Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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08-16-2003, 11:02 AM
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#1
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Community Rank: Passenger 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Austin, Texas
Posts: 26
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Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Any ideas for making a birthday extra special?
My sweetie's will be celebrating his birthday during our upcoming trip to WDW. (Oct 4-11)
I have heard that it is good to mention the birthday when PS requests and that something "might happen."
He is a big fan of the Haunted Mansion too... but I haven't figured out what I could do that would really make it fun for him on his "big day."
Any ideas?
We are both grown ups (30 somethings)
- Linneakay
[ 08-16-2003, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: linneakay ]
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08-16-2003, 03:15 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Fort Smith, Arkansas
Posts: 10,721
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
If he's willing, pick up a birthday button for him to wear, at City Hall in MK- some of the cast members, especially at the Haunted Mansion- might give him some extra special attention!!
Definitely mention it on all your PS's and your resort ressie. I just spent my 30th birthday at WDW and it was the most magical, special one ever.
Have a great time!
[img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]
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08-16-2003, 07:55 PM
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#3
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Community Rank: Passenger
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Austin, Texas
Posts: 26
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Got my PS plans all set, and I made sure to mention that there was a birthday involved.
I am trying to think of something extra that I could do...
I did check out Gifts of a Lifetime. It sounds like there are a lot of things that these folks can do, but even after reading the site I am not entirely clear on what kinds of things they could possibly do in the parks.
Maybe some kind of simple surprise. Is there such a think as a Haunted Mansion Tshirt? I probably need to get it ahead of time.. it is very difficult to sneak anything past him!
- Linneakay
[ 08-17-2003, 07:24 AM: Message edited by: linneakay ]
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08-16-2003, 09:47 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 453
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
You can plan all sorts of interesting and unique surprises for DH with Gifts of a Lifetime. Also, the WDW florist or Pixie Gifts can have gift baskets sent to your room on DH's birthday. |
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08-17-2003, 07:27 AM
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#5
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Community Rank: Passenger
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Austin, Texas
Posts: 26
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Gifts of a Lifetime and Pixie Gifts sound like good possibilities. I am going to check them out!
Does anyone have a description of what Gifts of a lifetime could do? I have read their website, and I understand the scavenger hunt etc, but what about something on a smaller scale?
My creativity bug is sleeping.
- Linneakay
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08-17-2003, 08:17 AM
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#6
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Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: NJ
Posts: 568
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Not sure how much you want to spend, but we did a fireworks cruise at MK for my friend's birthday, and we all had the most wonderful time. We chose not to go with the decorated boat and the goodies that WDW provides, just brought some of our own, and had one of our best nights ever.
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08-19-2003, 12:48 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Adventurer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Sacramento, CA
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 917
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
My sweetie is a big Haunted Mansion fan, too! They have great HM merchandise at a cart that is just outside of the exit. T-shirts, hats, and more. I suggest you call the WDW merchandise number (don't have it offhand...fellow Passporters?) and tell them you want to buy a haunted mansion t-shirt from the cart. They have a database that shows pictures of everything, and they can tell you about it and ship it out to you ahead of time.
He must have one of the birthday buttons! And for my adult sweetie, I called all of his friends ahead of time, gave them the phone number of the hotel we were staying in, and asked them to call and leave a birthday message for him. Then I called the hotel's front desk and they connected me to room service, where I ordered a birthday cake for two to be set up in the room. So, when we got home from the parks on his birthday, he had cake and greetings from all of his friends back home! It was lots of fun.
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08-21-2003, 01:01 PM
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#8
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Community Rank: Traveler
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Ohio
Posts: 474
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Don't forget to dial "0" on your room phone (if you are staying on site) and ask to have a birthday message for the day of the birthday. (Just like you would a wake-up call) If you're not staying on site you can still ask a CM at any of the shops in the parks to call for you. Your sweetie will get to hear a special birthday message... my DS's was from Goofy.
waterbug
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08-21-2003, 07:19 PM
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#9
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Florida Big Bend
Posts: 17,133
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Quote:
Originally posted by infinity&beyond:
I suggest you call the WDW merchandise number (don't have it offhand...fellow Passporters?) and tell them you want to buy a haunted mansion t-shirt from the cart.
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<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">(407) 363-6200
Elaine |
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08-21-2003, 08:51 PM
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#10
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Colonia, NJ
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 2,517
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Hi Linneakay! We just celebrated my DD's 5th bdy there in May. I went searching for all over to find something to make the day even more special. I was able to get the coveted PS for CRT (uh, probably not up your sweetie's alley, but the character meals are definitely fun for bdys!)
I filled out a questionnaire at Gifts of a Lifetime to see what they can come up with on a small budget. Since she is into princesses (unlike your sweetie! LOL) they suggested a signed card by all the Princesses with a small scale hunt leading to a gift that either they could purchase for me or I could send to them. It sounded great but at $150 or so, it was a bit too much $$ for us, as our trip to Disney was unexpected and planned last minute. But I would love to arrange something with them definitely next time when I can save ahead of time! LOL [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I then found Fairy Godmother Gifts online and I was able to chose how much I wanted to spend. Don't worry: they are not limited to little kid stuff; they even prepare corporate thank you gifts. You fill out a questionnaire and they email you a list of what they come up with. They give you the option of including Disney merchandise in the package. You could specify Haunted Mansion stuff. If I remember correctly, they don't purchase the items til you commit, so you will have time to decide whether you want to go with them or not after reviewing their list.
For just under $50 my DD received a personalized gift box from her Fairy Godmother (or from whomever you want the card to be from) which included favorite character straws, dolls, porcelain princess mini-teacups, and candies. It was delivered to our room while we were out at the parks.
And waterbug, I knew about the wake-up calls, but not about the bdy message!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Filing that away for next time, definitely!!
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08-22-2003, 07:00 AM
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#11
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Community Rank: Passenger
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Austin, Texas
Posts: 26
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
Wow! Great stuff.
I did not know about the Birthday message.
I also did not know that there was a WDW merchandise number. Last year he saw a poster at the Haunted Mansion cart that he really wanted... so I know exactly what would be a big surprise for him. Can I order the item from the WDW Merchandise number?
Where can I get a birthday pin? Should he wear it just on the day, or wear it the day before?
Here is the URL for The Fairy Godmother Gifts:
http://www.fairygodmothergifts.com/
Okay, now I am starting to feel like I have some options!
- Linneakay |
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08-24-2003, 10:12 AM
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#12
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Community Rank: Traveler
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: VA
Posts: 349
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
I would get the birthday pin on the first day and wear all the time. The CM's normally go out of their way to say happy birthday. I disagree a princess breakfast is great for 30 something males. If he is willing, they will flirt with him all the time. I did it solo as a 30 something years ago. Believe me if you encourage them he will have a great time.
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08-25-2003, 10:27 AM
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#13
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Florida Big Bend
Posts: 17,133
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Re: Ideas for making a Birthday at Disney special?
You can get a Happy Birthday button at City Hall in MK. You can also get one at Guest Services in EPCOT.
Yes, you can order the HM poster at that WDW phone number posted.
Elaine
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