How were the crowds at IOA/US this March? Anyone go? - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
How were the crowds at IOA/US this March? Anyone go?
Hello!
we are planning our first trip to Universal for mid-March, 2012 which is our (Ontario , Canada) spring break. We'll be driving through to Sanibel Island so we'll be at Universal for the weekend. Planning to stay on-site now after reading other's experiences, but really wondering what to expect crowd-wise. We have been fortunate to have been many times to WDW and always go in the slower seasons so I know that crowds are going to be a big shock to us but someone just posted that they just returned from WDW and found the crowds were less than they were expecting. Dare I hope that March at IOA is not going to be wall-to-wall people??
If you are staying onsite, you shouldn't have too much problems with crowds. Your room key allows you "front of the line" access to the rides. I was just there last weekend for a cheer comp, and even with the zillions of cheerleaders around, the park wasn't too bad. If you are there midweek, it shouldn't be as crowded as the weekend, either. Mornings are quieter in those parks, too.
__________________
First trip DW--Nov. 1975; Senior Class Trip DW--Oct. 1979; First trip w/kids--Oct. 1995; Halloween at DW--Oct. 2002; Spring Break at DW--April 2004; Christmas/Pop Warner Nationals-POR--Dec. 2005;Cruisin'--April 2008; Mom/Son trip-POP--March 2010;Taggin' along w/DD on DH's conference-BWI--Oct. 2011; 50th birthday with the Gartner Geeks--Adults only!--BWI--Oct. 2012; The Trip That Almost Wasn't--BWI--Oct. 2013; We climbed The Summit (National Cheer Competition)--ASMovies--May 2014
I was there on March 27 and the crowds were pretty much non-existant except for the HP area which was mobbed - 90 minute waits for most rides in that area throughout the day. US was pretty much empty - 5-10 minute waits for even the most popular rides.
We also travel during slow times, but this year we could only go during Spring Break. I knew it would be crowded, but I was quite surprised at the level. We were there Mar 16th (a Wed). It was miserably crowded! We arrived at IOA at park opening and went right to HP. We managed to do 2 of the rides there (Journey and Dragons) without much trouble, but by the time we made it back out to the rest of the park, the waits were 90 mins+ for just about everything. Fortunately, my children(15 & 13) don't mind doing the single rider line, which were the only rides we did. I felt like I was being herded the whole day-it was almost too crowded to walk. It was so awful that my DD and I left early and came back to pick up DH & DS.
We were at DHS the day before(a Tu). It was crowded there too, but Disney did such a better job handling it. We were able to do everything we wanted there and not be frantic. It was a much more pleasant experience than IOA. I would definitely recommend staying onsite.
Wow - Wed the 16th being busy sounds about right - that was right in the middle of our March break, so lots of the mob were probably Canadians. Hope they were polite!
We have re-jigged our plans and will be arrivinig on the Thursday evening pre- break so it sounds like we should head into IOA and do Harry Potter on the Friday morning and hopefully get that out of the way before most people arrive on the weekend. I am assuming that the majority of people will keep their kids in school until Friday afternoon and then fly south.
All in all - was it worth it, though? It looks so cool.
I think I am right that everyone who stays on sight gets an early hour admission to the parks too, which should help. I am not an early bird by nature but for fun stuff, I can do it and I'll be the boys will jump up no problem when I whisper "Harry Potter" in their ears...
Hey Judi--I was in USO/IOA on the 27th! Although I was in the Fear Factor venue most of the afternoon watching the kids cheer...
Harry Potter is always crowded. On Friday (25th) we had to get a return ticket just to get into HP world. Thank goodness for single riders lines, because we didn't wait that long for FJ.
__________________
First trip DW--Nov. 1975; Senior Class Trip DW--Oct. 1979; First trip w/kids--Oct. 1995; Halloween at DW--Oct. 2002; Spring Break at DW--April 2004; Christmas/Pop Warner Nationals-POR--Dec. 2005;Cruisin'--April 2008; Mom/Son trip-POP--March 2010;Taggin' along w/DD on DH's conference-BWI--Oct. 2011; 50th birthday with the Gartner Geeks--Adults only!--BWI--Oct. 2012; The Trip That Almost Wasn't--BWI--Oct. 2013; We climbed The Summit (National Cheer Competition)--ASMovies--May 2014
Wishes - the return ticket is something new for me...is that something they use when crowd levels are high? I am imagining that they stop letting people into the area and give them a ticket that allows them to return after a certain hour, right?
But then they would still have to wait in line for the rides....wow. I guess we'll get prepared for a lot of standing in line.
Thx
I was surprised they were giving out return tickets. And this was at 11:00 in the morning! HP World that day was packed. DH & I got a ticket to return about a half hour later. And yes, you have to then wait in line for the rides, butterbeer, and the shop! We found the single rider line for FJ to be a godsend. Also, if someone is not going on that ride, leave your bags with them, because there is also a line just to get a locker. DH & I went back later and just did the "castle tour", to walk through the queue & see what you miss going on the singles line.
__________________
First trip DW--Nov. 1975; Senior Class Trip DW--Oct. 1979; First trip w/kids--Oct. 1995; Halloween at DW--Oct. 2002; Spring Break at DW--April 2004; Christmas/Pop Warner Nationals-POR--Dec. 2005;Cruisin'--April 2008; Mom/Son trip-POP--March 2010;Taggin' along w/DD on DH's conference-BWI--Oct. 2011; 50th birthday with the Gartner Geeks--Adults only!--BWI--Oct. 2012; The Trip That Almost Wasn't--BWI--Oct. 2013; We climbed The Summit (National Cheer Competition)--ASMovies--May 2014
About This Page: 
Guess where we were headed??
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
! We arrived at IOA at park opening and went right to HP. We managed to do 2 of the rides there (Journey and Dragons) without much trouble, but by the time we made it back out to the rest of the park, the waits were 90 mins+ for just about everything. Fortunately, my children(15 & 13) don't mind doing the single rider line, which were the only rides we did. I felt like I was being herded the whole day-it was almost too crowded to walk. It was so awful that my DD and I left early and came back to pick up DH & DS.
Dacy
Hope they were polite!
Hybrid Mode
