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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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On our night (Sept 13th) it was raining so much and so hard that I couldn't go out with the scooter. My "travel buddies" chose not to attend either due to the weather conditions. We didn't even know if it might be cancelled due to the bad weather.
We spoke to the CM at the DVC lounge in EPCOT the next day and found out it wasn't cancelled......but, a number of things got changed or brought "inside".
I really enjoyed it. It was a late night for us, with a four year old, but overall, I'd give it a B. We got there before they cleared the other guests out, and we got an 8:30 time for the safari. We ended up having to wait like 40 minutes, which really annoyed me, because I felt like they shouldn't have opened the windows (when you came in, you got a ticket for your time to ride--kind of like a fast pass) for when there were still guests in the park. We had to alternate between the party people and the people still in standby. I'm sure the later times did not have this problem. And you really couldn't see much on the safari. They aren't equipped with lighting for nighttime safaris. We did see the lions moving about, and the male was roaring at us. But overall, the safari was the only thing I found to be disappointing.
There were a lot of special characters out, which was also cool. We did not get to see Pumba, as that line was super long, but I would have liked to! And there was someone out from Ducktales (I didn't watch that show, so I can't remember who it was), but we heard lots of folks excited about that. Minnie and Mickey photo ops were with them in their Jammin' Jungle Parade outfits, so they pulled out some old outfits. And the best, in my opinion, was that Nick and Judy from Zootopia were out at the dance party . I never saw them anywhere else in the parks for photo ops.
Lines were mostly walk on, which again, was awesome. The snacks were plentiful--chips, cookies, ice cream treats, and lemonade and water. Some of the biggest lines were at the games. You got two free tickets per person to play the games in Dinoland, and if you won, you got the prizes you would normally get for paying. I won a dinosaur for my little guy, and he was so excited! They had lots of buses running, so when we left around 11:30, we pretty much just got on the bus to head back.
If I was visiting at a time when one of the other parties was going on, I would totally go! Sorry you missed it. But I guarantee, with that much rain, you wouldn't have had nearly as much fun. We wouldn't have gone if it had been pouring down, either.
I'm glad it was good. We missed it too. It was 10:30pm before we were ready to head over there, and we were exhausted by that point and called it a night.