Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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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.
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11-16-2007, 01:10 PM
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#1
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PassPorter Guide
 Community Rank: Globetrotter 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,041
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The Walt Disney World Grand Slam: Four Theme Parks, One Day
by Michelle Clark, PassPorter Message Board Guide and Guest Contributor
A question often asked on the PassPorter message boards is "Is it possible do all four parks in one day?" On our trip to Walt Disney World over Labor Day weekend, this feat became a necessary one as we had only one day to visit all of our favorite attractions. Our party consisted of three families totaling 13 people in all, ranging in ages from 5 to 40-something (we'll never tell). Thrill rides were a top priority for us. Could we manage to enjoy the highlights of all four parks plus a character meal in only one day? Could we hit a Disney "Grand Slam?"
8:30 am - Our group boarded the Walt Disney World transportation bus that brought us to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We arrived at the park before the 9:00 am opening. As we entered the park, you could see the masses parting in front of the Tree of Life, going left toward Kilimanjaro Safaris or right toward Expedition Everest. We had a date with a Yeti!
9:05 am - First stop: Expedition Everest. We waited only 10 minutes to encounter the Yeti himself! After riding we got FastPasses and entered the regular line again. The braver souls tried the single riders line which is a great option if you are short on time and don't mind your party being split up. We encountered a small snag in our commando plans as Expedition Everest suddenly experienced technical difficulties and was shut down -- with three of our group on the trains! After retrieving our Everest trekkers, we headed to Dinoland U.S.A.
10:15 am - Arrived at Dinosaur which had minimal waits. After returning from the Cretaceous period, some of our group stopped by Primeval Whirl while others checked on the status of Everest.
11:00 am - Expedition Everest was up and running, so we utilized our FastPasses for one last ride. 11:30 am - On the road again and we took the bus to the Disney-MGM Studios.
11:45 am - Arrived at the Studios to see the High School Musical float on Hollywood Boulevard. Our top destination was Sunset Boulevard, home to two big thrill attractions! First stop was Rock 'n' Roller Coaster to get FastPasses.
12:00 pm - By this time we were ready for a much-needed Mickey bar break outside the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The Tower had a short wait which we took advantage of several times!
1:10 pm - We had lunch at the ABC Commissary which had plenty of air-conditioned seating for our large group.
2:00 pm - The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular had seating available. This 30-minute show would finish just in time for us to utilize our FastPasses at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
2:40 pm - We arrived at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster to see a long line in the FastPass lane. Our group split up, some used their FastPasses while the rest tried the single rider line. The FastPass group won, and we learned a lesson: if the single rider line is outside the building, the FastPass line will probably be quicker. No worries though, we caught our "limo" to Aerosmith's show several times before we left the Studios.
4:50 pm - We hopped a bus and arrived at our third park: Epcot. We checked the electronic tip board for attraction wait times. Test Track and Soarin' had no FastPasses available for the day, and the wait time for Soarin' was 75 minutes. Mission:Space seemed to be the best option.
5:10 pm - We got FastPasses for Mission:Space before entering the stand-by line. Mission: Space is a good choice in the evenings as the crowds lighten up considerably by this time.
5:30 pm - Since our return time on our Mission:Space FastPasses wasn't until 6:18 pm, we jumped in line for Test Track and waited about 30 minutes to become crash dummies!
6:20 pm - We took a quick snack break and munched on hot pretzels. Back to Mission:Space to visit Mars one more time before we soared over California!
7:00 pm - The queue line at Soarin' gave us plenty of time to experience the new interactive games on the large overhead screens, and I do mean plenty of time! The wait was well over an hour.
9:00 pm - Time for our Advance Dining Reservation at Chef Mickey's. We took the monorail to the Ticket & Transportation Center and then the other monorail to the Contemporary. We were ready to re-fuel, as we still had one park to go to complete our grand slam: the Magic Kingdom. Luckily for us, it was open until 1:00 am during Extra Magic Hours for Disney resort guests.
11:00 pm - From the Contemporary Resort, we walked to the Magic Kingdom and received our Extra Magic Hour bracelets. Our first stop was Frontierland. Part of our group decided to ride Splash Mountain. Those not interested in late night splashes went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is a popular and beautiful ride at night!
12:00 am - Space Mountain was a must-do, so we walked to Tomorrowland. The 60-minute posted wait time was discouraging, so we hopped on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority for a relaxing late night ride through Tomorrowland.
12:35 am - We got in line for Space Mountain, hoping that we would have enough time to ride and get in line again before closing.
1:00 am - A bit of Disney magic happened and we were the last persons to enter the Space Mountain line that night!
1:15 am - We began the trek to the park exit and the resort buses. After a short wait, we boarded the bus to Port Orleans.
2:00 am - Home again -- 17 1/2 hours later! We hit a Disney grand slam ... and lived to tell about it!
In one day of a holiday weekend we managed to experience three attractions at each of the four theme parks. Most attractions we did multiple times, utilizing FastPass, single rider lines, and Extra Magic Hours. The convenience of Disney transportation was beneficial in visiting multiple parks. While not the ideal way to tour, it is definitely possible. Just wear comfortable shoes and plan to sleep in the next day!
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