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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well, DS screwed up!!! Camera and fanny pack are MIA at Scout camp!!! We are still holding out hope that they will reappear, but we are also not holding our breath!!!! He had done sooooooo well, that I really thought he could handle it. Not sure what happened.
Well, DS screwed up!!! Camera and fanny pack are MIA at Scout camp!!! We are still holding out hope that they will reappear, but we are also not holding our breath!!!! He had done sooooooo well, that I really thought he could handle it. Not sure what happened.
Sorry if we jinxed you!!
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Looking forward to another Christmas with The Mouse!!
No, you didn't jinx me or DS - I think the freedom they are given at Scout Camp may have gone to his head. There is always a LOT going on and he just wasn't paying attention is my guess.
There is still a chance that the pack and camera will turn up. I have hopes that whoever finds/found it will turn it in to the scout office. After all aren't scouts supposed to be loyal, trustworthy and honest????? Keep your fingers crossed!
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!!
OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
We didn't give DD a camera on our last cruise, although we're looking for a cheap digital for the kids now What a great idea!
I keep seeing these $10 cameras at Walgreens. We're thinking about buying one for each of the cars. Document any accident. But they would also be great for a kid. In fact (choke) one of the models is a Barbie pink one!!!! But I'll get the blue that almost matches my new Fit.
You may also want to consider one of the waterproof/underwater disposable cameras. The kids used these at Castaway Cay.
As a previous poster mentioned, write your name on it and it may increase the chances of getting a misplaced camera back.
We gave our kids digitals this year and they LOVE them. We got them the Olympus Stylus 850 SWs. Pricey for kids at $299 however, these are waterproof down to 10 feet, can be dropped from 5 feet w/o major damage and be outside down to 14 degrees. I figured if I bought ones that were less expensive and they got damaged, I'd be spending the about the same after replacing one. It comes with a very small memory card so we had to buy extras but that's o.k. Oh, it also does movies. It's 8 megapixels. I think with all of these features, they're set for years to come.
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Wow, modisney, your kids are very lucky! Or spoiled. Or both.
I almost got those cameras for my parents. How are they? I opted to get a different brand though, and they love it. I remember thinking, "When are we gonna need underwater photos and pictures in the snow?"
And here I am, wishing I had a good underwater camera for all the stingray and snorkeling stuff. You can buy an underwater casing separate, but it is an arm and a leg.
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"I'm doing this because I want to do it better" -Walter Elias Disney, on creating Walt Disney World
Lucky and spoiled! But the cameras are great. They really are easy to use, my kids figured everything out so quickly. There are some extra features that we went back to the camera shop to have explained. They took lots of underwater shots as well as little movies on our recent trip to Florida. They take them to the pool and when swimming with friends. I also figure I don't have to worry about the cameras getting wet ever. As for being out in the cold, we'll see about that. Again, the big draw for me is that these cameras seem "indestructible".
And here I am, wishing I had a good underwater camera for all the stingray and snorkeling stuff. You can buy an underwater casing separate, but it is an arm and a leg.
For our cruise we wanted a regular camera and an underwater camera but didn't want to have to deal with the disposables and not being able to view the pics instantly. So we got this Vivitar Underwater camera before going on the Panama Canal Cruise. Love it! And we thought the price was reasonable since we were able to get it for about $30 less than it is listed for now.
DD (11) talked us into buying her a pretty decent digital camera (the cheaper ones she had were no longer performing up to her standards, and in some cases not performing at all) last month. As usual, she had a list of reasons supporting her request (such as "How many times does a girl get to go to the women's Olympic Gymnastics Trials???) that were quite thoughtful. As usual, I caved, so she is the proud owner of a light blue Casio Exilim that takes better pictures than my camera. Anyway, she took the camera to camp (one of the reasons on her list) - her first time ever at "sleep away" camp. When we unpacked her trunk back home, there was her camera, in the bin where it was supposed to be. Even better, the camera still works!
I know that this is going to sound strange, but I am more relaxed now that she has the Exilim and won't be asking to borrow either my camcorder or regular digital camera (her Exilim can record video too). Since the "borrowings" tended to happen on the fly, that meant that she was taking my SD card along with the camera. Now her camera has her SD card in it, so if she loses the camera, she only loses her pictures, not mine too.
For what it is worth, yes, DD came home with the camera. However, she also came home short one pair of crocs (and it's not like she has small feet either).
For our cruise we wanted a regular camera and an underwater camera but didn't want to have to deal with the disposables and not being able to view the pics instantly. So we got this Vivitar Underwater camera before going on the Panama Canal Cruise. Love it! And we thought the price was reasonable since we were able to get it for about $30 less than it is listed for now.
We just got one of those and I am eager to try it out! We also got some 'underwater' single use cameras at CVS for 9.99 each! We also got a new compact Kodak digital for my DW because we are assuming that I will be 'hogging' our other digital.
We got some decent prices and rapid shipping at walmart.com
Now, all we need is a label-maker so we can easily label everything!
I just wanted to share with everyone the 'travel-sized-for-your-convenience' Vivitar Vivicam 5188, which has 5MP, a 2" screen / viewfinder and a 15 meter waterproof case. The camera can be tucked into a pocket easily as it is about the size of the average cell phone and little bigger than a pack of playing cards! The case has buttons for you to manipulate the camera controls. I loaded a 2GB card, as that is the maximum it states it will support.
You can see the scale reference by looking at the CD behind and the 12" tape measure in front. I'll let you know if it takes photos that are any good!
BTW -- I think there should be a law that anything that is sold online should have a photo and reliable scale reference in that photo.