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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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last time i went with my son, I bought an oversized hoodie for him to wear. Sometimes (most lines) when he got anxious, he would put his hood up so you could only see his chin. This really helped him "disappear" from the crowds that were bothering him. He was 4yrs old, so he was small enough for a disney stroller too. This next trip I am buying/renting a special stroller meant for special needs kids upto 100lbs, so he will have a safe place to sit in away from people touching him. If we walk together, he like to lag behind so he is alone, and at the parks, he just can't do that!
I am doing the hoodie again too, it was a lifesaver!
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trying and hoping and saving to go to WDW Feb 2012 with our friends and their kids, 10 people total!
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i didn't know there was a stroller as wheelchair sticker! that will help me so much when I go next, especially since I will be renting a special needs stroller for my son to "hide" in. PLus he has motor delays and can not walk even our small zoos at home, or the mall without his legs hurting.
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trying and hoping and saving to go to WDW Feb 2012 with our friends and their kids, 10 people total!
last time i went with my son, I bought an oversized hoodie for him to wear. Sometimes (most lines) when he got anxious, he would put his hood up so you could only see his chin. This really helped him "disappear" from the crowds that were bothering him. He was 4yrs old, so he was small enough for a disney stroller too. This next trip I am buying/renting a special stroller meant for special needs kids upto 100lbs, so he will have a safe place to sit in away from people touching him. If we walk together, he like to lag behind so he is alone, and at the parks, he just can't do that!
I am doing the hoodie again too, it was a lifesaver!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
i didn't know there was a stroller as wheelchair sticker! that will help me so much when I go next, especially since I will be renting a special needs stroller for my son to "hide" in. PLus he has motor delays and can not walk even our small zoos at home, or the mall without his legs hurting.
If you bring a light blanket, you can put that over the stroller and make a little sensory tent! Kids LOVE that!
Benji just got diagnosed (he'll be 12 on the 22nd) with PDD-NOS.
He is the same as he's always been but NOW I hope to find better ways go help him. I always tell people that I'm living in the same world I was BEFORE his diagnosis but at least NOW I KNOW...........
some pic i found that show how his hood "protected him". from the side he couldn't see anything, and he was looking up a bit in the second one. He could pull it down to about his mouth!
PS, it had big pockets, so he could stick his hands in too and feel all wrapped up! (thats his "girlfriend" Beth trying to kiss him in the top one, they have been talking about their wedding for about 2 yrs now! (they are only 4&5!))
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trying and hoping and saving to go to WDW Feb 2012 with our friends and their kids, 10 people total!
Last edited by lela12982; 01-02-2011 at 10:28 AM..
I also found temp tattoos somewhere online that had both regular designs for all the other kids, and autistic puzzle pieces that added that he had autism, and it had place for contact info to parents. I ordered them and think I still have some, they lasted at least 2 days, even with bathing! They took alot of worry away if I had lost him at any point, knowing you can't remove a temp tat like you can a bracelet (which he was wearing too).
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trying and hoping and saving to go to WDW Feb 2012 with our friends and their kids, 10 people total!
Benji just got diagnosed (he'll be 12 on the 22nd) with PDD-NOS.
He is the same as he's always been but NOW I hope to find better ways go help him. I always tell people that I'm living in the same world I was BEFORE his diagnosis but at least NOW I KNOW...........
i have to post again on her and say how wonderful this thread is. and what a big help it is. God bless you all.
We are going again in August and i cant wait.
i have to post again on her and say how wonderful this thread is. and what a big help it is. God bless you all.
We are going again in August and i cant wait.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! For once we actually got a break on our taxes and DH is insisting that we spend our return on a WDW vacay!!!
DS is ASD, we took him when he was 18mos and it was rough to say the least. We'll take what we learned and apply it to this upcoming trip, such as, staying at an Epcot resort. We stayed at the AKL last time, DS was so overwhelmed at the parks that the resort was the only place that DS seemed like himself so I'm thrilled to envision a wonderfully convenient "home" location and more than happy to dump the buses-buses-buses. I'm just crossing my fingers that my plan to rent BWV points is a success.
My DH has this theory that we should do all the character dining as possible. He thinks this'll be key in keeping DS happy, but I'm not so sold. I do like the thought of going to buffet restaurants since we won't have to wait for service, but I'm concerned about the ~*\^\activity/^/*~ and the likelihood of DS being intimidated by characters. Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has been hugely helpful in getting DS excited, he knows all those characters now and when I show him photos and youtube vids of characters he say he does want to meet them, but I honestly won't believe it until I see it! My feeling is that he might better enjoy a calmer, more lowly lit place like Coral Reef.
DS is a train-aholic and I know that he'll go nuts over the monorails, I am going to attempt Chef Mickey ADRs so we can be near the all the monorail action there, I think he'll enjoy that. But we'll have to play a lot of things by ear, last time we went we had to change or cancel 75% of our ADRs due to DS's unhappiness. This time, he's older (will be 4) and has gained a lot of people/crowd experience at preschool. We regularly go to stores like Target and Trader Joe's without incident, but sometimes he *does* get overstimulated and gets underfoot. But that's why we're going to Disney--kids are WELCOME there, and supposed to be there.
I'm quite concerned about the walking/stroller issue. He's bound to get tired. I'm happy to get/bring him a stroller, but I don't know that he'll be happy in it. When he was in the stroller at WDW at 18 mos, all the other guests' charging legs scared him, and I also think he was lonely so I had to carry him everywhere. This is the main reason why we're Epcot resort-bound, so we can come and go as needed, and nearby WS has more chillout walking space.
I'll be getting the PP Your Special Needs soon, DH was very encouraged when I told him about the GAC . I think the biggest thing is that DH and I have taken all these pre-DS trips so we're happy to drop the commando style and just smell the roses with DS. We haven't had a vacation for 2.5 years, we are READY FOR ONE!
OH! And I forgot, this time we'll be going with DS's magic iPad which has already been endlessly calming and entertaining for him, so knowing that'll be there eases my mind a lot.
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I agree that some quieter dinner spots would be a good idea, + Coral reef's fish swimming by will be a wonderful calm focal point, It worked for me
Not to mention wonderful food
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I do like the thought of going to buffet restaurants since we won't have to wait for service, but I'm concerned about the ~*\^\activity/^/*~ and the likelihood of DS being intimidated by characters. Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has been hugely helpful in getting DS excited, he knows all those characters now and when I show him photos and youtube vids of characters he say he does want to meet them, but I honestly won't believe it until I see it! My feeling is that he might better enjoy a calmer, more lowly lit place like Coral Reef.
. I think the biggest thing is that DH and I have taken all these pre-DS trips so we're happy to drop the commando style and just smell the roses with DS. We haven't had a vacation for 2.5 years, we are READY FOR ONE!
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