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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We are literally on the road to WDW now. Last night at a hotel in GA our room keys were so sensitive to our cell phones they couldn't even pass each other without demagnetizing the cards. I have never had that experience. Yes, I did know that holding the cards and phone together would demagnetize, but never passing within inches.
Will these bands be deactivated if near cell phones? I know there is a name, or initials, for the type of programming/frequency, but after last night it is now a concern.
Thanks for helping Newbies!!
Unless something has changed, all I can tell you is that we have never had an issue, and sometimes I have my phone in hand, right next to the MB, making a FP+ reservation. If not in hand, my phone is usually in my pocket or small park bag, usually very close to my MB...no issues at all.
The term for the technology is RFID (radio frequency identification), and it has worked beautifully for us.
No, never had an issue and we wear our bands continuously while at WDW, swimming, showering, walking around. I once had one that didn't seem to want to open our room door, but as Dot said, it was easily fixed.
We are literally on the road to WDW now. Last night at a hotel in GA our room keys were so sensitive to our cell phones they couldn't even pass each other without demagnetizing the cards. I have never had that experience. Yes, I did know that holding the cards and phone together would demagnetize, but never passing within inches.
Will these bands be deactivated if near cell phones? I know there is a name, or initials, for the type of programming/frequency, but after last night it is now a concern.
Thanks for helping Newbies!!
No worries.
MagicBands do not use magnetic strips like key cards, they use RFID chips, which are a non-magnetic, non-volatile medium. RFID chips are completely unaffected by magnetic fields, so MagicBands will not be damaged in any way by phones, magnetic cards, magnets, or other MagicBands.
MagicBands are also sealed units with non-conductive outer casings, so they're not even affected by static electricity or other environmental concerns. They're insulated, so if you happen to get a static charge by walking across a rug, the static discharge won't affect the MB at all, because it can't get to the electronics sealed inside.
The sealed outer casing is also waterproof, so your MBs will not be affected in any way by water, which is why you can swim and shower with your MB on and it will still work perfectly (this is particularly convenient when heading to the pool at your WDW resort or to a water park.)
In case you're wondering, "Well, if the unit is so sealed, how do they change the programming on it when I make a change to my reservations?", the answer is, they don't. Once a MagicBand is sealed, the information inside it is never changed. It's a read-only medium. All of your data is stored in Disney's computer system. The ONLY data on a MagicBand is the MB's own unique ID number, nothing else. It's the computer system that changes when you change a res or add a feature to your Disney account.
You might then wonder, "Well then how do they tell the MBs to open the door locks for my room?" They don't. They tell the room locks that it's okay to open for your unique MagicBand between your check-in day and your check-out day.
The MB is nothing but an ID, and the ID itself never changes. Only the computer system is reprogrammed, to allow that particular ID to access whatever features you have purchased and to associate that ID with your Disney account.
MagicBands do not use magnetic strips like key cards, they use RFID chips, which are a non-magnetic, non-volatile medium. RFID chips are completely unaffected by magnetic fields, so MagicBands will not be damaged in any way by phones, magnetic cards, magnets, or other MagicBands.
MagicBands are also sealed units with non-conductive outer casings, so they're not even affected by static electricity or other environmental concerns. They're insulated, so if you happen to get a static charge by walking across a rug, the static discharge won't affect the MB at all, because it can't get to the electronics sealed inside.
The sealed outer casing is also waterproof, so your MBs will not be affected in any way by water, which is why you can swim and shower with your MB on and it will still work perfectly (this is particularly convenient when heading to the pool at your WDW resort or to a water park.)
In case you're wondering, "Well, if the unit is so sealed, how do they change the programming on it when I make a change to my reservations?", the answer is, they don't. Once a MagicBand is sealed, the information inside it is never changed. It's a read-only medium. All of your data is stored in Disney's computer system. The ONLY data on a MagicBand is the MB's own unique ID number, nothing else. It's the computer system that changes when you change a res or add a feature to your Disney account.
You might then wonder, "Well then how do they tell the MBs to open the door locks for my room?" They don't. They tell the room locks that it's okay to open for your unique MagicBand between your check-in day and your check-out day.
The MB is nothing but an ID, and the ID itself never changes. Only the computer system is reprogrammed, to allow that particular ID to access whatever features you have purchased and to associate that ID with your Disney account.
Thank you for putting all of this into layman's terms for those people who are struggling to understand the technology. I think most just over complicate it. I think Disney needs to copy your explanation and put it on their website and hand out a copy to every one who gets a magic band. There are so many that are concerned unnecessarily because they do not understand how it works.
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I think Disney needs to copy your explanation and put it on their website and hand out a copy to every one who gets a magic band. There are so many that are concerned unnecessarily because they do not understand how it works.
Waste of effort, paper, and ink, trust me. Too few people would read it.
I taught high school and started each year by handing out my one-page classroom rules sheet which I then read aloud.
I always got a laugh from several students because I announced before beginning that I would read it to them not because I thought they couldn't read it but because I knew they wouldn't.
That way, they had no excuse!
Most people, I bet, couldn't care less how the things work as long as they DO work.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I think the number 1 question people have is about if they lost their magic band, will whomever finds it have access to their credit card info. I think a quick rundown about how it works would reassure people that their info is safe. It seems like that question comes up most on the all of the discussion boards. I think people are not wanting one because of it. If they knew it was just like the key cards that they handed out before, then I think more people would be OK with the magic bands. I have seen so many posts saying that they don't want one for fear of loosing it and someone having their info. Plus it does not cost them anything to put it on their website right when you are able to customize one for yourself.
All I am going to say is I have never had an issue with my cellphone been close to the Magic Band and then just refer you to WillCAD post above on how the Magic Bands works.
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I think the number 1 question people have is about if they lost their magic band, will whomever finds it have access to their credit card info. I think a quick rundown about how it works would reassure people that their info is safe. It seems like that question comes up most on the all of the discussion boards. I think people are not wanting one because of it. If they knew it was just like the key cards that they handed out before, then I think more people would be OK with the magic bands. I have seen so many posts saying that they don't want one for fear of loosing it and someone having their info. Plus it does not cost them anything to put it on their website right when you are able to customize one for yourself.
Most of the info I have actually IS posted on Disney's site somewhere, the problem is that it's buried in long, boring, fine-print FAQ's that are dull as dishwater and get read as much as the fine print in a Microsoft license agreement.
Last night at a hotel in GA our room keys were so sensitive to our cell phones they couldn't even pass each other without demagnetizing the cards.
Completely different technology.
MagicBands don't have anything in them that can be demagnetized; they use an RFID "chip" - that's "Radio Frequency ID". Essentially, and this is oversimplifying it a lot, but: they have a little tiny radio in them; when a Disney device asks them "who are you", they send back a long ID code. Disney's computers use that code to look up who YOU are, and unlock your room doors (or signal you've got a ticket for that theme park, etc). Note, that signal isn't terribly strong, which is why you need to put the band right up near the door lock.
Meanwhile, it sounds like that GA hotel is using ridiculously cheap cards. I'd find somewhere else to stay in the future, because that makes me worry about the quality of their LOCKS. And just generally, what other corners they might be cutting.
Most of the info I have actually IS posted on Disney's site somewhere, the problem is that it's buried in long, boring, fine-print FAQ's that are dull as dishwater and get read as much as the fine print in a Microsoft license agreement.
It should be right where you customize your magic bands. A window should pop up showing all of this so people can see right away how it works to allay their fears.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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I'd find somewhere else to stay in the future, because that makes me worry about the quality of their LOCKS. And just generally, what other corners they might be cutting.
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