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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Where can I find a price for this? I am hoping that I can take my daughter on a trip to California next year to show her where Mom grew up. She loves Fantasmic at WDW and I read someones trip report that this sounded like a great way to see Fantasmic. Thanks
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The first edition of Passporter Disneyland Resort and Southern California Attractions shows a price of $56.00. It has a limited seating of 21 people. Price may have creaped up a little, but that gives you a ball park figure.
i'm thinking it's close (or the same) as a 1 day ticket, which is currently $63 (it's definitely at least $59).
ultimately it depends on the size of your party. the balcony is good for a special occasion and it is sort of centered (depending on where you get seated), but it's also very far away. most people wouldn't recommend it if there's a 2nd showing of F!. i wouldn't recommend it for a first seating either since they make you watch the fireworks from there as well and it just seems like a relatively poor spot.
there's also alternative seating by the river (by HM I believe), which actually gives you a price break on children as well.
and although there's no dessert buffet included, as part of the VIP tour which is a minimum of $300, you can get reserved seats for F! on the second balcony which for my money is a better view.
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If you are going to fork out the outrages amount of $$ make sure you do the balcony seating. The buffet is a diabetic coma, they also offer fruit and cheese trays. Also its first come first serve so, when making your reservations make sure it is exactly the day that will be one month ahead and call at 8am sharp. Is it all worth the price? One time, yes. Will I do it again? No, I would prefer to do other things during Fantasmic like all those rides you can't get on during the day time because everybody and their brother is there.
it's actually always been a bit of a mystery how balcony seating is done. bottom line is this, the order in which you call does matter to some extent, but ultimately it's up to a CM who arranges the seating which I guess in part depends on how large each of the groups is. it is assigned seating though.
riverside is true first come first serve as you need to check in that night to choose your own seats.
^^ I disagree totally. The order in which you call if vital for the balcony seating. If you want to be in the front row next to the railing, it is definately first call, first seated. We learned this when we had balcony seating in Feb 06. Because we were the first to call the morning we made ressies we were seated first, front row. After we had checked in a CM saught us out to tell us we were the first to call and we would be seated first. We asked how she knew that and she showed us a reservations list that had all the times in which people called. So calling at 8am sharp, exactly one month to the night of reservation paid off for us. Its still way to expensive.
Here's somemore of my 2 cents on Fantasmic. Like I said in my other post the dessert buffet is a diabetic coma. On our last trip we had a party of four, myself and my BGF split some expenses. I paid for Medieval Times one night (which is a way better deal for the price) and she paid for balcony seating for Fantasmic one night. At that time both shows cost about the same amount. I was worried being a diabetic would be a waste of her money. Fortunate for me they had fruit and cheese. But there is no way I will pay that kind of money to see Fantasmic again that way. There are other places to watch this show without the extra expense. You can always bring your own dessert.
it's actually always been a bit of a mystery how balcony seating is done. bottom line is this, the order in which you call does matter to some extent, but ultimately it's up to a CM who arranges the seating which I guess in part depends on how large each of the groups is. it is assigned seating though.
riverside is true first come first serve as you need to check in that night to choose your own seats.
We did the riverside seating in 2005 and even though we arrived 1 hr. early per the cm who helped me get the tickets....IMHO it was a tad late. We weren't on the front row but on the second row. We still had good seats, but I would have liked to be on the front row. From what I remember, the names were called according to when they checked in. Also the dessert buffet was WONDERFUL!
On choosing your own seats...from what we experienced that night...when the cm calls your name and shows you the dessert buffet, they then lead you to the area of seats they want you to choose from. If you check in towards the end....you won't have much of a choice in seats and I heard MANY people who were complaining about the money they spent on the seats that were at the very back. Really if you don't check in early...IMHO you aren't really choosing your own seats because you get whats left.
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Last edited by eff051102; 06-13-2007 at 12:05 PM..
you can disagree, but it's true. it's subject to be changed based on the groups and the CM handling the seating. not only have i seen extensive discussions on it, but i've done it twice and was first caller both times. first time, i was front row center, second time i was 'front' but all the way to the side and ended up watching the entire performance standing up. so it's not consistent.
the reality is, being front and center was pretty bad anyway simply because it was such an issue getting up and going back to the buffet during the performance.
My disagreement was based on our experience because that is what happened. I liked the front row, I didn't have to look around heads, getting up and back to the buffet table was not a problem for us.
Now I am second-guessing our plans to do the F! buffet. We have never done it, but for our party of six, we're talking over $300. We usually grab a seat during the second showing, front and center. I just thought it might be nice to try the dessert buffet and a viewing from the balcony.
Does anyone happen to have a photo from the balcony?
I was thinking of booking this for our family of 4 in August,it will be our first trip to DL. We have been to WDW 7 times and have seen Fantasmic at MGM about 3 times. Is there any difference in the shows in DL and WDW? We are only at the park 2 nights (staying at Grand californian) so Im wondering if our time could be better spent, especially if there is not more difference in the DL and WDW show.
Thanks for any help with this.
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MAZZY PREVIOUS TRIPS WDW Dolphin: MAY 1999, SEPT 2003, CHRISTMAS/NEW YEAR 2005/6 WDW Port Orleans: Riverside NOV 2000, French Quarter APRIL 2005 and OCT 2006 Polynesian Resort: February 2007 Disneyland Paris: SEPT 1999, JAN 2002 and MAY 2006 UPCOMING TRIPS AUGUST 2007 - BIG TRIP - Touring Cailfornia then over to The Dolphin at WDW CHRISTMAS/NEW YEAR 2007 - Dolphin Resort then Cruisin' on the Disney Wonder
Mazzy, IMO, the Disneyland Fantasmic! is so much better than MGM's! The Peter Pan sequence alone is outstanding! While the theater in MGM can be more comfortable, the seating in New Orleans' Square at Disneyland is more intimate and the whole show at DL seems to come out of nowhere. During the day it's a theme park, at night, an extravaganza emerges seemingly from nowhere! We're still not sure about the F! Dessert Buffet, though. I'm thinking we might use the money on another tour instead of the dessert buffet, and just see the second viewing of Fantasmic! instead.
the whole second half at F! is different between WDW and DLR, but it's also a very different experience in that as mentioned, the park is the theatre. it's far more intimate.
i have plenty of photos from both balconies, but they're all zoomed to an extent so it won't accurately portray how far back you are.
I posted a longer message on the Feasting page, but I was just notified yesterday by Disney Vacation Planning that they have suspended the Fantasmic Dessert viewing on the balcony "indefinitely." We had already requested tickets for this, having done it once before, for this June. We were offered the "premium" seating instead for the same price. But you have to line up at least an hour before they seat anyone with these reserved seats to assure you get toward the front of the 50 seats, and you are given a boxed dessert. I'm not sure we will still do the F! dessert now. By the way, the tickets are $59 for folks over 10.
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