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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Here's my FIRST EVER Trip Report-- hope you don't through it LOL
Oct. 23th Arrival
We have been back almost two weeks now and I am rested up from all our trip. Am I ready to go again? You bet but finances aren’t there. You would think 10 days in the world could satisfy a person, right? It took us a week to not feel exhausted but we loved our trip and are so glad to have had so many first time experiences. I wish I could put up pictures but I have not learned how yet plus my computer doesn’t let me a lot of times.(I think it’s getting cranky in it’s old age.) LOL
First, let me thank all you PP folk who so willing gave advice, answered questions and put up with the mistakes of a forum newbie. I can’t tell you how much your advice help me( especially with using a scooter(actually I call it my landspeeder : just keep this in mind later on.) at WDW for the first time to keep from going crazy and keeping my cool when dealing with the crowd.
Wayne(DH), Jeremy(DS) and myself enjoyed our very first stay at the Polynesian ever! There is more later on about the Poly. The trip down(we drove taking a overnight stop in GA.) was fairly uneventful until we got to Atlanta, GA. Where we took a wrong lane and had to find our way back to I-75. We got to our motel around 10 PM(a little later than planned).
Once everyone was up, had breakfast at motel, we headed out to finish our voyage. We come to the Disney Gate with camera ready for a picture. You remember all the signs which say, “No stopping strictly enforced”. Wayne almost plowed into the left side of a public service truck STOPPED AND not quite off the road!!! We get to the Polynesian around 3 and our bags are taken by bell service and I go in to check-in. Online check-in-- Zip and it was done. Wayne went to park the car while I waited for the cast member to bring the waiting scooter to me. Our longhouse was Tokelau with a garden view. It was a limited view but we were not far from the beach where we could sit and see so much. I think I could have spent my time just at the Poly and been totally happy. So relaxing, peaceful and serene. We oriented ourselves to the resort, did some shopping at the Boutiki(found a Hawaiian shirt for my bother who loves them. One Christmas present down already!!) and we ate a quick service meal at Captain Cook’s. Food was good but must agree with DH about Value and Moderate resorts have a bigger selection. We did the 1 TS,1 QS and 1 snack dining plan (paid to upgrade from a free QS and saved $500) but found it was s-o-o-o much food.
Jeremy and I went out to the beach to enjoy the launches and ferries coming from MK. Jeremy went to watch the movie WALLE on the beach until the Electric Light Pageant started at 9.Wayne came out to watch it with us. Jeremy stayed to watch the remaining part of the movie and saw the Hallowishes fireworks from the beach. I would have loved to stay but the day was catching up with me so Wayne and I headed back to the room.
Well, off to bed …
UP NEXT: for tomorrow I shop till I drop at Downtown Disney and Jeremy gets to experience DisneyQuest (for his first time!!!)
Last edited by Pretty Kitty; 11-14-2012 at 10:04 AM..
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I think you did well if you managed 10 days before you wanted to go back. We were there in July and bought into DVC. We had points we had to use quickly so while we were there we book Hilton Head Island for February thinking we wouldn't go back so soon and that we needed a quiet holiday after the crazy. Well I was still on the plane when I regretted my decision and wanted to rebook WDW
I think you did well if you managed 10 days before you wanted to go back. We were there in July and bought into DVC. We had points we had to use quickly so while we were there we book Hilton Head Island for February thinking we wouldn't go back so soon and that we needed a quiet holiday after the crazy. Well I was still on the plane when I regretted my decision and wanted to rebook WDW
It was actually as I was going through the pictures online that the feeling hit me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yelloweaver
Pretty font, really hard to read though
I'm sorry!! I just realized all my paragraphs are gone. Firmat changed when I cut and pasted. I will lok out for that and change it when I do the next one.
Slept in a little today since stores and DisneyQuest don’t open until 10:30 AM. Today was my first experience getting on the bus system with a scooter. NOTE TO SELF: Slow speed to slowest while waiting for bus to arrive. I will say I think I got the best bunch of Disney bus drivers. They were always willing to help and even gave tips which were very helpful. A few times(2-3) we had to wait for a different bus and usually there was a cast member to help answer any question/ problems. Disney magic we all love at its best!!!
We headed directly over to DQ so we could get Jeremy’s ticket. Still early so we went into DQ gift shop. Jeremy found his keychain and I found some magnets to buy people back home. Jeremy off to do DQ and Wayne and I went to the Marketplace with map and list of stores. Found my bath towels(at World of Disney, of course.) I wanted and since I had enough spent, I bought the Mickey throw(came in handy in room when Sandy came blowing by and dropped the temperature Friday, Oct.26th)
Our lunch stop was Planet Hollywood(one of our 1st time events). It was not as noisy as I had thought by the comments made by some forums and websites. It is not a restaurant to eat at unless you can walk down 2-3 steps(I didn’t see any ramp area.). Loved the décor(we sat near the dress worn by Judy Garland’s Dorothy) and the food. Best ribs I have ever tasted!! Lasagna serving was so large, Wayne couldn’t finish it. Dessert was good(cheesecake was s-o-o-o-o good!!)
More shopping until it was time to get Jeremy and head back to resort. Our plans for the evening involved going into Kissimmee. I was glad to rest before grabbing a quick service at Captain Cook’s. This must have been our trip for taking wrong turns or missing turns. We missed taking a ramp and ended up taking the toll road.
Here's the next installment:
Oct. 25th Epcot-- Future World
Now that Jeremy had experienced DQ, the next BIG day was today: MNSSHP TONIGHT!!!( I have saved that for later though) First, we head to Epcot—FutureWorld. This means I would ride the monorail instead of a bus(so much easier to do). Our plan was to leave directly after lunch so we could rest for our late night. The first thing was to head to Soarin’ but the line was already at 40 minutes and FP was during our lunch or too late in the day already so we passed for today.
We headed over to the Land and did the boat ride; then to the Seas(Clammobiles were down so we didn’t get on that ride today). This trip we had more rides that were down(not for refurbishment) than any other time. Next, we went to Journey into Your Imagination(LOVED the new show. Made more sense to me that the previous one.), Spaceship Earth(after lunch)
Our lunch was at Le Cellier.( another first for us) I am so saddened that I have never tried it before now, missed out on a good restaurant as well as it is now a signature restaurant. Jeremy wanted the fried shrimp(appetizer) as his entrée but since we were on the dining plan it wasn’t allowed. Next time we go to WDW, I think we will OOP with a gift card and order what we want. I would have liked to try the cheese soup but passed as it was an appetizer. My filet mignon was s-o-o-o-o tender and the rice with cheese was good as well. We decided to check out Canada, did the movie and look in shops after lunch. Then looked in Innoventions, did Spaceship Earth and a trip to Epcot isn’t complete without going to Club Cool(Coco Cola drinks around the World). I had to have Jeremy try Italy’s drink Beverly without him reading the signs so I got it for him. Here is where having a picture is worth a thousand words. He stuck out his tongue very quickly and said “they really drink this stuff.” YUCK!!! I had the watermelon drink ready for him to wash the taste out.
It ended up being later than we expected to get away from Epcot since we wanted to rest before heading to MK for MNSSHP. We got a shorter rest than expected.
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