Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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12-28-2006, 08:56 PM
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#1
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Community Rank: Visitor
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 2
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Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
I'm a single mom due to take a 7 day cruise with my 2 little ones (10 & 5) in mid January. This is my 3rd cruise and their first. None of us have been on DCL. My 10yr old has Asperger's Disorder (a high functioning form of autism). He attends regular 5th grade classes and I don't really expect problems, but I'm not sure if this is something that, after disclosed, would discount him from being in kids programs etc...
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12-28-2006, 09:30 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 986
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
We took a disney cruise, and my oldest was in the kids program, now he isnt special needs, but I dont believe it would eliminate him from participating especially if your son is in regular classes, but that is my thought on it. If it does there are othr things to do as well. I too am a single mom and we had a blast. You should see if the cruise line has a special needs reservation specialist maybe they would know.
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12-29-2006, 02:43 PM
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#3
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Community Rank: Navigator 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Davidsonville, MD
Posts: 6,563
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
He will be fine. He may not want to always go to the kids club, but you never know. If he doesn't there are lots of other things onboard, movies, ping pong, the nightly shows, other family activities. Just check the navigator to see what's available each day. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
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12-30-2006, 09:38 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Visitor
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 2
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
Thank you both! I'm both excited and nervous--wanting the kids to love cruising as much as I!
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12-31-2006, 08:17 AM
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#5
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Dreaming of the Future
Concierge Level: 1
Posts: 24,867
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
I hope you have a great time and i'm sure he will like it a lot [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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01-02-2007, 09:28 AM
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#6
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Community Rank: Scout 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,613
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
My son was 11 when we did the disney cruise. (We had never done any cruises before this.) He has ADHD/early onset bipolar and many characteristics of Asperger's, with the social skills, although not formally diagnosed. At the time we cruised, he was having a reaction (increased irritability) to his meds but we didn't want to change right before the trip because there's no knowing what can happen with new meds. We even considered not cruising, I was so worried. I let the staff know all this and they were wonderful. Being his social skills aren't up to his age level, they even offered to let him go in the younger group, but I wanted to try the 10-12 year old group just to see. He did fine, with the exception of the transition to come with us at the end of the evening to go to bed. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] They just discreetly would look the other way when DS started being oppositional with us.
One thing I did, because I was worried that he'd automaticaaly have the "check yourself out of the club" opportunity, was to go on the boards to see if I could find him a "buddy". There wasn't anyone on the PP boards with kids the same age but someone suggested going to the DIS boards. I found several people who were interested in finding kids for the their kids to know ahead of time. I "clicked" with a couple of the Mom's (i.e. they had values similar to mine like kids needed to leave club in the evening by 11 pm, no going into staterooms with other kids when they checked themselves out, etc.). Then we had our kids email each other to get to know each other. We set up a meeting time at the arcade on the first day, so the boys could get to meet each other before actually checking into the clubs that first evening. We figured it'd be nice to recognize the face! They became buddies and would hang out in the club together and sometimes would leave the club if they didn't like the activity. For example, if the club was going out of the club to play basketball or whatever. DS needed to notify me that he was leaving and check in every hour, which would have been hard for him to remember, but being the friend had the same rules, it reminded him. It was also fun for me to get to know some new ladies and have someone to share the excitement as the time before the trip came! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I also found buddies for my other son, then 7 years old. He is typically developing but was a little nervous about the whole seperation thing, so having someone he "knew" ahead of time was great.
Sorry that got so long. In a nutshell, write everything on the form you think they need to know. They are great!!! I've never been less worried about my DS. Both of my DS's loved the kid's clubs and it was very nice for my husband and I to have some time together. (We went to WDW and vacationed before the cruise.) As a single Mom, I think you will enjoy some "me" time knowing your kids are safe and happy - as well as together time with your kids. We had certain parts of the day that was required family time and then the rest of the time, the kids could be in the clubs or page us at any time if they wanted us to come and get them. It was fun to spend some one to one time with the kids, too. Sometimes one son would call to come out of the clubs while the other one stayed in. For us, it really was the best of both worlds.
Feel free send me a private message if you have any other concerns or questions about your son on the cruise. I love to talk Disney. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
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01-03-2007, 03:28 PM
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#7
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Community Rank: Scout
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 4,148
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
Please also use the "search" feature at the top of the page and go back as far as you want- there is a lot of information on this topic. Have a great time!
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01-03-2007, 10:31 PM
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#8
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 8,784
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
We've been planning on going on a Disney cruise in 2008. My 6yo son has been diagnosed with Asperger's. He also is in regular classes, with very little problems. I'm going to put him in the Kids Club-- if he wants to. I know he wants to, because the computer lab (and stingray adventure) is all he talks about.
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01-09-2007, 10:05 AM
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#9
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Posts: 13,817
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
Tyler has Non Verbal Learning Disorder (off shoot of Aspbergers) and loved the club. If there was something he didn't want to do I just had him have them page me and I would come and get him. There's lots to do outside the clubs/labs as well as Joan mentioned.
Have a great time!
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01-19-2007, 08:51 AM
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#10
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Community Rank: Sightseer 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sweet Home Chicago
Posts: 81
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Re: Been on a Disney Cruise w/High Functioning Special needs child?
When we booked our cruise back in April 06, my DD4 at booking time, has autism (PDD), she was not toilet trained. I contacted them about the kids club and they would make an exception with the not being toilet trained because of her special needs. The only exception they would not make would be the pool, which is understandable. Now she is 5 and is toilet trained, but good to know incase we have a set back. We set sail in 3.5 months!
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