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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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May I ask what sorts of difficulties you had seeing it on your computer? Maybe it's something I can fix for you.
I made the LIVE! Guide to be friendly to mobile devices first -- the font is big, simple, easy-to-read. Even for my old eyes. I have problems reading things on my phone too, so I made so -I- could read it.
People used to take PassPorters into the parks, but I don't see them carrying them anymore. Everyone just wants things on their phones at this point, and who can blame them? I also prefer that (though I still carry my PassPorter binder).
Its just small - I'm prone to migraines, so reading a ton of stuff on my phone triggers migraines. I know you can enlarge things on your phone, but then the constant scrolling and I'm always losing my place when I have to move the screen from side to side. I hope that I'm explaining that well enough. I appreciate that you made the guides easy for mobile phones, but unfortunately, that doesn't help the migraines - which is something you can't control.
You seem to be doing great here on the message boards. Is there something different about the boards that I could implement in the guides? How about an option to make the font bigger in the guides?
Still a bit sad that overseas visitors to WDW who don't take a mobile phone to the USA purely because of the cost of doing so, won't now be able to just pick up a book to check something out. I suppose we must be in the minority these days. Such a shame because we used to use it to help decide which restaurants to visit etc.
And I loved buying extra copies of PP to hand out to friends and family who were planning their first trip, too.
Ah well. I guess this is the way of the world, now. I'll just have to continue using my 2016 PassPorter and hope nothing changes too much! Well done to all the people involved who have worked hard on making the digital copies.
__________________
Silvercat
(Enjoy reading trip reports? Why not try my books, "Tiggerific Travels Parts 1, 2, 3 & the new volume 4" - available now as e-books)
Still a bit sad that overseas visitors to WDW who don't take a mobile phone to the USA purely because of the cost of doing so, won't now be able to just pick up a book to check something out. I suppose we must be in the minority these days. Such a shame because we used to use it to help decide which restaurants to visit etc.
If your phone has the memory, you could save the PDF on the phone and use it that way. You'd of course want to put the phone in airplane mode, so it's not trying to pick up cell-tower signals.
I've saved the PDF on my laptop, and it somehow is only 9 megs. Any smart phone should have that much memory. You'd just have to remember not to call anyone!
I was pretty sad and reluctant to try the new Live! guides. We have always purchased a new Passporter for every trip and used them as a scrapbook. But, I broke down and ordered a 2016 for our upcoming trip this year for a couple of reasons. The first is for sentimental reasons, it is the last hard copy version(for now) and I needed it. The second is so that I can use it for this 2017 trip. I am going to cheat and use my Cricut to cut vinyl to make it look like a 2017 version.
With that being said, I also signed up for the all access plan for the live guides. It will be a transition, but I think for me, having access to both will help. I can print what I need to update and still have a physical book without printing the entire guide.
Jennifer,
I do have a question, will I have access to the DW guidebook during the soft opening since I already purchased my all access subscription? THANKS!!!
Jennifer, I do have a question, will I have access to the DW guidebook during the soft opening since I already purchased my all access subscription? THANKS!!!
Yep! It will automagically appear in the Guides & E-Books menu when it goes into soft opening, and I will send you an e-mail about it, too! THANK you!!
You seem to be doing great here on the message boards. Is there something different about the boards that I could implement in the guides? How about an option to make the font bigger in the guides?
On my computer I can enlarge the screen as necessary, on my phone, the small screen makes that difficult. And a larger font might help, but then that necessitates a lot of scrolling, which is just as difficult for me. And in the sunlight, reading the phone screen won't even be an option. I'm sure this is a better option for lots of people, I just don't think it will work for me, which really stinks because I did enjoy the way Passporter was organized, having the pockets at the back, etc. I know this is my issue (not everyone suffers from migraines), and I'm used to other people not understanding, and I've learned to either make adjustments or live without. I do appreciate your willingness to make changes and listen to everyone's point of view.
If your phone has the memory, you could save the PDF on the phone and use it that way. You'd of course want to put the phone in airplane mode, so it's not trying to pick up cell-tower signals.
I've saved the PDF on my laptop, and it somehow is only 9 megs. Any smart phone should have that much memory. You'd just have to remember not to call anyone!
Here's a possible option:
If it were me - I'd leave the phone in the hotel room for emergencies, and just purchase a little cheapie 7" (about 18cm) tablet with wi-fi only on it. You can carry the PP on it, maybe surf the web via WDW's awesome wi-fi connection (/snark), and in some cases, use it as a makeshift camera! Many of the Android based devices can handle up to a 32 or 64 GB memory card, so that expands how many pics you can take.
It would also eliminate the possibility of accidentally butt-dialing or using the phone with those ungodly roaming charges. A $50 investment here could save a lot of money later!
I'm so disappointed. I loved getting the spiral planning guide each year for our trips. Sadly, having it on my phone or computer isn't an option that will work for me,
I love the new live guides!!! I still enjoy paper books but I love how my family can all make notes and jump from section to section and not lose our place. I will just say please give them a try.
Maybe I'm just not getting it. I love the idea of the Live Guide, so I I purchased and downloaded the WDW 2017 Live Guide to my Macbook. Success! But I can't seem to add info. For example, the page near the beginning where I think I should be able to type in who is traveling, what our celebration is, etc. When I click on the blank line where the info would go, there is no option to type.
Maybe I'm just not getting it. I love the idea of the Live Guide, so I I purchased and downloaded the WDW 2017 Live Guide to my Macbook. Success! But I can't seem to add info. For example, the page near the beginning where I think I should be able to type in who is traveling, what our celebration is, etc. When I click on the blank line where the info would go, there is no option to type.
Hi! All of the interactive features are in the actual LIVE! Guide, which is what you see online. The PDF is simply a PDF -- you cannot type in it. The current PDF has the same degree of interactivity as our previous PDFs. To enter your trip information, you have two routes via the LIVE Guide:
1. Go to the LIVE! Guide itself and open an online worksheet (either from the Worksheets drop-down menu or from the LIVE! Guide Tools sidebar0
2. Go to your LIVE! Guide dashboard at https://www.passporter.com/guide/dashboard.php and start a new trip -- this is where you can enter all your trip details, travelers, hotel information, etc.
Please let me know if you have any questions! And thank you for getting a pass!
Im confused I paid the 14.99 for the live guide. I got three emails saying congrats, here's the links and so one but when I click on the link I can look through a few pages then it askes me to buy again. Wass Up with this????
Im confused I paid the 14.99 for the live guide. I got three emails saying congrats, here's the links and so one but when I click on the link I can look through a few pages then it askes me to buy again. Wass Up with this????
Bella,
Be sure you're logged in and also clear your cookies. Jennifer has put a link in that will do that for you. Look under your username in the upper righthand corner, click on Clear Cookies, and see if that helps.