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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Unfortunately, it has been three long years since I last visited WDW. Much to my dismay, as I have read through some posts, it seems that Mousekeeping has discontinued leaving the occasional towel animal. Is this true? Please "say it ain't so!"
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Goofin' Around - 7 Decades with Mickey and Friends
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In my experience it's true. Although my understanding is that it was never something that all mousekeepers did but something that some took the time and made the effort to learn and do.
The only place I have experienced consistent towel creations is on the Disney ships and even then, it's not guaranteed.
Guests at the WDW Resort are experiencing offers to opt out of daily mousekeeping in lieu of gift cards, which minimizes the opportunities for towel creations even more.
We got a different one nearly every day of our stay at WL three years ago.
We were told our mousekeeper had just finished training and must have learned to make several there.
We got a Mickey, a crab, a centipede, a butterfly and--the very best one--an alligator on the floor beside the bed when we returned to the room one afternoon. That one was placed so that it seemed ready to attack.
Needless to say, that mousekeeper got a note saying how much we'd enjoyed the towelies along with a much larger departure day tip than usual.
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We got a different one nearly every day of our stay at WL three years ago.
We were told our mousekeeper had just finished training and must have learned to make several there.
We got a Mickey, a crab, a centipede, a butterfly and--the very best one--an alligator on the floor beside the bed when we returned to the room one afternoon. That one was placed so that it seemed ready to attack.
Needless to say, that mousekeeper got a note saying how much we'd enjoyed the towelies along with a much larger departure day tip than usual.
Wow! The alligator one would have been fun!
I guess I didn't notice until you brought it up, but it has been ages since we had proper towel animals. We usually get a Mickey head & ears shape on the bed on arrival day, but nothing after that. On the Disney Dream this year we did get a different animal each day, and they were really elaborate - but one was an extremely large and weird orang-u-tan that was hanging up from a clothes hanger in the middle of the room one day, frightened the life out of us as we walked in!
At Port Orleans French Quarter this year we got a Mickey head & ears shape in a coloured strand of beads, which was cute, but that only appeared on arrival day. Then on day 2 there was a rolled up towel with my spare Mickey ears stood up on top of it, (I usually take at least 2 pairs of ears with me), and that proved really useful as I just kept swapping them out with the pair I was wearing each day and stored the others on the head-shaped towel!
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Silvercat
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I've worked housekeeping (not at Disney but at another resort) and towel animals take time to not only master but do. When you have a limited amount of time and a large number of rooms to do, you don't always have the time to do towel animals. Add into the equation that the Disney resorts are running near capacity most of the year these days and the housekeepers just don't have the time to get to the towel animals. I know it seems like a small thing, but those towel animals can take 5-10 minutes to make depending on how big/complex they are. That's 5-10 minutes they are taking away from another room. Also Disney is reducing staffing, which means more rooms per housekeeper.
Thanks to everyone for your responses! Sad that towel lies are no longer the norm, but at least I won't get my hopes up! I am taking my SO on a birthday trip in 3 days and was hoping for a little extra magic! Oh well. There's still plenty of Magic to go around! ºOº
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Goofin' Around - 7 Decades with Mickey and Friends
I think another issue is that people would read about towel animals online, and then expect to get them, and get mad and complain when they didn't get them, when they were only meant to be a bonus, if the housekeeper had the time and knew how to do them.
I have to be honest - I don't remember what, if any, towels animals we got last year when we went but I do know more often than not my daughter's plush friends were rearranged in different ways when we came back at night.
I have to be honest - I don't remember what, if any, towels animals we got last year when we went but I do know more often than not my daughter's plush friends were rearranged in different ways when we came back at night.
This is a sweet gesture, too!
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"Disneyland has that thing - the imagination and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid."
--Walt Disney
We stay at a value and normally there is the three towel Mickey head on one of the beds. I think it's been a couple of years since we got a washcloth bunny or similar, but the housekeeper usually puts one of our stuffed items on the bed when they make it up, which is nice. I appreciate having a clean room and don't fault them for not doing extras, since they seem to be having to do more with fewer staff.
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