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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Don't ask...Don't tell. A few people know I own DVC, most don't. VERY few people know how often I am going to Disney (everyone here of course who wants to look at my sig!) and that's it! Most people don't get it! Funny thing at work today (I worked a "princess shift" of 4 1/2 hours SO NICE) one of the guys was talking about quitting smoking and how it would save him over $1500 dollars a year! I made the comment "WOW I could take myself on a nice little disney vacation for $1500" and what I got as a reply was "Didn't you just get back from Disney?" with some odd looks. YUP and I'm going again in December, February AND MAY! HA SO THERE! Well That will have to hold me till 2010 cuz then I'm out of points I KNEW I shoulda bought more points upfront! Of course then DH would have really freaked!
I have a couple of people I talk to about Disney, and I COME HERE!! YAY for Passporter!~
On a recent road trip with my best friends, she commented that she couldn't understand why we went to WDW over and over again. She said very sarcastically, why don't you go ANYWHERE eles. I told her that I have been to Scotland, Grand Cayman, Bermuda, Jamaica, Aruba, Barbados, and St. Thomas. I've been in every state on the Eastern Seaboard, and across the old route 66 to California and that we just love WDW as our "family" vacation destination. I explained since I have already seen a fair piece of the country I really don't want to do it again. Her reply...Why don't you do it for your daughter! I mean really, so much money on a vacation...I spend less than $1000.00 a year when I take my family of four!.
Some people will just never get it, I gave up and only talk Disney with my family who are also Disney-aholics, and my new pp friends.
It's a lost cause! My sister said the other day "you're going AGAIN". I said yes don't you go to Talladega every year. She said "that's different every time". THe cars going around and around and around the track can't be that different.
I have a few friends who just look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about Disney. We are going this year, are already planning next years trip and the year after that just me and the hubby are going. When I tell my family and friends about all these plans my family(espically my g-mother) well the first thing out of her mouth is you ain't going to have any money if you keep taking trips. And then I have a couple of other friends that I know they think I am crazy and then for some reason they think we are rich with us planning all these trips ...
1. Disney World is my choice of a vacation, not my passion.
2. I have a best friend who doesn't get it because she lives close to DL. I live in the NE.
3. Since we each have our own lives we have different problems and good times with our families. If she hated DL she would still want me to have fun in WDW.
4. Now I have another DD who lives in FL and she didn't quite get it either . I explained that we all saved money to go to WDW and her DS was left with the planning. We have different rides to go on, different shows, different live entertainments to see, favorite restaurants. My DD came away from the emial with a lot of respect for what her DS is doing to see everyone has a fun vacation.
5. Every email I sent my friend, were about the in plans we were making. Then I wrote her that this vacation then I have seen some people put into planning their weddings.
6. Yet, we are going to be away from the conforts of our home. Disneyworld is like a home away from home.
7. We want to share Disney with our children.
8. Or instead of liking vacations together they could drift towards things we don't want them to learn.
9. Raising children is hard. Mine are all grown and two of them have enjoyed Disney through the years. Another is a 'winer'.
11. Love Disney or hate it, Disney is still the top money maker so there are many of us who choose Disney for their vacation spots.
12 Do not feel guilty. You are doing some good for your family and having fun with them.
The first letter of each number spells Disneyworld. Yeh!!
we live with our dfil and every time he hears us talk about money problems he has the nerve to tell us to sell our disney vacation club . and not for nothing i'm sorry this will never happend . he is from the old school you should own a house not a time share . then privately me and wife talk she agrees with me when i said he puts every cent away but now that his wife past in march . gee he has money but can he actually enjoy it . i sure know whenever i pass my kids had vacations like me and my wife never had growing up.
1. Disney World is my choice of a vacation, not my passion.
2. I have a best friend who doesn't get it because she lives close to DL. I live in the NE.
3. Since we each have our own lives we have different problems and good times with our families. If she hated DL she would still want me to have fun in WDW.
4. Now I have another DD who lives in FL and she didn't quite get it either . I explained that we all saved money to go to WDW and her DS was left with the planning. We have different rides to go on, different shows, different live entertainments to see, favorite restaurants. My DD came away from the emial with a lot of respect for what her DS is doing to see everyone has a fun vacation.
5. Every email I sent my friend, were about the in plans we were making. Then I wrote her that this vacation then I have seen some people put into planning their weddings.
6. Yet, we are going to be away from the conforts of our home. Disneyworld is like a home away from home.
7. We want to share Disney with our children.
8. Or instead of liking vacations together they could drift towards things we don't want them to learn.
9. Raising children is hard. Mine are all grown and two of them have enjoyed Disney through the years. Another is a 'winer'.
