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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Decided to do a PTR / TR in here simply because I plan on hopefully having a few PP meet-ups while I'm visiting friends and family in NY next week!
I'm originally from New York, and lived there until I was 15, when I moved down to Virginia. I grew up outside the city, though I lived on Long Island for the first 5 years of my life! I still have friends and family in and around NYC, so I try to get up there once a year, usually around this time of year.
We'll be staying in Queens, but will be going into the city at least one day, possibly more than that. The entire purpose of the trip is to see my best friend and her daughter Samantha (11), my Goddaughter. My best friend is Meri's godmother, so it's wonderful to get together with the four of us when we can, since we each play such important roles in each others lives.
Now, to give a fast bit of background - Meri and I fly standby almost everywhere. Mom is an airline retiree, and we use her benefits a LOT! But, flying standby (aka "space available" or "non-revenue") means that you only get on the plane if there's room after all of the paying passengers get on. If you pick your flights / days / times carefully, it's not an issue. But I tell you, I've been stranded in airports for up to 12 hours, trying to get out on a flight. So... it could get interesting is all I'm saying.
To get out of Memphis to New York, I have to connect in Chicago. Unfortunately, the flights to Chicago next Monday (when my friend's days off begin) look absolutely awful. The flights from Chicago to LaGuardia are all fine, but out of Memphis, yuck. Of course, what did I expect - hello, it's spring break here. Not wise planning on my part, and you'd think after 35 years of flying standby, I'd know that. Guess I got hit with the dippy-stick when planning this trip.
Bearing this in mind, we are going to attempt to get out on Sunday, and stay overnight with a friend of mine in Chicago. *fingers crossed*
I'm not particularly worried - we'll get out at SOME point, but I do hope it's earlier rather than later. It's not a whole lot of fun hanging out at the airport with an over-excited, over-tired 5 year old! Thank heavens for portable DVD players and iPods with Angry Birds loaded on there!
Oh, I guess you're wondering who I might meet up with! Well, my hope is to meet up with Princess Sharon and Dawn (DSteiny) for a pizza dinner one evening (though I'm not sure if Dawn will be able to make it, living a fair bit away)... and then I hope to meet up briefly with Meg (MCC0313) at the Disney Store!
Anyone else in NYC want to bump into me? LOL! Like I said, we'll likely only be in the city for a day, though it might be more than that. It's honestly just hard to say what my friend has in mind. Everything is just up in the air at this point. Once I have a firm plan in place, though, you all will be among the first to know!
I FINALLY started packing (I've been so busy, it's just not even funny). I've got some of Meri's stuff thrown in a suitcase. It's going to be cold up there, so I'm focusing on sweat suits, jeans and leggings, and long sleeves / sweaters. I need to remember to pack a hat and gloves for her - please someone be a dear and remind me of this some time between now and Saturday, ok? Thanks!
I haven't packed a thing for myself yet. But you'll see me in jeans, sweaters and sweat suits, no doubt!
I can't say this is a really exciting PTR / TR... it's just visiting family. But since there will be a couple of PPer meets, and since, shoot, it's the BIG APPLE, it should be pretty fun in parts, at least!
So, thanks in advance to anyone who comes along for the ride! I'm doing all my updates in red, since it IS the big apple (har har har). If that color gets annoying, let me know. Just thought it would be sort of funny, in a dorky way.
Now, the rough plan is this... subject to change all over the place...
Saturday - Work til 10pm at the restaurant (I'm supposed to close, meaning I won't get out til close to midnight, but I'm hoping to get out of that), then go home, finish packing, play online for a couple of hours, and then leave for the airport at 415am. Now, bear in mind that we "spring forward" overnight, so since I'm losing an hour anyway, I figure there's no point in going to sleep. We'll see if that changes.
Sunday - I'm hopeful we'll get on the 6am flight out of Chicago. We'll see. If not, there are 3 other flights. We will get out, it's just a matter of when. LOL! So you may see me on here, updating from the airport!! We'll overnight with my friend in Chicago, and if we get in early enough, maybe we'll do something interesting.
Monday - Gotta get to the airport at 7am (ew) for our flight. Then it's off to NYC! YAY! I'm pretty sure we'll just relax on Monday afternoon / evening. Samantha has school this week (we couldn't swing it to go during HER spring break, so this was the best we could do) so we'll see her when she gets back.
Tuesday/Wednesday - One of these days will be my "Manhattan" day. It's the only two days of the trip that I can see my Aunt Jan, since she goes out of town on Thursday morning. So it stands to reason that it will also be the day I see Princess Sharon, Dawn, Meg, and anyone else.
Thursday/Friday - No idea what we will do here. Likely just relax, maybe go to the mall (my friend loves to shop).
Saturday - Possibly another Manhattan day, or some other fun thing.
Sunday - I think this day we'll go see my family way way way way out on Long Island (nearly to the end of the island). Then we'll just relax otherwise.
Monday - We fly home. Maybe. If the flights cooperate. LOL. The flights out of NY look fine, the flights into Memphis... questionable. So we'll see... might be spending another night with my friend Mari in Chicago!
Sounds like a great little getaway! I LOVE NYC! Haven't had the chance to visit the new Disney Store yet - only a few hours away - bummed won't be able to make it out that day! Have a great time!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I'm SOOOOO jealous. I've been to NYC once and was smitten. I own an embarrassing amount of books & travel guides about NYC and my mom bought me the New York documentary DVD set that was on PBS years ago. Would I fit in your suitcase???
I heard back from my friend, and we will be in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon. We're picking up Samantha from school at 230pm and heading on down! YAY! I have no idea exactly where we'll be, but I'm pretty sure Times Square will be our destination. I mean, after all, hello... there's a Disney store there!
I threw some long sleeved shirts and some sweaters into my suitcase today. I need to get my laundry all done so I can really pack in full on Saturday. It looks like the weather will be in the 40's all week and sunny, but I know how the wind will whip down those city streets sometimes... so I'm packing heavy, and I can always unlayer as needed. I've got to remember to throw some of my cute scarves in there, too.
I wish I had time to get excited, but I'm just so busy between my two jobs that it's hard to really summon up any enthusiasm! *sigh* But I'll be plenty excited when the trip gets here, that's for sure!!
Be sure to pack warm clothes!!! I am in eastern CT and the wind is literally howling tonight..............waiting to see Toto fly my window any moment!!! It's suppose to be pretty cold for the next week I believe - at least cold for me 40's!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
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