What do you mean we’re not going in March????? PTR - UPDATED 12/9 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Day 0 & 1 December 17 & 18-Drivin’ down and arriving in the bubble
Our plans are to depart on December 17, hopefully no later than 1:00 to 2:00 PM. We plan to leave the Raleigh area and drive down to the Daytona side of Jacksonville, FL. We have found this is a great way to get most of the trip done and rest up for an early arrival the next day. We think this makes the most out of our arrival day!!! We have done this in the past with mixed success with DS. He is a bit older now and we hope he will go to sleep peacefully….here’s keepin’ our fingers crossed. (Note to self….don’t forget to pack the blow up mattress just in case)
On December 18, we will be up and at ‘em most likely sometime around 5:30 or so. (DW wonders if this is without an alarm.) We pack back up, grab some continental breakfast and hopefully are on the road sometime around 6:30 AM. We should arrive “in the bubble” around 8:30 AM. We might be lucky and our room will be ready (that happened in 2010 at Kidani) but most likely not. Our plans are to leave our luggage with bell services and hop on over to the Magic Kingdom. [Quick sidebar…although we keep tellin’ ourselves to slow down a bit at WDW…that’s just doesn’t seem to be our personality so we love to go right to the parks upon arrival]. We will have to visit guest services to redeem our Annual Passes (since we will go back again within one calendar year…hopefully twice ) and purchase a Tables in Wonderland discount card (we priced it out and since at least two of us usually share, this is a better value than the dinning plan for us). Once inside, we hope to enjoy the decorations and soak up the magic. We are going to ride or grab a fastpass for Space Mountain and do other rides in Tomorrowland. Just in case you would like to take a glance and give us feedback….our touring plan for MK that day is at this link: Personalized Touring Plans (We love touringplans.com)
This is a MVMC party day so we plan to leave MK for DHS sometime around 4:00 PM to go check out the Osborne Lights!!!!
But here’s our dilemma. We originally planned to eat dinner at 50s Prime Time with an ADR at 5:50 PM, which we have now changed to 5:15. DH was concerned with DHS closing at 8:00 PM that we might feel rushed and not get to enjoy ourselves. He suggested we have a late lunch at MK. Perhaps Liberty Tree Tavern (we haven’t tried) or Tony’s (we tried once in 2007). So we booked a 2:00 PM at Tony’s because the menu looked yummy J. The thought here would be to enjoy a late lunch, perhaps experience another ride or two and then hop on over to enjoy a couple rides in DHS and the wonderful magical Osborne lights J ( can you tell this is a favorite of DW?).
We’re still discussing which ADR to keep. We know we will not need both. As always, we would love to hear your experiences or thoughts on which ADR to keep!
Coming up next…Day 2 plans and another ADR….yummy…Do you think we’ll get lucky?
With the dilemma on the dining, I think it depends what else you plan on doing at the Studios. If it's just the Lights, then I think your ADR at the 50s Prime Time Cafe will be fine. If you want to do more than just that, then perhaps you would be better off eating earlier at the Magic Kingdom, so as not to take away from your touring time...
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Thanks for the thoughts everyone. We are leaning towards 50's, but are still trying to decide what we want to do that night. So for now we are hanging on to both, since there is still availability at both. Heck we might just eat at both. (We have seen the pics of that smore dessert at 50's)
Day 2 December 19 Up and at ‘em at AK!
Up and at em’ for an EMH at AK. We will have packed breakfast items to do easy and quick mornings. We hope to be at AK by 8:00. DS wants to play in the boneyard, DW asked what he would want to do on our March trip. DD wants to do EE and PW. DW wants to see the Lion King. She is not happy about the ugly rumors that it might be discontinued. Here’s to hoping that it won’t and that the rumor that it will be moved due to the new Avatar Land is more accurate, if anything has to happen.
We hope to get a lot done before lunch. Any lunch suggestions would be great. We have eaten many times at Flame Tree BBQ and would do it again, but are open to ideas. DH and DW have had fried rice, egg rolls and of course a Yak Attack from the counter service.
This was good, but not sure the kids would want anything from this CS. We will continue to do things at AK until we feel satisfied we did everything here, since we don’t plan to have another day at AK.
Depending on the time we might go back to the room for a rest or head straight to EC. We have an ADR at Rose and Crown for 7:50.
Will we be lucky enough to get seating on the patio? Do we really want seating on the patio if it is cold? DW does not like being cold. Either way….we can’t wait to watch Holiday Illuminations!
Coming up next….Day 3 plans and ADR…should we book another ADR?
Countdown 54 days…… Day 3 December 20 MK & EC….& Bouncin’ w/ Tigger
We plan to be up and at ‘em on Day 3 to take advantage of EMH at The Magic Kingdom. If we are really bright eyed and bushy tailed we might even make opening ceremonies (if they do that on EMH hours days???). Our original plan was to head right to Fantasy Land to enjoy all the new additions but we may try to take advantage of that on Day 1 as it is projected as a 1.2 crowd level. This day is projected at a 2 but we think it could be higher as it is getting closer to the big Holiday Crowds. We hope to hit most of our must dos as this is our last day at MK .
We have a late morning ADR at Crystal Palace at 10:20 AM. This is at the request of our DS who really wanted a breakfast at #1 Chef Mickey’s (we’re not doing that one) or #2 Crystal Palace. We hope this will give us a nice relaxing “brunch” and some energy to enjoy the rest of the day. DH can’t wait to bounce with Tigger!!! DS & DD enjoying Tigger in 09
Depending on the timing, we may go straight to Epcot or most likely we will go back to our resort for a short break or stroll around the boardwalk after enjoying MK. We plan to walk back over to Epcot to enjoy whatever our hearts and stomachs desire. We may spend some time in Innoventions East (a must do for DH & DD is Sum of all Thrills…more on why later in the PTR) and enjoy some of the Storytellers….a must do for DW! Any must do Epcot restaurant for our fellow passporters? Please post your suggestions.
Picture of DS enjoying the storyteller in Morocco
If we have the energy…we’ll stick out for another viewing of Holiday Illuminiations! Can you tell this is our favorite!!!
Coming up next….Packin’ for a road trip…can DW work her magic again?
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) and purchase a Tables in Wonderland discount card (we priced it out and since at least two of us usually share, this is a better value than the dinning plan for us). Once inside, we hope to enjoy the decorations and soak up the magic. We are going to ride or grab a fastpass for Space Mountain and do other rides in Tomorrowland. Just in case you would like to take a glance and give us feedback….our touring plan for MK that day is at this link: 
PassPorter Guide Author
I agree with chezp on the dining dilemma! 
I could have eaten just that! 
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