2017 WDW Passporter Guide [multiple updates with info on LIVE! Guides!] - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh no, this is awful news! I always get the print copy, and usually get at least one or two extra copies to give as gifts to friends and family - I collect these year on year, as they are a good way to track the way things change at WDW over the years.
I also have a lot of the other books too.
Such a shame if this becomes true, particularly for non-USA visitors who don't have access to a smartphone and therefore a downloaded PassPorter when on holiday.
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We won't buy another PassPorter if there are no more Deluxe refills.
I detest reference ebooks. Fiction ebooks are annoying enough, but cookbooks and travel guides are impossible for me. I want to be able to grab a tab and flip to the section I need instead of jockeying through an ebook and having to print things. The point of buying a travel planner is to have pages I can browse enjoyably as well as write on.
Pleeeeeaaase at least offer print-on-demand for those preferring the hard copy.
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I am sad too about this, but understand that sometimes the cost outweighs the demand. I will miss my printed hard copy. I love looking at them in a printed edition. I will still keep buying my copy though to support Passporter.
Hopefully the pockets will be back in stock soon??
I already have a deluxe copy, so I would love to have the pockets and I can print what I need to put in the book for our Dec 2017 trip and still take with me.
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We've been printing PassPorters for nearly 20 years now. I didn't plan to stop. But if they aren't selling enough to pay for the print bill, which is what happened this year, I don't have a choice. It's either this or close up shop. I looked into the price for print-on-demand, but because it is a full color book, it would be at least $60 per book, and that is without a spiral binding, stickers, pockets, or pull-out maps. Would you really pay that much?
If you believe in PassPorter, and find value in our information, I urge you to consider signing up for our new LIVE! Guide. While you only get a printed book if you print it yourself, what you get in return is a lower price (only $14.95/year), the ability to access it anywhere, and -- best of all -- is kept up-to-date year-round. The benefits outweigh the negatives. Remember, you can still print it yourself if you really want.
That said, if anyone out there feels strongly enough about this and wants to pay for a traditional print run of maybe 5000 books, we can make that happen. Email me and I will entertain offers.
If not, I urge you to support our new endeavor. I've put a lot of work into it -- two years -- to make it something that folks will really like. It doesn't cost much -- hardly anything when you consider how much you spend at Disney. And if enough people support it, then I can subsidize future print runs as a service for our readers. I would totally do that if I had money to spare.
PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2017 LIVE! Guide will come out at the end of the year. E-mail me at jennifer (at) passporter [dot] com if you'd like me to email you an invitation to the soft opening.
And thank you for your enthusiasm and support! It means more to me than you can imagine.
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Just throwing some thoughts out there.
You don't even have to respond.
How about no color and no pictures? Would people buy a reference book that was stripped down to the words, tables, maps, etc if it were in black and white?
I know these books have always been printed in China due to the rates they could give. Did you get your POD pricing from them? Did you explore other printers?
I really liked the first book you did in 1999 that didn't have spiral binding and it didn't have many photos.
One year we tried a "library edition" which was black and white, perfect bound -- essentially what a POD (print-on-demand) would look like. It didn't sell enough to pay for itself either. I think people would be really disappointed, but I could do that if there was enough request for it. Sadly, it's price point would be higher than the current price point for the spiral.
We do all our POD here in the states. It needs to be done that way because of shipping.
No one is sadder than me about this, friends.
If you believe in PassPorter, and find value in our information, I urge you to consider signing up for our new LIVE! Guide. While you only get a printed book if you print it yourself, what you get in return is a lower price (only $14.95/year), the ability to access it anywhere, and -- best of all -- is kept up-to-date year-round. The benefits outweigh the negatives. Remember, you can still print it yourself if you really want.
If not, I urge you to support our new endeavor. I've put a lot of work into it -- two years -- to make it something that folks will really like. It doesn't cost much -- hardly anything when you consider how much you spend at Disney. And if enough people support it, then I can subsidize future print runs as a service for our readers. I would totally do that if I had money to spare.
PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2017 LIVE! Guide will come out at the end of the year. E-mail me at jennifer (at) passporter [dot] com if you'd like me to email you an invitation to the soft opening.
And thank you for your enthusiasm and support! It means more to me than you can imagine.
I got an invitation for the cruise line live guide, but frankly found the whole thing confusing and I couldn't access anything without paying for a subscription. How do I know whether the live guide would be any use if I can't at least test it? It was difficult on my computer - I can't imagine trying to do it on my phone. Not to mention that I don't have a huge data plan, so no accessing it in the parks for me. I'm really sad about this whole thing.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dolphin041599
How do I know whether the live guide would be any use if I can't at least test it?
