Adventures By Disney - A Tale of Two Cities - Page 54 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Fantastic TR, Sharon, and I applaud the detail. It certainly makes me want to try ABD, and especially your tour.
I, too, have found out what it means to have a well-designed tour as well as a superb tour leader, so I know what you're sayin'! You listed the many things that your gys did, and I am sure that there were others. I kept finding out things that Rob did--both because of my unfortunate incident and just in general, and I was amazed. He constantly interacted with the local guides and did his utmost to time things to minimize the number of other parties present at the sites and maximize our enjoyment.
I did not get upgraded, but I will tell you that for the most part, British Airways is superior to the US domestic carriers I have flown [and I told them so!]. I have to say that I envied you your pod!
Anyway, thanks again for your hard work and for taking us along. I am looking forward to your next/current trip!
Great conclusion. I really found your TR to be enjoyable and informative. Your pix were wonderful. Looking forward to reading more of your TRs in the future.
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Sharon, I don't know how I lost reading the rest of your London/Paris ABD Tour, but my goodness, what an amazing trip you had. You had a much better view of Buckingham Palace than I did, but there were huge crowds foe the Queen's Golden Jubilee then. Harrods, I loved that store and cried at the site of The Princess Diana Memorial. I'm sure you were probably more composed in London than I was (just picture a 19 year old girl same age as Prince William, crazy for him, yeah that was me over anything I saw with his face on it). Looks like you had a great time with Cheryl, Mark, & Karen. Did the National Portrait Gallery still have the section on Winnie the Pooh? They had it there when I was over there(Disney). You got tons of great pictures in London and Paris (now I need to plan a trip to Paris). Some of your Pictures reminded me of some of our class time out of the room lugging around notebooks and pens and having to take notes at the sites in London to study or Tests. That was fun. I just honestly loved your TR and can't wait to read the DLP part. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.
Five years later and I just spent the majority of my work day reading through this TR. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us! I'm planning on doing the current version of this tour in August and was really nervous about the smaller details that the website doesn't really tell you about, but this made me feel much better Although, a set meal for a picky eater like me isn't ideal, I'll be okay!
I'm also tacking on DLP to my trip but through DVC not ABD, so I'll eventually head over to that portion of this TR to scope it out too