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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
We had originally planned to go down to WDW December 8th early in the morning, but after looking at flight costs – it was cheaper to fly down Wednesday evening and stay in a Value resort for the night. So after finalizing our dates we decided to book our rooms – one night at All Star Movies and four nights at Wilderness Lodge in a woods view room – we figured we would go all out !
It was then time to book the flights! We used Kayak and Delta seemed to have the cheapest flights – but with baggage fees (we were planning on checking one bag – which D.O.D. Dear old Dad didn't want to take – but ended up using most of the space in it! ) ended up being more expensive than Jet Blue with one free checked bag! We went ahead and booked our flights – and am glad that we did, because the prices soared about a month later!
After deciding our dates, our resorts and booking our flights, we checked out all of the events going on – there were a bunch of All Ears meets going on during our stay – and we wanted to do them all . . . well, once again, I wanted to do them all . After going through all of the lotteries and not getting a single one (and forgetting to enter a few ) - we were excited when a few events were posted that didn't require tickets – these included the Holiday Lights Tour at Fort Wilderness and the Chocolate Challenge at Epcot. After adding these events into our itinerary and checking touring plans (great, great, great tool!), we finalized our days . . .
Thursday – Magic Kingdom and Lights Tour that evening
Friday – Hollywood Studios (our FIRST time going here!!)
Saturday – Epcot (Dad's Birthday)
Sunday – Animal Kingdom and Chocolate Challenge
Monday – Downtown Disney
Next up was waiting for the 180 day mark for our ADR's . . . well I have a habit of being prepared really far in advance, but once the date comes I completely forget . . . not exactly the best thing . . . Well, after forgetting to book our reservations, until . . . October . . . we were only able to get Trail's End, Whispering Canyon, and Chef's Mickey – not too shabby, but unfortunately we were unable to get Ohana !
After doing all of this . . . in about one week . . . all that was left was to plan some more, count down, read about other people's trips, and plan some more (did I mention that ).
Next up I'll write about our final pre-departure plans and then I'll get to the exciting part – our trip! Thanks again for reading everyone!
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) ended up being more expensive than Jet Blue with one free checked bag! We went ahead and booked our flights – and am glad that we did, because the prices soared about a month later!
. After going through all of the lotteries and not getting a single one 
(and forgetting to enter a few 
) - we were excited when a few events were posted that didn't require tickets – these included the Holiday Lights Tour at Fort Wilderness and the Chocolate Challenge at Epcot. After adding these events into our itinerary and checking touring plans (great, great, great tool!), we finalized our days . . . 
. . . Well, after forgetting to book our reservations, until . . . October . . . we were only able to get Trail's End, Whispering Canyon, and Chef's Mickey – not too shabby, but unfortunately we were unable to get Ohana 
<--- Disney Fantasy 2016!
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