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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Me: "Thank you for calling The ........Theatre. How can I help you?"
Dope: "I need to make an appointment to have a boil lanced."
Me: "I'm sorry, but you've reached ...........Theatre."
Dope: "OK, so when are you available to lance a boil?"
Me: "You have the wrong number, this is a theatre not a doctor's office."
Dope: "I'm calling for Dr. F."
Me: "There is no Dr. F. here, this is a theatre."
Dope: "Oh, then what's his number?"
Me: "I don't know, this isn't a Dr's office."
Dope: "Well fine, be that way." Click.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
I used to get calls like that at a store I once worked at. We also had a pay phone that used to be a # for a laundry mat. It took awhile to convince the person calling that it wasn't a laundry mat they were calling . I swear they thought I was lying and just didn't want to help them lol.
Love this! I would have probably either just made an appointment or told them to lance that boil themselves!
When we moved to this house we were assigned a phone number that used to be "Tony's Pizza."
Needless to say, we would get TONS of calls placing orders. When the people were over-the-top rude when I would try to explain that we were not a pizzaria ... I would finally just say, "Yes you're right. May I please take your order?"
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
When I was in college I was a receptionist for a car dealership. Our phone number was very close to the gas companies. So people would often just as for Accounts Payable and I would send it back. The poor accounting department had many calls where the conversation would get annoyingly far before the person understood they were talking to a car dealership.
The most maddening thing about it was that it was proof that people don't listen.
How could you not hear the difference between:
Good Morning, Atmos Gas
and
Good Morning, Droggin-Rickey Cadillac-Chevrolet-Lincoln-Buick-Geo
I also cover reception at my work and we get some real numpty's on the phone some days. The most memorable include a lady who called up to get her car repaired. When I explained that we were a construction company, her reply was a string of complaints and 'Well, I've been given THIS number'. I really had to bite my tongue so as not to say 'well thats ok then, if you've been given this number I must be wrong and you must be right.'
We also get a ton of people who call and ask for Thomas Armstrong (the name of the man who founded of the company in 1830). The best one was a man, who on being told that that was just the name of the company and the real Thomas died about 150 years ago, asked 'Who deals with his work in his absence??????' !!!!! There really wasn't an answer to that one
Our phone number when we moved to the Cincinnati area was one digit (in the first 3) different from the "contest line" for a local radio station. We rec'd several calls with people asking if they were the winning caller. What was worse was when they would call back after being told that they had the wrong number. Doofuses thought that redial would dial the correct number, I guess.
My favorite phone call came from a parent who was mad because I took her son's french horn away from him. I told her I had no idea who her son was when she gave me his name. Then I spent the next 5 minutes getting yelled at because I didn't know her son and he had been in my class all year. I tried to explain that I couldn't have taken her son's french horn away because the only horn players I had were girls.
Come to find out that there is no way I could have been mean to her son because he didn't even attend our school. He went to another school in another district in another city.
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