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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our family was split up (I took the younger kids to beauty and beast show and my dh, took oldest ds, and middle son who was 7 at the time to disney hollywood studios to ride that big roller coaster (can't think of the name) but once they got up there they said he was too little to ride. They allowed him to wait while dh and oldest ds went on the ride together. This was not planned my middle ds so bad wanted to go on it.
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Kim Ann
Last minute WDW trip May 11-17, 2015!!
WDW 2-20-08
Sorry your son was disappointed. They have height restrictions in front of ride entrance I thought, so you could check before you get inside. That's too bad, he could have gone with you to see Beauty & Beast.
My son probably had more fun in that line and being that close to the ride than being with us at the Beauty and the Beast show! LOL He didn't want to go with me so that is why he went with them. Of course dad didn't think about that when they got in line. I guess he just thought he was the height and didn't check.
My pain point was just to show it turned out to be no big deal and they let my husband and older son go on the ride together and let younger son stay right there and wait for them even though he was 7 and "alone".
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Kim Ann
Last minute WDW trip May 11-17, 2015!!
WDW 2-20-08
Update: No, I didn't get to ride Expedition Everest. Our AK day was a 3rd day in a row park day, and little buddy was a royal pain that day. He had a total melt down because his triceratops did not have stars on it (some do, some don't...) and I ended up taking him out of the park quite early. I never even walked by the queue for EE.
I loved taking him alone to the parks, but it certainly is easier in many ways where there is another person to swap with. Even if he were tall enough (he might have been), there is no way he was going to ride EE. Or BTMR. Or Pirates... sigh...
I did have an MK morning to myself though, after DH arrived at the hotel they stayed behind one morning. I waited forever for SDMT, rode HM, and maybe Pirates too. And the Barnstormer a few times. Loved my solo morning!
Okay a bit late here I know.. HA HA.. So glad you had that morning of alone time. Sometimes us adults need a little kid free magic too..
IMHO people are way to worried about what could happen. When I was a kid, we walked to the grocery store and rode our bikes to friends houses and still played in the front yard. Now people won't even let their son go to the restroom without an adult and if they don't have a male adult then mom drags in her 10 year old to the woman's restroom. Making him and most the woman very uncomfortable. Im not saying let your kids run around unsupervised and let them do whatever they want.. BUT maybe get a them a cell phone and put a location tracker on it to make you feel more at ease. Teach them that they don't talk to strangers and that they surely don't go with strangers. Teach them that if people try to touch them or grab them they yell "FIRE" and run as fast as they can to an appropriate adult for the area that you are at.. (all the things I was taught as a kid and Im still here today.)
Okay a bit late here I know.. HA HA.. So glad you had that morning of alone time. Sometimes us adults need a little kid free magic too..
IMHO people are way to worried about what could happen. When I was a kid, we walked to the grocery store and rode our bikes to friends houses and still played in the front yard. Now people won't even let their son go to the restroom without an adult and if they don't have a male adult then mom drags in her 10 year old to the woman's restroom. Making him and most the woman very uncomfortable. Im not saying let your kids run around unsupervised and let them do whatever they want.. BUT maybe get a them a cell phone and put a location tracker on it to make you feel more at ease. Teach them that they don't talk to strangers and that they surely don't go with strangers. Teach them that if people try to touch them or grab them they yell "FIRE" and run as fast as they can to an appropriate adult for the area that you are at.. (all the things I was taught as a kid and Im still here today.)
Time to cut the cord and let kids be kids again.
Just MHO..
Yes, this is a bigger can of worms, isn't it? We are now letting our almost 7 yo walk to the store with the 9 yo neighbor girl. It's only 2 blocks away, but they do have to negotiate our neighborhood, which isn't the "best". I'm on your side of this issue as well, with one caveat...when your kid is the only one allowed "out", they are more at risk from bad guys just due to statistics. But I'm basing my decisions on the reality that there just aren't that many "bad strangers" out there. Way more abuse happens in the home and/or with family and friends. So, I'm choosing to teach skills and let him decide what he's comfortable with.
But my original question was what CMs would allow. This debate has already been debated!
We started doing that when my oldest was 12 and youngest was 10. They wouldn't ride rnrc. They sat on the bench outside and waited for us. If there was a problem they knew to go into the store. I was nervous then...now my oldest is 15, so its so easy now. Although nownthey ride everything. I think 6 may be too young. My biggest fear was always ride breakdown.
