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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mine is Mary Poppins. We had a special interaction with her and I look forward to running into her every time. Also, riding the Magical Express just gets me so excited because I'm heading back into the Disney bubble.
As a teenager: I first went to Disney when I was fourteen - my birthday present from my grandmother was a trip with her and my mother, as part of a tour group. An IMO good tour group, because it wasn't "everyone stick together", it was "the bus leaves for the hotel at X o'clock, if you miss it you'll have to call a cab".
Anyway, the tour guide would usually talk about the day's destination, giving us advice and tips and things, on the ride there. For our day at the Magic Kingdom (this being in the summer of 1985, when it was MK, EPCOT, and nothing else), his advice was "If it's your first visit to the Magic Kingdom, take the Ferry; seeing the castle rise up over the water will add an extra spike of anticipation, followed by immediate gratification when you arrive."
It was good advice. It worked on me, and it worked on my mother. (My grandmother simply endured the mild motion-sickness an unexpected ride on a boat meant for her. )
As an adult: sixteen yeas later, DGF and I were in Disney world - a Christmas present from her father - and on our first day, since she's very much an animal-lover, we elected to go to Animal Kingdom first. We also decided to try "Donald Duck's Breakfastosaurus" ... never having any clue how unlikely we were to be seated without reservations. Well, that morning we got very lucky (being a party of only two probably helped, but we were still really lucky).
Partway through that meal, Pluto came up behind me, and pantomimed slowly sneaking up - shushing DGF when she almost pointed him out to me - and pounced me from behind. Now, normally, I'm not a hugely touchy-feely guy; I know I must have stiffened momentarily ... but then, I distinctly remember thinking to myself "this is DISNEY, and it's one of the characters, and would you just LOOK at the delight in her (DGF's) eyes??" So I consciously made myself relax, in order to let her enjoy the moment for a bit longer.
Yeah, that's right: as a kid, the magic was about me. As an adult, though, the magic was about her. Both events made lasting memories, that still bring a smile to my face to think of them.
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--Sean
Last edited by Pax; 03-22-2013 at 05:24 PM..
Reason: spelling is hard! :D
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For me the magic is in the lobby at the Comtemporary. Why because our first two trips my children were very small and we visited both chef mickeys and the California grill. We bought my oldest son a monorail in that lobby when he was 4 and sneaked it hiome for his birthday without him finding out. We bought him shorts there when he was ill one day and we had to get new clothes for him. He wore those shorts for years then his younger brother did too. Seems all opur memories from when the children were little come flooding back in that place.
It's something different every time. It could be a magical encounter with a character, a wonderful Cast Member who makes all the difference, finding something new we hadn't noticed before or just re-living some fun times from previous visits. Great question!
It's something different every time. It could be a magical encounter with a character, a wonderful Cast Member who makes all the difference, finding something new we hadn't noticed before or just re-living some fun times from previous visits. Great question!
While I understand your desire not to rate any one thing higher than the rest making others feel second-class , I was hoping for details that would give the the rest of us a feeling of being there with you and feeling the magic, too.
That pair of well-worn shorts and the Goofy sneakup are good examples of what I was hoping people would do with these questions.
Any chance we could beg you to say more about some of what you mentioned? 'Cuz you left me going "Yeah? Yeah? Like what?"
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Last edited by Her Dotness; 03-22-2013 at 01:03 PM..
For me it was eating at the California Grill and having the CM tell my BF and I about the second balcony to watch the fireworks. We were the only ones out there. It was really romantic and a great way to get firework pictures without other spectators' heads in the picture.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. Jenn
For me the magic is the memories! I will never forget the character breakfast at the poly in 1985 when my son was 8 years & ate a complete plate of food while waiting on Goofy to come over. He didn't realize he had eaten & when we got ready to leave he said "but we haven't had breakfast yet!". That is the magic & IMHO everyone's magic will be different.
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For us, it's people. It's the looks on the faces of the little kids, the parents who are actually enjoying their kids, and there's the CMs we love, Tom our usual tour guide and Loukili, the server at 50's Prime Time we love. It's also the look on my kids' faces when they see a favorite character, ride a favorite ride, or eat a great meal: they're 15, 19, and 29 and they still get that "look".
Now, the one thing we always try to do: DDs will go and buy as many balloons as they can on our last day at WDW, and then run down Main Street USA giving them out to kids. THAT is what does it to me. Watching my girls give back just a little of the magic they feel is spectacular.
Every trip it's different but it's always the little things. On my last trip, it was walking through AK and being tapped on the shoulder. When I turned around, I was surprised to see Goofy walking by me.
Now, the one thing we always try to do: DDs will go and buy as many balloons as they can on our last day at WDW, and then run down Main Street USA giving them out to kids. THAT is what does it to me. Watching my girls give back just a little of the magic they feel is spectacular.
Loved this, Teresa. What a beautiful way to pass along some magic!
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
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Now, the one thing we always try to do: DDs will go and buy as many balloons as they can on our last day at WDW, and then run down Main Street USA giving them out to kids. THAT is what does it to me. Watching my girls give back just a little of the magic they feel is spectacular.
On our last trip, in '09, DGF gave away several Disney Pins to various young kids (always with their parents' permission, of course).
One little girl and her family were waiting in line next to us for dinner one night, and it came up that she was celebrating her birthday - so, out come several of DGF's "spares", and after clearing it with her mom, DGF told her to choose one to keep as a birthday present.
Another time I witnessed, a girl of maybe 8 or 9 was having a very sad moment. I don't know why, and she wasn't being bratty, just ... clearly unhappy, unmagical, and sad. So, again after clearing it with her parents, DGF offered her a pin, hoping to cheer her up with a random act of kindness. And offered one to the girl's younger sister (4-ish, I think), so that noone would feel left out.
Those aren't MY magical moments - but DGF really felt good about being generous, and hopefully those girls and their families count the encounters as magical moments. (Karma paid off later, too, as she later was given one of the special, from-a-CM-only Tinkerbell/Fairy Dust pins. )
...
In fact, DGF is already planning ahead, to look for opportunities to be generous to youngsters on our next trip, for no reason other than "Magic shared is Magic multiplied"; we're buying some pin lots ahead of time, and she's already figuring to give eight or ten of them away (she's bought about sixty already, so even ten won't be much of a dent, ha!).
My magic is a trip around the resort loop on the monorail, a visit to the Poly and the Contemporary (and hopefully a meal at Chef Mickey's and O'hana), the Mexico pavilion, a visit with Peter Pan (hopefully a chance encounter with no line to wait in, which has happened on three different trips), the Winnie the Pooh ride (don't even know why, but that spot is full of that magic feeling for me) and now that I have a little one...ANYTHING that makes his face light up, which is, well, EVERYTHING
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Wish I could be part of that world...
Last edited by scillarella; 03-22-2013 at 06:46 PM..
The first few notes of Wishes give me goose bumps...and looking into my DH's eyes to see tears when he watched our DD's delight as she first saw Ariel as she approached us in the DL parade - PRICELESS!
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Both events made lasting memories, that still bring a smile to my face to think of them. 
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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