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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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've been working on some rough day by day plans and everyone in the family voted to go to one of the waterparks on our first day of vacation. I'd thought we could do the waterparks late afternoons after softball, to avoid crowds, and 4 hours or so is enough for us usually at a waterpark. Our first day is a Sunday, July 10 (we arrive Sat. night), and we have to be at a ceremony for softball at 6:30pm, so we'd need to leave the park by 4:30, so we can shower, and get to the ceremony. Will it be so crowded it won't be enjoyable? Is one of the water parks traditionally more crowded than the other?
My other idea for the day was DisneyQuest/DTD, with a meal at the Earl of Sandwich, and hit the resort pool.
Or we could go to any of the parks?
We love the waterparks. We will be there the same time as you, infact we always go the same time very year since my husband goes to a conference. We always get to the waterparks when they first open in the morning and they do get very crowded, infact they will sometimes close if it is to capacity. the waterparks close early at about 6pm. IKt's hard to say which one will be more crowded sinced the slides at Blizzard Beach ar awsesome and now they have the water coaster rides at Typhoon Lagoon. Good luck deciding!!
We usually go in June. We have found that if we get to the water park when it opens, we can do early some of the really fun stuff before the park gets crowded, which they almost always do.
Here's another vote for first thing in the morning. DD and I went on Sunday morning last June. We got there about 30 minutes after the park opened and wre able to do all the slides and activities we wanted several times before the crowds picked up. I think a lot of the locals go to the water parks on the weekends as well as tourists, so Sunday morning would be better than Sat., because of church.
Okay, you've convinced me to get up first thing and head to a waterpark--now, how do I go about choosing which one!? They both look awesome! We hope to get to the one we don't go to on the first day later in the week, but which one would you do first, in case you didn't get to the other one? Oh, by the way we're 2 adults who're moderately thrill seeking, a 9 year old who'll try anything, and a 6 year old who's a strong swimmer, but a bit more cautious.
Sounds like you guys would enjoy Blizzard Beach!! While both parks are a lot of fun, BB seems to cater to the more adventurous and the child-teen area is much bigger and nicer too. We have been to both and prefer Typhoon Lagoon, but only because my children are all under 5.