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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Some nice photos in Studios in front of Mickey! Glad your timing was perfect and were able to get a Friendship boat to the Swan/Dolphin. I usually only take this (even on my past trip when I was at the Dolphin) when a boat is there or pulling up as the walk can be quicker! Nice arrival in Epcot with some nice things for the Festival of the Arts. Don't know much about this as never experienced this.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I am so not surprised that it was quicker to walk from the Swan/Dolphin than take the boat. We've beaten it back to the BoardWalk from the Studios on a number of occasions.
What interesting works of art, looking forward to what else you can capture before your battery dies.
I was mad that I hadn't thought to bring the spare, and this was the second day for this battery, so I was pushing it! When I noticed it was down one bar I got a little anxious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
That chalk art is so cool!
It really was fun looking at all the cool drawings!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Some nice photos in Studios in front of Mickey! Glad your timing was perfect and were able to get a Friendship boat to the Swan/Dolphin. I usually only take this (even on my past trip when I was at the Dolphin) when a boat is there or pulling up as the walk can be quicker! Nice arrival in Epcot with some nice things for the Festival of the Arts. Don't know much about this as never experienced this.
This is only the second year for the Festival of the Arts, and we were happy to be there for it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Those murals were amazing, weren't they?
I am so not surprised that it was quicker to walk from the Swan/Dolphin than take the boat. We've beaten it back to the BoardWalk from the Studios on a number of occasions.
We really enjoyed looking at all the chalk creations.
It was a good choice to take the boat for just part of the trip. It gave us a chance to sit and relax for a bit, and then be on our way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
The sidewalk chalk art is amazing! So cool!
We really enjoyed it!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from the Festival of the Arts!
It really was a fun event!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Awesome chalk art!
I know, Such talent!
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
That chalk art is amazing!
Yes, it was very cool!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
I know I sound like a parrot but my goodness, that chalk art is amazing!!
It was a lot of fun viewing all the chalk pictures.
So, we headed for WS and around we went, mainly looking for the photo ops. We would be back in Epcot tomorrow for a second look at the countries, so we were ok with making this a quick trip.
The first two were in Italy, the first being The Birth of Venus. And since this was our first stop I had no idea what to do. I have to say the photographer was not very helpful. She could have at least given us a hint at some fun poses, but no. She just let us stand there like goofs and took the picture. After we exited, I realized there was a photo of the actual artwork inside for you to look at. Oh well, one down.
Next up was “The Scream” and “The Mona Lisa”. This photographer was very helpful, though we did get the jest of it as we watched the three or so groups in front of us. It was our turn and we put our bags down and got ready for the photo, and then the group that was before us came back, spoke to the photographer, and she asked if we would mind letting them in for a “do-over”. Apparently, when she took photos with their phone, her finger was in the way. So, we stepped aside and let them back in. After we were done, as we scanned our magic band the photographer thanked us for being so patient.
Next up was the Crossing of the Delaware in the American pavilion. And again, this photographer was not very helpful with poses. But I had seen some examples online so we copied that and made our own pose.
Then, on to France and Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party.” This was fun. After our first pose, the photographer had me lean close to the man on the far left as if he was kissing my cheek. Then he had Jeff looked shocked, and then, for the next pose, he asked Jeff to kiss my other cheek. Fun!
After we passed UK we noticed the doors to the Showplace were opened and there were a few characters back there, along with a bunch of observant people who noticed what was going on. We headed back and got some photos with Foulfellow, and Mickey. Tigger was there as well, but his line was pretty long and we decided not to wait. There were not PP photographers there, so we used our camera and hoped that my battery would not die before we were done!
We had made FP for The Pixar Shorts, so we headed over there. Of course the FP doesn’t really do much – you have to stand there and wait for the next show no matter which line you come through. Kinda dumb! Anyway, we walked in just after the doors shut for the previous group, so we were stuck there, waiting for 18 minutes. Jeff got a little claustrophobic because they ask people to move in and over as far as you can go and so he decided to head out. But I wanted to see the show so I stayed. Once we got in and sat down, I found that I had the unfortunate luck of sitting directly in front of two very rude girls who talked throughout the whole first movie. I turned around to glare, but they were so busy talking that they didn’t even notice me. So, after the first short had ended, I got up and moved about 8 seats down the row. The next two were much more enjoyable! In addition to the Mickey one, I saw “Piper” and “Feast” which were both very adorable! When I was over I headed out and found Jeff by the fountain. Then we went to find the paint by number mural.
How neat to get those character meets - I don't remember seeing that open up during any of our visits to Epcot, so I think you really lucked out there.
We found the photographers a bit useless as well - they didn't help us much either and I was annoyed that the ones we got done in France ended up in shadow.
I loved the Pixar shorts. I'm so glad you got to see them, but sorry about the rude girls.
How neat to get those character meets - I don't remember seeing that open up during any of our visits to Epcot, so I think you really lucked out there.
We've run into something similar years ago near American Adventure. Rumor has it that those types of random meets are training new CMs for character meets.
Quote:
We found the photographers a bit useless as well - they didn't help us much either and I was annoyed that the ones we got done in France ended up in shadow.
I know! I was very annoyed with that as well! All he would have had to say is "step forward a bit because you're in the shadow".
Quote:
I loved the Pixar shorts. I'm so glad you got to see them, but sorry about the rude girls.
I don't know why people do that! If you want to talk, stay outside and talk. Do not come in and ruin the experience for others!
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Glad your timing was perfect and were able to get a Friendship boat to the Swan/Dolphin. 
Nice arrival in Epcot with some nice things for the Festival of the Arts. Don't know much about this as never experienced this.
PassPorter Guide Author
Liz 
I turned around to glare, but they were so busy talking that they didn’t even notice me. So, after the first short had ended, I got up and moved about 8 seats down the row. The next two were much more enjoyable! In addition to the Mickey one, I saw “Piper” and “Feast” which were both very adorable! When I was over I headed out and found Jeff by the fountain. Then we went to find the paint by number mural. 
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