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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I just read this on DVC News about the digital key rollout being complete.
I completely understand how dependant we all are on our cell phones/mobile devices these days, but what I'm not quite getting is why people would use these instead of a MagicBand. Is there something I'm missing?
If I'm going to the pool or a fitness centre (and the latter is unlikely for me on vacation ) I'm not going to take my cell phone, I'll take my MagicBand. The only time I can see it working is if you lose your MagicBand.
I agree with you; I’m not seeing many benefits. I guess if you have a big group all doing their own thing it might be a convenience - but if I’m shopping or at a theme park, I have my Magic Band with me! I have met a few people who don’t wear their bands all the time because they are too big or annoying (smaller wrists), but I don’t know many folks who are without their phone - would be a boon for them I guess. But when I first saw this story, I remember thinking “huh?”. There are probably benefits I just can’t imagine I guess.
I don't particularly like wearing my magicband (I also think they're a huge waste of resources and a landfill filler) and would be perfectly happy to use my phone for everything that a magicband is used for. Plus, I've accidentally left my magicband in my room and had to get the front desk to have someone let me which involved having to show id twice (front desk and cm that let me in which is fine) and wait for a cm at my room so I could get in to get my magicband. I always have my phone on me so being able to use my phone to let myself in would have been wonderful.
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I don't particularly like wearing my magicband (I also think they're a huge waste of resources and a landfill filler) and would be perfectly happy to use my phone for everything that a magicband is used for. Plus, I've accidentally left my magicband in my room and had to get the front desk to have someone let me which involved having to show id twice (front desk and cm that let me in which is fine) and wait for a cm at my room so I could get in to get my magicband. I always have my phone on me so being able to use my phone to let myself in would have been wonderful.
Ah, now you see you've explained to me why this is a good idea. I hadn't thought about leaving your MagicBand in the room. Very good point!
I don't particularly like wearing my magicband (I also think they're a huge waste of resources and a landfill filler) and would be perfectly happy to use my phone for everything that a magicband is used for. Plus, I've accidentally left my magicband in my room and had to get the front desk to have someone let me which involved having to show id twice (front desk and cm that let me in which is fine) and wait for a cm at my room so I could get in to get my magicband. I always have my phone on me so being able to use my phone to let myself in would have been wonderful.
I was going to say the same thing -- it could come in handy if you forget your magic band. When we were in Disney this past June, my daughter realized as we were pulling up to AK that she had left her magic band in the room (even though I had asked 3 time if everyone had theirs -- she thought her was in her backpack). We got a temporary card at GS. Later that afternoon, she wasn't feeling well so she went back to the room before the rest of the family. She found out when she got there that her card didn't open our door. She went to the lobby to see if they could do something to let her in the room but she said it looked like 3 DME buses had just unloaded all their passengers at the resort because the check-in/concierge lines were crazy long. She decided to head over to the food court to grab a drink and snack and found out her temporary card also didn't have charging privileges (fortunately, she had some cash on her). She then just hung out in the food court until we arrived back and the resort and she could get in the room. It would have been great if she could have just opened our room door with her phone.
I've also accidentally walked out of the room without my magic band when heading to the food court to refill our mugs. Fortunately, there was always someone in the room to open the door for me when I got back.
The one benefit for me personally is I would not have to contort my wrist from my powechair to get the door unlocked the way I do with a magic band. I always have my cellphone and magic band with me. I probably will still use the magic band just for nostalgia, but it is nice to have the option.
The one benefit for me personally is I would not have to contort my wrist from my powechair to get the door unlocked the way I do with a magic band. I always have my cellphone and magic band with me. I probably will still use the magic band just for nostalgia, but it is nice to have the option.
I refuse to contort which is why I'm forever taking off and putting on my magicband in the parks and at the hotel and why I'd prefer to be able to do everything with my phone.
I'm hoping this isn't a trend toward not having magic bands...although I seem to be in a definite minority, I don't carry my phone with me to the parks or the pool. Dave has his, but if I wanted to go back to the room from the pool, I don't want to have to take his phone. My goal is always no bags and I hate my phone in my pockets IF I have pockets.
