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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 got up really early and the late arriving boys were definitely tired. We got ready for the day, packed everything up, and checked out. At this point, I was really wishing we were already at All Star Resort. We drove straight to All Star Resort and checked in. We parked and took a bus to the Magic Kingdom.
We arrived about 30 minutes before park opening and waited a bit through the bag check before they finally let us in. Even once in, we couldn’t go past the central hub until 8am. Once the park was truly open, we headed for Barnstormer. One family was in front of us, it was a woman with two very small children. The CM was telling her that due to their height, an adult had to ride with each child and since she had only one adult- they couldn’t ride. I volunteered for one of her little ones to ride with me which she quickly accepted. This left Wesley to ride alone, but he didn’t mind. We had a fun, albeit short ride on Barnstormer.
We stopped for a quick bathroom break before heading to Dumbo which was a walk on as well.
Next, we headed for Under the Sea ride which had no wait- the first hour or two is always great! We then stopped inside Gaston’s Tavern and got three huge cinnamon buns. We each split one as they are huge and we tend to eat lunch on the early side so didn’t want to be stuffed.
After our cinnamon buns, we headed for Philharmagic where we had to wait close to 10 minutes for the next show. I just love this show!
It was about 9:15am when we made it to Small World which had a posted 10 minute wait but was really about half of that. Haunted Mansion was next with a posted 20 minute wait, but again- the wait was about half of that.
It was now about 10:45am and we were ready for lunch. Everyone except Wesley wanted Peco Bill’s. I had the fajita platter, Dillon had a burrito, and the other three had tacos. They have an excellent toppings bar and the meal was very good. Wesley went to Main Street for a macaroni hotdog and was going to bring it back and eat with us. However, he returned with just popcorn. He said the line was too long and he got popcorn as a hold me over instead. I told him he should’ve just got in the line- it probably would have been quick.
After lunch, we headed to Country Bears which we had not seen in the last several trips. We had good timing as we walked in just minutes before the next show was to start.
Around noon, we headed to Carpets of Aladdin which had a posted 15 minute wait and it was pretty accurate. Up next was Pirates of the Caribbean which we had a fast pass for. I was glad to have the FP as the wait time was 40 minutes.
We then headed to Splash Mountain. I hate to get wet, but I love this ride so I brave it with a poncho. We had a fast pass for Big Thunder that would not be good for another thirty minutes, so we took a full circle train ride while waiting. After our train ride, we enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain RR.
I wanted to meet Mickey but when we checked our wait time app it was posted at about an hour and a half, so we decided to put it off for now.
We rode Peter Pan with a 2:30pm Fast Pass before heading off to the Tiki Room where we had just missed a show which meant we had about a 15 minute wait. Wesley was starving as he still hadn’t eaten, but all the eatery lines were long. I told him he was just going to have to suck it up and wait in a line. But he didn’t.
We had managed to get an additional fast pass for Jungle Cruise (Jingle Cruise) where my kids acted like this was the first time they had heard all of the corny jokes and thought it was just the driver. I assured them, it is the same jokes every time and they just didn’t remember.
Even though it was not even quite 5pm, I was exhausted and proposed going back to the resort. No one needed their arm twisted- we headed for the buses. We had dinner at the resort which had very limited choices. I had really wanted a pasta dish, but they didn’t have any pasta other than spaghetti and meatballs which I did not want. I had a burger and most of the other kids had burgers as well. Wesley and Madilyn went back to the parks for a bit later that night; they were able to get a few fast passes. They stayed until about 11pm.
I did not enjoy our room location at all. I usually get preferred rooms, but didn’t because it was a short trip and I knew we would be spending so much time in the parks, that I wasn’t concerned about being near the main resort area- food court, etc. However, I did care about being close to a parking lot as we drive ourselves to all parks other than MK. I didn’t realize there were buildings that were not only far from the lobby, but also far from the parking lot. This was not enjoyable. I thought all rooms were near a parking lot- turns out I was wrong. We did have connecting rooms and they were clean, but the location was no fun. We got a good night’s sleep and were all set for Animal Kingdom the next day.
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