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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well, in an effort to be more 'organic' and such, I bought a neti pot today, It got good reviews on Webmd, etc. After months of sinus and allergy issues, I decided to try this as an alternative to the traditional treatments (antibiotics, allergy meds, etc). But, I have to say, I did my first 'rinsing' this evening and I feel stuffier than before!! Has anyone else used one of these things? Is this normal for the first time? Hmmmm, I was so excited for this thing, but now I'm not so sure. I'll give it a day or two, though.....thanks for listening to me whine (in my stuffy, congested voice tones!)
I have used it before and I am not too thrilled with it either. It feels icky. I know I have done it right but I don't like it. I hope others are more encouraging. I like the saline sprays instead. They rave about it on The Dr's but it has never helped me.
I tried using a neti pot once and with a deviated septum it didn't work for me. One nostril is completely blocked and the salt water did not run the correct course. Blech!
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I'm not a fan of the Neti. I've tried spraying saline up my nose, too. Sorry, but when I'm miserable, I head right for the pharmaceuticals. At the moment, I'm ready to marry Claritan-D and Visine AC.
My DDs and I all use neti pots. I use mine in the shower - after I've been in there awhile, and the steam has had a chance to work. I love it! It really does help my sinus issues, and I'd really like to avoid yet another surgery to fix them, although I think I'm getting closer to needing it again, I think the neti pot has held it off for a few years.
I stand with my head tilted to the side I'm not spraying up into. I take a break every now and then and blow, sneeze, and snort if I need to.
I use mine all the time during ragweed and sinus season. There is a definite learning curve so it takes a bit of practice. The only tips I can think of are to make sure you tilt your head forward as well as to the side. That helps keep the water from going down the back of your throat, which can be icky. And also, just put the spout of the neti pot gently inside your nostril. I was always tempted to shove it up there to create a seal, but doing so interferes with the flow of water. Also, keeping your mouth open slightly sometimes helps.
I first started using the neti pot about 10 years ago on the advice of a yoga teacher. At that point not many people used them or were even aware of them, and I had to go to this little health food store to get my neti salt and supplies. Then a few years ago I went to buy salt and the whole shelf of neti pots and supplies was cleared out. The owner of the store walked by, looked at me, looked at the bare shelf, and said "Oprah." That explained it!
I love using my neti pot! I've been using it for years. (I wish I had a camera to capture my parents' faces when I told them I wanted a neti pot for Christmas.)
I agree that there is a bit of a learning curve. Also, if you're too congested, it doesn't work too well because the water just can't get thru. My allergist told me to use Afrin first to open up the passages & then use the neti pot.
Also, I use a mix of 4 parts kosher salt to 1 part baking soda. The baking soda supposedly helps break up the mucus a bit. I don't know why I use kosher salt (as opposed to table salt), except that I think I read about it somewhere. After making that mix, I use 1/2 tsp. per cup of warm water.
That said, I began allergy shot treatments about a year ago & now, I rarely need to use the neti pot. I try to minimize my meds, but after a year of allergy shots & no longer waking up with a stuffy head, I'm a big believer in getting the meds you need!
Good luck. Hope the neti works for you & hope you feel better soon!
Carol
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DS-almost 3 & DD-6 with Meeko & Pocahontas in 2012
DH, "Commando" (Let's get a move on, folks!) ~ Me, "Pokey" (Just a moment...Look at this cool trinket!) ~ DD, born 4/2005, "Ride! Ride! Ride!" (Roller coaster! Cars! Dumbo!) ~ DS, born 3/2009, "Charge!" (I wanna goooooo!)
We have a Vick's vaporizer (that we run alternately with either hot saline solution or just hot tap water with a little Vick's VapoSteam) and we drink lots of tea. The neti pot would be overkill since the vaporizer and teas work so well. I have a friend who swears by her neti pot, but it makes me feel gross and more snotty and that's not the desired outcome.
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We have a Vick's vaporizer (that we run alternately with either hot saline solution or just hot tap water with a little Vick's VapoSteam) and we drink lots of tea. The neti pot would be overkill since the vaporizer and teas work so well. I have a friend who swears by her neti pot, but it makes me feel gross and more snotty and that's not the desired outcome.
Could you explain more??? Do you heat some saline solution and then use it??? And what is the Vicks vaporizer? We used Vicks on our feet when we had a touch of the H1N1 (still was brutal) and it worked better than the cough medicines.
The vaporizer warms the water on its own, but we like to start with hot tap water so that it doesn't take as long to start emitting vaporized saline/VapoSteam into the air. You have to put at least a pinch of salt into tap water if you have well water, so we go the extra mile and make it a truly saline solution since that works so well for us. You can pour the VapoSteam medication right into the saline solution, but NOT while the water is still really hot.
VapoSteam is basically an oil-based, liquid Vick's medication that is meant to be inhaled as a vapor mixed with water, which is why you pour it right into the vaporizer with the warm tap water. It clears your sinuses and suppresses nighttime coughing for my son (who can't take traditional cough medicines), so we use it a LOT during cold, flu, and allergy season.
It can run for 8 - 10 hours and doesn't overheat, so we just plug it in and put it on a dresser or a nightstand that's a few feet away from my son's bed or right on the floor in the living room.
I'm curious - why would you put Vick's on your feet?
Well, after about 1 1/2 hours yesterday evening, my sinuses did clear up! That was WONDERFUL!! The first time in weeks they've cleared w/out meds! This morning I was stuffy again, so I took a hot shower and let things clear out and worked with Mr Neti Pot again. This time things went much smoother! LOL! And, so far, so good today. No stuffiness whatsoever. I did tilt my head differently, so maybe that made the difference? Jeff (dh) said maybe it didn't work right away yesterday b/c it was my first time and I actually inflamed the sinus cavities a bit by the introduction of the salt water. Could be? Who knows?? But so far, so good! Of course, if this doesn't take care of it before we go to DW in Nov, I will go see the dr b/c I don't want to be stuffy and yucky there! On a side note, Jeff (dh) walked into the bathroom and was completely appalled at what I looked like standing there over the sink with my head cocked to one side, a spout up one nostril, and water running out the other! LOL!!! Note to self: DON'T giggle while doing this! Salt water isn't yummy and will gag you!! LOL!!
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I bought a neti pot a couple years ago. I use it only when my allergies/sinuses are really bugging me. I found that when I'm really congested it is hard to use. I use afrin beforehand or I take some Sudafed to help with the congestion. Also, I like to use the neti pot right after a steamy shower while my sinuses are somewhat unplugged.
When I'm really feeling horrible with my sinuses like when a sinus infection may be coming on, I like to use the Vicks Vaporizer with the medicated steam at night. During the day I drink lots of hot tea. Also, a really simple trick to help unstuff your nose is to gently press behind each nostril for two minutes with your index fingers. It helps break up the congestion, open the nasal passages and help your sinuses drain.
We don't use a Neti-Pot, but the spray bottle version. We've had great luck with it, but it does take a time or two to get things "moving" so to speak.
We don't use a Neti-Pot, but the spray bottle version. We've had great luck with it, but it does take a time or two to get things "moving" so to speak.
That's the kind I got, too. The trick for me is to keep my mouth open wide and breathe through my mouth since some of the solution comes out that way. Keeps it from running down the throat.
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Has anyone else used one of these things? Is this normal for the first time? Hmmmm, I was so excited for this thing, but now I'm not so sure. I'll give it a day or two, though.....thanks for listening to me whine (in my stuffy, congested voice tones!)
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