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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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From the gals who bring you the annual Chocolate Buffet PP Meet each spring in Boston - we now bring you: THE HAUNTED HAPPENINGS PP MEET - OCTOBER, IN SALEM, MA!!
We love getting together with our PP friends so much, we decided once a year just wasn't enough. We have made some wonderful friends from these meets, and we love meeting new PPers. At the last Chocolate Meet I tossed the idea of a haunted Halloween Meet in Salem out there. It was well-received, so I went ahead and picked a date and a rough itinerary. The thing about Salem in October is, as the month progresses, the crowds get thicker and it's just crazy trying to park, get around and have fun. So we chose the first Saturday in October, which was as close as we dared get to Halloween. I posted an announcement in the Backyard in June, and waited to see who would join us. Our final guest list: Lisa (Magic Mickey), her daughter Corinne, Janine (FanOfMickey), Marie (CRCrazy), her daughter Amanda, Deb (debsta922), Lori (Mickeysgal), Raquel (Kelleigh1) and me.
As time passed and we got closer to our meet date, I thought it would be fun to make Maleficent Horns for everyone to wear during the Tales and Tombstones Tour. They were very easy to make and looked great! During a trip to Michael's, I came across small, wooden coffins with a clasp on the side, and thought how cute they would be filled with candy as a small welcome gift for our guests. There were messages back and forth on Facebook as anticipation built. Before we knew it, the day had arrived! As always, there were a few last minute cancellations. Sadly, Pooh (Peggy) lost her father and could not join us. DawnK and her daughter Katie came down with the flu. We still had a group of nine intrepid PPers, including our newest friend, Mickeysgal (Lori), ready to scare up some fun in Salem. We agreed to meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Witches Museum just across from the town green.
Magic Mickey (Lisa) and her daughter Corinne drove up from CT and stayed the night at a Homestead Inn only two miles from my house. We planned on riding together to Salem. FanOfMickey (Janine) drove over to my place and we had morning coffee (Pumpkin Spice) while waiting for Lisa and Corinne, who planned to be in town by 9 a.m.
We got a call from Lisa - her GPS had gone a bit off course, but she was only a mile or so from my place. I had forgotten about the road to her hotel being under construction. We told her to stay put, and we drove to where she was. I had her follow us back to my place, and park her car in my driveway. Then we all piled into Janine's car and headed for Witch City!
Coming Up: Will traffic be a nightmare? Will we find a place to park? Will it rain? Or will we conjure a spell for a delightful day?
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Nancy
Last edited by BostonTeaParty; 10-08-2012 at 06:19 PM..
I was a little concerned parking my car in Nancy's driveway with my Yankee stickers on it and she hadn't mentioned to anyone in her family that I was parking there. LOL! Thanks Nancy and Janine for coming to find me!
From my house, Salem is a short ride up route 128. It's a coastal community not far from the commercial fishing community of Gloucester, MA. Salem was founded by Roger Conant in 1626 (you will see a photo of our group in front of Roger's statue, just outside the Witch Museum). We were concerned that we get there as early as possible, due to the fact that during the month of October, there is horrendous traffic gridlock from everyone having the same idea - October/Halloween/Salem. I have seen traffic backed up from the exit onto the highway, trying to make their way into town. Surprisingly, we encountered no traffic at all the entire ride. I couldn't believe it, but it was a welcome surprise. The other surprise was the weather. We had all been keeping an eye on the forecast, hoping for a pleasant day. By Tuesday, weather reports were showing rain for Saturday - drats! Even on Friday, the forecast was for 30% chance of rain, but it held off for almost the entire day. The sun was shining on us as we pulled into the parking garage in the center of town. We brought umbrellas, just in case - jackets, also. Since Janine had been nice enough to drive, Lisa and I split the cost of parking - $20 for the entire day - a bargain!
