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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Now we all know that this was planned for the former Pleasure Island site, but it looks as if the Hyperion Wharf idea has gone and as for the improvements to the parking and transportation, I'm all in favour of that.
Disney has traditionally resisted using parking structures instead of surface lots, even though one is desperately needed at DTD. Somehow, I doubt this is more than just another spitball concept plan by the Imagineers. It looks nice, but I can't see Disney spending the money to do this when there is little hope for a massive return on the investment. Sure, more shopping, dining, and drinking options is always nice, but at some point, they're going to find the market too diluted for any of the individual places to be successful.
The best thing they could do is re-open the Adventurer's Club and charge admission to it for finite show periods; say, two or three shows a night at 2-3 hours each. Once it's established as a money-maker, they could open similar clubs with different themes in the former Pleasure Island. A Star Wars Cantina would make a fortune. Rick's Cafe American from Casablanca might be a success. An Old West Saloon would be popular. But the two things all of these would need to succeed are guest interaction, and immersive theming.
Merely providing places for Guests to dance or drink is not enough. There are plenty of those all over Orlando, most of which have cheaper booze than Pleasure Island ever had. Adventurer's Club was successful and popular not because it was a bar, but because it was interactive. The Guests didn't just watch the show at AC, they participated in it. The immersive theming supported the old Imagineering concept, the suspension of disbelief. Being able to do so with adult beverages in a more mature environment made AC unique at WDW. It was still Disney; it was just a grown-up version of Disney.
By comparison, most of the other clubs were just... bland. And any new shopping/dining/drinking venues built at WDW will be similarly bland, unless the Imagineers wake up and start desiging them as interactive Guest experiences, like they do with the theme parks.
The best thing they could do is re-open the Adventurer's Club and charge admission to it for finite show periods; say, two or three shows a night at 2-3 hours each. Once it's established as a money-maker, they could open similar clubs with different themes in the former Pleasure Island. A Star Wars Cantina would make a fortune. Rick's Cafe American from Casablanca might be a success. An Old West Saloon would be popular. But the two things all of these would need to succeed are guest interaction, and immersive theming.
That would be wonderful and something I'd love to see happen. I still miss that place.
Sounds interesting! I like the sound of turning Planet Hollywood into an Observatory- themed place. That would be a really cool building structure to re-imagine. I do wonder how the folks at Planet Hollywood feel about that kind of a change, though?? Was it not doing well? And, I can't help wonder if the Magic Your Way package will offer a discount and souvenir from an alternate eatery or the newly renovated "Obsevatory"?
...parking garage / structure sounds interesting ...but I guess it would be built on top of the surface lots. So ,...while construction is underway ....where would all of those lost spaces be 'made up" for to accommodate required parking. And ...would Disney really put a structure up that blocks the view of DtD from the adjoining roads?
and what about sink holes, is it safe to build a heavy structure here?
There are heavy structures all over Orlando. I don't think DTD is any more at risk than anyplace else. Universal has two huge garages, MCO has two plus the main terminal building, numerous hotels and convention centers exist all over Florida. Heck , the Contemporary A-Frame and Bay Lake Tower are two of the biggest, heaviest structures in WDW.
The Downtown Disney area alone has plenty of heavy structures nearby, all along Hotel Plaza Blvd.
There are heavy structures all over Orlando. I don't think DTD is any more at risk than anyplace else. Universal has two huge garages, MCO has two plus the main terminal building, numerous hotels and convention centers exist all over Florida. Heck , the Contemporary A-Frame and Bay Lake Tower are two of the biggest, heaviest structures in WDW.
The Downtown Disney area alone has plenty of heavy structures nearby, all along Hotel Plaza Blvd.
I don't see it as a problem.
......most residential construction doesn't need soil borings or geotechnical studies done in order to get a Building Permit for construction ....so people seldom know the soil conditions below their homes. However, most LARGE residential (multi-story) and commercial buildings do ...and they know the state of the soils below their buildings and take appropriate measures in design before they even put a shovel in the ground. Additionally, most if not all of the structures at WDW are likely built on pile supported foundations. Those piles can extend downwards of a hundred feet or more ...to ensure the structures don't settle or 'go anywhere' with soild shifting.
