, folks around you already have made friends and may not be looking for others.
The best I can tell you is to look around for other people who are fairly new here; you can support each other and maybe become new friends. Loads of people are moving to Florida every day, so I bet you can find some.
If you haven't made any friends at your church, try a new one! Heaven knows there's a ton of churches everywhere.
The other thing...if you have your Florida resident pass, look on the boards for folks who are planning trips to WDW, and do some meetups. That's not the same thing as having good friends nearby, of course, but could be fun. I met KimmyAnn from the boards at DLR in December and we had a blast!
Here's hoping you're just temporarily a little down and will feel happier soon. Good luck, and
ETA: We're hoping to move to FL most of the year, sometime next year. The community we're looking at has lots of activities, and DH already knows somebody there. I hope I'll be able to find or set up a new scrapbooking group there. I've made a couple of really good friends that way.
I'm sorry you're missing your friends. If it makes you feel better I never see my friends because they're all so busy with their kids and sports. I'd rather be in the warm sunshine of Florida missing my friends than in cold LI missing them. .
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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Our last WDW trip as a family 
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