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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 would guess that like any hard to obtain ADR, you would have to be online at exactly the opening time on your 180 day mark. Then aim for a day later in your trip (assuming you have a resort booked already). By going for later than your first day, fewer people will have access to those days since they are beyond the 180 day mark.
We were able to have this remarkable experience two years ago. I literally tried ten or twelve times a day to book the meal, and about four to six weeks out I was able to get us in - someone must have cancelled. It helped, of course, that we were a party of two.
I found it. Have to be at least 14 yrs. old. We have an 11 yr old with us. Too bad, because he's the one who would have loved it the most.
What sort of Imagineer you get can vary beyond what you’d think it would be, I’ve seen said.
I read of a family who booked this expecting an attractions designer and developer or something else similarly exciting. Instead, they got someone who worked in what amounted to marketing. The person talked about how Disney works up product ideas and develops advertising. While the person tried to describe the work interestingly, they were really disappointed, the review said.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
What sort of Imagineer you get can vary beyond what you’d think it would be, I’ve seen said.
I read of a family who booked this expecting an attractions designer and developer or something else similarly exciting. Instead, they got someone who worked in what amounted to marketing. The person talked about how Disney works up product ideas and develops advertising. While the person tried to describe the work interestingly, they were really disappointed, the review said.
I think that's a really good point, as I would think a lot of people have a very narrow definition in their minds of what an Imagineer is and obviously Disney has a much wider one. Personally, as someone who works in communications, I'd find that person fascinating, but I appreciate that a lot of people probably wouldn't....
We were lucky enough to get Peter Ricci, who designed the AwuaDuck on the Disney Dream and Fantasy. The day of our lunch was the last day they worked on the new Star Wars attraction in the Studios. It was a fabulous experience!
We were lucky enough to get Peter Ricci, who designed the AwuaDuck on the Disney Dream and Fantasy. The day of our lunch was the last day they worked on the new Star Wars attraction in the Studios. It was a fabulous experience!
Oh wow, I can imagine it was. That sounds amazing.
So, we did this last year at The Hollywood Brown Derby and were so looking forward to it. I am more than sure that people have had better experiences but just to give perspective, we were greatly disappointed and would not do this again.
I can appreciate that you may get an offbeat type of imagineer but the person we got, while lovely, was just not what we were expecting. I am still not sure what her job actually was. She was very pleasant and enjoyed talking about how she worked her way up from an intern but shared little information on how things worked and was extremely vague when asked specific questions. The meal was lovely and it was so fun to eat in the bamboo room.
I guess our expectations may have been too high but we really did not get much out of the experience. I had more fun at a seminar at the Food and Wine Festival which cost 15 bucks. We got to make recipes, keep them and we got very good information on various cocktails and ingredients. We also got a lovely trivet which I use all of the time. At the Dining with an Imagineer, we got nothing for lots more money. Not even a pin.
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