I forgot about those other big structures around WDW. I thought that was the case about the heavier building in Florida. Also I never thought of sink holes until recent new about them. My grandma used to live in Naples and all those years when visiting her I never heard about sink holes.
While permit applications aren't 100% proof of something being done, it does take this beyond "trial balloon." The difference? Testing public reaction involves no commitments. But if you'll be actively pitching the project to prospective tenants, you need to have your ducks in a row. In Florida, a groundwater/drainage permit is a very important duck.
The entire plan seems very plausible from a business standpoint. I think a big issue they've run into trying to redevelop Pleasure Island has been overall visitation levels. All any experienced mall retailer or restaurant has to do is count parking spaces to see what the maximum potential is likely to be for a given amount of retail, dining, and entertainment space. While guests arriving by bus and boat reduce the need for parking, on-property guest attendance is a known factor, not likely to change dramatically regardless of what they build. To expand substantially, they need to draw from the local area far more successfully than before. To do that, they have to offer much more than they've been offering - the kind of stores and restaurants that draw people to "regular" malls, and much greater parking convenience. If you've ever tried to park at DTD on a Friday or Saturday night during holiday seasons, you'd think twice before returning.
They may still not find enough prospective tenants to actually build the thing, but I think they stand a better chance with this than with the Hyperion Wharf concept.
To date, the Downtown Disney concept has focused on "distinctive" shopping, dining, and entertainment. While that's appropriate for out-of-town visitors (who don't need the stuff they can get back home), "distinctive" isn't quite enough to bring locals in on a regular basis. Locals are more likely to want staple items like jeans, shoes, electronics, bedding, appliances, etc., plus somewhat less expensive sit-down dining. Folks who can depend on a mall for their regular needs will be back far more often.
Now, I strongly doubt Disney wants tenants who cater to the low-to-moderately priced trade - no Old Navy, for instance. They also won't want to draw a lot of local teens. But that still leaves lots of potential tenants to call upon.
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I see that DTD here in DLR is somewhat better than the one in WDW. Plus it is at a walking distance right out side of the two major Disney hotels, CA and DL parks. When I went to DTD in WDW with my parents they were not really impress with it at all. I took my dad to the one here in DLR he was very impress with it and he is hard to impress. So yeah it need to have a relax environment for the older KIDS lol
Here's an interesting article I just found about the financing/building of the parking garage, and other infrastructure changes surrounding the DTD re-hab.
The Sentinel is being a bit hypocritical (or simply feeding the Orlando area's Disney-bashing sentiments). When Reedy Creek was originally set up, it was a huge supporter of the project, due to the benefits WDW would bring to the local economy. The same newspaper regularly (and approvingly) reports on the amount of money collected by Orange County in Tourist Development Tax (that's the 6% charged on top of the regular 6.5% sales tax on all hotel room/vacation home/timeshare/etc. rentals). As the article explains, all of that money goes to pay for projects like the Orlando Convention Center, the sports arena, downtown Orlando tourism projects, and the like. Combined, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties (the three counties in the WDW sphere of influence) collected over $216 million in tourism tax in 2012, none of which gets spent to "improve" tourism facilities on WDW property.
The article also made statements implying Disney would not be paying for the improvements, because Reedy Creek will be issuing tax-free bonds. Misleading, as Reedy Creek pays off those bonds with taxes collected from Disney and the non-Disney businesses on Reedy Creek property. The business advantages for Disney can't be denied - the article accurately states that it keeps this expenditure off the company's financial statements, and if they borrowed to pay for the construction, they'd pay a higher rate.
The Sentinel article also implied that 10% of the additional taxes Reedy Creek Improvement District will charge for the Downtown Disney project are coming out of regular people's pockets. Not really. There are about 100 residents of Reedy Creek between the City of Bay Lake and the City of Lake Buena Vista, all or nearly all in very low-value housing, which I'm fairly certain is rented, not owned. 99 44/100ths of that 10% will be paid by the hotels on Hotel Plaza Drive, the Swan, and Dolphin, and other non-Disney commercial properties. (I don't know if it's happened yet, but the new residents of the Golden Oak Homes are/will almost definitely not be residents of Reedy Creek - Disney did the same with the Town of Celebration. The Celebration property was reassigned from Reedy Creek/City of Bay Lake/City of Lake Buena Vista to Orange County, so that the people of Celebration wouldn't have a vote on what happened on WDW property.)
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