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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So, yesterday at work(I work in a restaurant), I looked out the window and saw a guy in the first handicapped spot getting a wheelchair out of his SUV. I didn't think anything of it just thought it was for a passenger. Next time I looked up he was in the restaurant up at our bakery section IN the wheelchair acting like he was paralyzed(legs together not moving them). It was a custom wheelchair too not one of those hospital type ones. Then I watched as he wheeled himself out and when he got back to his car he hopped out of the wheelchair, loaded it, and then paced around the car talking on his phone. The distance from his car to inside the restaurant is maybe 30 feet. He took as many steps loading his wheelchair and pacing while on the phone. I know some people have hidden medical problems but this looked really fishy. I have never seen that before in my life.
That does sound a little strange. I know my DDad has bad knees and will use a cane just in case one of them gives out but he is able to walk without the cane (and will occasionally forget it and leave it hanging on a shopping cart) I'd like to think he just had a problem that you couldn't see, rather than he was trying to get something special because of a handicap. But, who knows?
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Well, if he is faking it, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to do so.
I'd think it would be easier to park further away and just get out and walk in a store. Having to lift a wheelchair out of a van every time you park?
I don't know what to think about this. It is strange.
When I was very ill, I had trouble walking even ten feet. I could walk, it just wore me out. I was on IV medication but am not sure non-medical people would have known what it was. I might have been able to pick up a light weight wheel chair and get it it but I wasn't allowed to drive.
I looked fine but both my PCP and specialist thought I should get a handicap tag. I didn't want one and worked very hard so I did not need one (or for very long)
I shared a receptionist/secretary who had injured her leg and it didn't heal properly. Some days she was fine and could lift, bend and walk. Other days it was extremely painful for her to even sit. My sister has handicapped tags becuase she has a child with cerebral palsy. She may be walking in to a building to get him but parked in handicapped space because she also needs to get him out of the building and back to the car.
My view is it is the responsibility of those who give out tags to determine who gets them and who doesn't.
I wonder if he was doing research --- not sure his age, though many go back or continue school well past the late teens and 20's. Or if it was some sort of gag (not funny). It just seems, as others mentioned, an awful lot of trouble to go though lugging out a wheelchair and putting it back in if it wasn't needed. I understand how many people look fine, but have conditions where they tire easily, however wheelchairs are not light, I'd like it'd be more tiring to lift the chair in and out of the car, than to just walk a bit further.
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~ Jenn **Disney is REAL LIFE Magic, so much more than optical illusions **
It does sound strange. Maybe he has an issue with personal space and using a wheelchair keeps people away from him. You know how some people are - they act like they can catch something if they get too close. My brothers wife has done it with Abby - once she found out Abby was Autistic, she stopped paying attention to Abby and their kids stopped playing with her
Have to chime in here. He probably was NOT faking. There are all sorts of hidden disabilities that make walking difficult, painful, or life-threatening. Just as you can't look at someone's unruly child and assume they do not have an issue like autism, you can't look at a person in a wheelchair and know they can really walk perfectly fine.
Maybe he has balance issues. Maybe walking around the car is okay, but the UNKNOWN length of a walk into a restaurant and to a table is not okay.
My father, when he was younger, looked perfectly fine except a slight limp. In reality, I can't tell you how many times we were told to 'say goodbye'. Cancer, cardiovascular issues (some hereditary), lungs burned by Agent Orange, wounds inflicted by snipers, and an artificial knee all combined to make it difficult for dad to walk far.
Take it from the granddaughter of a man with paralysis from polio, the daughter of the above man, and mother of a spinal cord injured girl (young woman) - what they would all prefer you do is to say "Hope I'm not being a pest, but just wondering, why are you in the chair?" Yes, it's nosy, but it's not judgmental.
Gotta disagree that it's ever acceptable for anyone but a young kid to ask such very personal questions as, "Why are you in the chair?"
Strangers' health concerns are simply none of your business unless you're attending an educational or charity event where a disease or disability is the focus.
People needing various assistive devices want to live as normal lives as they can. Answering nosy questions is not regarded as normal by well-mannered people.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I have vasculitis and I am capable of walking but it is extremely painful when I'm in flair. It is even worse standing so I never go anywhere that could potentially have a long line alone because I may not make it. There are many possibilities. I try not to assume the worst when I see things like that because there is no point in being angry about something when I don't have the whole story.
Gotta disagree that it's ever acceptable for anyone but a young kid to ask such very personal questions as, "Why are you in the chair?"
Strangers' health concerns are simply none of your business unless you're attending an educational or charity event where a disease or disability is the focus.
People needing various assistive devices want to live as normal lives as they can. Answering nosy questions is not regarded as normal by well-mannered people.
I would agree that other's health concerns aren't yours, but I'm standing by my assertion that it would be preferable to being judged and stared at. My grandfather, father, and daughter would always give very short answers that satisfied people's curiosity; "polio", "I was injured in the service", "I have a spinal cord injury, no it wasn't a car accident".
However, my original point was and still is: no-one can judge whether another person needs an adaptive device, other than trained medical personnel in a medical setting (I don't look at people in chairs in public and decide why they're in it). If you don't feel comfortable asking what led them to be in the chair/use the walker/use a cane/whatever, do not try to guess. Just assume the majority of people using chairs/adaptive devices/handicapped tags need them.
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