11. Love Disney or hate it, Disney is still the top money maker so there are many of us who choose Disney for their vacation spots.
12 Do not feel guilty. You are doing some good for your family and having fun with them.
The first letter of each number spells Disneyworld. Yeh!!
No they Just don't get it. We plan a trip to WDW every 2 years because we save and save and save and save for it and we go every 2 years and we have blast, put away ANY money we had left and start saving again. We are going in December this time around and we had asked another friend couple to go and bring their girls and make a BIG fun trip. (we talked about it a year and a half ago) she said yes and was very excited. Then when we went to book our trip in January 2008 she said NO they couldn't do it and had no clue how we did this every 2 years when her husband makes way more then my husband. WOW. I could not believe that she said this to me then she went on to say that we "Claim" to be paupers but live like King's.
I just chalk it up to I know how to budget and plan and save and she was jealous. Ya we may have some money trouble through out the year and we cant afford to get DVC any time soon. Although I would LOVE it. But we have fun and my kids will remember having a FUN vacation every other year. And what better a place then Disney World.
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It's a lost cause! My sister said the other day "you're going AGAIN". I said yes don't you go to Talladega every year. She said "that's different every time". THe cars going around and around and around the track can't be that different.
I hear the same thing from friends, "You're going AGAIN" But Disney IS different everytime you go. They are always adding new stuff and there are different events that happen throughout the year.
That's why I am so thankful to have Passporters who do understand the magic. I no longer talk about my vacations so much although the people I work with know how many times I go. They like it since I come back so much easier to work with!
My family just moans about how much money I am spending but having lost my husband when he was 36, life is way too short to regret not spending enough fun time with my DD. I hope that she will have many wonderful memories to treasure like the ones I have of my family vacations. It's just icing on the cake that we both love Disney so much. I think my husband would have understood and enjoyed it just as much as we do now.
Wea re going on our first trip to WDW next week, and we get the snyde remarks about being "rich". It is not that we are rich, it is that we have decided to live our life differently. We do not live in a nice new big house, we live in a nice, old fixed up house that we have worked hard to make a home. Our payment is far less than what most of our friends pay. We do not have 2 new vehicles in the garage, DH drives an 11 year old pick up, and I do have a 2007 van, but that is because my 13 year old van called it quits last September, and we had to do something. I lost my father when I was 18 years old, and the best memories we have of our family all together is on our vacations. We have gone on vacations the last 3 years and the girls get out the pictures and we talk about the stuff we did or saw, and I can tell that these are going to be their favorite memories to. I don't care what people say...I will not give up these trips. And maybe we will love WDW so much that we will want to return every year too. But that is for us to decide and no one has any reason to question our decision!!!
This is why I love you all . You DO get it. I love all things Disney. My DH loves it too. Okay, not quite as much as I do but luckily he does. People are going to have comments about anything they don't agree with. But, what makes you and your family happy is all that matters. If we decide to go to Disney more often than others, that is our choice. And as far as I am concerned it is a great choice .
Also, I have a child who is allergic to a LOT of things. For that reason, we can't fly to the DR or Costa Rica or Jamiaca like friends of ours as easily because I would worry about the language barrier and how things are prepared. For me...there is a certain piece of mind as well in travelling to Disney.
OK...I just love it...and would go back again and again if I could.
It's a lost cause! My sister said the other day "you're going AGAIN". I said yes don't you go to Talladega every year. She said "that's different every time". THe cars going around and around and around the track can't be that different.
Hey, look they made a left turn!
Sorry, I couldn't resist. I watch Nascar races on TV and have been to a couple. But would rather be at Disney.
I just chalk it up to I know how to budget and plan and save
When friends and family make remarks I try to tell them that this is what we do and this is how we are doing it. They still don't understand. My husband is the only one that works, we have 5 children..but at the same time we live below our means and thats how we do it. We have 2 vechiles but one is a 1972 Ford LTD that sits iin the drive. I love comparing mine and my MIL's house payment. LOL She lives in a lavish house and pay's 1500.00 a month(she just filed bankruptcy)...ours well lets just say that the 1500 she pays on just her house payment will pay our bills for the month. LOL
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I KNEW I shoulda bought more points upfront! Of course then DH would have really freaked!
YAY for Passporter!~
WOW. I could not believe that she said this to me then she went on to say that we "Claim" to be paupers but live like King's. 
. You DO get it. I love all things Disney. My DH loves it too. Okay, not quite as much as I do 
but luckily he does. People are going to have comments about anything they don't agree with. But, what makes you and your family happy is all that matters. 
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