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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like a great time yesterday! Funny, how you don't always have to spend a lot to have a good time.
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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!
So let me tell you a little more about the Jersey Shore – well more specifically the South Jersey Shore as I don’t know too much about the North Jersey ones.
For all us South Jersey people we, generally speaking, go down the shore from the area of Atlantic City and all points south. Things north of the AC is more “central” Jersey and then you have the areas much further north which is where MTV’s Jersey Shore was filmed but also the homes of Bruce Springsteen and Jon BonJovi.
From here on out when I refer to the shore I’m talking about the area I have visited, the South Jersey area of the state.
I grew up in Marlton NJ and currently still reside there. We are about 10 miles outside of Philadelphia and on the western side of New Jersey; obviously the ocean is on the eastern side of NJ. To get from Marlton and travel straight across the state to Atlantic City takes about 1 hour. To reach the very Southern tip of New Jersey – Cape May would take just about 2 hours. The Wildwoods are just North of Cape May and it usually takes us about 90 minutes to get to North Wildwood.
The Wildwoods are collectively made up of Wildwood Crest in the South, Wildwood proper in the middle and North Wildwood, well… to the north. They all share the beach upkeep and boardwalk but have their own local governments.
When I was a child my grandmother used to rent a house at the shore, Long Beach Island, every year. Our family would go down for a week. I remember we would walk past a local fish market and I would think I was going to die from the smell. For years there was a penny imbedded in the side walk and each summer I thought if I picked at it I would be able to free it and then pocket my reward. I learned how to blow a bubble with my bubble gum while walking to the beach one year. I loved being able to take showers, hot showers, in the outside shower. My Grandmother used to supply it with soap for us so to this day whenever I smell Dial soap I think of the shore.
After my parent’s got divorced my mother worked 3 jobs for a few years and the trips to the shore where done. After she remarried our new blended family took a few trips down the shore. My Step-Grandmother had rented the same place in Wildwood for years and when my parents decided to rent a place they let my Step-Grandmom pick it out. So sight unseen they rented this “place” for lack of a better word. There were 4 children and 2 adults and it was a 1 bedroom. My parents slept on the sofa bed and all us kids were in the bedroom that had a full bed and 2 twins. We survived. What I remember most was 1) the incredibly long walk to the beach. Wildwood has HUGE beaches. 2) I remember walking on the boards the first night and thinking “I can’t believe this is only our first night here” 3) I ALSO remember thinking later in the week “It is all the same crappy stuff in every store” and 4) in the grand womanly tradition, I got my period for the very first time the day before we were supposed to go – yuck! Welcome to womanhood, get used to that inconvenience (I hope that isn't TMI but we are all adults here right?)
The next year we went back to Wildwood but this time my parents found a bigger and nicer place. I can remember the first night walking on the boardwalk saying “it all the same junk as last year only the year on the T-shirts changed”. By now the bloom was off the rose. Wildwood is not a dry town and for some reason there were tons of French Canadians who vacationed here. It was just getting gross to me. It was just a lower class of people than I care to hang out with. Call me a snob if you will. It felt like the difference between Disneyworld and Great Adventure (Six Flags to everyone else) only we were stuck at the Six Flags. Alright that is another NJ thing no one calls it Six Flags. Its technical name is Six Flags Great Adventure but in over 40 years of living in South Jersey it has always been Great Adventure – but I digress…
By the time I was graduating high school and going into the first years of college my sister and I would take day trips to the shore all the time. We would head to Island Beach State Park – it was always nice and this is where the governor’s vacation home is. Plus dogs were allowed on the beach (in season) so we could bring our babies. We would also go to Ocean City and walk along the boardwalk.
Ocean City is a dry town and at the time more family friendly then Wildwood was. You didn’t have to worry about drunken people or being harassed to buy something in a store just because you looked in the window.
For a few summers my Grandmother rented homes – this time in Sea Isle City, a much nicer town and the home was right on the beach – just gorgeous.
Then, as life does, things changed, I began working at real jobs, no more summers off, people got married, had children, moved, etc. Trips to the beach happened mainly once a season and every time it was to Ocean City – nicer boardwalk and closer.
About 10 years ago my sister and her husband were looking to purchase a shore home and began scouting around. When they said North Wildwood I was skeptical. All I remembered was Wildwood and the crap hole that it was. Well in the 15 years or so that we had not been there, there had really been a rebirth – at least in the North Wildwood area.
When I went here with my parents years ago, we always stayed in the Crest as it was nicer than Wildwood. It was a bit farther from the boardwalk, but you could drive there or take one of the trollies.
When we stayed in the Crest and drove down here, we always took the very last exit of the Garden State Parkway in Cape May and headed north to the Crest. It was always easier instead of exit 4 in North Wildwood as the traffic is always so horrendous here and is a bit away from the shoreline and Atlantic Avenue.
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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!
It's so funny to hear your description of the locations of various shore towns! We are in Edison, pretty much central NJ, so to me ALL of the shore towns are "south Jersey" While there are some nice spots in the northern area (Seaside NOT being one of them!), I do think that most of the nice beaches are south of the LBI area.
It's so funny to hear your description of the locations of various shore towns! We are in Edison, pretty much central NJ, so to me ALL of the shore towns are "south Jersey" While there are some nice spots in the northern area (Seaside NOT being one of them!), I do think that most of the nice beaches are south of the LBI area.
I don't know much about the North Jersey ones either - Asbury Park, Seaside that is about it. To me even Toms River is "North"
I have to admit that Jersey really does have some nice beaches. you travel the world and still can't find nice wide open areas, that are safe, clean and have real sand. ho many places it is rocky or pebbles. I went to Hawaii one time and walked along world famous Waikiki beach. The "sand" was so course that it felt like pumisce stones and all my callouses turned into blisters.
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Funny, how you don't always have to spend a lot to have a good time. 
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How could you not have a great day there? 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Holly: 
While there are some nice spots in the northern area (Seaside NOT being one of them!), I do think that most of the nice beaches are south of the LBI area.
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