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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well everything is booked and there isn't much to do for this trip. Well for now anyways. I've been tinkering around with packing lists and looking into things like Garden Grocer. But I've got over 5 months so no big deal right? Or should I be entering a stage of panic as there's only 5 months left! I can't really decide. My super organized, over-packing, uber planning side of me says I should already be in panic mode. Especially since I'm taking an 18 month old and have never traveled this far from home with him and therefore have no idea what I need to bring. Yet I am fairly laid back about this trip. I think it has to do with the fact that I have a 13 month old that keeps me too busy to spend hours planning out this trip.
I did manage to print out all of our reservation information for the flights and MYW package. I put it all in a nice little folder that I let my son decorate with Disney stickers. He had fun, but doesn't really understand stickers. He just kept saying "Daaaa Duc" and sticking the stickers on my nice new dining room table.
So I'm starting to keep track of all our stuff. And I bought our travelers insurance. I was able to get it for much cheaper than Disney was trying to sell it to me for. And I'm pretty sure it's through the same company Disney uses. Apparently Mickey charges a premium. I'd like to see a detailed bill summary:
Travelers Insurance Premium: $20
Fee for printing on paper with Mickey's Picture: Lots of Money
Total: An insane mark-up for getting the insurance directly from Disney.
I can't seem to find anything that would suggest that the insurance from Disney is any better than the plan I got on my own. Oh well. I going to WDW, but some of the expenses and mark-ups are frustrating. I know that you get much better service for most things and that there really is a "bang for your buck" factor for a lot, but travel insurance isn't one of them.
I also had an offer for a Disney Visa that gives me a $200 gift card after my first purchase so I signed up for one. I got it the other day and called to activate it and spoke to the most helpful credit card company employee I have ever talked to! I don't know if I just happened to get the best employee they have to offer or if everyone who works for the Disney Visa help line is a rock star, but I was impressed.
And although we're on the QSDP for our January trip (thanks free dining!) I made 2 ADRs. One for a character breakfast and one for Le Cellier (lunch). The character breakfast is mostly for DS, but everyone was interested in going. My DH really wanted to go to a steakhouse. We had eaten at Le Cellier in 2009 and he loved it. We were deciding between Le Cellier and Yachtsman Steakhouse, but ended up deciding on neither. We had talked to my in-laws and they were pretty opposed to spending the money on a nice steak dinner so it was just going to be DH, DS and I. Then we got the free dining plan and since my in-laws weren't going DH decided that we should just skip it and save the money. So what did I do? I put on my super secret disguise costume and sat alone in my office and made a reservation for Le Cellier for the whole group! See FIL really wanted to try the steakhouses, but MIL was opposed to spending the money. They are kind of stretching it to come with us financially wise. FIL's b-day is in December and MIL's b-day is in February so we usually take them out to dinner sometime in January. So this will be their b-day dinner. And we'll spring for SIL's dinner too as she's a new college graduate and broke. So I've already got the $200 Disney Visa gift card spent - plus a little extra I'm sure.
I can't decide if I want to tell DH that I made the Le Cellier reservation or not. He'll be so excited about it and it would be great to surprise him. But I would feel a little guilty about spending (or I guess it's just planning on spending) the $200 gift card without telling him what I was spending it on. See DH and I have been talking about our "spending money" while in WDW. We've got a rewards check from one of our other credit cards that we're going to use as fun money while in WDW (this includes souvenirs and such). We've also talked about how we will have the $200 gift card for spending money. How do I earmark that gift card for Le Cellier without telling DH about it? We're trying to be good and stick to a budget as DH keeps babbling something about needing a new car and DS would likely want to go to college or something someday. I'm pretty sure we can stick to our budget even with using the $200 gift card for Le Cellier, but I feel a little guilty about spending it without giving DH the opportunity to help make that decision. Of course I'm sure he'd get over it with a belly full of steak and cheddar cheese soup.
So that's where I am with the trip. I'm slowly putting things together. And in reality I do have a lot of time left. But that time is filled with things like the state fair and the holidays. So I need to get some Disney OCD tasks out of the way before my life gets too busy to deal with it.
