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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Today is our special Free Priority Mail Shipping day -- order today, get free priority mail shipping, and your order goes out tomorrow so it arrives in time for Christmas. Here's the details:
With the 2010 editions now in stock and Christmas right around the corner, this seems like a great time for a special Free Shipping offer! So for one day only, you can get free Priority Mail shipping on all new orders of any PassPorter books and/or products placed through the PassPorter Store on Thursday, December 17, 2009. This offer is only available for orders placed online through this store or through our toll-free number 877-929-3273 (open all day from 8:00 am-10:00 pm).
Orders qualifying for free shipping will ship via USPS Priority Mail to ensure they arrive by Christmas Evel No coupon code is necessary -- simply choose Priority Mail as your shipping option. Note that USPS Priority Mail can only be used as a shipping method for U.S. shipping addresses -- this offer applies only to orders shipping to U.S. addresses. Also note that we cannot retroactively apply this discount to orders placed before Thursday, December 17. For more details and to begin shopping, go to FREE Priority Mail Shipping at PassPorter.com
Note: There was a little glitch this morning with our store honoring free shipping, but thanks to our customers alerting us to the issue we've got it all fixed now! Anyone who ordered after midnight ET but were charged shipping will have their shipping refunded ... and anyone who orders now gets free Priority Mail shipping!
Did you place a pre-order but it hasn't yet arrived? Hang in there ... it's on its way to you!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
May I ask why people who pre-ordered did not get theirs by Christmas and paid shipping, yet those who just ordered on the 17th got theirs by Christmas? Something is not right about that......customer service?? Hmm- good thing it's not my company as that would never fly around here. Different strokes, but you can bet I won't pre-order next year IF I even get another one. Plus, I'll cancel my passholder account for sure.
If you picked the cheapest, slowest shipping, it will take longer than priority shipping. also, regular mail is notoriously slow this time of year.
Companies give specials all the time - sometimes it's a big discount, sometimes it's a gift with purchase.
If you bought a TV one day, and 3 weeks or a month later the store offered the same TV with a free DVD player, you'd say, darn, wish I'd waited. Not, why didn't I get a free DVD player too!
specials happen. that's life.
As a Canadian, I couldn't take advantage of the free shipping, so am I complaining? no, that's just a fact of the economic cost of shipping.
__________________
Kris
Mom to:
DS Chris age 17; DD Lizzy age 15; DD Ashleigh age 11
Different versions of the books, and different shipping methods, means that it's really hard to compare orders and the speed with which they are received. This happens every year when a new book is released, but it never gets easier -- we all do our best to get books out as quickly as we can, but perfection is difficult. I am sorry some folks who pre-ordered did not get their books before Christmas -- I would have preferred you could have.
For what it is worth, the free shipping day was an experiment -- the folks at FreeShipping.org asked if we wanted to participate, and the only way we could ensure books arrived in time for Christmas (the prerequisite) was to offer free priority mail shipping. And when we agreed to do it, we did not realize that the shipment delays would cause it to overlap with the pre-orders at all -- we thought those would all be shipped. The response overwhelmed us all, and I don't think we'd do it again, unless we changed a few things. Live and learn.
If you picked the cheapest, slowest shipping, it will take longer than priority shipping. also, regular mail is notoriously slow this time of year.
Companies give specials all the time - sometimes it's a big discount, sometimes it's a gift with purchase.
If you bought a TV one day, and 3 weeks or a month later the store offered the same TV with a free DVD player, you'd say, darn, wish I'd waited. Not, why didn't I get a free DVD player too!
specials happen. that's life.
As a Canadian, I couldn't take advantage of the free shipping, so am I complaining? no, that's just a fact of the economic cost of shipping.
Of course I understand that- duh! But the difference there is that I would have received the item already. And, it doesn't matter what shipping I chose in this case, b/c the folks who ordered on the 17th got PS free regardless. So that comment doesn't make sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer Marx
Different versions of the books, and different shipping methods, means that it's really hard to compare orders and the speed with which they are received. This happens every year when a new book is released, but it never gets easier -- we all do our best to get books out as quickly as we can, but perfection is difficult. I am sorry some folks who pre-ordered did not get their books before Christmas -- I would have preferred you could have.
For what it is worth, the free shipping day was an experiment -- the folks at FreeShipping.org asked if we wanted to participate, and the only way we could ensure books arrived in time for Christmas (the prerequisite) was to offer free priority mail shipping. And when we agreed to do it, we did not realize that the shipment delays would cause it to overlap with the pre-orders at all -- we thought those would all be shipped. The response overwhelmed us all, and I don't think we'd do it again, unless we changed a few things. Live and learn.
That is good to know that you expected this not to happen with shipping delays and all. And I certainly understand that this was a promo aimed at getting more new books out. However, I certainly would have looked at all of the "what ifs" first, especially in case of delays. But, didn't the shipping delays happen last year too? I'm thinking possibly another year as well. I think maybe you should start planning for that rather than give false promises of when things will be delivered. I know in our business, it doesn't matter whose fault it is- if we promise something is being shipped on December 1st and it can't be due to something out of our direct control, then we would pay to have it to the customer the fastest way possible in order to keep our promise and to have it to them as soon as possible.
Brandi, I've sent you a private message regarding your shipment.
As for "what ifs," I actually set the release date of the 2010 book one full month after we expected to receive it. Last year I had the book into the printers in record time. The printer created the delay, and we're working internally to fix that in the future. It is pretty frustrating, but I am stubborn and don't give up easily, and I feel confident I figure it out for the future.