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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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When you’re a certifiable Disney-fied family, how do you celebrate the 16th birthday of your first-born child?
With a Disney cruise, of course!
How do you keep this (and much more!) a secret from the birthday girl? Well, this is where our tale begins…
Megan was born in the very cold and icy January of 1994. Those in the Northeast may remember that year was particularly bad with ice storms every other week (she was born between the 13th and 14th storms – any later and it would have been a home birth). Good timing on my part as I didn’t want to be hugely pregnant in the hot summer, bad timing for her because winter birthdays in Pennsylvania don’t leave many fun options. You can only roller skate or go bowling for so long before it gets old.
When she hit the teen years, she started whining that we don’t do anything “fun” for her birthday. We don’t go anywhere or do anything super-cool. She did have a point in that we spent 2 weeks in Disney for my 40th birthday but she overlooked the fact that my birthday is in July. She was also getting older and it was harder to justify taking her out of school when she started high school.
So what to do when her 16th (yikes!) birthday started rolling around? We looked at the calendar and saw that her birthday fell on a Wednesday. Hmmm… maybe a short trip to Disney wouldn’t be a problem. The last week in January is usually Catholic Schools Week so it’s a lighter week – maybe we could take her out of school for a couple of days? Wait a minute! Even better! Disney Cruise Line’s 3-night cruise sails Thursday to Sunday! PERFECT!
I'm a big believer of arriving the day before a cruise. There's too much that can go astray with travel that it's not worth cutting close and missing the boat. Even more so when you're traveling from the Northeast in winter, so the plan is to fly down Wednesday. That means we'll need a place to stay the night before the cruise and normally we would book a room at the Radisson at the Port. But it's her 16th birthday so that calls for something really special.
So how special? Well, the Wednesday before the cruise has become dinner at the California Grill followed by a night at the Contemporary and then breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. Not a bad surprise for a girl who never goes anywhere for her birthday, huh?!
And she still has absolutely NO CLUE!
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Lynn
Yes, I am a Disney Addict... and I'd rather be cruising!.
Wow exciting! We are doing just that in a few days for my daughter's sweet 16 (we are doing the 4 night cruise). We couldn't keep it a surprise though! I guess we will be getting on the boat the day you leave. Bummer!
What a wonderful idea for a sweet 16 cruise. I may borrow that idea in 7 years! Have a great trip. Also, good idea to go during Catholic Schools week. Thats a relatively light academic week here too.
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Margaret and I got to see the Cubs play in October. They won!
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Good timing on my part as I didn’t want to be hugely pregnant in the hot summer, bad timing for her because winter birthdays in Pennsylvania don’t leave many fun options. You can only roller skate or go bowling for so long before it gets old.
PERFECT! 
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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