We had a family reunion trip with 6 kids ranging from age 7-14 with 2 11year olds that look at least 13. We by the Animal Kingdom exit when their Grandmother had an accident and was bleeding. We asked the oldest to take all the kids to sit on a wall about 20 feet away from us while we dealt with the situation. We weren't even far enough that we would have to yell to have them hear us. A couple of people stopped and one woman was about to report to a CM that there was a group of children left alone. Luckily my 14 year old heard her and let her know we were just feet away.
It's funny what people see as concerning. I worked with kids and tend to be a see something say or do something type a person but that wouldn't even make my radar.
Kynna, don't you think adults have become a bit overly concerned about apparently unaccompanied kids that aren't all teenagers? There's so much publicity anymore about snatched kids and kids without obvious adult supervision that I think maybe people have become hypersensitive.
I'm like you in thinking that if there's a teenager with a group of younger kids, I'd think "oldest sibling watching younger ones" and think no more of it unless, of course, they were vandalizing property or doing something that seemed dangerous. Especially at Disney of all places!
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I probably have a more jaded view of the world since my husband was in law enforcement for 20+ years, but I would NEVER leave a 6-year alone. It has nothing to do with his level of maturity but everything to do with the evil people walking this earth. Look at John Walsh with America's Most Wanted. His wife let their 6-year old look at toys while she went to another department in Sears. He was kidnapped and murdered. This world is such a bad place that I would never take chances like that with my child. Now please don't think I'm judging those that do, I'm really not. I'm just pointing out the dangers in this world that some people may not think about.
I probably have a more jaded view of the world since my husband was in law enforcement for 20+ years, but I would NEVER leave a 6-year alone. It has nothing to do with his level of maturity but everything to do with the evil people walking this earth. Look at John Walsh with America's Most Wanted. His wife let their 6-year old look at toys while she went to another department in Sears. He was kidnapped and murdered. This world is such a bad place that I would never take chances like that with my child. Now please don't think I'm judging those that do, I'm really not. I'm just pointing out the dangers in this world that some people may not think about.
This is a very big conversation! While I agree that as adults we need to be cautious we approach it in a different way. We put a lot of time into making sure our kids are self assured and aware of how to keep themselves safe. We teach them to read their surroundings and be okay with letting go of being polite if someone makes them uncomfortable. I do agree that 6 is young to be alone but it is not too young to learn how to handle themselves. I didn't watch my kids every second at the playground because they knew that the second something made them uncomfortable they should come tell me. We did go through a tattle tale phase with both of them because of it but I'll take that over being unsafe.
Sadly the worst cases are usually someone the parent knows and trusts.
Kynna, don't you think adults have become a bit overly concerned about apparently unaccompanied kids that aren't all teenagers? There's so much publicity anymore about snatched kids and kids without obvious adult supervision that I think maybe people have become hypersensitive.
I'm like you in thinking that if there's a teenager with a group of younger kids, I'd think "oldest sibling watching younger ones" and think no more of it unless, of course, they were vandalizing property or doing something that seemed dangerous. Especially at Disney of all places!
They were just sitting there talking about Expedition Everest mixed in with concern for their grandmother. I don't think twice about a teen with littles because I was babysitting by the age of 11.
I just don't think a 6 year old is physically able to take care of themselves in a situation with a criminal. I watched a news show last year. They went to a playground and asked several mothers if they could do a social experiment with their children to see how they would react to a stranger. Every mother was adamant that their child had been taught not to leave with a stranger. Guess what, every single child did leave with that stranger. He knew the right words to say. Every one of those mothers were shocked.
I just don't think a 6 year old is physically able to take care of themselves in a situation with a criminal. I watched a news show last year. They went to a playground and asked several mothers if they could do a social experiment with their children to see how they would react to a stranger. Every mother was adamant that their child had been taught not to leave with a stranger. Guess what, every single child did leave with that stranger. He knew the right words to say. Every one of those mothers were shocked.
Like I said it is a BIG topic of conversation and the whole free range children idea comes to mind. We send a lot of mixed messages to our children when we tell them they must always be polite and respectful to adults and later on in the day teach them about stranger danger. Teaching kids to handle themselves doesn't mean teaching them to fight off an adult, it means teaching them the appropriate amount of caution and being vocal about their concerns. It takes uncomfortable conversations and it should not be exclusive to strangers.
Even at Disney my DD when she was younger refused a sticker because the man was sticking them on kids shirts. When he offered to rip one off the roll to save for later she accepted. Then when we were out his sight she put it on her shirt the way all the other kids had it. I didn't get it at first but she did not want to be touched by a stranger no matter how nice he was being. Us parents are constantly being faced with the choice of being embarrassed because we feel our child was rude or proud that they are defining boundries for themselves. That's what I mean by handling themselves. Of course young kids need supervision but some kids are so supervised it stunts their emotional growth.
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