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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We our celebrating our 10th anniversary next summer and my husband threw out "we should go to Hawaii" card to celebrate. Of course, I'm holding onto that with both hands because I know once we start adding up the cost of the trip, he's going to come up with 101 reasons not to do it.
I'm dying to get our kids to Disneyland as well, it's what I grew up with and I know they will love it. My grandparents also live in Northern CA so I'm thinking we could arrange a trip to be first to Disneyland, then to Hawaii, then to San Fran, then back home.
Anyone done a similar trek and have any advice? We would likely use DVC points (if we have enough) for both Disneyland and Aulani.
This all feels a bit overwhelming but I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!
Mel
We did this actually! Well, we stopped in Disneyland before our Hawaii cruise on the Wonder (departing from CA) and then went to Aulani during our Honolulu day of the cruise...it was AmAzInG!
Not sure where you are flying from but we couldn't get a direct flight to Hawaii if we wanted to, so we'd have to do a layover/connector in California anyway so that was our original train of thought before the cruise came along. Plus we have a tendency to "just so happen" to be near a Disney park when we're flying anyway, lol. Darn those airplanes they just always seem to be on their way to FL or CA!
Disneyland is truly something special, as you know and with CarsLand...if you haven't seen it, you MUST see it. You can't even fathom the awesomeness and i mean really, you owe it to your children to give them that experience. Clearly they are deprived if they've only been to Disney World
Aulani is....there aren't even words quite honestly. We were only there for the day and we literally walked around with our jaws hanging down going "wow look at this! look over there! oooh pretty!" it was just gorgeous I wish we had more time there it's truly breathtaking and quite the experience!!!
That sounds like the perfect itinerary to me, SF is great too, hit that on a California Coast cruise and it was awesome and the Walt Disney Family Museum is there...just sayin'.
Disneyland is truly something special, as you know and with CarsLand...if you haven't seen it, you MUST see it. You can't even fathom the awesomeness and i mean really, you owe it to your children to give them that experience. Clearly they are deprived if they've only been to Disney World
I couldn't agree more with this. CarsLand is just superb and you have to see it.
We're planning on going to Aulani in November, so I can't help with that side of things, but I've never heard nothing but amazing things about it.