I'm hoping this isn't a trend toward not having magic bands...although I seem to be in a definite minority, I don't carry my phone with me to the parks or the pool. Dave has his, but if I wanted to go back to the room from the pool, I don't want to have to take his phone. My goal is always no bags and I hate my phone in my pockets IF I have pockets.
I don't take my phone to the pool with me. If I want to go swimming, I don't want to leave it out. That's why I prefer physical books to e-readers, as a physical book is less likely to be stolen than any electronic device.
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With the instances given, I get now why the phone is a good idea (I too wondered what use it was when the MB is so easy) but I really hope Disney doesn't move away from the MB completely as some of us really are not that into the tech. I "lucked out" in that I was able to buy a really inexpensive tablet to use for the app as my iPad doesn't support it anymore but I don't own a Smartphone and truly don't want one either. And now that I'm home, the tablet is a big paperweight as it doesn't have the functionality of my iPad even though I can't update it anymore.
- I've occasionally left the room without a magic band: going to get ice, trash room, something out of car, etc. Only do it when there are others remaining in villa to let me back in, but using cell phone would be a bonus.
- In all likelihood the technology was already in place and it only required a few lines of programming code to make this happen. They didn't replace 30K door locks to add this feature.
- It's supposed to work on some locked resort entry points like the main entrance to Bay Lake Tower and the bridge from Contemporary. Theoretically there are guests arriving who do not yet have MagicBands, who could instead use their phones to trigger those locks.
- If it helps a few people get into their rooms who would otherwise be locked out because they forgot to grab a MagicBand, it reduces customer service costs on Disney's end. And improves guest satisfaction (no trudging to front desk.)
- Apple is supposed to be making RFID capabilities of Apple Watches more accessible to developers. I think it's only a matter of time before an Apple Watch can replace MagicBand. This could be the first step toward that end. Code may already be in place on Disney's end to enable hotel room access via Apple Watch (when Apple implements the change on their side.) Then they can continue to tweak, adding park entrance and FastPass for the Watch. (This one is purely speculative on my part, though.)
- I've occasionally left the room without a magic band: going to get ice, trash room, something out of car, etc. Only do it when there are others remaining in villa to let me back in, but using cell phone would be a bonus.
- In all likelihood the technology was already in place and it only required a few lines of programming code to make this happen. They didn't replace 30K door locks to add this feature.
- It's supposed to work on some locked resort entry points like the main entrance to Bay Lake Tower and the bridge from Contemporary. Theoretically there are guests arriving who do not yet have MagicBands, who could instead use their phones to trigger those locks.
- If it helps a few people get into their rooms who would otherwise be locked out because they forgot to grab a MagicBand, it reduces customer service costs on Disney's end. And improves guest satisfaction (no trudging to front desk.)
- Apple is supposed to be making RFID capabilities of Apple Watches more accessible to developers. I think it's only a matter of time before an Apple Watch can replace MagicBand. This could be the first step toward that end. Code may already be in place on Disney's end to enable hotel room access via Apple Watch (when Apple implements the change on their side.) Then they can continue to tweak, adding park entrance and FastPass for the Watch. (This one is purely speculative on my part, though.)
Very interesting, especially the bit about the locked resort entry points. I'm so glad I asked this question, as there have been so many points made that I hadn't thought of.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
If they made it Apple Watch compatible I would be all over that. I am never without my phone, so I would likely use that over wearing a magic band. My one issue would be that on our last vacation my phone battery was almost dead at the end of the day, so if I was using it that much more in place of my MB I would have to start carrying a powerboost or the parks will have to install more charging stations.
I probably will still use the magic band just for nostalgia
Have we reached the point in time when the magic band is already nostalgic? This made me chuckle. That's all... carry on.
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I'll probably continue to use the Magic Band. I always keep it on except while sleeping! I'd rather wear that to the pool than have a cell phone with me. Besides, I recall needing the magic band to get in to the DVC pool at Poly.
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Is there something I'm missing? 
) I'm not going to take my cell phone, I'll take my MagicBand. The only time I can see it working is if you lose your MagicBand.
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This made me chuckle. That's all... carry on.
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