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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 am hoping to take my daughter to Switzerland to visit friends in March. We will fly from Newark or JFK to Basel or Zurich. Newark to Basel would be the most convenient.
I am looking for any advice on how to get a decent airfare. Also, if anyone knows what a good airfare is, please let me know! All I know is that it is looking like almost $1200 each round trip, and that's a bit hard to swallow! But if that's the best it gets, then so be it!
Is it worth looking at flying into somewhere else, like Heathrow in London or Charles de Gaulle in Paris or Amsterdam's Schipol? With those, I would expect a lot more competition in fares, so they should be cheaper, then you can see if it's cheaper to do that and pick up a flight into Basel or Zurich.
By the way, we're planning on going back to Switzerland in early September and have Basel on the list, as we never made it there last time.
For transatlantic flights, I usually check a website like Expedia regularly. Once I know which airline I want, I eventually book our flights through their website as that allows me to pick our seats right away.
I've found that I get the best prices about 6 to 8 months in advance. Flights have gotten quite expensive in recent years, though. For our flights from Germany to Orlando in May we're paying about €900 (roughly $1,200) roundtrip per person, plus another few hundred euros for economy plus. We have one layover (in the U.S.) each way. I could have saved about $200 per person if we'd been willing to have another layover in Europe.
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Thanks for the input. I looked at prices in the fall for March and they were not much different than they are now. We were not able to commit to the trip at that point, and hoped that our friends would be staying in Basel for another year. But, they will be returning to the US this summer, so I really want to visit! We will be joining their family as they travel for their spring break, most likely visiting Munich and Austria. Anywhere they go will be amazing, I am sure. My DD12 has never been to Europe, and it's been many years since my DH and I spent a few weeks driving in Germany, topped by a few days in Paris.
Oh wow, it sounds like you're in for a wonderful trip. Munich is still on my list of places to go and we've only made it as far as Vienna in Austria, but that was beautiful.
Any suggestions for airlines to avoid or to consider? One flight I saw was Turkish Air! Don't think I would chose that one, but not based on any actual knowledge!
As you can tell, we don't fly much, and haven't been overseas in years. It's only a single trip, but I would like it to be as smooth as possible. It will be way out of my DD's comfort zone. She will be very excited, of course, but it will be exhausting, and she is so not a trooper!
British Airways are still very good and, for flights around Europe, we use Easyjet a lot. Apart from that (and Virgin Atlantic of course to get to the US ) we haven't really flown with anyone else. I'm sure Sabine will have knowledge of some other European airlines....
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) we haven't really flown with anyone else. I'm sure Sabine will have knowledge of some other European airlines....
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