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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
So here I am, up in what is basically the middle of the night (at least for me) because my son Alexander keeps waking up. I've spent a lot of time tonight sitting in the rocking chair in his room, using my iPhone. I absolutely LOVE my iPhone (I got it two weeks ago for my birthday) and I was wondering if there were any fellow iPhone lovers out there.
Why do I love my iPhone? It reminds me of the evening more than 15 years ago when I discovered the chat room/IMs on AOL. With AOL, I realized I had the power to connect to other people at any time. It was an amazing feeling. My iPhone feel similar, only now I have the power to connect to the Internet at any time. Sure, I have a laptop with wi-fi, but it's cumbersome to use anywhere other than a desk or table. And Dave has a PDA with wi-fi access, but its web browser is severely limited. On the iPhone, I see the web the way I see it on my desktop computer, only smaller (of course). It's just SO easy to use. It's so small I can carry it in my pocket around the house. It's so comfortable to use and hold. In days bygone, I could spend hours on end at my computer. But as a mom, I can't -- and the ability to check in and keep in touch whenever is a REAL help to me.
Now I can check the boards (including make posts and access admin functions), work on our photo archive, e-mail anybody, look up stuff in Google (one of my favorite things to do), watch videos, listen to music, etc. etc. .. all from my iPhone.
The cell phone feature is cool, too -- when I get a call from someone in my contacts list, it pops up with a big photo of them on the screen! And the voice mail feature is extremely convenient -- nothing like my old cell phone which used to drink me bonkers and I'd never bother to check my voice mail. I don't use my cell phone much at home, however, so it's really secondary to the Internet features of the iPhone.
And, of course, the iPhone is a very nifty iPod, too. I never bothered to get an iPod before, so it's fun to use that feature of my iPhone. I have a bunch of my classical and Disney CDs on it now. I picked up an inexpensive iPod clock radio (iHome), and now I can listen to the music of my choice in the evening while my iPhone recharges.
I could just go on and on about how amazing this little device is. I thought it would be cool -- I've been using Apple products since 1988 (all the PassPorter books have been created with a Mac) -- but I didn't expect to fall in love with it.
Here are some of the things I've been able to do with it so far that would have been impossible or very unlikely before (based on what tools I had):
* Get fast, turn-by-turn directions to the cider mill when I got lost driving around with Alexander
* Reach out to Allie via text messages whenever I feel like it (I suppose I had the ability to text on my old cell phone, but what a drag -- it's SO EASY on the iPhone and it keeps the messages all threaded so it's easy to see what was said previously). I think Allie and I have exchanged over 200 text messages so far!
* Read high-priority e-mails as soon as they arrive, even if I'm not at my computer or on my laptop (I set up a forward function for certain e-mails so I'd get them on my iPhone)
* Watch Weird Al Yankovich videos on YouTube in the bathroom ... while Alexander takes a bath! LOL! Oh, Alexander and I watched some DCL videos on YouTube the other night, too.
* E-mail tech support when there's a problem or question, meaning I can get the e-mail out faster in some cases.
* Search Google whenever I have a question about something. Yesterday I looked up castor oil while sitting in a restaurant (always wondered why people used it) and the translation of "Buca di Beppo" ("Joe's Basement") while driving home in the car. I love that I can do it when the fancy strikes, because I often I forget by the time I get back to my computer.
* Take impromptu photos of Alexander and send them to Allie's cell phone. I didn't have a camera cell phone before, so this is new for me. Also, having the camera on the iPhone means I take more photos as I don't always have my camera on me. Here's a photo I took of Alexander yesterday at Greenfield Village:
The list goes continues. I've had other "gadgets" -- I had the first Apple PDA (the Newton), a MagicLink, a Palm PDA -- but none of those things approach the functionality of this little black tablet.
Oh, and it fits in my PassHolder Pouch! Believe it or not, I can even fit it into the very small pocket on the back I usually hold my FastPasses in (though I put it in the big velcro pocket instead). I should note that I didn't get a rubber case for my iPhone as I couldn't slide it in and out of my PassHolder Pouch -- instead, I got a black Agent 18 hard case which is working very well.
I have a friend who just got one, and I've got iPhone envy!!!
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Boogie down!!! __________________________________________________ ______ "Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending." from The Muppet Movie
DH and I were just talking about them; probably about the time you were up with Alexander (sorry about his not feeling well; that's stinkawith!). Another one of the very cool commercials came up, and we were discussing that they were pretty cool, and they do use our service provider and they're not THAT expensive... I may have to show him your post, might be what I need to turn the iPhone corner!
Glad you are enjoying your iPhone! My nephew who runs his own business was showing me his recently and it really does look incredible. It allows him to work from practically anywhere.
Sounds wonderful, Jennifer. It's amazing to me how fast technology has evolved. Congrats on the new purchase!
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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and they're not THAT expensive... I may have to show him your post, might be what I need to turn the iPhone corner!
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