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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I'm not sure if this even qualifies as a trip nor if it needs a trip report but it involves copious amounts of travel to well know places and to new horizons and has a direct impact on my Disney vacations for the next 3-4 years so I decided it qualifies.
We are a Scottish family currently living in France near Paris mainly for my job. I am Hazel 46 husband Graeme 49 kids Gemma 19, Peter 15 and Rory 10. When we moved to Paris we rented out our house in Aberdeen Scotland and moved over lock stock and barrel to Paris. We have found out our next move is to Brisbane in Queensland Australia and we can only take 600kg with us. So we need to move our furniture and personal stuff back to our house in Scotland before we can move to Australia. We have also needed to buy a flat in Scotland for Gemma. So over the next 3-4 months we have land and air journeys totalling over 15000 miles, 3 house moves and 2 new schools on 2 different continents, so I think it if I treat this as a life change it will overwhelm me so I am instead going to treat it as a trip and report it as a trip that way it becomes exciting and relaxing (lol nice try)
Our first move is on the 20-24th June when we relocated from Paris to Crossgates in fife just outside of my spiritual home Edinburgh. The next big event is the 27th of June when we get the keys to Gemma's new flat and have to furnish that ( Ikea anyone). The next big date is the 12th July when I have a 25 year university reunion and then the big move to Australia the 15th July. We arrive without a house, have a month to lease one then are given a furniture and car budget by my work so lots of exciting things to report.
Brisbane itself is a beautiful place I have been going since 2012. I am most looking forward to dinner in beautiful restaurants I have used for business with family and maybe even with friends if any of mine make the trip.
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Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 05-05-2014 at 06:58 AM..
I'm so glad you're going to do a TR for your moves, Hazel! I can't even imagine planning for all these changes and love the idea of treating all the moving around as "trips". Doesn't mean your head won't still feel like it's exploding with all the details to arrange, but it sounds to me like you're on top of it all. It's too bad you'll have so little time to enjoy your new house in Scotland, but nice to know it'll be waiting for you when you can visit and then when your stint in Australia is over. Gemma must be excited about setting up her apartment! I know in Paris you are living in a company-provided house, but it sounds like in Brisbane they are giving you an allowance and then it's up to you to find a place. I hope that process won't be too hard.
I'm so glad you're going to do a TR for your moves, Hazel! I can't even imagine planning for all these changes and love the idea of treating all the moving around as "trips". Doesn't mean your head won't still feel like it's exploding with all the details to arrange, but it sounds to me like you're on top of it all. It's too bad you'll have so little time to enjoy your new house in Scotland, but nice to know it'll be waiting for you when you can visit and then when your stint in Australia is over. Gemma must be excited about setting up her apartment! I know in Paris you are living in a company-provided house, but it sounds like in Brisbane they are giving you an allowance and then it's up to you to find a place. I hope that process won't be too hard.
Thanks Laurie. I have deliberately spent enough time at the new house that the initial extreme excitement has worn off a little so it doesn't break my heart to leave it. Graeme will be back frequently anyway for Peters school holidays so at least we will be using it.
gemma is beside herself I'm not sure we will see much of her once she gets her place set up.
The next few months should be very exciting! I have been to Sydney and Melbourne but have not made it up to Queensland yet. My brother-in-law and his family live in Melbourne and they love it there! Australia is so beautiful and I have heard nothing but great things about Queensland. Looking forward to following along!
Hazel, I am eagerly reading along with your TR!
I do hope you will be up for a meet as my family is moving across Australia to relocate in Brisbane too! I understand all too well the pressures of moving across the country (we lived in Sydney before coming to Perth and I grew up in Brisbane all those years ago) but your logistics are so much more involved! Best wishes for your countdown and I hope Gemma enjoys the new flat. Such an exciting time.
Hazel, I am eagerly reading along with your TR!
I do hope you will be up for a meet as my family is moving across Australia to relocate in Brisbane too! I understand all too well the pressures of moving across the country (we lived in Sydney before coming to Perth and I grew up in Brisbane all those years ago) but your logistics are so much more involved! Best wishes for your countdown and I hope Gemma enjoys the new flat. Such an exciting time.
Of course no self respecting adventure can happen without a few issues and when we started on this journey we had two big ones.
Firstly when we moved to Paris in 2011 we thought we were moving for 5 years. This had been agreed with management due to my son Peter's age 5 years allowed him to finish school and be ready to start University. However in that time management changed and so did the companies needs.
Firstly anticipating 2 more years in Paris and then a move abroad we decided to do something we have (or mostly I have) wanted to do for many years. I wanted to sell our house in Aberdeen and buy a new house 100 miles further south near Edinburgh in the area I grew up in. Last July we found the house we wanted a brand new house being built by a developer. We had at that time been looking for almost a year and this was the first time we had found one we wanted. Ironically the week before we found the house we wanted we had signed another 6 months rental lease on our own house so we wouldn't be able to sell it for another 6 months. The developer had two of the houses 1 for sale in the December and a second one for sale the following March we offered on the second as it had a South facing corner plot so a nicer garden and the timing seemed better. We were actually in Florida in 2013 when the legal deal was done for the purchase. At the same time we gave 4 months notice to our tenants to leave our house as the official date to leave was the 1st of January we thought it better to give them longer notice than the legal minimum. In the October they asked if they could leave early we said yes as long as they allowed us to market the house now to which they agreed so we managed to get the house on the market in October 3 months earlier than anticipated. It sold while I was on a business trip to Brisbane and the possibility of moving to Brisbane was first floated. I saw this as a massive problem as they were looking for someone to start in February and we wouldn't have a house to move our furniture into and putting furniture into storage would also be difficult as we couldn't move into the house when ready as we would be in Australia. However the job hadn't been created yet so I left it with a wait and see what happens philosophy. The job came up in November and the manager organising it didn't go thorough proper channels he just announced to management it was happening and I started in January. Luckily he upset my entire management chain with this and they came and asked me what I thought so I could tell em January was a problem due to the house situation and also due to Peter having exam is in May. My old management informed my new management that moves happen in the summer and January was never mentioned again. So by November the old house was sold, the new house was progressing and the job was sorted.
The second issue was Peters education. He has two years left to finish school the most important two years of his schooling. He also wants to go to university in Scotland. We thought about educating him in Australia but it was difficult. Brisbane doesn't have any real international schools, the school year in Australia runs January to December so he would either have to skip 6 months or repeat 6 months. Additionally he would finish school in the December so would need to start University the next year meaning he effectively would lose two years. Also Scottish universities didn't like the idea of taking him with Australian qualifications and worse announced they would consider him an international student. So I started to consider boarding schools in Scotland. At first I wasn't really serious. In January gemma and myself went to visit a famous one in
Edinburgh and we both loved it. Later Peter went to visit it and he also really liked it. So that decision was made he is going to boarding school in Scotland but will either fly to Australia for the school holidays or his dad and brother will fly to Scotland and spend time at home with him.
So by January all the main issues were solved and all we had to do was get the keys to the new house and get it ready to move in and plan the big moves.
I remember all of that - and particularly when we saw you in December and you told us they'd just mentioned moving in January. That was just awful the way that was done and I'm glad it didn't happen.
What a mess with the way the January move was proposed at work-- must have given you a few heart-stopping moments when you were faced with the logistics of all that. No place to put your furniture and poor Peter's school schedule. Difficult enough that the original plan to have Peter finish school in France couldn't be accomplished. It seems it all worked out for the best, though.
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