Oh and just a little side note: I do not hate my in-laws. I realize that a few of my posts make it sound like I don't like them. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I get along with my in-laws really well. I just have issues with their planning and decision making abilities - as in they lack this skill completely. Other than that they are absolutely lovely. I'm sure our trip is going to be a lot of fun and it will be so nice for DS to spend a lot of time with DH's family as he sees mine quite a bit. Plus MIL has the best quality ever for having a small child with on a Disney trip: She HATES roller coasters and other thrill rides. She also LOVES spending time with DS and won't at all mind playing grandma the small child watcher while we go on things like Space Mountain. It's going to be a great trip!
Yes, I'm in the same lull right now -- ADRs made, tickets bought, reservations squared away. Now what??!
As for Disney Visa, so far as I can tell, those employees must go through Disney CM training, even though I assume they are Chase employees? Everyone I've ever talked to has had similar rock-star qualities to the person you spoke with. In fact, a few months ago, my number somehow got compromised and someone tried to make fraudulent charges on my card. They called me to ask about it, immediately took off the charges, shut down that number and sent me a new card. I happened to be traveling for work when it happened, and they even offered to FedEx a new card to me at my hotel! I didn't need it, but I was blown away that they offered!
It sounds like everything is pretty squared away. Now you just have to spend time reading PTRs and TRs like me!
It sounds like everything is pretty squared away. Now you just have to spend time reading PTRs and TRs like me!
I've been reading TRs, but have been lacking in reading PTRs. Maybe I should start that I have been reading a lot of TRs that have little ones around DSs age. I want to know what to expect.
We got our Disney Vacation Planning DVD yesterday and put it on for DS to watch. He LOVED it! He kept pointing at the screen and saying "yeah" and dancing around. If he's that excited about the DVD I can't wait to see how he reacts to the parks.
It's been a while so I think this pre-trip report is in need of an update!
We're less than 5 months from our trip! Factor in the holidays that make time whoosh by while you scramble to get everything ready and wrapped and purchased and it will probably feel more like only 3 months to our trip. At least that's what I'm hoping for.
I've been busy lately trying to figure out what we need to bring with us on our trip and purchasing a few things here and there to try to minimize the money spending blow that we're going to take when we make that final payment. I've been doing most of my shopping online and managed to order an extra Sippy Grip, a bunch of Take and Toss cups, bowls and cutlery, a gate check bag for the stroller, a rain cover for the stroller, a backpack harness for DS, and some Cars band aids (I needed a few extra dollars to qualify for free shipping).
Collecting these things makes it more real that we are going to WDW! When my package arrived I tested out the stroller gate check bag and it fits on the stroller, but it's a really tight fit. The online description said that it fits double strollers so I was sure that it would fit my Graco travel system stroller. It does, but I'm a little worried that it is such a tight fit that it puts strain on the stitching. It was the biggest on I saw at Babies R Us. The rain shield fits great and I'm sure it will keep DS, his legs and our stuff in the basket dry! DS LOVES his bear backpack harness. I know some people don't agree with the backpack harnesses, but DS likes to take off and I would rather get dirty looks from people than loose my kid. I will only use it in cases where I have to.
I still have a few things left to purchase like some glow sticks for dark rides, something to identify our stroller in the sea of strollers. As well as a few odds and ends in the toiletry department. I've almost got my packing list completely done. DS and my portions just need another glance to double check things. I've been bugging DH to add his stuff to the list so I can print it out so I can check off things as I buy them. I have three checkboxes for everything - have, ready and packed. That way I know what I already have and what I need to buy. What is ready to be packed (such as clean clothes) and what is already packed. I want to print the list so I can start using it, but DH isn't all that motivated to add his stuff to it. Maybe I should just remove him from our list and let him fend for himself! He's a grown up right? He can take care of what it is he needs to bring. Although when he forgets something it somehow ends up being my fault.
I'm also planning a Disney dinner with the in-laws. Since they decided to come with us I thought it might be fun to get together for dinner to discuss our trip. My in-laws haven't been since Thanksgiving 1998 so quite a bit has changed. They keep asking stuff about the parks and other happenings in the world. They're also under the assumption that you can just walk right in for dinner at Cinderella's Castle. I guess they did that back in the day and they're confused as to why I want to make dinner reservations now. We have the vacation planning DVD so I'm sure we'll watch some of it. DS loves to watch the vacation DVD. He points at all the characters and gets really happy when they play music. It's so cute!
