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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So I went to DLR for the first time june 2011. I was there for a conference being held at the Disneyland Hotel so we got a really good rate for the room. I have been to WDW 14 times and I have always been able to come out with some good discounts and a fairly affordable vacation with room, tickets, dining plan etc. My sister and I were discussing what we wanted to do next summer and she wants to go to Disneyland since she's never been before. I live in Virginia Beach, VA and airfare to CA is SUPER expensive. The Disney hotels at Disneyland seem to be pretty pricey as well. We we really would like to stay in one of the Disney hotels if we end up going as we really love staying within Disney property (even though i'm well aware that there are numerous Good Neighbor hotels nearby). Does anyone have advice for finding good discounts on any of the hotels (our dream is to stay in the GCH but I realize that may be far fetching a bit!) Does anyone have any advice on how to make the trip most affordable with airfare and room coming from the opposite coast or pretty far from CA? I really appreciate any advice. I'm in the early planning stages and trying to figure out what's gonna be the most affordable
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
MouseSavers.com does a great job of cataloging available discounts on Disney-owned and Good Neighbor hotels.
Airfares can depend very much on the airport. Considering where you are, you might have to travel to one of the major airports (BWI, Dulles, Reagan, Raleigh-Durham, etc.) for a better deal - unless there's substantial competition on the route (as you have out of DC), fares tend to stay high. They also tend to stay high until 2-3 months prior to the travel date. Still, this far out... I'd do a bit of experimenting. What you need to know is what fares are like if booked 3 months in advance, 6 weeks, 4 weeks, and maybe 3 weeks from the day you're doing your research. It'll at least give you an idea of when to start bargain-hunting in earnest next year.
I did a Kayak search on a trip a month from now, early in the week (end of week fares tend to be higher), departing from anywhere within 200 miles of Virginia Beach. I came up with $310 round trips to LAX from Reagan and Dulles, and about $370 from Newport News/Williamsburg. The nearest airport to you (Norfolk) had a fare over $800!
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Thank you so much Dave!! You never fail to respond with awesome info and things I tend to forget!!! I think flying out of a different airport is going to be the best bet for me since Norfolk is pretty expensive (bummer since I live 15 mins from it). I also get mousesavers newsletter so I will have to start paying close attention to each one!
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MouseSavers.com does a great job of cataloging available discounts on Disney-owned and Good Neighbor hotels.
Agreed.
I used to live in VA Beach and always found flying anywhere out of either Dulles or BWI was MUCH cheaper than flying out of Norfolk or even NN/Wburg. It's a pain to have to drive 3-4 hours to the airports but usually much cheaper.
Also, keep an eye on Southwest as you might luck out and be able to snag a cheap-ish flight out of ORF into LAX . . . it does happen occasionally!
As for the Disney hotel discounts, those are pretty few and far between at Disneyland but they do happen. Summer months are less likely to see discounts though but keep an eye on MouseSavers as it gets closer!
sunshinetaradise. If you want a short list of airline and hotel sites such as Kayak, Ortitz, Priceline, etc. that deal with such I can PM them to you to check their prices.
I did not "go into depth" but my list has
Airlines: 11
Hotels: 20
The lists are in alphabetical order but not setup to click on to retrieve. To get to their website most only require entering one word into the search engine and others two.
Thanks everyone..... I'm very familiar with all the sites for flights. I've been picky lately with what airline I go with. I'm in a wheelchair and I like flying southwest because they don't have assigned seating. This allows me to get right on the plane with my chair and I can transfer to the first seat. Those aisle chairs are no fun and takes twice as long to get in and out of my seat. Plus i am super independent so I feel much better getting to and from my seat myself.
I think flying to CA I'll be a little less picky to save as much money as possible.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Thanks for all the info. We are starting our planning for a trip to DLR next June. We also live on the east coast in Hpt. Va. Looks like the airfare is going to be pretty expensive for the 4 of us.
Check JetBlue fares out of the DC area! And keep checking. While we didn't have to fly as far, we scored some pretty sweet deals for JetBlue between Salt Lake City and Long Beach. Long Beach is actually closer to the DLR area than LAX and is a much smaller, much more manageable airport. Hop in a shuttle and be at the DLR in about 30 minutes!
Staying at Grand Californian is AWESOME! No way we could've afforded it without a military discount, though, and we are so thankful for that. However, and I know you mentioned June, but I do remember Disneyland featuring Spring discounts well into May and that was 35% off. Also, when it gets down to it, GC isn't terribly much more than Disneyland Hotel. If you go all that way and spend all that money, if you can squeak out just a few more $$$, you should try to stay where you really want to. And GC is just beautiful. The problem is that when we return to DLR, I don't know if we would want to stay anywhere else but GC.
Have fun planning!
Well, we are planning a trip in July 2013 & I splurged by renting DVC points. I usually can save 50-60% when doing this in WDW, but didn't save as much at DLR However, I know that I won't be disappointed with staying at GCV. Also, We won't be going back to CA for sometime (or maybe ever). This is a once in a lifetime opportunity & I am going to make the best of it! I used David's Vacation Rentals, which are a bit more expensive than using friends as we have in the past... This was to assure that I got what I wanted 11 months out with a GCV owner. The webiste to price this is: David's Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals
We are DVC so we have points. From what I can tell, the points are cheaper at the Grand Californian which is where we want to go anyway. There is so much to plan for this trip, I'm thinking I may need a travel agent to get the best deals.
I'm another one who is tentatively planning a trip to Disneyland with my family .....we are in Connecticut. It's tough to find good airline prices for us as well. I grew up in California, and still have family there, so we usually stay with them, but I REALLY would like to stay a couple of nights at a Disney Hotel just to get the whole experience. I'm not sure it will happen though. But if not, we will just stay with family and spend a few days at DLR. I am SO looking forward to it!
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Diana in CT Our Last visit to Disneyland: 6/26/13
Disneyland 1996 trip pics HERE
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Be aware that schools in SoCal let out for the summer in early June. And temps start getting into the 80's about that time. Generally the weekends will be the busiest at DLR.
I was at DL and DCA at the end of June the last trip there and I am a 14 time veteran of WDW. The crowds at DL didn't seem like anything compared to what I've experienced in WDW. I'm used to the heat as well. I live in Virginia Beach where most of the days during the summer are in the 90's with 90% humidity. I would take the 80's or even 90's in CA with very low humidity over east coast heat any day!
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However, I know that I won't be disappointed with staying at GCV. Also, We won't be going back to CA for sometime (or maybe ever). This is a once in a lifetime opportunity & I am going to make the best of it! I used David's Vacation Rentals, which are a bit more expensive than using friends as we have in the past... This was to assure that I got what I wanted 11 months out with a GCV owner. The webiste to price this is: 
.....we are in Connecticut. It's tough to find good airline prices for us as well. I grew up in California, and still have family there, so we usually stay with them, but I REALLY would like to stay a couple of nights at a Disney Hotel just to get the whole experience. I'm not sure it will happen though. But if not, we will just stay with family and spend a few days at DLR. I am SO looking forward to it!
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