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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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In the past I have only sent one purchase at one location home so I wouldn't have to take it on the plane. There will be items I will be purchasing from several locations (i.e. World of Disney and Epcot IF&GF kiosks). Is there some way to send all my items at one time instead of with each vendor? Can I send them UPS from my resort POFQ to my home when I am done shopping? ºoº
we have sent home from POFQ. The concierge desk had the paperwork and once we had packed a flattened box in the suitcase, but we have gotten boxes from the gift shop. The last time we did this was Dec 2012. Things may have changed
Unless you prefer UPS, you might look into the postal flat-rate boxes. It cost me only $12 to stuff a mid-sized flat-rate box with things to go home when we were in Hawaii. I was amazed that it was delivered with our held mail the afternoon we arrived home.
I put a bundle of things in that box, too, since you can load them with whatever you can cram in. I cushioned syrup bottles and a jar of jelly with some of our dirty clothes to guard against breakage, enclosing each bottle in a ziptop bag.
Really cheap and worked great!
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I don't know for sure but I thought I had read on here somewhere that if you take all your stuff to your gift store with the receipts, they'll ship everything for you. I'd rather have Disney ship because if you have anything breakable and it breaks, they should replace it. If you ship it and it breaks, you're out of luck.
That may be possible, Darlene, because I was told that each store puts what you want to send in a box that goes to Disney shipping which does all the packing to ship. There it's all packed carefully and sent. The individual stores only act like the counter service person at a UPS Store, collecting the stuff, charging the fee and sending it to the shipping department for secure packing and shipping.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
That may be possible, Darlene, because I was told that each store puts what you want to send in a box that goes to Disney shipping which does all the packing to ship. There it's all packed carefully and sent. The individual stores only act like the counter service person at a UPS Store, collecting the stuff, charging the fee and sending it to the shipping department for secure packing and shipping.
That's what I was hoping to be able to do. I would love to be able to buy everything at World of Disney, but they usually don't have what I want from the IF&GF. Those things I'll have to get at Epcot. I'll ask a CM in a store when I get there. °o°
I'd ask at your resort's gift shop if you can bring in stuff with receipts and get it all shipped in one box.
That might not be something just any store would do for things bought somewhere else. You'd think it wouldn't make any difference if it's all things sold in multiple Disney stores, but there's no way to tell what each store's policy may be. I can see where a store could hesitate to take a bunch of stuffies, souvenirs and other commonly available Disney stuff along with an expensive collectible or piece of jewelry, for instance. Their insurance likely wouldn't cover damage or theft of anything they didn't sell. It might be policy that each store will only ship items bought there.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh