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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Last week we stayed at AKL. It was our fourth stay. I was behind the lodge building viewing one of the savannahs. Two men were next to me talking. One guy said, "if you stay here the giraffes come up to your balcony and you can feed them." Me being the Disney know-it-all that I am said, "They can't come to the balconies because of that barrier." and I showed them the barriers. So the guy said, "they must have just added that because years ago you could feed them." Oh well. So I laughingly posted about it on my Facebook page and my friend said the guy was right because her son stayed at AKL once and the giraffes ate muffins left on their balcony. Now I just can't believe that happened, but maybe it did. Can the giraffes reach the balconies enough to eat food left there? I would think Disney is smart enough to make sure that doesn't happen because it would be so dangerous for the animals as well as the liability that an animal could reach a guest! Help me out here!
I can't imagine it is real. They do it in the commercial, but I can't imagine it was ever a reality. Too much of a liability. Can't wait to see if someone said it really happened.
Very unlikely that that ever happened. First of all, even without the barriers, I think that the balconies are too high for a giraffe to reach. I agree that if a muffin ever went missing, it was likely taken by a bird.
I agree with everyone else. There is no way they would allow this.
I love hearing people say stuff like that and I just think "yeah no"
I was on a bus a few weeks ago and the guy across from me was saying he wishes he could stay at a monorail resort so he could take the monorail to all the parks and not have to use the bus. ::smh::
I stayed there in May of 2002, which I believe is shortly after they opened...the barriers are in the exact same spot-I just stayed there in February. I think that guy was being silly
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5/02 AKL*8/09 POR*10/10 ASMu*8/11 Pop*2/12 ASMu*8/12 POFQ*2/13 ASM*8/13 CB *4/14 AoA*8/14 AKL*8/15 CS*2/16 Disney Magic*8/16 Split stay! POR/BC*2/17 Disney Fantasy & OKW*8/17 Poly/AKL*1/18 ASMu*8/18 SS/?? split stay!
Just someone who thinks he knows something and doesn't want to be made to look silly. We stayed at AK in 2003, and the barriers were already there. Disney is very concerned about the animals as well as guests so I really can't imagine that happening.
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I agree that it never happened for three reasons. (in no particular order) 1) the safety of the giraffes (they spook very easily - learned this when I briefly volunteered at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle Woodland Park Zoo actually puts them in a barn night because of it) 2) the health of the giraffes (zoo's including Animal Kingdom) feed their animals diets that meet that animal's needs) & human food isn't good for them 3) human safety
I agree that it never happened for three reasons. (in no particular order) 1) the safety of the giraffes (they spook very easily - learned this when I briefly volunteered at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle Woodland Park Zoo actually puts them in a barn night because of it) 2) the health of the giraffes (zoo's including Animal Kingdom) feed their animals diets that meet that animal's needs) & human food isn't good for them 3) human safety
Yes, yes and yes! I stayed there in 2003, which was about a little over year after it opened and there were barriers. There's NO WAY that Disney would allow any of that to happen...for the animal's or the guest's sake.
Anyone who's never been to a Disney park wouldn't know how extremely cautious Disney is about safety. This story sounds like it could have happened--balcony, food left out, giraffe--to the point that it would be believable to anyone who doesn't know Disney protocol as we PassPorters do. Especially the stuff of legend that "years ago you could feed them."
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I stayed there in 2003, which was about a little over year after it opened and there were barriers. There's NO WAY that Disney would allow any of that to happen...for the animal's or the guest's sake.
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