* * Please Read Before Posting * * (Good information for experienced members, too!) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
* * Please Read Before Posting * * (Good information for experienced members, too!)
Have an upcoming trip? Just daydreaming about planning a new vacation to Walt Disney World? Then you're in the right place!
Feel free to post your questions or comments to your fellow planners, but before you do, there are a few things to know about participating in this forum. Please review the following before posting:
CHOOSING THE PROPER FORUM
Per the board guidelines, we ask that you try to pick a forum that most closely relates to the topic(s) of your post(s), as several forum categories may apply. Sometimes topics overlap, but Jennifer and Dave have done a really good job at creating areas specifically tailored to most of the popular subjects, so picking one forum over another, when this happens, will generate great responses from the community.
Popular topics that sometimes get posted here in Planning have more appropriate locations elsewhere on the boards. Every forum has a description, either in its title or by its listing on the main page, as to what subjects are being discussed within it. Using these descriptions to help you decide if your own post would benefit from that forum will help alleviate any moves by the Guides.
That being said, here is a list of some recurring topics, along with where they are better-suited for posting:
Technological discussions, such as those concerning MyDisneyExperience, FastPass+, MagicBands, MyMagic+, MemoryMaker (for Photopass), and Apps, belong in Using Disney Tech;
Topics concerning the kids, romance, or running around Disney without the kids all have a great destination location within our sub-forums here in Planning:
Typically, topics that are deemed more appropriate for other areas of the board are moved by us, the Guides, based on our knowledge of the topic being discussed. Because we occasionally have to do this, we ask that you don't worry too much if it happens to one of your posts. It's simply our "job" to ensure that your questions, comments, requests, etc. are benefiting from the best possible audience.
It's also important to keep in mind that it doesn't matter if a forum is at the top of the main page or down near the bottom; every forum gets plenty of traffic from people who are interested in that very subject. It's this very purpose for the different forums (and subsequent moves, if necessary) -- to give topics exposure to those audiences who are most likely pretty knowledgeable and/or interested in what you're discussing, or else they wouldn't be visiting that section of the message boards.
NAMING/CREATING TITLES FOR YOUR POSTS
When giving your new post a title, it's important to keep in mind that the more specific and informative the title is, the more likely others are going to open your post. Additionally, our search function (and those of search engines like Google, etc.) are greatly enhanced when the titles are clear.
For example, rather than just titling your post "CRT question," it would be better to use "Is Belle at Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) breakfast?" That way, readers know if they have an answer for you (and searchers know if your post might contain the answer they are looking for).
Also, only using acronyms is problematic, as many newer readers don't know them yet. In the example above, the restaurant name, as well as its acronym in parentheses, was provided to make it easily understood.
Note that, with unclear or incomplete post titles, the Guides are likely to come in and make changes in order to help others find what they're looking for. Any Guide changes are usually denoted with brackets. However, please note that Guides do not change the original language of a title (unless there's a typo); instead we merely add more information with the use of the brackets.
Again, if this should happen to a post of yours, please understand that it is simply being done as a function to further help the boards and the membership.
So, from your Guides, we thank you for your understanding, and we'll see you around the boards!