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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
Post Thanks / Like
US/IOA quick trip report/notes
My DD (23) and I just visited Universal from Aug 12-14. We stayed at Cabana Bay from the 11-14th and moved to Drury Inn for our last night (14th). Our arrival on the 11th was by car at 11:30 at night. Several people checking in at that hour.
Our pool view room was in Americana 5320. It actually faced the sand beaches being closer to the main areas than the pool itself. Quite a good location actually as the elevator at one end of our hall led out to the pool gate and the other to the area by the food court/access to the buses. The room was good but had two flaws....a very noisy refrigerator (about every 30 minutes or so it sounded like a plane taking off) and when people let their doors slam down the hallway, we could feel it in the wall behind our bed.
My only other real problem with the hotel rooms is the tiny towels and two few pillows. I didn't recall the towels being that small on previous stays, but maybe they were. And for only two of us, the two pillows per bed were plenty, but had we brought more family, we'd have needed more.
We used the food court a couple of times. Pizza one night and Burgers another after returning from the parks. The burgers were huge and we wished we'd shared. We felt both were a good deal and tasty.
We spent a couple hours at the pool on Sunday after leaving the parks around 11. And then again on Tuesday from 8:30-11 pm. We brought our own tubes for the river and had them blown up (quite a line at 11:30 on Sunday). We enjoyed the DJ and music on Sunday afternoon. Had a drink each from the Hideaway...nice frozen drinks...it was HOT out. We also got the nachos which we deemed decent.
The parks were least busy on Sunday, and more-so on Monday and Tuesday. The longest wait we ever saw on the App was for Kong at 120 but mostly nothing got over 80 minutes. We didn't have EP, so did the attractions standby or single rider (second time only). We were able to do everything we wanted with less than a 30 minute wait by being conscious of the wait times and what would get busy and stay busy. (We did not do Hulk, RRR, or water rides, but did most everything else at least once). And I will say this....the parks were full of Brits. We estimated that about 60% of the people we encountered were British. It was amazing. I'd say that the American ration was likely around 25% of the park-goers with the rest of other nationalities. What a melting pot it was.
Sunday- got there around 8:30 entering Universal first. Minions was down so when to Gringotts. Rode that with a 20 minute wait and then went to the train to Hogsmeade. No wait, then FJ with a 30 minute wait. After that we did Kong with no real wait. Spiderman with 25 minute wait and then to the pool. There was a big rain storm with thunder/lightening so we stayed in our room for awhile. We did return to the park for the evening but didn't get a whole lot done and I'm having trouble recalling what we did do other than Make-up show and Fallon. I know we stopped for beers at the bar in SF area and people watched a good while. We hung out in the Fallon ride for one whole round of colors watching the videos and Ragtime gals. The TM kept urging us to join one of the rides, but the waiting area is a fun part for us and we waited until we were ready. Hashtag asked for my DDs phone and did a selfie with us.
Monday- got to the park around 8:30 again started with Minions which said 20 minutes but was more like 30 and then said 45 when we got out. Transformers next was a walk-on basically. We spent our day doing rides and shows, lunch in Hogsmeade and went back to get our raincoats before the finale show after dinner at Bubba Gump. It was good with the new water cannons and fireworks, but I missed the old film clips from the previous show. This one left out so much.
Tuesday- Got up later and went to the pool for the morning. Asked for a late checkout. Left the pool at 11 got showered, finished packing and loaded up the car. Then to the bus for the parks. We ate at Finnegans. Once again we should have shared. There was just too much food. Pork plate and Fish and Chips. We could have fed two more people. Then we did Animal Actors and ET which we'd yet to do, back to MIB (Single rider...walked on). DD rode with some people who were very impressed with her score so she had to tell them what she did for the high score. She always beats me. I did remember to get the bonus this time though. We were able to do Mummy with about 15 minute wait, Fallon with Virtual Pass and a couple other things. We left the park around 4:30 to go check in to Drury Inn and have their dinner there. We decided on seeing a movie and chose Mission Impossible at the AMC so drove back over and loved the free parking after 6. The movie was fine.....I think that these action adventure movies are just getting too full of chases and fights and impossible situations these days. Voodoo Donuts afterwards for our late night snack and a few to bring home.
We slept in a bit and left for home around 9 after the buffet breakfast. 10 hours later.... we arrived.
Sounds like you had a great trip. My DD and I went about this time last year for a week, staying at Sapphire resort. It’s a good time to visit and crowds aren’t too bad.
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.
Sounds like a great trip with limited waits on many of the popular attractions! Too bad with the few resort problems you had but then again it is a value resort. Overall, it seems like you had a great time. I enjoyed my first ever stay last October at the RP and enjoyed the resort and the parks so much.
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Too bad with the few resort problems you had but then again it is a value resort. Overall, it seems like you had a great time. I enjoyed my first ever stay last October at the RP and enjoyed the resort and the parks so much.
Linear Mode
