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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 so excited to have two PTR's going on at the same time - and such fun ones at that!!! My other PTR is a surprise WDW trip... and conversation about that one is sort of what led into this one!
I was chatting via email with Jeannie, about my upcoming WDW trip, and discussion turned to fall break. We've been looking to meet up somehow for a while, and initially I had planned on a CA Coastal Cruise in October, but that had to be canceled in spring when my restaurant closed. Jeannie and I had considered meeting in Vegas for a few days, but then somehow the conversation turned toward Meri and myself coming out to LA for a few days.
Next thing I knew, we had planned out a four night trip!
I'll get to our plans later... but first, I'll introduce MY side of the cast (Jeannie will be updating in here as well, so it will be a joint endeavor):
Me - Melanie - 36. I'm a single mom, I love to travel and am never happier than when planning / implementing a trip! Huge lover of all things Disney, and especially Eeyore.
Meri - 6. She just started first grade today. She loves school, loves church, loves to travel, loves to read, loves gymnastics, loves the Olympics, loves music... you get the idea... lol. She loves everything . Very enthusiastic. Very little patience.
This trip, unlike the other, isn't a surprise. Meri knows about this trip... and she's excited about it. But she doesn't know about one super-awesome element of the trip... which I won't tell you about just yet... because we do have to drag this out some, ya know?
Jeannie - your turn to introduce your cast! Then I guess we can get into the travel plans, before going into the plans we've got (both tentative and firm)!
Well, my cast is fairly similar, except I have two supporting cast members to Melanie's one! Me (Jeannie) 45, Sophia 12, Evan 8. Even our likes are so similar! We all love Disney! Like Melanie, I'm a mega planner...the main difference here is she gets to execute a lot more of her plans than I do! I just like to plan for the sake of planning!
Melanie's given you most of the background for this trip. Isn't it funny how friendships happen? I'm super glad to be finally "meeting" Melanie and Meri. I feel like I already know them (and Melanie's mom, too, lol!). I was thinking that Melanie and I would first meet in Vegas for a quickie getaway weekend for us to both chill and chat, but our chats turned to visiting LA and before you knew it, we had this trip planned!
The funny thing for me as I've planned this trip with Melanie is that as a native Californian, I kind of take for granted a lot of what So Cal has to offer. I mean, I don't really know what visitors would find most interesting because I've grown up with it! Well, Melanie is such a great planner that she can tell me what interests her and Meri, and then I can find things they'll like to do. It's like me and my marketing career...just tell me what you want to accomplish with your business, and I'll find you a solution!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
How cool that you're heading out to the west coast! You should've made it Christmas... then we could've met up!
I know!! Believe me the thought crossed my mind that we were too early for your trip, lol! But alas, I've got a cruise coming up in late Nov/early Dec, so that's going to take up the rest of my vacation time for the year! Darn it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Well, my cast is fairly similar, except I have two supporting cast members to Melanie's one! Me (Jeannie) 45, Sophia 12, Evan 8. Even our likes are so similar! We all love Disney! Like Melanie, I'm a mega planner...the main difference here is she gets to execute a lot more of her plans than I do! I just like to plan for the sake of planning!
Melanie's given you most of the background for this trip. Isn't it funny how friendships happen? I'm super glad to be finally "meeting" Melanie and Meri. I feel like I already know them (and Melanie's mom, too, lol!). I was thinking that Melanie and I would first meet in Vegas for a quickie getaway weekend for us to both chill and chat, but our chats turned to visiting LA and before you knew it, we had this trip planned!
The funny thing for me as I've planned this trip with Melanie is that as a native Californian, I kind of take for granted a lot of what So Cal has to offer. I mean, I don't really know what visitors would find most interesting because I've grown up with it! Well, Melanie is such a great planner that she can tell me what interests her and Meri, and then I can find things they'll like to do. It's like me and my marketing career...just tell me what you want to accomplish with your business, and I'll find you a solution!
Thanks, all! I'll start by talking a little about travel plans. As is typical, Meri and I are flying standby. We fly into a little airport right near Jeannie, so we don't have to deal with LAX (hallelujah).
My plan as it stands now is to take the 615am flight out of Memphis on that Saturday the 6th. Hey... that's TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY!!! Anyway, we'll connect through Houston, and then arrive in LA at around 1030am local time. If the flights look a little shady, I'll fly out the night before to Houston (or Denver or Chicago, wherever the flights look the best) and overnight, then take the early flight out in the morning to LA.
We shall see how it goes. I anticipate busier than usual flights, simply because it's the beginning of fall break. However, I'm pretty good at working around things, and worst case, I have a number of airport options as worst-case scenarios. Either way, I'm not terrifically concerned with the flights. We will get there.
We plan on returning on Wednesday, October 10. I'll likely go for the 615am flight out of LA, getting us home somewhere in mid-afternoon. I hate to leave so quickly, but I'm out of vacation time at this point! After the three short trips I have planned (in Sept, Oct and Nov), I will have 2 hours remaining at the end of the year. Typically I still end up with at least a few days of vacation time at the end of any given year, to carry over to the following year, but this year, I have squeezed just about every bit out of this year! Phew!
I have to say, I'm surprised you even have 2 hours left with all the travel you've been able to do this year! But, I do remember that you tend to put in some work at the beginning of some of your trips, so I'm glad you haven't had to use ALL your vacation time already. I love that flexibility!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
First of all, I am SO jealous! But I'll get over it because I'm also so excited for all of you. Can't wait to hear all the plans-- at least the ones you can talk about now!
I have to say, I'm surprised you even have 2 hours left with all the travel you've been able to do this year! But, I do remember that you tend to put in some work at the beginning of some of your trips, so I'm glad you haven't had to use ALL your vacation time already. I love that flexibility!
I love the flexibility, too. It's such a blessing, and I'm so grateful for it. My boss really is great. And I do everything I can to work as hard as possible for her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
First of all, I am SO jealous! But I'll get over it because I'm also so excited for all of you. Can't wait to hear all the plans-- at least the ones you can talk about now!
I know I'm tempting fate with a PTR, lol, but eh, whatever. I'm not a superstitious sort, and I like to tempt fate. Besides, this trip is SO ON! Tickets are already bought for certain things.
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Melanie....look at you having two trips going at once. I am so excited that you and Meri are going to get to spend some time in LA, I am sure Meri is totally excited and how wonderful that you will finally get to meet up with Jeannie and her kids. Think this trip is going to be a blast.
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You should've made it Christmas... then we could've met up! 
Darn it!
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