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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 love my in-laws - really! And they have proved invaluable when travelling with us to Disneyland (annually) and our big cruise/WDW trip in December. But does every Disney trip have to involve them? Sigh! I think so...
DH will be at a conference at the Contemporary in Oct 2009, so I managed to convince him that it's a perfect time to take a longer cruise. And he agreed! So we booked a 7-day Western cruise for our family of 4 back in April. Found out a week later about the fuel surcharges and thought, "we are lucky we decided to book it then and avoided that!" As long as we don't make changes, we don't have to pay the surcharge. We also commented that it will be nice for the 4 of us to get away and do something, just us (selfish, I know).
So, this weekend? MIL started talking to us about convincing FIL that they should go. Of course, she thinks that we should just switch staterooms so that we have connecting ones again. I checked with Disney, as long as we don't change the people in our stateroom, we can change the stateroom itself without incurring the surcharge. The problem is, the connecting staterooms all seem to only have 3 beds, not the 4th fold down bed that DD will sleep on. Change is inevitable, if we connect.
I told DH last night that we either change and have to pay the surcharge or we stay where we are and simply tell them that they can get a room next to us, but not connecting. Luckily, DH agrees with me! Now, let's see if we can stick with this....
To end, I feel I have to add that it's not a huge problem to have them go with us. Better to have grandparents that are "too" involved than not present, I know, and we are very fortunate with all that they do for us. So, we don't begrudge them going along. We just have to grumble a little about it to ourselves that if it's Disney, it'll include them. The only 2 recent Disney trips we've taken without them, we've expressly told them that they weren't invited (in nicer words). We're not willing to go that far for this trip - it would just be nice to take a "just us" trip every now and then.
We have a similar situation, but the trip together is a gift from FIL and also includes sister-in-law (sorry, haven't learned all these codes yet) and her son and live-in boyfriend. We all get along fairly well and there's enough varied interest to keep us from doing everything together (I hope...). My issue is more that my nephew - who has some challenges - tends to be the center of many decisions that are made regarding what we do. My husband is pretty good about not feeling like we have to cater to them and we have actually booked different excursions, which I'm very glad of. But can't help but feel like we need to be a little sensitive, since they're paying...I hate that obligatory twinge, and would rather it was genuine! Plus, both my husband and son tend to be "loners" and would much rather we do things "just us" - so it's up to me to coordinate things that we do together, and - very selfishly - I'm not overly fond of my MIL...
Anyway, I say all of that to affirm you, Heather, about standing FIRM! Don't change the reservations you've already made for JUST what you wanted, especially if you've got solid back-up in that decision from your DH (hope that's the right initials! ). You're not the one proposing that anyone accompany you, so I see it as NOT your gig to have to accomodate! (but as I said, I tend to be selfish sometimes...) But if it compromises your family's comfort, it really is NOT right or fair of anyone to ask you to make that kind of change. GOOD LUCK in standing your ground! Be the MOM!!!
My DH has been wonderful about including my mom in on all of our Disney trips. Sometimes she can get my nerves even, but in the end I am always glad she is with us and I would not have it any other way. My MIL passed away a little over a year ago and I wish that I included her in on more of these sorts of things like I do with my mom. I think my husband realizes that my mom will not always be around and that we should include her while we still can and she can still enjoy the trips. Honestly, if the connecting rooms is a big deal to your in-laws then I encourage you to pay the surcharge and make them happy. I also understand your need to not change the plan, but they will not always be able to accompany you and I encourage you to make this a trip to remember, even it means making a change. I wish that I had done more of that with my MIL.
You should definately stand firm. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with non-connecting rooms. A couple of years ago, we had a family reunion, and three different families, my own included, and none were connecting rooms. We were actually on different floors. We all had a blast regardless.
Trust me, your kids aren't gonna remember whether the rooms were connected or not. They are gonna remember all the fun times that they had with grandma and grandpa. That is the important thing.
When I was 15, I lost my last grandparent. He was the only one I ever really knew. My grandma on my dad's side passed away long before I came along. My grandpa on my dad's side had Alzheimers until he passed, so I never really knew him all that well. My mamaw on my mom's side died when I was 4. She was very involved in my life, though I only vaguely remember it.
Now, my cousins have a grandma (on the other side of the family) that is very involved. And they, like you, are sometimes a little overwhelmed, sometimes wanting "just us" time.
Since it is the hand I have been dealt, I usually do not sulk over it too much, but there are times (like this one, listening to your story of the grandparents) that I do wish I had memories of vacations and holidays.
So, if the grandparents are coming, consider that the ultimate gift to your kids. Trust me. But, leaving your room where it is is not uncalled for at all.
Last edited by mackeymouse; 07-01-2008 at 06:40 PM..
We've sailed often with family, but the only time we'll take connecting rooms is when we had a bunch of kids to keep an eye on (Allie, plus our nieces). There is a reason we move out of our parents houses, isn't there?
There is some convenience to having connecting rooms if the grandparents volunteer to watch the kids - the kiddos can be tucked in their own beds while Grandma and/or Grandpa enjoy the comforts of their own stateroom. In our case, the lack of a connecting door hasn't been all that inconvenient for the couple of times that comes up on a typical cruise. Grandma/Grandpa brings a book, and stays in our room with Alexander. It works especially well when we have a verandah.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
There is some convenience to having connecting rooms if the grandparents volunteer to watch the kids - the kiddos can be tucked in their own beds while Grandma and/or Grandpa enjoy the comforts of their own stateroom.
Yeah, that would be the "selling point" (for lack of a better word) to changing the ressies. So, I guess we'll see - I think we're waiting for her to bring it up again, rather than approaching her with what we've found. The ball, as they say, is in her court.
If you change categories, you will not only have to pay the fuel surcharge, you'll have to pay the current rate for the new room. Even if you went down a category, you might find yourself paying more money!!! Even before the surcharge.
OK, so the GPs are going with. We were actually able to change our room to a connecting one without incurring the fuel surcharge (Thanks to a very nice person at the Castaway Club number). So, we officially have 4 of us in one room with the GPs in the connecting room - but the kids will most likely switch out nights and we will be 3 and 3.
Thanks for the input! Like I said, it wasn't the "changing" so much as the point of us going alone. All things considered, it could be a lot worse!
Now, we are thinking about convincing my parents to go, too! We'll confront (er, I mean invite) them shortly after my sis moves to Michigan, while they're still feeling sad about missing grandkids and all that....
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). You're not the one proposing that anyone accompany you, so I see it as NOT your gig to have to accomodate! (but as I said, I tend to be selfish sometimes...) But if it compromises your family's comfort, it really is NOT right or fair of anyone to ask you to make that kind of change. GOOD LUCK in standing your ground! Be the MOM!!! 
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