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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Final Thoughts: Pop Century: We had stayed here before- we loved it then and we love it now! We didn’t really spend anytime exploring the resort like we have in the past, but the trip was just too short. I really loved our room location; I’m not certain, but I think we were in a preferred room even though we paid for a standard. Everyone there was super nice, housekeeping did a great job everyday cleaning the room- we didn’t get any towel animals this trip surprisingly; in the past we’ve gotten them every day. Dillon didn’t even notice though… The food court is great and has good selections. Every morning we went to the food court 7ish and it was always empty. We did notice on departure day as we walked through around 9am that it was pretty packed, so I guess the key is to eat early. We ate dinner there each night also and it was never crowded either. I asked Dillon if he liked the All Stars or Pop better and he picked All Stars. When I asked why, he said because the All Stars had two rooms. I tried to explain to him that had nothing to do with the resort, but rather how many rooms I booked. But we both loved Pop, I recommend it highly, and would not hesitate to stay here in the future! Park Hopping: This was the first trip we park hopped. For this short trip, hopping was a necessity if we were going to hit up all our favorites. We are normally a one park per day family. Will we park hop in the future? I don’t know. I think for longer trips (a week or more) like we have taken in the past, it’s just not necessary (for us) to park hop; so most likely we will continue to get standard tickets in the future. Disney World in March: This was new for us. The weather temperature was awesome, very comparable to Thanksgiving. We did have rain all day Friday, but you can get a rain day any time of year. We had high’s in the low 70’s/high 60’s and lows in the 50’s. I thought it was perfect! Our trip was so short, I’m not sure we got a good feel for the crowd level, but it seemed minimal. Friday the parks were empty, but I’m sure the rain played a part in that. Saturday- the parks had moderate crowds during the day- but seemed ridiculous packed at night. The Flower and Garden Festival was beautiful. I wish we had more time to explore things like the butterfly garden. I wouldn’t hesitate to go in March again if the opportunity ever presents itself. Flying: We flew Delta as always for us. Even with the delays on both ends this trip, we really enjoy flying with Delta and will continue to do so (not that there is much choice, seeing as they have the market cornered out of Atlanta). Living in Georgia, we are close to WDW compared to many. Over our recent Thanksgiving trip, we drove and it took us just over 7 hours. For this trip we flew, I checked the kids out at 2:30 and it was nearly 9:30 when we were dropped off at Pop- that’s 7 hours. If I were going with just one kid again, I’d probably fly just out of preference. But this sealed the deal that all future family trips will likely be by van for cost purposes since the timing is equal. Is it worth it to go for the weekend? Absolutely! A few days at Disney World are better than none. Our one on one trip was priceless and we truly had a great time. I certainly don’t foresee taking the whole family for such a short time, but I wouldn’t hesitate to take a short trip in the future if it were just one or two of us. Looking to the future: After our family trip this past Thanksgiving- the plan was to return to Disney for Thanksgiving in 2011. Due to new circumstances there is a good chance that trip will not happen. It’s really up in the air and time will tell, but it will likely be 2012 before we make it back to the World. In the meantime, I will enjoy reading everyone else’s trip reports and look forward to returning eventually.
As far as the next 1/1 trip is concerned; Madilyn will turn 10 in November of this year- so that trip is in the making also. She wants to go on a cruise, so that will happen sometime in the next year.
In the process of researching for her trip, I came up with some ideas for the whole family. So don’t feel too sorry for us because the circumstances that may prevent us from returning in 2011 is the fact that we are booked to set sail on the Disney Wonder for a 7 night cruise to Alaska on May 31st, 2011! I’m very excited about this and I know we will have a fabulous time! Thanks to everyone for reading my trip report; I really enjoyed writing it!
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Great TR!!! Thanks so much for sharing with us! Sounds like you 2 had some great mom/son bonding time, and that's awesome! And the cruise sounds AWESOME!!! Can't wait to hear all about the details!
In the process of researching for her trip, I came up with some ideas for the whole family. So don’t feel too sorry for us because the circumstances that may prevent us from returning in 2011 is the fact that we are booked to set sail on the Disney Wonder for a 7 night cruise to Alaska on May 31st, 2011! I’m very excited about this and I know we will have a fabulous time!
WOW!!! I'm so excited for you!
Great ending! How exciting that you'll be going on an Alaskan cruise!!! I've always wanted to do that so I can't wait to hear all of the details when the time comes!
What a weird thing about the pilots just gone missing. Good thing there were back-ups.
How great you'll be cruising next year - that will be a great time!!
Great ending! I am glad you guys had such a great time! And that's awesome you get to go on a cruise on my favorite day of the year!! May 31st is my birthday . Thanks for sharing your journey with us!!
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! We didn’t really spend anytime exploring the resort like we have in the past, but the trip was just too short. I really loved our room location; I’m not certain, but I think we were in a preferred room even though we paid for a standard.
Everyone there was super nice, housekeeping did a great job everyday cleaning the room- we didn’t get any towel animals this trip surprisingly; in the past we’ve gotten them every day. Dillon didn’t even notice though… The food court is great and has good selections.
Every morning we went to the food court 7ish and it was always empty. We did notice on departure day as we walked through around 9am that it was pretty packed, so I guess the key is to eat early. We ate dinner there each night also and it was never crowded either. I asked Dillon if he liked the All Stars or Pop better and he picked All Stars. When I asked why, he said because the All Stars had two rooms.
I tried to explain to him that had nothing to do with the resort, but rather how many rooms I booked. But we both loved Pop, I recommend it highly, and would not hesitate to stay here in the future!
, but you can get a rain day any time of year. We had high’s in the low 70’s/high 60’s and lows in the 50’s. I thought it was perfect!
Our trip was so short, I’m not sure we got a good feel for the crowd level, but it seemed minimal. Friday the parks were empty, but I’m sure the rain played a part in that. Saturday- the parks had moderate crowds during the day- but seemed ridiculous packed at night. The Flower and Garden Festival was beautiful. I wish we had more time to explore things like the butterfly garden. I wouldn’t hesitate to go in March again if the opportunity ever presents itself. 
). Living in Georgia, we are close to WDW compared to many. Over our recent Thanksgiving trip, we drove and it took us just over 7 hours. For this trip we flew, I checked the kids out at 2:30 and it was nearly 9:30 when we were dropped off at Pop- that’s 7 hours.
If I were going with just one kid again, I’d probably fly just out of preference. But this sealed the deal that all future family trips will likely be by van for cost purposes since the timing is equal.
It’s really up in the air and time will tell, but it will likely be 2012 before we make it back to the World.
She wants to go on a cruise, so that will happen sometime in the next year. 
So don’t feel too sorry for us because the circumstances that may prevent us from returning in 2011 is the fact that we are booked to set sail on the Disney Wonder for a 7 night cruise to Alaska on May 31st, 2011!
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Susan
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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