As soon as we emerged from the garage I called Marie to let the rest of the crew know we were in town. She had texted that they were all waiting on the town green, just across from the Witch Museum. It was a very short walk from the garage to the town green, and we saw our gang waiting for us. Greetings were exchanged all around and a plan was formed. First, we would hit the annual Haunted Biz Baz Street Fair. From jewelry to velvet cloaks, scarves to t-shirts, art work to kitchen witches, fried dough, hot dogs, popcorn, hot chocolate - this fair had everything! It was incredibly fun to wander around the various kiosks, and stop inside shops of every kind imaginable to window shop, and, in some cases, shop shop. Also located in Salem is the Peabody Essex Museum. It would have been wonderful if we could have squeezed in a stop there. They had an exhibition of Ansel Adams, one of my favorite photographers, it was ending on Oct. 8th. I have three large posters of his work, and one of them was displayed, hanging from the museum. It was breathtaking.
Owning to the exceptional hearing skills of Debbie, we decided to head for lunch early - around 11:15. She had overheard a bus tour group that was planning to have lunch at the Witches Brew at 11:30 a.m. We headed over to beat the crowd. Another thing I learned planning this meet, restaurants in Salem (for the most part) do NOT take reservations in October. Luckily, we arrived to find the Witches Brew not crowded at all, and we were seated promptly.
The restaurant is very pretty inside, albeit small. The front entrance opens into the bar, where many locals were seated. We were ushered around the corner into a sun-filled room with a beautiful tin ceiling, large plate glass window with views of Derby Street, and a small fireplace in the corner. I have been there during the winter months when the fireplace is lit. It is quite cozy and charming.
We were seated and given menus, and luncheon specials to look at. Drinks (spirits ;-)) were ordered, and dining decisions were made. Lori and I ordered the Tuna Melt, served on an English Muffin with Provolone and Tomato. It was decidedly bland, but edible. I also ordered the French Onion Soup Gratinee baked with Provolone Cheese. It was delicious, so it wasn't a total bust. I remember Marie and Debbie ordered baked scallops and said they were very good. I can't remember the rest of the orders, but I'm sure we'll get a review from the rest of the group, shortly. We had a delightful waitress, and as it turns out, she is an actual witch! If you were expecting an older woman with warts on her face, a big, crooked nose and a cackling laugh, you would be very surprised by this witch (blanking on her name). She was charming, friendly, attractive and intelligent. She took a group shot of us, and gave us some excellent advice to make the most of our day. Right now I think it's time to add some pictures, so I'm going to have to figure out how to do that.
Coming up: After lunch at the Witches Brew, we visit the oldest candy store in America, attend a Meat Wine tasting, and head off in search of Zombies. Stay tuned!
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LOL - Lisa! I didn't even notice the Yankee stickers until you pointed them out. Even though you were deeeeep in Red Sox Nation, we are the "good" Sox fans. We would never vandalize a Yankee fan's car. (We would just point discreetly and snicker.) lol
My family is so use to my kids and their friends arriving in any variety of vehicles, they wouldn't think twice about a car with CT plates in the driveway.
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I had the fish sandwich with the fries and I think I ate every last bit! Did Lisa get the same? I know we both really enjoyed the fries. I remember Lisa commenting that they were like McDonald's fries but without all the salt. Very tasty!
Here is a picture of Nancy's French Onion Soup...taken after she had already eaten some. It looked so good, I just had to take a picture!
Btw...I married a Yankee fan!
__________________
Raquel
November 2007
Last edited by kelleigh1; 10-10-2012 at 10:22 AM..
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Thanks Raquel, I did get the same thing and those fries were great! My daughter Corinne also had the french onion soup and a BLT. The food was good, the drinks were great but the friends were the best!
I was so happy for good weather because I was wearing shorts. When Nancy gets the pictures on here, you can see some of the great shots she got of the Street fair.
Great start! The Witches Brew sounds like a very nice lunch spot. I can't wait to read more about your day in Salem. I had a very nice visit there years ago.
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
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I saw you guys were planning this in the Backyard forum and I'm glad we get to hear all about it.
Lisa 
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