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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We are booked for POFQ for 10/14-10/22/06.
But reading the responses to RogerRabit's post has me wondering- should we move our dates back to the first week of Oct?? I hadn't considered Fall Break. Are the crowds really that bad?
Would the crowds be better the first week of Oct (going 9/30-10/8)? We could still enjoy MNSSHP and Food and Wine Festival (two things we are really looking forward to) and it would be value season. But then we'd run into crowds for Columbus Day weekend I guess. Hmmmmm. Any advice for me? We really don't want to deal with huge crowds, but we don't want to go in Sept and miss the Oct festivities.
Thanks!
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I can't tell you about the crowds for the week that you are planning on going but we were there Oct. 1-9, 2005. The crowds at the beginning of the week weren't too bad at all but Friday and Saturday of Columbus Day weekend were VERY crowded.
One thing I do want to mention was the weather. It was VERY HOT AND HUMID and we had rain everyday. We didn't let it stop us but it did slow us down. If you wait a week or two into October the weather will most likely improve.
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One thing I do want to mention was the weather. It was VERY HOT AND HUMID and we had rain everyday. We didn't let it stop us but it did slow us down. If you wait a week or two into October the weather will most likely improve.
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We were there the same time period...but, if given the choice of going during a fall break or moving your dates a few weeks earlier...I would go the beginning of October. Even with the heat, and Columbus Day weekend it would be better than the crowds for fall break! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
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One thing I do want to mention was the weather. It was VERY HOT AND HUMID and we had rain everyday. We didn't let it stop us but it did slow us down. If you wait a week or two into October the weather will most likely improve.
A couple years ago we went the second week of October and couldn't understand where the crowds were coming from. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
Well little did we know about FALL Break in the South [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] until we asked a Cast Member what was going on. We don't have Fall Break here.
I think I'd go the week before..it got very crowded in the parks. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
GoodLuck with your plans.
<font color="red"> We went last year in October the 15-24 and it wasnt the humid till the last couple days, and honestly we didnt run into that many people, except at Soarin and Test Track in Epcot. We only waited in line (when i wasnt in the chair) for 20-40 minutes usually. I guess i must have been in some sort of WDW vortex where we were lucky, cos the whole trip was easy, until the flight out and Wilma was about to touch land, the turbulance lasted 2 hours on the plane. </font>
I had no idea that the south has Fall Break, we don't have that up north [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] I don't think the crowds will be too bad. We were there this past summer, when the crowds are supposed to be out of control, and it wasn't bad at all! The crowds at Six Flags Great Adventure are always way worse than what we experienced in Orlando. We walked right on to some of the most popular attractions, including the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Mickey's PhilharMagic, It's a Small World, the Tower of Terror, The Back Lot Express, the Great Movie Ride, Maelstrom, El Rio Del Tiempo, and Kilimanjaro Safari!
I've gone every October (usually the 3rd week) for many years and the crowds have always been manageable. I've always avoided Columbus Day weekend though
I don't know exactly when that Fall break falls, but if you can change your dates without much of a headache, I think I would. We went October 1-8 (2003) and the weather was perfect and the crowds were practically non-existent!
The other thing to keep in mind is that value season ends right as October begins. If you can check in before it ends, you'll get value season room rates for your entire trip.
We went in October of '03, right before Columbus weekend. It was the opening of Mission:Space and Mickey's PhilharMagic and we didn't feel that the parks were overly crowded.
It WAS hot and humid, but I don't think that the end of October is that much better.