I have my menu all planned out for the meal. We bought a Disney parks and cruise line cook book back in 2010 and are going to be making dishes from that book. I don't have the book or my menu with me right now, but I'll put that in a different post. I'm sure it will be a fun evening. And I'm hoping it will get everyone really excited about our trip!
A few other random things that relate to the trip: I think I mentioned that I made a surprise reservation for lunch at Le Cellier. It was going to be a surprise for FIL and MILs b-days. I had debated telling DH, but decided to let him know as we would be spending the gift card we got from our Disney Visa on the meal and I didn't want DH to come up with other ways he wanted to spend that money. I had planned on still keeping it a secret from FIL and MIL. That didn't work though. See I had been telling FIL and MIL that we had to make dining reservations if we wanted to have nice meals while in WDW. Well FIL really wanted to go to a nice steakhouse, but MIL didn't want to spend the money. Apparently FIL didn't care and really wanted to go eat at one. He kept asking DH and I how to make reservations and what the name of the steakhouse we had mentioned was. I tried to avoid giving him direct answers hoping that he would drop it and I could continue with my surprise, but FIL is a persistent person and kept asking and kept asking. So DH confessed that we already made reservations and were taking them out for their b-days.
DS has also collected some Disney shirts for our trip. He has outgrown his 12 month Mickey Mouse shirt his aunt bought him in WDW before he was born. And I'm sure his two Mickey Mouse short-suits won't fit in January. So I've been picking him up some t-shirts on clearance. I found him a It's a Small World shirt at Nordstrom Rack the other day. And his other aunt bought him a really cute Mickey Mouse shirt where it is Mickey's body and then Cam's head will "replace" Mickey's head. He'll just need to get his mouse ears! She got the shirt in New York. I'll have to get a few more outfits for DS, but we're starting to get them.
That's all that's new for now. I'll post more about our Disney dinner later. And pictures after September 17th (the date of the dinner)!
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Sounds great! Sorry you weren't able to keep the surprise from you ILs, but at least now they'll be really excited as they look forward to the meal at Le Cellier!
I'm impressed that you're even thinking about packing. If we start packing more than 48 hours in advance, I consider it a victory!!
Love the idea of a Disney dinner. That should be fun. I can't wait to see what recipes you make!
Sorry you had to spill the beans about the surpise ressie. At least they didn't say - that's not where I want to go! I'm sure there are tons of people who are shocked by the need for a ressie at all. My DBiL found this out on our 2007 trip and it made for a really bad scene every nite at dinner (we did snag a walk up at Ohana's once).
It's also a great idea to "try on" the backpack harness. My DS got one for my niece and didn't do a trial run so there was a horrible meltdown right on the monorail platform at MK. So embarrassing!! Needless to say, it was never used. And let someone look at you funny, you are correct when you say you'd endure a look rather than lose your child.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Apparently Mickey charges a premium. I'd like to see a detailed bill summary:
going to WDW, but some of the expenses and mark-ups are frustrating. I know that you get much better service for most things and that there really is a "bang for your buck" factor for a lot, but travel insurance isn't one of them. 
We had talked to my in-laws and they were pretty opposed to spending the money on a nice steak dinner so it was just going to be DH, DS and I. Then we got the free dining plan and since my in-laws weren't going DH decided that we should just skip it and save the money. So what did I do? I put on my super secret disguise costume and sat alone in my office and made a reservation for Le Cellier for the whole group! See FIL really wanted to try the steakhouses, but MIL was opposed to spending the money. They are kind of stretching it to come with us financially wise. FIL's b-day is in December and MIL's b-day is in February so we usually take them out to dinner sometime in January. So this will be their b-day dinner. And we'll spring for SIL's dinner too as she's a new college graduate and broke. So I've already got the $200 Disney Visa gift card spent - plus a little extra I'm sure.
I have been reading a lot of TRs that have little ones around DSs age. I want to know what to expect.
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