Avatarland AND Lord of the Rings? What's next? - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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For those who love Avatar and Lord of the Rings, I'm sorry but I don't agree with these "proposed" movies coming to Disney. If I wanted to do things not Disney related, I would go to those other theme parks but I don't because I have no interest in the rides/themes they offer. IMO it's very sad that they apparantly can no longer come up with their own ideas so I guess even when it comes to Disney, the old adage "if you can't beat them, join them" is true. Maybe I'll try harder to save money to go back before Disney changes and is no longer the Disney grew up with and love.
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I really don't understand these ideas either, Darlene. I've never seen either of those movies, and quite honestly they hold no interest for me. They do not relate to Disney at all, I don't see how they fit in to their parks.
I really love the Lord of the Rings series but I am not crazy about the idea of it becoming a "Disney parks" thing. It would be a huge draw to rival the Harry Potter stuff at Universal but I still feel kind of "blah" about the idea.
I am still not a huge fan of the Avatar movie but with its themes of conservation, taking care of the environment and such, I can understand how it fits in at Animal Kingdom. After seeing the concept art for the new land (and knowing that James Cameron and Joe Rohde are working on it together (those are two very creative brains!), I am interested to see how it all turns out!
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I had not heard about the Lord of the Rings coming to the parks. Where is this supposed to go?
And I agree that none of these ideas go with Disney. I've seen the artwork for Avatarland and although it looks nice, it just doesn't go with the theme of AK.
I'm on the fence. On the one hand, yes I understand fully the skepticism surrounding these new lands. On the other hand, however, I look at what Disney did with Star Tours, and Indiana Jones, and Muppets (all of which they now own) along with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, American Idol, and Aerosmith for Rock N Roller Coaster (which they do not), and I love how they have incorporated the built-in brand name, and the theming, into the Disney Parks and I am really curious to see what they do with Avatar and Lord of the Rings.
So, I think it is not my place to offer any opinions either way till I get to see it firsthand. I didn't do that for the Harry Potter world over at Universal and I was blown away by how awesome it was. I wasn't blown away by the crowds, however... the guests are so rude! (I've never ran into any CM or staff member at either Disney or Universal who was rude, however...)
To be honest, I always thought that the fictional world of Pandora would be a much better fit at Universal than at Disney. James Cameron has already designed and shot one fantastic attraction at Uni - Terminator 2 3D: Battle Across Time.
With Disney's recent acquisition of Lucasfilm, and a new Star Wars trilogy in development, I think a full-on Star Wars land would be a much better fit at WDW than Pandora. A SW themed resort would be a nice addition, too. I've pontificated on this at length in other threads.
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I completely agree with you Will. More Star Wars stuff at Disney has way more appeal to me than does Avatar. I grew up watching SW and now Abby is too so I have no doubt there are others out there like me - showing a whole new generation these movies and creating new fans. As it is Abby has asked for Angry Birds Star Wars edition for Christmas. I don't see or hear of people wanting more Avatar so even just in terms of dollars and cents, Avatar just doesn't make sense at Disney to me.
I agree. We love Star Wars but know nothing about Avatar. My daoughter grew up watching it and goes to Star Wars Weekends every year. I don't understand how either Avator or Lord of the Rings can fit into Disney World.
Liz
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The Star Wars land makes so much more sense for Disney. They already have Star Wars Weekends so this would just add to it and spread it to another park. I understand the conservation theory but Avatar was one movie that got lots of hype because of the 3D more than anything else. The basic idea of the movie has been done before. I really wonder lately about what is going on at Disney. There are more and more things changing, not for the better, and questionable decisions made. Just reading TRs, many people note the decline in food quality & choices, shops not carrying anything unique (same stuff everywhere), more CM's not behaving as we have come to expect, maintenance issues....the list goes on. I love Disney and hate to see any kind of decline.
I'm just sad that the Percy Jackson series hasn't been taken more to the forefront. The books are published through Disney and are wonderful. If they are going the fantasy route I would think it would fit in just fine. The books are like Harry Potter in that they are tailored to children but are loved by adults too. If they would put more energy into the movies the franchise could be great! I really think our children's children will be reading those books someday.
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