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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The Grand Canyon is just so breathtaking. We stayed at Maswik when we were there last Sept. and really liked it. The food court was perfect for its variety.
Glad you managed to get a parking spot in the end! Your room looked great and lovely photos from the sunset.
We were glad to have a closer parking spot!
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Originally Posted by purplegal
Your room looks nice, love the shots of the canyon.
It was a nice room with lots of space!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures of the Grand Canyon. I could look at that view all day long!
Yes! So beautiful!
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Originally Posted by Pris
The Grand Canyon is just so breathtaking. We stayed at Maswik when we were there last Sept. and really liked it. The food court was perfect for its variety.
It looked like a nice place! And a bonus that it was a short walk from our cabin at Bright Angel.
Jeff got an omelet and toast, I got a banana and a GF chocolate muffin.
As we were eating breakfast, we decided this was a good place to buy lunch items as well. And as long as we had a fridge in the room we figured we’d save a trip and buy them now. Jeff got a roast beef sub and banana, I got a yogurt and some fresh cut fruit.
We dropped our lunch items off in the room and headed out to walk the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon. The sign at the trail head said there was an upper tunnel that was 2/10 of a mile down (equivalent to 6 flights of stairs), a lower tunnel that was 8/10 of a mile down (equivalent to 59 flights of stairs) and a restroom stop 1 ½ miles down.
We decided we’d aim for the lower tunnel. It was a little scary at first and I almost chickened out, but we ended up talking with a couple about our age and they encouraged me to go for it. The trail was hard packed and had steps built into it so it wasn’t bad at all. It was fascinating as we walked down. We could see people on a section of the trail that looked so far away and then pretty soon, we were on that section, looking back up at where we were!
We passed a few people who were on their way up after spending the night at the bottom of the canyon. For a while we were in the shade, but once we got to a sunny area, off came the hoodies and I was sure glad for my hat! We made it to the lower tunnel, took at picture just to prove we did it, and headed back up.
I was a little concerned about the hike back up, thinking it would be very strenuous, but it wasn’t bad at all. In fact it took us less time to get back to the top than it did to get down. Though Jeff keeps reminding me that we stopped more on our way down…to talk to people and to take off our outer layers. Still I think we made pretty good time. We started at 8:00 and we back at the rim about 9:15.
We went back to the room and freshened up a bit. Then at 10:00 we took the shuttle to the Visitor’s Center. We watched a 20 minute movie called “A Journey of Wonder”, and then we walked the rim trail to the Geology Museum, 7/10 of a mile along the rim.
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Great hikes in such a beautiful area! El Tovar looks like it would be a great place to stay.
Everywhere you looked was just gorgeous!
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Originally Posted by chezp
You saw a lot on your hikes!
Yes, it was so beautiful!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from your hike! It's amazing how warm it can get once you start going down into the canyon!
Oh, I know! At most of the hotels they had a chalkboard with the temps for the day...on the rim and in the canyon. It was amazing how much warmer it was down there!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
The Grand Canyon is so beautiful! I was there once, about 25 years ago. I would love to go back someday.
Just gorgeous! We really loved every minute of the trip!
We ate lunch in the room, relaxed for a bit and then about 2:15 we headed out to the red line shuttle for a bus that goes the opposite way along the rim. On the way back from the visitor’s center we’d taken a photo of the “red route” that was posted on the bus. We were trying to work out our plans for where we’d get off the shuttle and if we wanted to hike from one stop to the next.
After viewing from there we hopped back on the shuttle and took it to Pima Point. Another great vantage point and one where we really had some good views of the Colorado River.
I tried some of the hot sauce that was at the table and we decided to get some for our son Tom and son-in-law, Eric at the souvenir shop. Our other son-in-law does not eat hot sauce anymore, so we’ll get something else for him. We also bought tee shirts, one for each of us. Then we headed back to the room, about 6:45.
We sat and read for a while and at one point I got up to use the bathroom. When I came out Jeff said “I have some bad news.” “What??” “I saw a mouse run under the baseboard heater.” Yikes! I was up on the bed in a flash! Jeff was pretty sure the mouse hadn’t come out from under the heater, but when he checked under the heater with a flashlight, he didn’t see anything. He called the front desk and the woman politely said, “Sir, we do live in the mountains.” This really made us laugh. She said there were no vacant cabins for them to move us…which I really didn’t expect. But she sent a porter with a mouse trap. He brought it in a small paper bag so that if it tripped we wouldn’t have to see it. Well, that made me feel a little better. And also the fact that we didn’t see it again, and we didn’t hear the trap snap in the night so maybe it went out the way it got in! That's what I kept telling myself anyway.
We finally settled down about 10:00, and at my request, we slept with a light and the TV on!
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Beautiful shots of the canyon! And does look like a California Condor! Wow! Not so comforting to have a mouse in the house, especially if it's not Mickey.
Stunning shots of the Canyon! Oh my goodness, that is too funny about the mouse and being in the mountains. Thank goodness Mickey or Minnie was on his/her way after that...
Amazing photos of the canyon and a really fantastic shot of that bird! How beautiful to see the sun setting over the canyon. Adding a trip like this to my travel bucket list!
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Your room looked great and lovely photos from the sunset. 
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Pixie Dust
This really made us laugh. She said there were no vacant cabins for them to move us…which I really didn’t expect. But she sent a porter with a mouse trap. He brought it in a small paper bag so that if it tripped we wouldn’t have to see it. 
Well, that made me feel a little better. And also the fact that we didn’t see it again, and we didn’t hear the trap snap in the night so maybe it went out the way it got in! That's what I kept telling myself anyway. 
Not so comforting to have a mouse in the house, especially if it's not Mickey. 
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