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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Carthay Circle & World of Color question
I see from the website that you can get to a reserved area for WoC with a Carthay Circle meal package...but is it the same area as with the Wine Country Trattoria meal, does anyone know? I'm just not feelin' the love for eating Italian at Disney, since for me that usually just means paying a lot of money for spaghetti.
I did the Ariel's Grotto meal two years ago to get the WoC package and loved it, but that's unfortunately no longer available, and the wording on the CC site is ambiguous. I'll double-check with a CM when I'm ready to make the reservation, but it would be good have a clue beforehand from someone who's been there.
When we were there just back in May, we did one of the WOC dining packages with Ariel's Grotto and there was just the one Reserved section, it wasn't broken down by which restaurant you dined at. Soooo, unless they've changed it -- and someone feel free to chime in if I'm wrong -- I imagine the Reserved area is the same one if you get a dining package with Carthay Circle. My guess is that is why they stopped the packages with Ariel's Grotto, to make room for the guests that would be getting the WOC package at CC.
My experience, honestly, was that my view wasn't truly any better than times I'd gotten a Blue FP for WOC. In my defense, I can't show up 90 minutes prior to a show and wait with 2 toddlers. Asking them to stand in any one spot for that long and not have a meltdown is just asking for it! So, even with having the Reserved Viewing section FP, I still had to crane my neck around to see parts of the show and still got reprimanded by another guest when she thought I was trying to take her spot on a stair step. I'll continue to say that I think Disney should have come up with a better way to view WOC than to ask everyone to stand. Only the first 2-3 people at the front of the viewing section has a good view and everyone else must have a diminished show experience. Unless you are 6 feet tall. Sorry for my vent.
We just did this two weeks ago. I was even suffering with a bad knee and had to sit on the handicapped bench (I was using a cane) and I thought I had a decent view.
Yes, I missed the stuff that happened just a few inches above the water's surface, but there's not a lot of that -- almost everything seemed to happen at least ten feet up.
The Carthay Circle space is a level or two up from the water and has (or had) an open walkway below it, so people weren't standing there, and only the occasional CM walked past. It was well worth it, especially as the restaurant was so very good.
We were just there this week and opted to use Fastpass! Instead of the dining package. We were in Blue section and I could hardly see. I still enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as when we've been in the reserved section. Being in the elevated area really gives you a better overall view of the entire experience. definitely do the reserved section if you're going to do table service anyway.
This will be our first time viewing the WOC. We bought the meals you pick up. Not quite sure how this works.
It says that we pick up at "Sonoma Terrace located at Golden Vine Winery inside Disney California Adventure® park to pick up your meal and Viewing Area ticket between 11:30 a.m. and one (1) hour prior to the selected World of Color showtime. "
Does this mean we don't get our viewing area location until we pick up the food?
From what I understand, there *are* different seating areas depending on which of the table service places you eat.
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This is taken from my planning notes:
- Only two dedicated fastpass zones (yellow and blue) remain. The other zone is referred to as orange and is reserved dinning accessible. This orange label is not well known to many of the cast members; but, the team lead confirmed it is an accurate description for the reserved section.
-There are two “tiers” of reserved (WCT/CCT dinner and CCT lunch). According to the team lead, WCT are directed to the lower section and CCT lunch the upper; but, here’s the catch – CCT dinner reservations have carte blanche and can request to be placed in either location. CCT lunch can only go to the upper location. Dinner CCT can go to either location upon request.
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And, from what I understand, the picnic meals do not have a reserved seating, just a FP to actually get into the area - basically saving you the trouble of having to rush and get a FP on your own when you get into the park in the morning. I keep reading that you would still need to get to the area fairly early to get a decent spot.
I know that with Ariel's Grotto and Wine Country you're on a price fixe menu with only a few choices and with Carthay Circle each adult has to order 2 out of 3 courses from the menu: so an entree and either appetizer or dessert. So basically two people can't go and share a salad and get the preferred viewing for World of Color.
When we ate at Carthay Circle for lunch when it opened a cast member took us up on the terrace and said sometimes you can see the Disneyland fireworks from there. Obviously it's not premium viewing but it's a nice little perk if you are already there. Just as a side note
When you book the Dinner package with the preferred viewing the viewing is not from the restaurant. You eat at the location booked with a set menu and you get passes for the upfront center viewing area for WOC later in the evening. We did this before with Ariel’s Grotto and it was a great meal and the viewing was perfect. No crowding or waiting in a huge line (like the fast pass guests do) and we were right in the middle against the railing. We are doing it again in 2 weeks but unfortunately Ariel’s Grotto is no longer an option and the new Carthay Circle has no reservations open for our date. We will try the Wine Country Trattoria and even if the meal is not spectacular the viewing area is worth it.
We just got ADRs for CC for a WOC lunch package. I asked the CM how it worked at CC and he said it was not a fixed price meal and described it as above saying each adult had to buy an entree and an app or dessert. I just checked out the lunch menu and was shocked by the lunch prices. Does none know if you can do the WOC package at the CC lounge??
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We just got ADRs for CC for a WOC lunch package. I asked the CM how it worked at CC and he said it was not a fixed price meal and described it as above saying each adult had to buy an entree and an app or dessert. I just checked out the lunch menu and was shocked by the lunch prices. Does none know if you can do the WOC package at the CC lounge??
I'm not aware you can either. We were told the same when we did the World of Color package last month. We loved our dinner there and thought it was well worth what we paid. The viewing area was also the best of all the restaurants on the package, reflecting how much you pay for it.
We did also eat at the lounge and that was very, very good.
-There are two “tiers” of reserved (WCT/CCT dinner and CCT lunch). According to the team lead, WCT are directed to the lower section and CCT lunch the upper; but, here’s the catch – CCT dinner reservations have carte blanche and can request to be placed in either location. CCT lunch can only go to the upper location. Dinner CCT can go to either location upon request.
I just did AR for WCT and debated over lunch or dinner. CM said dinner had a better viewing area than lunch.
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
I just got off the phone with a cast member who told me you can still do the Ariel's Grotto for the WoC package but only on Friday-Sunday. And it's only for dinner and no characters.
I made a reservation for Trattoria but I may change it to CC, especially considering that the reservation is only by name, not by credit card.
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definitely do the reserved section if you're going to do table service anyway.
Young Gang Mom
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