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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Does anyone know when the new bands with the discs will go into use? Will the old bands still be good? I just got a custom band for my trip in January and really, really want to use it.
I hope they have the old ones for a while. We aren't going until March, and we've already customized ours. Plus, we bought some special stickers to fit the old ones. I don't care for the bigger style. With very small wrists, these aren't going to fit very well.
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I would suspect the old ones will still work. I can't imagine that Disney would still be issuing the old style if they were no longer working. Also customizing, simply means a color choice. That could easily be transferred to the new bands by Disney before shipping as long as the new bands are available in the same color choices.
The Magicband Collectors blog has a lot of good (reliable) information about the new magic bands. This link has a lot of details. You can also check his other blog entries over the last 2 days to see several pictures of the new bands.
Since they're not changing out all of the sensors at the entrances to the park, and the cash registers, and the zillion other places they use them, it's probably a safe bet to say they're the same radio technology, so the old ones should be fine for a long while now.
It's been about three years since MBs were introduced, and Disney is finally doing something that I expected from the beginning - they're coming up with additional RFID media for those who don't want to wear a wristband.
I didn't expect them to go to a removable icon that can be swapped from wristband to other media, I simply expected them to offer other media with permanent RFID chips embedded, as they are embedded in MagicBands. This removable icon idea is brilliant - it makes the icon holder an accessory, and reduces the number of RFID chips that Disney has to track. Each Guests gets one RFID icon, but can still buy multiple wristbands and other icon holders, and switch off as mood allows.
My bet is that the first and most popular icon holder you can buy instead of a wrist band will be a fob to clip onto your pin lanyard. They will probably start with Mickey heads in a variety of solid colors, then move on to pictorial fobs like custom MagicBands, and also introduce other shapes, such as Donald heads and Goofy heads.
I personally look forward to Star Wars themed lanyard fobs shaped like Stormtrooper and Darth Vader helmets, Death Stars, Imperial and Rebel Alliance insignia, and of course the Millennium Falcon.
I expect to eventually see other ways to carry icon fobs, as well, such as short chains for attachment to belts and purses, retractable ID badge reels with belt clips, and decorative charm bracelets/necklaces. There may also be icon holders introduced that hold multiple icons, allowing adults to easily carry young kids icons.
So, is this statement from the link allgiggles gave misinformation or just already outdated?
All bands will be sold with an Icon installed in them. You will not be able to buy empty straps. This defeats the idea that Disney was looking for a cheaper option, or that Disney was trying to lighten server loads.
This suggests to me that you initially must get the wristband with installed icon and then must buy another icon holder to put that icon into if you dislike the standard wristband.
Here's what I'm not fond of--
From my personal use today, I found the Icon very difficult to remove and reinstall back into a band. You need a tiny screwdriver and the fit is extremely tight. Popping these things in and out isn’t something you’ll be doing daily.
That is soooooo not good news for those of us with arthritic hands.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I expect to eventually see other ways to carry icon fobs, as well, such as short chains for attachment to belts and purses, retractable ID badge reels with belt clips, and decorative charm bracelets/necklaces. There may also be icon holders introduced that hold multiple icons, allowing adults to easily carry young kids icons.
Options like these will also be especially popular as an option for those Guests who, for cultural or religious reasons, cannot wear any "jewelry or adornments".
I spoke to a CM about the bands yesterday. She hadn't heard anything about them but was able to look some information up. They will be debuting during the D23 event and are expected to be released resort-wide sometime during 2017. She said that we will still be able to use our current MagicBands
Anybody know if the longlived rumor that sensors would eventually be made more sensitive might accompany this new development?
What I mean is that you'd only have to get the RFID chip within short range of the sensor and not so precisely in contact with it. Seems like I spend half my time positioning my MB so it makes contact.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
My only concern is the size of it. It's going to be huge on our 4 year old. I have tiny wrists too and figure it will cover my entire arm. But the non-flexible rectangular part of the old style mb fit my arm in an awkward kind of way anyhow - the rectangular part is as wide if not wider than my wrist - so who knows, maybe this will actually work better for me.
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