That is a good point. I wonder if Jennifer could make one or two pages available, outside the intro pages, so folks could see how useful they are...or perhaps a sample page.
I got an invitation for the cruise line live guide, but frankly found the whole thing confusing and I couldn't access anything without paying for a subscription. How do I know whether the live guide would be any use if I can't at least test it? It was difficult on my computer - I can't imagine trying to do it on my phone. Not to mention that I don't have a huge data plan, so no accessing it in the parks for me. I'm really sad about this whole thing.
Interesting because there was a sample of the live guide just as there was for the print book. As far as using data in the parks, it wouldn't use any data if you download it to ibooks
My complaint with the live guide, and maybe someone here can help me with this, I don't like the PDF format that loaded to my kindle. It there a way to make it read like a book on the kindle platform?
I'm sorry to hear this as I've been buying two Deluxe refills for years so I could organize it the way I like and like Dot I don't like electronic reference books. My question is the navigation going to be better than it has in the past? What I've hated about the electronic version in the past is that you have to scroll through all the pages that come before the one you're wanting to read instead of just being able to tap or click on a link in the index. (I use the Kindle app on either my phone and rarely on my laptop) I don't read any reference books (even Passporter) from start to finish the way I do other books. So unless I'm able tap/click on a link and jump to the page/subject I'm interested in the electronic version will be useless to me and honestly I wont take the time or go to the expense and trouble to pint, cut and hole punch the sections I want.
I admit Jennifer that I would also try it of I could see how (sample actual pages) would look. I must say that if it is confusing to print or look at I would not be interested bc of how it would impact my headaches. Also my mother isn't tech friendly either. I would try it if there was a sample.
Also as Dot pointed out - if we would print out on our own would it be sized to fit our deluxe binders already purchased?
I also hope the pokets stay as an option bc we LOVE them!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cattailmarsh
Also as Dot pointed out - if we would print out on our own would it be sized to fit our deluxe binders already purchased?
Here's some info from the LIVE! Guide:
Quote:
The PDF is sized at 5.5" wide by 9" high so that it is similar in size to our other books and so you may print it and put it in a PassPorter binder if you wish. If you have any difficulty seeing the text, we recommend you enlarge the print size to 8.5 x 11 in your print settings before printing it.
It also says that the PDF will have photos (compressed), but not the photo slices--this is to keep the PDF to a manageable size. You don't want the book to take up your entire hard drive! The maps are full-size, though.
The actual LIVE! Guide, of course, has all the photos and photo slices--I can't even imagine how huge Jennifer's server is to hold all that and the tens of thousands of PassPorter photos!
You can also print pages directly from the LIVE! Guide...on the right of the page is a chart with all kinds of tools, one of them being Print-Friendly Page. This will print the page at 8.5x11--the formatting is a bit off, and some pages will actually take 2 pages to print, but it's in a nice, easy-to-read size that's good for planning.
Other tools there include all kinds of interactive worksheets, like meal plans, packing lists, travel, lodging, etc.
Another cool thing about the LIVE! Guide is you can put bookmarks, flags, and notes on all kinds of things--rides, hotels, meals, tours, etc.--and they'll show up on your guide and print out on the pages, plus they're searchable. AND you can link your book to the Trip Planner that Jennifer has also created, in case you're not familiar with that.
Jennifer has worked hard to make all these things work together seamlessly. I've been working with some of them for over a year now, and it's becoming a really neat electronic way to plan a trip.
I miss having a book, too, but this is the way things are going now everywhere, plus you can still have paper-and-pen planning sheets if you prefer doing things that way. And maybe at some point we'll have both!
So, I'm still very sad about this whole situation, but I understand the problems of a small business. I love the idea of the LIVE guides but I really need a printed planner to go along with this. Is there a way you can make an option within the guides for printing a version that is formatted to fit into the deluxe binder, with minimal cutting and paper waste, for those of us who finally bought the deluxe binder for our last trip (after many spiral bound)and were looking forward to using it for our future disney vacations?😉 Maybe 2 book pages per printed page (I checked, it works) so that each piece of paper needs only to be cut in half and mark where holes need to be punched. I know we can figure it out ourselves but it would make a big difference to those people who are less tech savvy or busy mom's who just don't have the time to figure this all out. And please, please bring back the pockets!! It's one of the biggest reasons your guides stand out from everyone else's! I'm trying to look at this practically, but this was the guide I took, waaay back when I went on my honeymoon, the first time I went to WDW and everytime after, so it has a special place in my heart.
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