Beware Disneyland: PassPorters Are on the Loose - *Updated 6/8/07* - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Terrific update, Dawn! With so much coverage of the trip, I don't need to write anything myself! I'll just post all the incriminating pictures I took, since I haven't gotten any bribes yet!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Terrific update, Dawn! With so much coverage of the trip, I don't need to write anything myself! I'll just post all the incriminating pictures I took, since I haven't gotten any bribes yet!
All three of us were up before the alarm went off and took turns getting ready. I took the opportunity to get some daylight pictures of our view from our balcony.
The phone rang and it was Laura from Guest Services letting me know that she had given our tickets for the tour to Karen on accident and she had theirs at the desk that I could pick up. Not a problem. We would just pick up the tickets and exchange them with Karen. We headed downstairs to the guest services desk and announced who we were and they said Laura would be back in a minutes. We grabbed a seat in the lobby and within 5 minutes Laura appeared to let us know that she had given Karen’s ticket to her as well. She apparently ran after Karen on her way to the DCA morning hike.
So, we headed back upstairs to room 5435 and picked up our tickets from them. We talked for a bit and when Karen reappeared from her morning following Miss Peach Bottom, we let her get ready and headed to the park. As we were crossing the Esplanade, we see Robin and Cindy at the Guest Services window handling their ticket situation. We find a sign where we are to meet and two CMs were on the other side of the gate.
Eileen, Sharon, and Karen showed up not too much later and we all gathered by the coveted entrance into the park. The CMs let us in and directed us to the Guided Tours booth. I checked in, gave my choice for lunch, and then turned around to see Crystal and Doug walking towards us. Apparently, I need to answer my phone. As we were all getting checked in, we began to notice two very well-dressed men standing around with us. Boy, they had no idea what they were in for during the next 3 hours. There were a lot of CMs out and about admiring Eileen’s fantabulous t-shirt design. Comments were made about pictures after the tour and we were finally introduced to our tour guide Andrea.
Eileen’s description of Andrea was right on. Her love of Disneyland and of Mr. Walt Disney just radiated throughout the tour with her stories. She recited Walt Disney’s opening day speech as if it was second nature. I won’t go into the tour in detail as Eileen has already done an excellent job of it in her TR. I will note that as we were standing in front of the firehouse and Walt’s apartment there were a few tears forming on my part. I know Eileen caught me wiping my eyes. Now, I will share some of my pictures of the tour and will apply comments as needed.