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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Lenny will be happy to hear this. Last vacation he kept saying they should do it like the FP+ Me, I'm not so happy. I like the piece of paper because let's face it, I need a visual reminder.
Interesting. I wonder if your DAS return times will show up in MDE like Fastpasses do. I'm also curious if they will somehow digitize the wheelchair return time.
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Interesting. I wonder if your DAS return times will show up in MDE like Fastpasses do. I'm also curious if they will somehow digitize the wheelchair return time.
My understanding is the return times will show in MDE, but you will not be able to change them like you can a FP+. Wheelchair return times should also be digital. The California parks have had a similar system in place (minus MDE) for several months now -- no paper just electronically attached to guests' tickets.
My understanding is the return times will show in MDE, but you will not be able to change them like you can a FP+. Wheelchair return times should also be digital. The California parks have had a similar system in place (minus MDE) for several months now -- no paper just electronically attached to guests' tickets.
My understanding is the return times will show in MDE,
This is the part I don't like about it. We won't take our iPads into the park and we only have "dumb" phones - old flip phones that only do calls and texting. So while Disney may think they're making it easier for people with disabilities, for those of us that aren't into technology, it's actually making it a little bit harder. Yes, I know we could use an in park kiosk but every time I've seen the lines, they're absolutely ridiculous and I don't intend on "losing" park time by waiting in that line.
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... We won't take our iPads into the park and we only have "dumb" phones. ...
I wouldn't worry about iPads/phones/etc. A simple pen and paper to jot down the return time, and you basically have the current "low-tech" DAS. Since the times can't be scheduled or changed through MDE, only viewed, there is no need to use technology -- other than your MagicBands or tickets which you'll have anyway. I understand preferring to have things written on a piece of paper; cell phone screens are way too small for me to be comfortable using for much.
This is the part I don't like about it. We won't take our iPads into the park and we only have "dumb" phones - old flip phones that only do calls and texting. So while Disney may think they're making it easier for people with disabilities, for those of us that aren't into technology, it's actually making it a little bit harder. Yes, I know we could use an in park kiosk but every time I've seen the lines, they're absolutely ridiculous and I don't intend on "losing" park time by waiting in that line.
Darlene, going on what lanejudy suggested, maybe taking a 3x5 index card to the park each day would help. You could write the attraction and time down just like the CMs do now and treat it like you did your DAS card.
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We've been to WDW on 4 long trips using Fastpass Plus. We did screen captures on our phones to take a picture of our Fastpass times first thing in the day and again if we changed any. I know people who did the same thing with their camera.
From what I have heard about how it works at DL, you will be able to see it on the CM's iPad and could take a picture of it then.
I will add that Disney did not do this at DL or now at WDW to make it easier for guests with disabilities from what I have heard (although there were people posting on various sites that they hoped it would happen). It should make things more consistent, which should help everyone.
From what I have read, one of the bigger reasons was there was still a considerable amount of abuse taking place. It was more at DL than at WDW, but included things like people getting 2 or more DAS so they could 'double dip' and get more DAS times. People also were writing in their own DAS times until Disney got stampers to make it harder to fake times
(And, yes , people were posting both of those as 'hints' within a few weeks of DAS being introduced).
I think one of the last straws was people were actually stealing stamps from what I have read on CM websites.
I will add that Disney did not do this at DL or now at WDW to make it easier for guests with disabilities
I said easier but I meant it in the terms of not standing out to other guests with showing a piece of paper which was my understanding of going from paper to digital. I didn't know people were once again finding ways of abusing it.
Regardless of why they're doing it, I just think people with disabilities will stick out even more. At least before, we only had to show a piece of paper. From what I read, with the new digital format, we get in the FP line, scan our MB and then get a blue light instead of a green one. Then we have to wait for the CM to go to the computer to see if the DAS holder is even there and whatever else they have to do. We'll probably have to do it at the second point too and IMO that makes us more obvious to other people and will make people wonder why we're being allowed to ride when we're getting a blue light instead of a green light.
I said easier but I meant it in the terms of not standing out to other guests with showing a piece of paper which was my understanding of going from paper to digital. I didn't know people were once again finding ways of abusing it.
Regardless of why they're doing it, I just think people with disabilities will stick out even more. At least before, we only had to show a piece of paper. From what I read, with the new digital format, we get in the FP line, scan our MB and then get a blue light instead of a green one. Then we have to wait for the CM to go to the computer to see if the DAS holder is even there and whatever else they have to do. We'll probably have to do it at the second point too and IMO that makes us more obvious to other people and will make people wonder why we're being allowed to ride when we're getting a blue light instead of a green light.
The screen is right there at the first Fastpass Plus scanner. We have used Fastpass Plus and DAS for 4 long trips and have seen the screens. For Fastpass, they display the name of the Person whose Magicband is being read. There is more info on there too, including things like what times your Fastpasses are for.
The color is not confirmed, although some blogs have reported blue as 'fact'.
From what I have read (again, rumor, not fact) the DAS holder will need to scan their Magicband first. It will glow blue for them to tell the CM to look at the screen. That will allow the rest of the group linked to the DAS holder to show up for the Return Time. From what I have read, it sounds like the DAS holder will get blue, but the rest of the group will get green lights when they scan.
Personally, even if it is a blue light in place of a green one, I think it will be less noticeable than showing the DAS. People are used to seeing the blue light come up when guests are entering the park; a CM takes care of it and resolves it. So, I don't think most other guests will even notice and, if they do, it will be the few next people in line and they will likely just think it's another thing the CM had to resolve.
The DAS Card had to be handed or shown to the CM, the CM had to look at the front to check the picture, had to look at the Return Time and then it got crossed off. We tried to be pretty unobtrusive using it, but unless there was no one near us, I don't think we ever used it without someone noticing in a very curious way.
We never had anything said to us, but I know from reading other forums and talking to others using DAS that many were asked what it was and how to get one.
IMHO, having it on Magicbands will be noticed less.
Darlene, I think you're giving people on vacation at DW most likely with young kids in tow too much credit for paying attention to what's going on around them & what other people are doing & caring about it. However, given your situation I think most (read everyone who doesn't know personally or from these boards) that saw the three of you would tend to assume whatever special/different thing is going on is because of Lenny being in a scooter & not because of Abby & actually if I even noticed anything at all I'd probably assume you were asking a question. I would know differently but only because I know from these boards that Abby is somewhere on the Autism spectrum & you get the DAS for her & not Lenny. It's easy to feel like you're the center of attention even though you're not when there's something about you or someone you're with that's different or requires accommodation or assistance. On the other hand I freely admit to having a thick skin & not caring what people I don't know think about me.
I wouldn't worry about the blue light. All guests get the blue light if they show up a few minutes early or late to a FP+ reservation. The CM will just look at their computer screen and let you through. When you get to the next point to scan, the color will be green. (I only know this because we got our FP+ mixed up when we couldn't remember the order of ours and we couldn't log onto MDE. It was quick and no big deal)
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