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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We will be headed back to the World in April and staying at OKW.
We stayed at OKW a few years ago and we weren't really thrilled with it (sorry - I know a lot of you love OKW!). The theming wasn't our favorite and one of the bathrooms in our villa was in need of a better cleaning
However, I am keeping an open mind and actually looking forward to our upcoming stay!
Can you please share what you love about OKW? We don't know much about the resort (I know we can look up fact sheet on All Ears, etc.) but would love to hear from those who really love OKW. Any special things to do? Places to explore? etc.
Also, my mother and her husband will be visiting us at the resort. My mother's husband is handicapped. Are there any special requests for buildings that we can make I know near hospitality house is its own category (which we don't have) - beyond that, is there a request I can make that will be reasonably close to HH and also we need to be in a building with an elevator (assuming we don't get a ground floor). Are there only certain buildings that have elevators? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated - I want to make sure my mother and her husband will be able to visit us at OKW comfortably.
We haven't stayed there in a long time but I remember being very happy there! The food at Olivia's was always good, we had plenty of room and it was quiet when we turned in for the night.
We haven't stayed at Old Key West in quite a few years now, as it's not one of our favourites either. However, we were there for breakfast at Olivia's last year and that was wonderful, so I'd definitely make time for that.
According to my faithful WDW PassPorter, the only buildings with elevators are 62-64, so you may want to be sure to request those.
We stayed at OKW last April. I wouldn't say it was one of my top resort choices but I did like it quite a bit. I enjoyed Olivia's for lunch, and I liked that the feature pool didn't seem overly crowded. The boat to Disney Springs was nice, and the resort seemed centrally located in that none of the parks seemed too far away by bus. I also really liked having 2 real beds in a studio villa -traveling with my teen son, this was a big plus. The biggest negative for me was the bus commute thru the resort, although we stayed near HH so once we got on a bus, we were headed to a park. Traveling all through the resort to get back "home" did get old though.
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Oh, we really love Old Key West! We have stayed there 3 times now, and think the rooms are well decorated, they are very spacious, and we just LOVED the 2-bed villa we had last November - it was huge! I think it is such a pretty resort, and each time we have stayed there we have been a mere couple of minutes walk from a lovely quiet pool, which as we don't have small children, we prefer to the main pool.
The convenience of being able to catch a ferryboat to Disney Springs is really great, saves having to drive there or get a bus.
Olivia's is very good, although I'm not sure I would recommend the steak - both times I have had that I have been disappointed. The pork chop was better, in my opinion.
The store there is lovely, it has a lot of choice for such a small resort store, we were impressed with the amount of park and resort merchandise, food and toiletries/medicines for sale in there.
I didn't realise that the only buildings with elevators are 62-64, that would have been useful to know before! Duh, note to self - must read my PassPorter more often!
Anyway, we really love it there, and will undoubtedly return again in the future.
(Bear in mind that we tend to get amazing special offers for visitors from the UK, which usually involve staying in either Old Key West or Saratoga Springs, so we have only stayed there and in the value resorts - we are therefore a bit biased towards OKW!)
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1. We love the size of the rooms and lower point costs to book.
2. We enjoy the village feeling of OKW,
3. I really like the parking near the rooms.
4. We really like Olivia's.
5. Last, I enjoy the Gurgling Suitcase and chatting with the bartender.
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I always enjoy staying at OKW!
The rooms are large and I appreciate the extra space!
The resort has a very relaxed atmosphere!
We always request to stay in the Turtle Pond area. There is a quiet pool there with a snack bar. (Note: the snack bar is not always open)
I love that you can take a boat to and from to Disney Springs.
The gift store is great!
Olivia's is a very good restaurant! Any meal - breakfast, lunch or dinner!
OKW is our home resort and our favorite resort at WDW. The things we like about it is:
1. The size of the rooms
2. Theme of the resort
3. Olivia's
4. Boat or walk to DS
5. Bus service.
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We are checking in to OKW in 19 days. We bought DVC back in October when we were on our fall trip, however, when trying to change from Riverside to a DVC resort for February trip, the only one they could get us two studios was at OKW. I'm nervous since we've never stayed here.
How are the busses? is the time from the rooms to the bus stops reasonable? It looks very spread out. Also, we are getting a dining plan. Where do you fill up your mugs?
When we booked I didn't know there was a "near hospitality house" category so I didn't know to ask for that, I'm sure its too late at this point. I did speak to a cast member about being near transportation due to the newly diagnosed arthritis in my knee. Hopefully they can accommodate that and 2 studios close by each other since we are traveling with our best friends.
How are the busses? is the time from the rooms to the bus stops reasonable? It looks very spread out. Also, we are getting a dining plan. Where do you fill up your mugs?
When we booked I didn't know there was a "near hospitality house" category so I didn't know to ask for that, I'm sure its too late at this point. I did speak to a cast member about being near transportation due to the newly diagnosed arthritis in my knee. Hopefully they can accommodate that and 2 studios close by each other since we are traveling with our best friends.
Any advise is welcomed!
We always stay in the HH area. Buses work good there because you can easily board the bus at the last stop (HH) and the get off at the first (Peninsular Rd) and walk from there. A lot of people say the resort is large and spread out but I don't see it that way. Depending how close your room is to a bus stop it shouldn't take but 4-5 minutes at the very most to get to one.
We are checking in to OKW in 19 days. We bought DVC back in October when we were on our fall trip, however, when trying to change from Riverside to a DVC resort for February trip, the only one they could get us two studios was at OKW. I'm nervous since we've never stayed here.
How are the busses? is the time from the rooms to the bus stops reasonable? It looks very spread out. Also, we are getting a dining plan. Where do you fill up your mugs?
When we booked I didn't know there was a "near hospitality house" category so I didn't know to ask for that, I'm sure its too late at this point. I did speak to a cast member about being near transportation due to the newly diagnosed arthritis in my knee. Hopefully they can accommodate that and 2 studios close by each other since we are traveling with our best friends.
Any advise is welcomed!
The "near HH" is actually a separate booking category, and isn't something that you can request. It is the last bus stop for pick ups in the morning, so even though it may be convenient to the main area, it can be a pain for park travel in the morning.
We have stayed there a few times, once right across the street from the Hospitality House, and also on Peninsular Road. We found Peninsular Road to be a much better location. Less than a minute to the bus stop, which is the first stop for park pick up. It was also less than a 5 minute walk to the main pool and Hospitality House.
We never have any problems with the buses at WDW like many have reported. Most trips we wait less than 10 minutes, and only once in 17 trips over the last several years have we waited more than 20. And that was when a bus broke down, so they had to get another to replace it. It can take a few minutes to travel throughout the resort if you are on one of the first stops, but just remember that you are on vacation. Time to relax. Just be sure to allow plenty of time when going to an ADR somewhere.
Don't miss going to Olivia's! We love the food there!!
We never do the dining plan since we purchase the TiW every year. I believe that there is a place to fill up at the main pool. Not sure about the other pools.
Hope you have a great trip!! We loved OKW, and will be staying again in the future.
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What do you love about OKW?
and staying at OKW.
I know near hospitality house is its own category (which we don't have) - beyond that, is there a request I can make that will be reasonably close to HH and also we need to be in a building with an elevator (assuming we don't get a ground floor). Are there only certain buildings that have elevators? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated - I want to make sure my mother and her husband will be able to visit us at OKW comfortably. 
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