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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Yes, I know - Christmas 2008? My wife and I have talked about doing Christmas at DisneyWorld some time, so I just figured why not next year. To that end I was hoping to draw from the wisdom of the board to find out about things like how far out can I book, best times, gotcha's and anything else you can share. We've always stayed at value and moderate resorts so I'm thinking with this being Christmas to go for it and stay at one of the hotels on the monorail by MK.
The 2008 rates should be out within the next month to month and a half. You can book a room only now and change it to a package when the rates are available.
I've never been at Christmas but would love to go sometime. However, I have a friend who lives in the area and is an AP. She said the best time to come is the first two weeks of Dec. Last year she went a couple of times during those two weeks and the FP lines were close and you could almost walk right on the rides. However, we have school aged DS and I haven't convienced myself to take them out of school
We also love to stay on the monorail. So far we have only stayed at the Contemporary but I'm looking at staying at the Poly for our next visit. When we can go without the kids I want to stay at GF
Christmas is such a beautiful time to be at the World! We have always had a wonderful time during Christmas week and the weeks prior.
It really is never too early to begin planning as well as getting your preferred resort booked (if you have a particular place you would like to stay). As Dana mentioned, the 2008 rates should be out within the next few weeks.
If are planning on going Christmas week, you will want to have your room booked as soon as possible to secure your favorite resort. Yes, it is very busy during that week. It truly is one of the busiest times to be at WDW, but if you heart is set on celebrating Christmas Day there, it is also a very exciting time to be there! If you have the right expectation (that it will be crowded) and a plan, you will have a great time.
If you simply want to be there during the Christmas season, the weeks leading up to Christmas are a lot less crowded (and you will find better rates at the resorts).
Some of the wonderful things offered during Christmas season are the Candlelight Processional & Christmas Stories from Around the World (both at Epcot), Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party (at Magic Kingdom), Spectacle of Lights (at MGM), and a few other neat shows and parades.
Wilderness Lodge is a favorite resort among my clients at Christmas time. My husband and I also stayed there Christmas 2004 and had a wonderful time. It truly feels like you are staying in a beautiful lodge in the middle of the woods. When it was busy in the parks, we spent our time walking the pathway up to Fort Wilderness and exploring the grounds.
The monorail resorts (GF, Poly and CR) are beautiful and they make it really easy to enjoy the festivities of the MK. The GF is spendy, but it is all decked out in Christmas finery - plus they have a huge ginger bread house in the lobby where you can purchase fresh made ginger bread!
I used to work at the Poly and was surprised at how nice it was doing "Christmas in the Tropics". The nice thing about the Poly is that no matter how crowded or busy it may seem in the parks, it always seems very calm and relaxed (except of course during 3-5pm when so many are checking in).
The Contemporary recently had rooms remodeled and it is also very beautiful during Christmas. One of the things I really appreciate about CR is that if the monorail line is super long, you can simply take a short walk back to the resort. The remodeled rooms are very nice as well.
You're going to love the Christmas season at WDW. There is so much to see and do at that time of year and WDW is truly at its most magical. My fave resort to stay in at Christmas time is Wilderness Lodge mainly because everything about it just screams Christmas. The GF is also fabulous at Christmas. As far as time frame is concerned, I recommend any time from just after Thanksgiving to about the middle of December. It's been my experience that crowd levels are very low during that time frame.
Joy
__________________
1968 - Disneyland
1976 - Offsite
1984 - Offsite
February, 2003 - All Star Music
August, 2003 - Animal Kingdom Lodge & Wilderness Lodge
December,2003 - Wilderness Lodge
December, 2004 - Beach Club Villas
August, 2005 - Port Orleans, French Quarter
November/December, 2005 - Old Key West
July/August, 2006 - Disneyland Hotel
January, 2007 - Boardwalk Villas
Wondering if anyone can comment on Thanksgiving and crowds and travel. We're thinking about going earlier to be there for Thanksgiving now but figured we'd stay long enough to avoid the "Thanksgiving Travel" issues.
We spent last Thanksgiving at WDW and stayed until the following Tuesday. I was going expecting MAJOR crowds but found it pretty manageable. We did avoid MK on Thanksgiving, we enjoyed MGM that day and capped off the evening with Osbourne Festival of Lights. It definitely was not as busy as Christmas week.
That being said, if you can swing it, I would go sometime after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.
danielle
__________________
~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
I stayed at WDW during Thanksgiving week in 2005 and was very surprised at the crowd levels. I had expected them to be much denser than they were - they were quite manageable. We did stay away from MK on Thanksgiving Day.
Joy
__________________
1968 - Disneyland
1976 - Offsite
1984 - Offsite
February, 2003 - All Star Music
August, 2003 - Animal Kingdom Lodge & Wilderness Lodge
December,2003 - Wilderness Lodge
December, 2004 - Beach Club Villas
August, 2005 - Port Orleans, French Quarter
November/December, 2005 - Old Key West
July/August, 2006 - Disneyland Hotel
January, 2007 - Boardwalk Villas
Location: Exported from Morgantown, WV to Shreveport, LA
Posts: 4,104
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 0
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
DBF and I are also planning on going around that time in 2008 (Dec. 13th-20th), so I'll be interested to see what everyone says. We're taking our honeymoon/friends coming with us/meeting with people we know from the message board trip.
I will tell you what's on the top of my list - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!
I am so happy you posted this. We are thinking about planning a Christmas trip to WDW. From what I have heard/read/seen, it is so beautiful there then. Good luck planning your trip.
Read all about this forum here as it can help you with ivory research reviews so others wll like to know what can be used in the long-run. Just keep reading this as that will be of a huge assistance for the rest of the community in need that is about to explore such details.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
