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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Yay Disney mail!! What all comes with the DCL docs? Curious because we are taking our first cruise and just wanted to know what to expect.
The Behind the Seeds tour sounds like a great idea! I have always wanted to do this. We are growers of herbs and veggies too and have always been inspired by Disney's greenhouse. I am curious to see how Grace's watermelon project turns out!
The DCL papers are a nice little spiral bound book with information about ID/Passport requirements, your itinerary, packing lists and suggestions, your cruise contract and flight information. It also has a little pocket in the front that holds your luggage sticker tags for DME. I thought we would get luggage tags like with WDW vacations, but sadly DCL does not include those. I am still waiting on the WDW papers.
Right now I am taking a break from cleaning the living room. A couple of months ago I ordered a new bedroom set. It is a beautiful cedar bed frame with under bed drawers, a dresser with a mirror and a night stand. Well, earlier this week, I received an email letting me know they are in and will be delivered next Wednesday! So now I am cleaning the living room and my bedroom to make room for the new furniture.
More Disney mail today!!!! We got our WDW papers in today. I have the suitcases out and we are slowly adding things to them. Today I was able to get a few little things accomplished.
I made up all of the Fish Extender Exchange gift bags.
I filled 16 bags with dog food. (2 bags per day for 7 days, plus a couple of extra bags, just in case.) I'm sure the TSA agent is going to be really curious about why there are 16 sandwich bags will dog food in them. LOL I figured it would be easier to just dump out a pre-measured bag of food, than to try to remember to take the scooper used to measure out his food.
Packed up a small gift bag for B with his autograph book and a few small activities for the plane ride.
We are just over two weeks out and I am getting so excited. But the bad thing is that the "bad Disney dreams" are starting. These are the dreams I start having where something goes wrong on our trip. No matter how much I plan and how hard I try to make everything go as smoothly as possible, I still have these dreams that something goes terribly wrong. Of course nothing ever HAS gone wrong, but the dreams still happen. Last night, it was that we were in Magic Kingdom and we were all separated from each other. None of our phones worked to call each other and I couldn't find a single CM to help me find Ramoan or Grace. Of course it was just a dream and I know that won't happen in real life.
Oh, how I hate pre-trip anxiety dreams! Just like you, as the trip gets really close the excitement is replaced by anxiety that either the trip won't happen or something awful will take place on the trip. I wonder if this is a side-effect of compulsive planning? At any rate, it sounds like you're getting things done and I'm sure all will be well. Just because I understand, I'll send pixies anyway!
We haven't even left on our trip yet and I have already bought a souvie. LOL I had planned to buy myself a Dooney & Bourke purse as a graduation gift. Well, the one I had been looking at was the D&B DCL Dream Inaugural year medium satchel purse. It was listed on the Disneystore.com site at $275. I had set aside $300 for the purse (I was planning for tax also.) and then I got an email! The email was to announce 25% off all Disney Park merchandise on the store's website. I went over to the website to look and see what they had available. That's when I noticed that the purse I want is on sale already for $206 and change. A little quick calculation and I realized that I could get the purse for just over half of what I had been planning to spend. But only if I get it this weekend. So I talked it over with Ramoan and he told me to go for it. He said I deserved the present to myself, and since it was really the only souvie I was planning to get for myself, then we wouldn't have to worry about them being sold out before we get there. Well, Disneystore.com also has a regular thing going where you get free shipping for purchases over $75. Score! Now the purse that was originally $275 is only going to cost me $155 plus tax! That is a total of 44% off the original price. So now I have my new purse heading my way and it might be here before we leave. ~squee~
This is the purse I chose:
In other planning news, I made a couple of lanyards today. One for B and one for me. I will post pics of them this evening when I get home and take a pic of them. LOL I also picked up a $15 gift card for B. I am putting together a little gift bag for him. Subway has these awesome Lion King reusable bags that come with the kids meals. So I have one of those with his autograph book, a giant pen, a small pack of crayons, some printed coloring sheets, and a set of tangrams. The lanyard is made from a Hidden Mickey ribbon that I picked up at WalMart. I have several "trading" pins that I am going to pick a few from to give B so he can trade too.
Today is Grace's 16th birthday. She has been talking about getting a blue car for the past year. Personally, I don't think she is responsible enough to have a learner's permit, much less a driver's license, yet. I have told her this and she is working on trying to be more responsible, but she just isn't there yet. My mom wanted to object to this, but when I reminded her that I wasn't allowed to get my permit until I was 16 1/2 and didn't get my license until I was 17, she stopped arguing with me. So anyway, for her birthday I got Grace a Goofy shaped pen (which at one time she said she didn't like, but she loved it this morning
and Sally from Cars. Sally is a "blue car," which is exactly what she asked for. She didn't say anything at all about being able to drive the car. LOL She loved her present and took the joke in good humor. We aren't doing much to celebrate her day today because we are celebrating on the trip. Plus, I have to work and she is going to Amanda's baby shower this afternoon. (I also made B a little gift bag for the baby shower. I used another Subway Lion King bag and put a coloring book (Word World) and some crayons in it, along with a card.
Grace! Love the "blue car" gift. Your D&B purse is such a deal. I saw a woman carrying that bag today on the bus and was admiring it. At that price it would definitely not have lasted. Congratulations!
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So now I am cleaning the living room and my bedroom to make room for the new furniture. 
Sally is a "blue car," which is exactly what she asked for. She didn't say anything at all about being able to drive the car. LOL She loved her present and took the joke in good humor. We aren't doing much to celebrate her day today because we are celebrating on the trip. Plus, I have to work 
and she is going to Amanda's baby shower this afternoon. (I also made B a little gift bag for the baby shower. I used another Subway Lion King bag and put a coloring book (Word World) and some crayons in it, along with a card.
Grace! Love the "blue car" gift. Your D&B purse is such a deal. I saw a woman carrying that bag today on the bus and was admiring it. At that price it would definitely not have lasted. Congratulations!
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