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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 I have read Team Rodent and I don't think its the same at all. Team Rodent was very funny and entertaining!!! It was pretty much anti Disney, but the author was good. His points seemed a lot more valid then the stuff talked about here!! I love Disney and don't give a ***** about what that makes me. If it makes me a nerd then be it so. I am going to Disney as often as I can!!! Well ok I am going to New York and a few other places to. But Disney a lot.
I don't mind people being cynical and critical of Disney World, because I want to get different opinions on the good AND the bad. The Unofficial Guide is very critical of WDW, among other places, but it does so with a good dose of humor.
This article was mean spirited, especially with the religious allegories, but it's to be expected with Slate Magazine, and par for the course.
The good news is, that's one less person in line while I'm there.
Barry
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It's no wonder this guy went alone to WDW. Who would want to go with someone like this who can't seem to look beyond what he thinks is commercialism? My DH and I are going down to Florida in May for our nephew's wedding in Sarasota. For the 1st time we will be renting a car and venturing off Disney property. I have been checking out all the other attractions in the area, and for the price I must say we can't come up with anything else we would rather do. It seems to be the only place that we can get our money's worth since we're not into thrill rides. We love the wide variety of things to entertain us and, YES, maybe even educate us on what a wonderful world we live in. More room for us Disneyholics and big kids who just love Disney!!
Wellll....I will probably get stones thrown at me for posting this opinion, but I did not find this article offensive. This man is a travel writer who has probably been fortunate enough to visit many exciting and exotic places, and obviously the Disney experience was simply was not his thing. I don't think it makes him a 'sad little man', it's just that apparently his other travels for him personally were more fulfilling. Feeling as he does about world travel, it makes sense that he would compare visiting one of the pavillions at Epcot to actually visiting that country. However, not everyone is looking for what he is in a vacation, and certainly we should all decide for ourselves. Truthfully, with what it costs to visit Disney, the budget conscious could manage an adventure in a similar price range to a more distant locale...we did. Unfortunately, he did make it sound like you can't do both, and that there should be a limit on Disney visits. I believe there are different family vacations for different types of people and different times in life. My children are in their teens now and though they will always have a soft spot for Disney because of our many trips over the years, they recently told me that their favorite family trip ever was to Norway. When they were smaller they would have said Disney hands down! Perhaps one day when they have children of their own it will be Disney again.
\ This man is a travel writer who has probably been fortunate enough to visit many exciting and exotic places, and obviously the Disney experience was simply was not his thing. I don't think it makes him a 'sad little man', it's just that apparently his other travels for him personally were more fulfilling. .
As a travel writer, he should be more committed to having an open mind about the places he visits. The fact that Disney wasn't his cup of tea doesn't make him "a sad little man", but going anywhere and deciding in advance to have a bad time does. Also, he has no right to make fun of those who may enjoy what he disdains. The Unofficial Guide provides a critical view of WDW, but that is to help travelers make their own decisions about their vacation. Their information is multifaceted and helpful. This guy was more in the vein of "I hate it, and if you like it you must be stupid." Nothing about this article would have helped anyone make travel decisions. (Isn't that what a travel writer does?)
I agree...he does have a right to view things in his own light...everyone does as their experiences direct that light. What makes him a "sad little man" is the distain and negativity with which he approached the experience. What makes me pity him is the fact that he did not display that ability to have an open mind and heart. I have been fortunate to live all over the world, yet I still enjoy Disney; does that make me any less cosmopolitan? If I treated each new assignment in a different country with the attitude he went in with I would have not only been insulting my host country, but I would also be short-changing myself from the opportunity to learn something new about the world and myself.
Not offended by your opinion Queenmum, but at the same time, there are reasons I consider him "sad" and it had nothing to do with his opinion and everything to do with his attitude. All the same, I learned from his article, so something good came from it.
I hear what you're saying about his cynical delivery. It's hard for me to imagine, too that anyone could be so disenchanted with such an enchanting place. However, picture Anthony Bourdain giving a report on Disney. Would it not be similar? Though I agree, he did not have to be so insulting to those who choose to become "Disnified".
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I knew when he wrote he was staying deep within the Disney 'compound' he had already made up his mind about WDW. I do have to agree with some things though.
We went through the house of tomorrow in Epcot and it was really a giant Seimans commercial. It was like Seimans has it's own product showcase in Disney. Everyone looked like all they wanted to do was get the heck out of there.
It seemed like he just missed out on a lot of the little things. He says how Morroco has nothing cultural but there is a sort of mini museum that has all sorts of artifacts in there. We loved Morroco and it quickly became our favorite pavilion so I admit I'm kind of bias, but it just seemed to me overall he didn't stumble across all those little things.
He does give an awful lot of credit though to the overall themeing of all the parks even saying how realistic Harrambe is. And I have to agree with the part about how your raft on Kali River Rapids seems to develop into a team.
But I don't see what's so horrible about "indoctrinating your child into the Disneyist dogma". DBF and I figure there's an awful lot of worse things his son could be into than HSM and Cars. When you go to WDW generally people are friendly and polite. What's so bad about that?
Debbie...somehow...I don't think Anthony Bourdain could manage to be as insulting as that man was. I love Anthony's shows because he goes in with an open mind and heart, and with a sense of adventure. Do I always agree? No, but at least I know his opinion is not tainted going in. He missed out on a wonderful experience...unfortunate for him, but possibly more unfortunate for readers who will take his word as gospel instead of learning for themselves.
His opinion really doesn't matter because...
A. He is a crappy writer
B. Who ever heard of Slate magazine?
Oh. Forgive the sass. Can't help myself.
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This guy is a perfect example of the cynic who can't wait to find fault with everything. Surely you've seen them; they're everywhere, escpecially in the media. They're bored, they're often into the hip and trendy and they look down theor noses at anything that smacks of middle America.
I can just see this guy gearing up to not like WDW. I can almost see him pre-writing what he thinks are witty and biting remarks before he even set foot in WDW. I can even see him standing around in the parks arms folded across his chest, rolling his eyes at all of those rubes who are enjoying themselves.
I know this kind of person well because I used to be him. Fortunately I got over myself when my sone was born. Now I love places like WDW because I can let go, embrace the little kid in me and escape from the world for a while.
To be honest, I feel rather sorry for this guy; he lives in a sad and bitter world.
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I have to agree with the recent postings. What made we the maddest (is that a word? LOL!) is not that he didn't like it - he is surely entitled to his own opinion - but that he put others down for liking/loving Disney. I think most of us love Disney, not because we are simple-minded, but because we love the simple view of the world you have when visiting Disney. It's nice to put the "bad world" aside if only for a few days and experience the magic and wonder through children's eyes.
he dosent sound like he had a very good time at the world
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He missed out on a wonderful experience...unfortunate for him, but possibly more unfortunate for readers who will take his word as gospel instead of learning for themselves.
Oh. Forgive the sass. Can't help myself.
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