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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 TO START OFF IT HAS BEEN SENCE AUGUST 2004 SENCE I HAVE BEEN ON HERE, I LOVED TALKING AND PUTTING UP MESSAGES TO GET SOME INPUT ON OUR TRIP! NOW FOR THE REASON FOR THE QUESTION. THIS WAS OUR FIRST FAMILY TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD, WE WENT ALL OUT ON THIS TRIP! I COULD NOT WAIT TO GET BACK AS SOON AS I GOT HOME! WELL NOW MY SONS TAEKWONDO SCHOOL IS GOING DOWN TO DISNEY JAN.16TH 2005 AND WE WOULD LIKE TO GO SO BAD, THE THING IS IT IS GOING TO COST US 2000.00 WITH THE SLIVER PLAN AND AIRFAIR AND STAYING AT THE ALL STAR RESORT FOR JAN 15TH-18TH, WE SPENT OVER 7000.00 IN AUGUST!!BUT WE DID DO THE GOLD PACKAGE, AIRFAIR, AND THE ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE SAVANNA VIEW, WHEN I LOOK AT ALL THE TIMES ALOT OF YOU HAVE BEEN I WAS JUST WONDERING HOW DO YOU GUYS DO IT?? WITH OUT SPENDING 2-7 THOUSAND DOLLARS EACH TIME YOU GO? PLEASE TELL ME SOME SECRETS OR SOMETHING, WE ARE DIEING TO GET BACK, PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO GET DOWN THERE CHEAP!! WE FLY OUT OF GREENSBORO, NC AIRPORT. PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME OUT!!!!!
Probably the first thing I would look at is not doing a package if you'd like to spend less. Look at how much the room would cost, then tickets, and budget for some meals. If you want to go cheap, would you consider staying at a value or moderate resort? How many people will be going? I would also look at getting your airfare separately as well. You could try Expedia, Travelocity, etc, and also try the actual airline websites as well. For eating, you could do more counter service than sit down places.
IT WILL BE ME, HUSBAND, SON, WE LOOKED INTO STAYING AT THE ALL STAR RESORTS, AND WE ARE GETTING OUR FLIGHT ON OUR OWN, I WAS JUST LOOKING AT TRAVELOCITY, HOW IS THAT? LOOKS LIKE THEY DO NOT INCLUDE DISNEY TICKETS, ABOUT HOW MUCH DO THEY RUN PER DAY?
I would request the service of a travel agent. I think that you could save quite a bit and have the agent do all the work and thinking for you. Some of the respected travel agency's that some have used on these boards are Small World, Grand Getaways, Your Magical Journeys. I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that come to mind.
Also, go to www.mousesavers.com and you will also pick up some detailed and well planned advice from that site. This should help you save some $$.
Well, the first thing to do is NOT book a package. No Silver Plan, no Gold Plan, just book a room at All-Star Music or Sports, buy 4-day park passes, and buy airfare all as separate items.
Book the room by calling 407-WDISNEY. About the only discounts you might get at this late date are annual passholder (if you have one) or AAA. Rack rates at the All-Star resorts are $77 from Jan 1-Feb 16 2005.
Book air by looking at Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, and several airline web sites directly (remember that Southwest only books through their own web site and they are usually the cheapest). You might also consider driving; from NC it might take you 8 hours, but it would save you the entire cost of airfare.
Since you only need 4 days of park passes, you can buy them when you check into the resort, because with the new Magic Your Way passes there is no advance purchase discount unless you buy tickets for 5 days or more. Adult 4-day park hopper is $234.40 including tax, and child 4-day park hopper is $194.90 including tax.
Without the Silver or Gold plan you may wonder how you're going to eat. Simple: walk into a restaurant and order off the menu, then pay with cash or credit, just as you do at home. This time of year you won't need to worry too much about advance reservations in the restaurants; just pick a place about one or two days in advance and call Disney Dining from your resort phone to make a ressie (there's a dedicated button for Disney Dining on every phone in every room at every resort at WDW).
Also, remember you don't have to eat at sit down restaurants. You can do counterserve and food court. Disney food is always expensive, but counterserve is cheaper than the restaurants. If you choose to drive, then you can do some offsite eating. There are a lot of fast food spots just off site, and even McDonalds on site (one right by the All Stars.) You can definitely do it cheaper if you stay away from the packages, especially if you drive.
From our point of view, we're able to go so often now because we're DVC members, but if you're planning more than one trip in a year, then it pays to become Annual Pass holders. We bought Annual Passes for our trip in May and they more than paid for themselves on that trip - so on this one, it was almost like getting free entry into the park!
I'd also echo what others have said - it's far cheaper not to book a package and definitely check out the mousesavers website that Lisa highlighted. It's got loads of great tips on how to reduce the cost of your Disney vacation.
