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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Congrats on concierge level for the cruise! I love your Disney math. We got our Platinum APs last November and managed three trips with them. Wish Disney would offer that deal again for DVC members! So sweet! I think you all are doing quite well planning a 40th anniversary celebrations, but it seems changes are on the way.
Oh there may be three trips on these APs...but that's a story for another time!
Sounds like some great plans and an amazing deal on the AP! So cool that you'll be sailing concierge and should be an great experience and hope you get the most out of it that you can! Congrats on 40 years!
We are looking forward to it! It helped us with another couple of things, but that's still a bit away!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
Oh, there is nothing better than Disney Math!! This is shaping up to be a wonderful trip.
Disney Math is the best!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, concierge, that sounds like an amazing treat and a great way to celebrate!
I'm excited! (They have a pillow menu!) and other things we shall learn about a little later in our tale!
OK< y'all, since the planning for the trip is going on simultaneously and bobs back and forth between the two, I'd like to carry on just doing one PTR and when I get back, it will be easier to move the cruise part to the cruise forum since it will be just the cruise. I will also want to pick SOMEONE's brain about how to find a site and how to do the photos because I'm really, really not computer smart!
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OK< y'all, since the planning for the trip is going on simultaneously and bobs back and forth between the two, I'd like to carry on just doing one PTR and when I get back, it will be easier to move the cruise part to the cruise forum since it will be just the cruise. I will also want to pick SOMEONE's brain about how to find a site and how to do the photos because I'm really, really not computer smart!
I won't say it's that easy, as it took me a while to fathom it, but now I've got used to it, I really like Flickr.
Over the years, we have made several friends here on Passporters and many have transferred over to Facebook. We’ve met up with lots of like-minded people and had lots of fun at WDW. One couple in particular has become very special to us and we often enjoy each other’s company. A few years ago, we booked a two bedroom villa at Hilton Head and they joined us. We had a marvelous time exploring and taking photos, something else we have in common.
Over dinner one night I asked Dave what he would think if we asked them to join us for the WDW portion of our little adventure. We had not seen them in some time and I missed them. Dave readily agreed that it could be a lot of fun, we always had plenty of laughs with them. So I messaged Ginger (GIN7274) and asked what she and Baxter (her DH) were doing the first week in December. She said nothing much.
“Well, would you and Baxter like to join us at WDW?” Dave and I are going for a week before our cruise and if you’d like to join us we can get a 2-bdrm villa at Saratoga Springs!”
She had to think about it..
Ginger checked with Baxter and they were in! Yay! Ginger is as close to me as a sister. Closer even! And Dave and Baxter get along like a house afire! They get so wrapped up in their conversations that oftentimes they leave poor Ginger and me in the dust. Once we decided to wait to see how long it took for them to realize we weren’t with them. It took a while. They heard about it too!
So I gave them the information, added them to My Disney Experience and we waited. FINALLY! The time came and I called and reserved a two-bedroom villa at SSR. I requested upper floor and Grandstand location. It’s our favorite location. It has a nice quiet pool and is the first on- first off location except for Disney Springs. If you happen to just miss the bus, you have enough time to walk to the Springs bus stop and catch it there. However, now with the hip and knee issues I have, I don’t know if I would be able to do that anymore. I asked Ginger if they would like me to try to get another resort at 7 months and she said they were fine right there. It’s close to Disney Springs and has a nice boat ride over. They made plans to join us Dec 2-7. They wanted us to have the 7th as a day together for our anniversary before our cruise.
When we tried to get them added to MDE, we had all sorts of issues and Baxter had to end up calling but we got it all worked out. Then Disney did some sort of update and it messed things up once again, but another phone call to Disney and all was well. I told Ginger to sit down and decide where they want to try to get ADRs. We have been there since they have and I wanted them to be able to choose their favorites or perhaps something that was new to them. We decided we wouldn’t do a sit down meal every day, mostly we would eat counter service in whatever park we were in. Baxter got their park tickets and uploaded them to MDE and we were on our way! Now it would be just a matter of waiting for our ADR date of June 4th to come.
I checked in with Touring Plans and added our dates to be tracked. I had been hearing that the rooms were all full and people weren’t able to get rooms, but Touring Plans showed park crowds to be ok.
Around this time I heard another couple of friends were going at the same time. But they were due to leave the day we arrived. We were both driving, so chances were there would not be an overlap.
Our original plan was to leave home on Nov 30th and stop somewhere in Georgia, and have an easy drive in the next day. We do it this way sometimes and sometimes we drive straight through. I asked Dave what he thought about us staying on the road and spending the night at Shades of Green, the military hotel on property. A room there would not cost us any more than a room on the road. Dave was amenable, so I booked the room. I made plans to meet our friends at Kona Cafe for breakfast on December 1st. I notated that in my planning book. It was going to be the first ADR for our trip!
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Great plans and even better as two of your best friends will be joining you for a portion of the trip! Somehow Disney always seems to mess things up with their website. Glad you got it worked out.
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I think you all are doing quite well planning a 40th anniversary celebrations, but it seems changes are on the way. 
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So cool that you'll be sailing concierge and should be an great experience and hope you get the most out of it that you can! 
Your trip sounds wonderful so far!!! 
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