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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Hello all, my husband and I are leaving in a couple weeks to serve in Peace Corps South Africa for 27 months. When we get back in 2014, we want to do a blowout Christmas time trip to the World with my mom. We're thinking 2 weeks total with the first 7 nights at AKL (my favorite!).
We want to spend the second 7 nights at a monorail -- or possibly an Epcot -- resort. I've never stayed at any of them. Sell me on either the Poly or Contemporary (or an Epcot resort), please!
Also, has anyone done a partial concierge stay at AKL. I'd like to take my husband on the sunrise safari, but I'm not sure I want to pay for a week of concierge.
Lastly, if we do a 14 night trip, an AP (usually) automatically becomes our best deal, trumping any free dining etc., is that right?
Hello all, my husband and I are leaving in a couple weeks to serve in Peace Corps South Africa for 27 months. When we get back in 2014, we want to do a blowout Christmas time trip to the World with my mom. We're thinking 2 weeks total with the first 7 nights at AKL (my favorite!).
We want to spend the second 7 nights at a monorail -- or possibly an Epcot -- resort. I've never stayed at any of them. Sell me on either the Poly or Contemporary (or an Epcot resort), please!
Also, has anyone done a partial concierge stay at AKL. I'd like to take my husband on the sunrise safari, but I'm not sure I want to pay for a week of concierge.
Lastly, if we do a 14 night trip, an AP (usually) automatically becomes our best deal, trumping any free dining etc., is that right?
Looking forward to your suggestions...
Monorail/Epcot- I've stayed at Poly & BC. Love them both. You can't go wrong with either. CR doesn't do anything for me- just personal taste with theming. I prefer the tropical, beautiful grounds of Poly, watching wishes on the beach, and the dining options there. Also, great transportation options at Poly with boat or monorail to and from MK, and walking path to TTC for Epcot monorail.
BC is also wonderful, rooms are bright, lobby beautiful, and you can't beat the walk to Epcot or DHS. Also boat option to DHS.
AKL- Yes, we've booked a split stay at AKL for August, 6 nights pool view room and 6 nights CL level. It's 2 separate reservations, with 2 separate deposits. I've had them linked.
For us (2 people) yes, AP discount(or any room discount) is cheaper then free dining, staying at a Deluxe resort. It's even cheaper taking the AP room discount and paying for the DDP as an add on, called AP + Dine package. I've had them price it out both ways.
We have stayed at Polynesian, Contemporary, Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk. All are wonderful and have their own reasons for being a good choice. If I had to make a decision (as hard as it would be), Beach Club would be my top choice. It is in a perfect location; walking distance to Epcot, boat to DHS, stroll over to the Boardwalk area. In addition it has Stormalong Bay (which can't be beat), and the rooms are nicely decorated. My second choice would probably be Polynesian. We love the extra large rooms and bathrooms, and the grounds are beautiful. It's also so convenient to be on the monorail. And watching Wishes from the beach is such a treat! Definitely a difficult choice. I think for us it would come down to how much would we want to use the pool (Beach Club and Stormalong Bay if that will be a selling point) or if we would want the fun factor of the monorail (Polynesian).
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I think my favorite Epcot area resort is the Beach Club. You can't beat the pool and the easy access to Epcot and the rest of the Epcot area resorts--it puts dining at the Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Swan and Dolphin at your fingertips--as well as all those World Showcase restaurants. I picked the Beach Club because some of the rooms at the Boardwalk are a really long walk from anywhere--in fact some of the rooms in the Villas are closer to the Studios than Epcot. The Yacht Club has a much more formal feel to it and I prefer a laid back vacation.
I don't have a favorite monorail resort, although I do like the Contemporary and the fact that you can walk to the Magic Kingdom. My favorite MK area resort is actually the Wilderness Lodge. I just love the lobby and the boat ride to the MK.
Our favourite is the Beach Club, although we've also enjoyed our stays at Bay Lake Tower. I'd think about which parks you plan on visiting the most before deciding whether to go for a monorail or Epcot resort.
As far as concierge goes, we stayed for two nights to do the Sunrise Safari and had another few nights non-concierge at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Sure, it was more moving around, but it worked for us.
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Enjoy your planning!!!! This sounds like a wonderful reward for your hard work.
We've done a Christmastime split stay between the AKL/CR and another between the AKL/Poly. We enjoyed both - but for our family - the CR wins, hands down. Especially at Christmas, if you are doing MVMCP, it's wonderful to be able to walk over to the Magic Kingdom, then hop the monorail back to its first stop when you are tired, and scoot right back to your room. The rooms are large, much larger than those at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it's a nice way to end your vacation.
