What is the point of paying for Park Hoppers with Fastpass + - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
We used to be ParkHopper people every trip. THE HORROR of having to stay in one park a day? Wasn't happening in my family. I needed my park freedom and I paid for it! Then as my kids grew, admission prices grew,accomadation prices grew, airline ticket prices grew, dining plan price grew, and I had to find a way to cut costs. Our last trip we stayed at a moderate and didn't buy ParkHoppers and I survived. Actually, I may have enjoyed our touring MORE.
Now, I missed Wilderness Lodge, don't get me wrong, but I loved CSR too. I found that by NOT Park Hopping I was more relaxed. I guess its just me, but I was going crazy trying to mark things off my list in the morning at Epcot, going back to the resort for a swim, then rushing back to Magic Kingdom to check more things off my list. I kind of realized alot of my day was spent in Disney Buses.
Now, I think on a long weekend trip or 4 or 5 day trip Park Hoppers may be a neccesity. But if you staying 7 to 10 days I don't think I will get Park Hoppers again. I enjoyed knowing I was going to be in Epcot all day. Now this is just my opinion, but I was a diehard park hopper and my views changed.
Now, I haven't had a trip with FastPass Plus YET. So I will reserve judgement until then...but I remember the days of my "clueless" disney touring when I didn't even understand how the classic fast pass worked and I still managed to enjoy an entire trip, and didn't miss a thing I wanted, without print a paper fastpass.
I think it all goes with how you are mentally preparing for your trip. Yes, its expensive, but you aren't going to do it all in one trip. I think my husband and I are approaching trip 11....and I have still yet to see Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood Studios. LOL
You're not the only one. We used to park hop a lot (morning in one park, evening in another). Then I realized we could get FP's before our break for later in the same park, so we did that and started park hopping less. Once we did that, I realized that we enjoyed our touring much more if we weren't always looking ahead to the park, adr, whatever it may be that was coming later on. We were more relaxed and got MORE done by not hopping, so we stopped getting the hopper. Now, there are still some circumstance when I would consider getting a hopper (short trip, staying at an Epcot resort, etc.) but for the most part, we don't really want or need it.
Honestly, the only reason we got park hoppers this past January, is because so many of our meals were in EPCOT that we _needed_ them just to make our ADRs.
Our last trip we only hopped rarely. We did hit 2 parks one day when it rained (came in and went back to a different park) and ONE day hit three (MK early magic for Belle's storytime, Epcot during the day, nap, then Animal Kingdom right before close--because it rained on our planned day--and back to MK with just the girls for night parade and fireworks). I was glad to have the hoppers that day, but we could have done without them if we had needed to.
__________________
June 2013-BLT; Nov 2010-CBR; 2000-offsite, Universal and Epcot; 1996-All-Star Music; 1994-school choir competition; 1987-offsite; 1985-offsite; 1982-offsite
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one that has issues with the new system and how it is changing the way we tour. I truly contemplated downgrading to regular tickets and not park hopping this trip. Then I realized that we are staying at Yacht Club and want the ability to walk into Epcot any night we want and we might be eating in there more this trip due to our close proximity.
I just heard this may be changing soon. Hopefully before our July trip.
There are rumors that they are adding FP to 2 parks. That would only make sense why would anyone get PH if they didn't change it.
Hoping for the best!!
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
Post Thanks / Like
We have always park hopped. We started going to WDW before that little add on was invented.
Our trips are also getting shorter than they used to be- now we average 4 days when we used to do 7, so it's even more important to us.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
