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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry but letting your child put anything that is "public domain" in their mouth is rude. I was at the childrens museum and a child was licking all the golf balls in an exhibit while the mother watched and laughed. It wasn't even a baby just a paste eater.
Oh, I wonder that question every day. Today a mom had to take a candy bar away from her 2 year old dd for a second while I scanned it. Of course, kid screams and cries, then mom gives the candy bar right back to the kid and the kid keeps crying while glaring at me (seriously, a 2 year old was glaring). Mom thought it was funny and coddled the kid saying, 'I know, people are so rude'. Um, ok. If my kids ever got anything at the store, they knew they didn't get it until we were at home. No question, and no tantrums!
__________________
*~*Tina
Picking up our Brasilian exchange student at the a/p
I'm germaphobe and I can't stand for my kids to put something in their mouth even if it belongs to them, much less if it doesn't. Of coarse, I'm extreme......... on the rare occasions we go to the ER or if we go to the dr. office- my kids KNOW I make them keep their hands in their pockets so they don't accidentally touch stuff and I use antibacterial soap approx. every 15 minutes were there..... going places like that cause me anxiety and I try to avoid it........... Thankfully I have really great kids that go along with my insanity of germs........
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If it weren't a communal toy, I'd let the kid chew on it and learn the hard way, but who knows what he has that could pass to others.
My mom and Walt's mom were germaphobes and he and I both have horrendous allergies thanks to living in houses as children that were coated in anti-bacterial soap. Walt and I are trying to avoid dissinfecting DJ's entire universe, so I tend to let DJ find out that something is nasty or dirty on his own. (Boys eat like 10 pounds of dirt and 20 insects a year anyway... ) He used to lick windows as a toddler - until he licked a window his grandma's dog sneezed on. ::POOF:: No more window-licking.
I can protect him from ever getting sick, but he builds up his immunities by coming into contect with those germs. And the proof of concept is when Walt and I got the flu this year, we were sick for days - more than a week - and DJ had it for a day and was done. We encourage good handwashing habits and the like, but kids are going to put stuff in their mouths and touch disgusting things, then touch their mouths. There's no avoiding it! (We're raising earthworms in our compost. DJ always has a handful of worms when he's playing outside!)
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Mom thought it was funny and coddled the kid saying, 'I know, people are so rude'. Um, ok. If my kids ever got anything at the store, they knew they didn't get it until we were at home. No question, and no tantrums!
Tell me about it! Last summer we had a kid come into the gift shop who DESTROYED the displays... we couldn't do much about it because mom and dad kept saying "well he had to SIT for SO LONG [45 minute show, but the kid sat for maybe 30 seconds... he was disruptive period] that he's just getting the energy out" ok now, he just spent 10 to 15 minutes outside with the dogs, and the only reason he's back in is because he was KICKING a dog and we don't allow that (gee, I wonder why) I thought we should just unleash the dog and if the dog ate the kid so be it.
but yeah, we tried to usher them through as quickly as possible. After the kid was finally gone we all just looked at each other and vented lol we're all in our early 20s or teens... and I think it was a big eye opener...
if my kid even tried THINKING of pulling crap like that their butt would be out of there like nothing flat and I would just chalk up the expense to raising a child. It's not the company or other guests' fault that my child cannot control themselves so I will just take the child out of the equation. Might make me seem mean, or I might not like it, but my child(ren) will be decent members of society, even if it kills them.