Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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02-22-2006, 05:59 PM
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#1
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Community Rank: Scout 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Lansing, Michigan
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 4,890
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Detroit Zoo Closing!
I suppose that this is the best place to post this (If you live in the area, you may want to go to this zoo before it's too late):
From the Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Zoo closing is under way, and many different officials are
saying different things.
The City Council said it is not ready to hand over control of the zoo;
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said the city cannot afford to keep the zoo;
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said that the metro park
system could handle the zoo; and zoo officials say something needs to
be done fast, Local 4 reported.
Though deadlines have passed, the city is moving ahead with the
process, and has put together a shutdown plan.
Wednesday, the director of the Detroit Zoo will receive a call from
the city Human Resources Department, advising zoo officials to enact
the shutdown plan.
The plan is written out in stages:
Stage one
# Layoffs will include administrative staff and guest services.
Stage two
# Layoffs will include seasonal staff, gardeners and zookeepers.
Stage three
# Layoffs will include remaining zookeepers and the animals will be moved.
Stage four
# Layoffs will include zookeepers and veterinarians.
The entire shutdown process could take about 12 months.
Zoo officials are going back to the state to see if they can receive
aid, Local 4 reported.
If the zoo begins to lay off employees, it can call them back, but
once the animals are moved, the process will be harder to stop,
according to the station's reports.
The zoo will remain open to the public through May 1, 2006.
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02-22-2006, 07:00 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Kissimmee, Fl
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 25,061
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
Oh, no how sad [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I saw a special on the polar bear exhibit they have and have wanted to visit it, guess I won't be able to now [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
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02-22-2006, 07:12 PM
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#3
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Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio Football Hall Of Fame
Posts: 42,304
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
That is really a shame. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
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02-22-2006, 07:22 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Kissimmee, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 10,481
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
The Zoo will get bought out....I honestly don't think it is going to close. If it does there are going to be ALOT of very upset people (myself included). I am just so upset about this whole thing I really don't now what to say. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img][img]/ubb/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img][img]/ubb/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
Detroit is an embarrisment to MICHIGAN!!! Can we give Detroit to Ohio? I know they wanted the city at one point! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
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02-22-2006, 10:06 PM
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#5
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Ann Arbor, MI USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 14,427
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
This really is more politics and posturing than anything else. The zoo will eventually be run as a free-standing cultural institution. Similar things have happened all over the country with formerly city-run cultural institutions, public radio stations and the like. The mayor is applying a lot of pressure on the council by sending out layoff notices and describing the closing plan, and the council clearly resents the pressure being applied.
The fact is, the zoo is a regional resource, and as long as it remains city-owned, it isn't going to get the kind of funding that can be possible when the broader region realizes it needs to support it. Southeast Michigan has a great regional parks system (MetroParks), so we do know how to get this kind of thing done.
I think the mayor is right. The zoo will find the $5 million the city currently contributes to the zoo's budget, but the city can really put that money to better use elsewhere.
The City Council seems to be more interested in trying to keep an honored city institution from being "stolen" by the suburbs (that have been thriving as the city slowly dies) than in fiscal responsibility. It may be a feel good issue for city residents, but as long as it's the "Detroit Zoo" (and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon), folks will soon forget who's footing the bill, and Detroit will still get plenty of good press for being its home (well, actually, Royal Oak is its home, but nobody's going to rename it the Royal Oak Zoo.)
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02-22-2006, 11:21 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Concierge Level: 1
Posts: 9,564
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
I've visited there several times and really had a good time. I hope it can stay open, I plan a few more trips to MI and I hope to go back there too!
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02-23-2006, 04:42 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Southampton, U.K.
Posts: 8,125
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
I hope it does stay open, it's a great zoo! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
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02-23-2006, 08:32 AM
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#8
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 27,691
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
Oh, it's one of the only zoos (besides the Milwaukee Zoo) that I've been to!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
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02-23-2006, 10:50 AM
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#9
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Posts: 13,817
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
That's a shame. I saw that on the news last night (our US channels are out of Detroit).
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02-23-2006, 01:53 PM
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#10
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 239
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
We hope it doesn't close too! The city counsil just needs to grow up and realize what they would be doing to a lot of people by trying to close the zoo. We REALLY do not need any more unemployed people in Michigan.
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02-23-2006, 02:44 PM
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#11
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Facebook Addict
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Philadelphia
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 39,682
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Re: Detroit Zoo Closing!
It would be a shame to see the zoo close down. I hope the bureaucrats can work it out.
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