I have to agree with alot I have already heard. Book everything seperately, go for the value, skip a lot of the table service and you should be able to get a less expensive trip.
Normally, I would say skip the package but we don't know how the prices are going to shake out for these new My way packages, the dining for $35 sounds like it could be a value, if the rest of the package isn't too inflated. Definately talk to a travel agent who is good with Disney stuff, there are a lot of reccomendations in the travel agent section of this board. They can give My way quotes starting tommorrow.
As for us, we live 7-8 hours away (still in Florida but about as far away from Orlando as you can get!!!). Instead of spending lots of $$$ on airfare, we drive down. We stay at either a value resort or Shades of Green (since we are military). We also bought Annual Passes, so we get discounts on the rooms with those, then the next time we go, we don't have to worry about paying for park admission again.
On our last trip, we spent about $2000, but we had AT LEAST one sit-down meal per day, mostly the character breakfasts, which ran us about $17 per adult and $10 for our daughter. Plus, I spent a LOT on souvenirs and "extras" . . .
I will be going down again this coming week, but since I have my admission taken care of and I am driving again, it will only cost me a total of about $550 (without souvenirs) . . . I made payments on my room reservation and paid that off early, so I won't have to worry about $300 of that . . . so I basically just have to worry about gas money and food!!!
We're also going in March, but my in-laws have instructed me not to pay for anything . . . they said to consider it a late anniversary gift to me and DH and a birthday present to DD from them!
Check out the new My Way deals. Also, if you are a member of AAA, their travel service is teriffic. They always manage to find us the best options and deals, plus you get the AAA discounts and special promos.
I have been paying package rates for my last three trips and finally someone (thanks Happymommy) told me about Mousesavers and this website. I cancelled my packages and rebooked through a travel agent at YourMagicalJourneys room only with the AAA discount and I am already saving so much money, we are buying APs since we are going in January (withouit the kids) and November (with the kids) so if we can get AP discounts for November it will be a bonus, we already have the AP rate for January. Going to Disney cheaper can definitely be done!!! We wouldn't have been able to go twice this year if I hadn't found out about all of these discounts!
I did some rough calculations and came up with $1750 if you fly (SWA out of RDU, the flights get you there early and leave late, gives you more time at the World!), assuming you buy 4 day passes for 3 people, and stay 3 nights at all-stars on rack rate (and use a towncar service) and eat counter service meals (depending on appetites). For $2140 you could have 10 day passes with no expiration which gives you pre-paid admission for your next trip If you drive (it's about 10 hours on mapquest), you could knock about $500 off your price, depending on your fuel situation. Also, if you drive, you can also bring your own food (cereals, milk, etc) which would save you even more. AAA might have discounts available for the resort. You didn't say if the Tae Kwon Do school was providing any meals or tickets for the students, so I left any of that out. Good luck! If you are thinking of booking, though, your 14day advance purchase window is closing for airfare!
Hi there! We are in NC also. And we just did a trip from Dec. 14 until Dec. 22. We flew out of Greensboro and found that Independence Air had the best rates. I got RT airfare for 108.00 and had I waited just a tad bit longer I could have gotten it for $80 (hard to believe). You just have to keep checking everyday and with different airlines. Also, I got ASMovies for $55 a nt and savannah view at AKL for $160, which I think were great deals. It just took some patience and searching. I found out myself to NEVER book a package. I can't remember the exact figure but it seems like it was at least $500 more had we done a package. I think much more than that though.
Also, I bought our tickets on Hotwiresavings.com. Again, I thought a good deal. One of the best I came across. But, we didn't buy AP and that would probably be the best bet if you knew you were going more than once in a year's time. But, we knew we wouldn't be. Oh, and I also bought a few vouchers (food) for our trip which ended up saving us as well b/k we knew we wanted to do a character brkfst so we used them for that one morning. And the lunch/dinner are great for places like Beaches And Cream. (We got a wonderful, wonderful meal there that my husband and I were able to share and only used one voucher for both of us to eat). I hope some of this helps. I wish we could go back soon also.
Oh, and we really did love flying, but if in the future if we can't get a wonderful deal, we will drive b/k we have done that as well. It's just nice to not be tired from a long drive!
Good advice on the Boards! I would definitely do the Room only rates (Mousesavers is great at the discount codes and season dates) and sign up for the free newsletter on Mousesavers as this gives you access to Ticketmania prices that she lists on her website. You might be able to get the old 4-day park hopper passes at the old rate on this site! There are so many great counter service restaurants to choose from and that will keep your food costs down. We go down to WDW two to three times a year and are able to keep the cost to under $2,000 by booking our own trip. Good Luck!
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