Second Thoughts and need help from passporters! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Ok, my girls and I plus my aunt are going to WDW March 18-27th.
Normally, when we go to WDW we always begin our trip at MK. But this time we are considering going to AK first. My kiddo's love Donald's Breakfast so we are considering going there first.
Our second day we are spending at MK since it is Evening Magic Hours.
What do you think? Do you think we will lose the magic by not starting at MK first?
I'm also in the same boat. W/ the schedule that I have we would be visiting MK on our 2nd day. I thinking that just seeing the castle at the other end of Main Street (whether it's the 1st or 2nd day) will still be magical.
We don't usually start at MK either. I think AK is a great place to start off a WDW vacation. It was the first park we ever visited with the kids and it was their favorite that trip.
We usually do MK first, but I'm thinking of switching to AK or Studios this time since we only spend 1/2 day in those parks anyway. MK should be saved for a full day.
We usually have never started at MK (we are this trip though b/c we are going during Thanksgiving and feel that the earlier in the trip the better). It has never taken away any of the magic. Good luck!
We like to start our first day at AK. It closes early, so we go back to the Pop and enjoy swimming and some down time. Our second day is DHS. We usually finish there around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., these short days help with the full days at MK and Epcot.
This year we started visiting Epcot- we were at BC and it made more sense walk to Epcot than taking a bus ride to MK as an "special opening". well DD loved World Showcase (in the past she was already tired from starting future world and go to the World showcase late afternoon...). We stayed there (she painted the Duffy Bear and collect the stamps). After that we returned to the resort to the poll. At night she said it was the "perfect day one"!!!
Ao I believe that any "day one" can be perfect and she actually did not missed Cindy castle once next day we went to MK!!!
I like to start my trips at a different park each time.
The only way that starting a trip at one instead of another is if you believe that one has less magic than the other - which is not true, IMHO - they've all got the same amount of magic, it's just served in 4 different rainbow flavors.
We rarely start at MK.
In fact, when DD was little we made a point of not doing it first -- figuring it would be all downhill from there
We felt our boys, when younger, would be disappointed in the other lands if we did MK first. Now we just hop with abandon! (We don't do table service restaurants much, so not having to do ADRS frees us up so we can free-spirit through the parks at our own pace as the notions strike us).
Have fun!
Ginger
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We also usually switch up the first day parks, going instead by what park has early EMH on our first full day. It works for us as the first morning there we are usually ready and rearing to go! No matter what day we choose to go to MK, the magic of seeing the Castle for the "first" time is still always a special moment for me (and we usually do two days at MK anyway too).