We've never stayed at an Epcot resort - which seems silly, since that's my husband's favorite park. He is just not at all attracted to the theming here. One thing to consider is that Epcot closes earlier than Magic Kingdom most nights during the Christmas season.
Good luck with your choice! By the way - the Sunrise Safari is amazing. We've done it twice, with wonderful results both times. We didn't split our AKL stay however, since both trips were split stays with the monorail resort.
My all time favorite is AKL! I love the atmosphere and the decor. I think the suggestion to stay a night or 2 there for the safari is a good one. Then you could experience one of the other resorts. The Poly is beautiful and the convenience of the monorail can't be beat. We sat on the beach and watched the Electric Water Pageant and Wishes! One of our favorite TS is Kona Cafe and a must-do every trip. DH really loves the BW. He's an early riser (4am) and enjoyed walking on the boardwalk while waiting for the Bakery to open. Our family does hop over to the boardwalk every trip to see the street performers. Also, the ability to take the ferry to HS and EPCOT is a plus.
Out of all of them I like BC the best. I like GF for a monorail resort but we could never justify the expense to stay there so our experince is from just visiting.
I love the Poly. The rooms are large, the landscaping is beautiful, you can watch "wishes" from the beach, great restaurants on site, and 24 hour dole whips. If you're going to be there for Christmas, there's a possibility that it might be a little cold for the pool, which for me, makes it a better choice than BC or YC since the main attraction there would be Stormalong Bay.
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You have received lots of good advice and views!
My favorite resort is AKL!
I have done a 3 night stay at club level at AKL and then moved to a room at Kidani Village for the last 3 nights. I loved my stay at CL and wish I could have done it for the whole time!! Definitely do the Sunrise Safari!! I thoroughly enjoyed the safari and I want to do it again!!!
My favorite Epcot resort is Beach Club! The pool is wonderful!! The resort is beautiful and has a very laid back feeling - a relaxed feel! The beds and pillows were the best I have ever slept on while at WDW!
I have only ever stayed at one resort on the monorail line. The Poly. We absolutely love the Poly!!! Such a warm, tropical, relaxed feel!!! One of my favorite things to do is to watch Wishes from the beach of the Poly!!!
I want to wish you the very best on your journey with the Peace Corps!
Happy planning!
We've stayed at BC and Poly. Depending on the time of the year I'd choose one or another. In warmer weather I'd stick with BC - SAB is great and you'd have a great pool time there, besides walking to World Show Case for a evening treat is perfect. In the other hand Poly had the most perfect view of Cinderela Castle....You can't go wrong.
Have you considered WL? We love AKL and WL end up with the second in line. Boat ride to MK and Cont (and from there monorail to other resorts). We've stayed there with my mother and she loved it. It has a relaxing atmosphere.
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We've done AKL, Poly, GF, WL, BWI - all concierge. Also stayed non-concierge at all, plus BLT.
In order:
MK monorail: Poly, hands down. Then - BLT, GF
EPCOT - well, we've only stayed at BWI, but we've stayed there so many times we lost count at 12 or 13. We love it. Yes, it doesn't have the pool, but we're not really those people who say "Hey, we're in WDW. Let's go swim!" We're those people who say "Hey, we're in WDW. Let's go to the parks. We can swim at home."
Thanks for all the feedback! I was never really blown away by the theming at any of the Epcot resorts, but since it's Perry's favorite park I'll look into the Beach Club as so many of you recommend it. Contemporary might be my second choice because of the accessibility to MK and MVMCP. Thanks for the WL suggestion, but I'm not sure why, I just did not care for that resort. I half expected it to be a favorite but it didn't "work" fo me.
If we pick the Contemporary, has anyone stayed on the spa floor? Thoughts? --NEVERMIND. I just found out that Disney nixed the plans for the health and wellness floor at the Contemporary.
What would be great is if WDW offers the buy some, get one or two nights free thing again when we return!
I don't have any great wisdom to impart here but I just love the Poly! I've never stayed at an Epcot resort although I'd like to stay at the Yc or BC simply so that I could walk to Epcot. The Poly is so convenient to both MK and Epcot. You can go by water launch or monorail to the MK. To Epcot, I usually walk to the TTC and then take the monorail.
How exciting about your Peace Corp time. Awesome opportunity! Good luck and have a fantastic trip when you return.
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