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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'm going to take a Virtual trip to WDW!!! Since I can't afford to go for awhile and I'm dying to get back I'm going to plan and take a virtual trip to Disney World!! I'm going to pick where I want to eat each meal each day and I will cook something from that restaurant for b-fast, lunch and dinner to match. I will do something fun with the kids each day since we can't actually go into the parks so maybe instead we will do an arcade 1 day, a dollar movie one day, skating/ice skating one day, a water park or pool etc. I will improvise!! Of course our accomodations won't be a good but I have a few shampoos & soaps saved up so maybe I can decorate the bathrooms each day with those for the kids. If anyone has any extras of those that they want to get rid of let me know, I will pay you for shipping of them. I think this will be fun and although I wont really be there I will be there in spirit!!
Brilliant. We've done a Disney Movie a day thing too. We tried to see all the Disney Movies that my DS(5) hadn't seen. It worked out great! He is now a fan of Peter Pan.
Disney movie day, thats a great idea to add to the list!! I will remember that. I can even end each day with a disney movie and make popcorn and smores!! anyone else have ideas, send them on!! I'm keeping notes and making plans!!
Love this idea! Do you have any Disney CD's? Maybe you could listen to them in the car as you head to the arcade, etc. We have one that has music from the four parks. The kids like trying to figure out what each song is from. Have a fun virtual vacation!
This sounds like so much fun! I wish my kids were young again so that I could do it too!
How about making towel animals for their beds? I think there are instructions online somewhere for how to make some easy ones. If I find a link, I will post it.
Make Mickey rice krispie treats. You will need a mousehead cookie cutter for it. Fill the cookie cutter with the rice krispie mixture and pack it slightly. Remove the cookie cutter and let set. Then dip the ears and top of the head in melted chocolate for that "mouse ears" look.
Listening to park music can really transport your there! I listen to prspepper's Disney tribute on Youtube. I don't know where they got the music but they have the EPCOT entrance loop plus many of the attractions and World Showcase loops, most of the MK music as well as select music from the other parks.
If you have Netflix, they have some instant videos that are different from the Travel Channel Disney shows. I've enjoyed watching them. It's almost like being there.
Wear Disney clothes like you would do in the parks. Maybe not the mouse ears, but a Disney sweatshirt or t-shirt will add to the fun.
Drink out of your refillable mugs if you have some. If not, get a few plastic tumblers with Disney prints on them and use them during your virtual vacation.
Create a few Hidden Mickeys in your home. Any 3 circles will do. See if anyone notices.
Order a free enchanted phone call. Use the code ENCHANTEDCALL at the Disney Movie Rewards website. Make sure the kids answer the phone!
Make Mickey Waffles if you have the wafflemaker. Make Mickey 3-circles pancakes if you don't,
Set your table with black napkins, red plates and yellow cups. Put mousehead confetti all around.
Rename you dog Pluto for the week. If you have a cat then rename it Figaro. If you have a fish, then call it Nemo. Got a mouse? Well then...you get the picture.
Play Disney Trivia, Scene It or Trivial Pursuit Disney Edition.
thanks for the awesome ideas!! I'm going to print them all off and put them in a file!! I do have netflix and we all have refillable mugs!! Since our finest china is paper, I will buy some red, yellow and black plates and napkins. The rice krispy treats sound like a fun afternoon activity and they love pancakes so I can whip some of those up. I will have to look for a link for the towel animals. This is going to be so much fun!! 3 of my kids are older but I think they will have fun with this. I know my 12 year old DD will for sure!! If the older ones don't want to I will let her invite a friend to play along with us for some of the days.
Mad4themouse - you are a genious! This is such a great idea, Kim.
I play disney theme park music at work by logging on to radio365 - there are a few good Disney channels and it's free.
I think most of my ideas have been covered. We always get a frozen banana and love the jalapeno pretzels so just the taste of them would scream WDW for us, so I would definitely source out recipes for your fav treats and re-create them at home too for your snacks.
We have a great puzzle that I found at Winners (TJ Max in the U.S.) that is a photo of a jumble of Disney trading pins that we haul out and complete when we need a fix, too, but I wouldn't know where to find them....
-the disney family site has lots of free printables from cards to table decorations so maybe you can print out invitations, boarding passes that kind of stuff.
Do you have a DME envelope from a previous trip? (we save everything) You could put each days itinerary in the envelope and hang it outside the kid's bedroom on the door knob the way they do at the resorts.
-create a passport or an autograph book if that is something that the kids have enjoyed doing at WDW and have them get autographs from staff at the pool and other areas you go on your "vacation". I think people will be surprisingly interested in getting in the game with you. If the kids save their movie stubs and receipts from the activities you do they can create a scrapbook from their autograph book just like they would if it were a real holiday to WDW. Don't forget to take lots of pictures too like you would on holiday.
-Make a few paper placemats (you'll probably find lots of images on the internet to help) like the kids get in the restaurants with little word search games etc.
-buy little cartons of milk and little packs of jell-o, use little dishes of grapes and carrots just like they do at WDW for the kids meals I just wish I had one of the black plastic mickey head plates...
Wow - this is so much fun, I'm going to have to do the same thing! I'll be home alone with the kids and a recovering Grandmother during our school March break while DH is in having surgery...this would make up for not actually being able to take a holiday. It's such a great idea -thanks for sharing and I hope other people chime in with more things to try.
Oh this is such a cute idea, I love it! Before we went on our trip last year I filled the wait with some of the same things. We did a disney movie each weekend but instead of saying "Nemo on Thursday" I would put in Thursday "Movie in the ocean" so my DH or I could pick Nemo, or Little Mermaid. It was cute!
My DH and I are really into trivia games so I would make up clues "What year did Disney world open?" Each right point would earn us money to spend at WDW. You could do the same thing but maybe allow the money to be spent at Disneystore online? Nothing over the top (I think I won $10 lol)
I think it is a wonderful idea to kill time between going back to the bubble.