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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So it is only 45 days until our 2nd family trip to WDW! And of course, we could not be more excited! But first I would like to thank Passporter and everyone on the boards for such great ideas and tremendous information about traveling to WDW.
Cast of characters:
Me (39)
DH (46) – our 10th wedding anniversary was in April
DD (8) – our last trip was her 5th birthday celebration
DD (4) – turning 5 during our trip!
Our last trip to WDW was in April 2008 for DD8’s 5th birthday, so of course we had to do the same for DD4!
Lunch with the princesses at Akershus - EPCOT - our favorite character meal last trip
We stayed at AKL and all had an absolutely wonderful time, except for DD4, she was only 19 months at the time and was terrified of the characters, which we learned in the first few minutes in MK. (Bad mommy moment – I should have prepared her somehow. ) Upon entering the park for the first time, we went to meet Pluto – my older daughter was so excited and happy but my younger one started screaming and tried to run away!
Lookin' for the exit!
And of course, being our first time in WDW, I had planned a lot of character meals (thinking the kids would love it!), so in all our pictures in Crystal Palace, Akershus, Tusker House, Hollywood & Vine, DD8 is all smiles, giving hugs to the characters, getting autographs but DD4 head is turned away from the characters trying desperately to avoid eye contact (even with the princesses!) and her only concern was her Mickey waffles.
Yummy
But now, as DD4 and I look at our scrapbook from the last trip, she points to all the characters that her sister met last time – Pluto, Jiminy Cricket, the Princesses, Baloo and of course, the Fab 5, and says “I want to meet him … him … her … and her … I want the Mickey waffles again … and I want to see him … and her … you get the idea.
Best hug of the trip!
So this trip will be DD4’s turn to meet her favorites, with Rapunzel, Tinkerbell and Tiana high on the list. Btw, we are totally bummed that Flynn Ryder (Eugene) and maybe even Prince Naveen (by the time we get there) are no longer part of the meet and greets. DD4 loves their movies, which she acts out repeatedly at home – there is always an unlucky stuffed animal (different one each time) who is “Eugene” and unfortunately gets hit on the head with her toy wooden frying pan!
Oh Rapunzel - let down your golden hair!
For DD8, this trip will be about the rides! She is very excited to go on them because last trip, we always seemed to be eating (deluxe dining plan – not doing that this time – too much food for us!) or meeting characters and being overwhelmed with it all (1st timers) so we really didn’t get to go on many rides. So this trip we plan to be very flexible since we may have to split up in order to do the meet and greets and also the rides.
__________________
Jenny
"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse" Walt Disney
DD4 loves their movies, which she acts out repeatedly at home – there is always an unlucky stuffed animal (different one each time) who is “Eugene” and unfortunately gets hit on the head with her toy wooden frying pan!
Newark Airport to Orlando – we were set to arrive at 2:11 pm but Continental changed our flight times, so now we are arriving at 4:04 pm. Boo to Continental – 2 magical hours lost!
DME to the Contemporary Resort – my husband chose this resort because he loves the monorail!
Adr’s at Chef Mickey’s 6:40 pm – I keep reading mixed reviews about this restaurant, but we have never been, so I wanted to experience it for ourselves and what better way to start your adventure then with Mickey himself!
Basic exploring of the resort – maybe ride the monorail depending upon how we feel.
DAY 2 – Magic Kingdom
Wake up bright and early because we have a breakfast date at the Castle with Princesses! Adr at CRT 8:15am – another first for us, so we (mostly DD4 and me) are so excited to eat in the castle!
Park should be open when we are done, so I think we will try to squeeze in some rides in Fantasyland, such as the Carousel, Peter Pan, Dumbo, and Pooh before the crowds invade.
Then we must get in line to meet Rapunzel, because according to others on the PP boards, this line is lllllooooonnnnnnnggggggg. And then, since Tink and Pixie Hollow will be moving to MK, we will do this meet & greet after Rapunzel. And don't forget Tiana - my DD4 wants to meet her too! DD8 and DH may go and do some rides if they do not want to meet the characters, we shall see.
The rest of the day is not planned, I have an idea of things we want to do like Aladdin, WDW RR, Tom Sawyer Island, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and Mickeys Philharmagic, so basically we’ll do what we can, take breaks, eat/snack when we want. Since the kids are still young, it kind of all depends on how hot it is to see how long we can last touring MK, then it will be back to the hotel for some pool time!
__________________
Jenny
"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse" Walt Disney
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This is labor day 9/5, so I am unsure of how the crowds are going to be - so our day we depend on that, but I think it'll be another day of exploring and enjoying ourselves!
Last trip we were in EPCOT during the Flower and Garden Festival which we enjoyed so much and the park was so lovely
The flowers were so beautiful in 2008!
All we have scheduled is another meal with princesses, but this time it is an early lunch 11:55am at Akershus. This is a repeat for us, but we loved it last time, so we are doing it again
DD8’s must-do: Kim Possible missions
My must-do: Karamel Kuche in Germany
DD5's must-do: meet Duffy!
So I think it'll be a day of exploring the World Showcase, meeting some characters, and having fun!
More pictures from last trip:
Dancing with the Chipmunks! My younger daughter actually enjoyed meeting Donald! Butterfly!
Let's hope DD4 enjoys herself more this time around
__________________
Jenny
"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse" Walt Disney
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) Upon entering the park for the first time, we went to meet Pluto – my older daughter was so excited and happy but my younger one started screaming and tried to run away!
and her only concern was her Mickey waffles.
She is very excited to go on them because last trip, we always seemed to be eating (deluxe dining plan – not doing that this time – too much food for us!) or meeting characters and being overwhelmed with it all (1st timers) so we really didn’t get to go on many rides. So this trip we plan to be very flexible since we may have to split up in order to do the meet and greets and also the rides.
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(Miss Molly)
DD8 and DH may go and do some rides if they do not want to meet the characters, we shall see.
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