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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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View Poll Results: Notice that I have been quiet for two whole days! Why do you think this is?!
You have been very busy delivering babies!
10
19.23%
You have once again completely changed things around!
Well, I can't believe I am doing this but it is time to make our ADR's for our December trip already!! Now I have two trips on the horizon and more stuff to share with you guys!!
Where: You'll find out soon!!
Who: Me! (Tara O'Hara) and Muffin (Muffin O'Hara )
When: Well! This part of our adventure was originally supposed to be from December 1st through December 5th. Then we were going to stay at the airport for the night and go on the Freedom of the Seas from December 6th through December 13th!! Since I simply had to make just a few changes, I'll explain what happened subsequently .
Why: We bought an annual pass this year and we WDW at Christmas time!! And!! We got a free cruise with RCCL and would also love to see the ship all decked out for Christmas.
Hopefully, this trip will be a lot more boring to plan than my upcoming one in July. We are simply trying to take advantage of our annual passes and since we are sailing out of Port Canaveral for our cruise, we couldn't resist tacking on some time at WDW beforehand!!
AKL is and always has been my absolute favorite resort!! From the moment I first pulled up to that magical place, it has put a spell on me that has, so far, lasted for 13 years!! I hope it is never broken. I have been fortunate enough to stay a great many unique places throughout my lifetime and AKL is still number one on my list. I have never stayed anywhere else where you can sit on your balcony and watch a giraffe walk by!! It is still inconceivable to me how it is possible to do so! This is truly the epitome of Disney Magic at it's finest.
Muffin, who is more of a Wilderness Lodge kind of guy, truly lives to make me happy (well, there may be a few more reasons, but I can't think of any) and knowing how I feel about AKL, suggested that I choose where to stay this time. I am more than sure that he figured I would immediately say AKL. But in truth, they are both beautiful resorts and he is definitely the giver in our marriage. So, since we have already seen AKL in all of its Christmas finery, I swallowed hard, put on a happy face, and said that I would love to stay at the WL this time.
After some discussion, we decided to branch out and stay at a different resort all together! But where????
We have been lucky enough to stay at most of the deluxe resorts over the years and we thought going back to the Poly might be nice. Then we saw the prices and the only things left were way out of our range. There was a MK view room for the low, low price of 652 dollars a night!! We also considered the Grand Floridian again as we have visited it at Christmas time and it is absolutely gorgeous!! Sadly, again it was more then we wanted to spend, so we went back to the drawing board once again.
So! We started to look at Epcot resorts. As you all know, we were going to stay at the Yacht Club for our trip this time. We started thinking about it and realized that when we stayed there 12 years ago for our 20th anniversary, we absolutely loved it!! We looked online at the Christmas decorations and were very impressed.
We also Epcot at Christmas time and figured since we were sans the little dude, we would spend a little more time there. We also like the fact that you can hop a boat launch to HS and the Osbourne Lights!! We love the back entrance to Epcot and we love the walk over to the Boardwalk!! The more we thought about it, the more excited we got and we decided that this was going to be our holiday adventure for this year!!
So I said that we were originally planning on staying for just four nights and five days this time. We again decided that this would not be enough time to see everything we wanted to, so we decided to add a day on the front end of our trip and also to ditch the airport hotel on December 5th and instead stay at the Yacht Club until the morning of December 6th!!
Our cruise leaves on the 6th so we will get up early and take the sad bus to the airport and then get a shuttle to Port Canaveral to board the Freedom of the Seas!! We have friends joining us for this part of the trip and we will meet them onboard.
So, the only event that I have planned is MVMCP on December 3rd. We won't be doing a dining package this time either. We will eat a nice dinner every night, but the other meals can be super casual or even a snack. We are hoping to see the Christmas Illuminations and spend time at Epcot for the Christmas festivities there. We will most definitely go to see the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights!!
So, we will be at the Yacht Club from November 30th through December 6th. I am thinking we will spend 2 days at MK, 2 days at Epcot, 1 day at AK and 1 day at HS. We are still working on how to divide our days up.
We will then board the beautiful Freedom of the Seas for a week in the Western Caribbean. Our cruise stops are Labadee (Royal Caribbean's private island), Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I will post this part of the trip in Globetrotting.
I am so excited to have, not one but, two Disney trips to look forward to this year!! We've already made our ADR's and our resort reservation!!
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That trip sounds great! And I was right, we leave November 28th, so I'm just missing you! I can't wait to hear about it, especially since we are going so close together!
A nice start to the planning and looks like a winner! Looking forward to see your ADRs!
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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!
I'm loving all your plans so far as well as you excitement. I think the Yacht Club is going to be a great resort choice, too. Can't wait to hear where you are eating.
That trip sounds great! And I was right, we leave November 28th, so I'm just missing you! I can't wait to hear about it, especially since we are going so close together!
That's a bummer that we will just miss each other!. I think we are neck and neck excited!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
A nice start to the planning and looks like a winner! Looking forward to see your ADRs!
Thanks, Dave!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I'm loving all your plans so far as well as you excitement. I think the Yacht Club is going to be a great resort choice, too. Can't wait to hear where you are eating.
Thanks, Cam!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I have to say Tara, I have heard you say that before...
Yay! Another Tara pre-trip! Aaaand, we will just miss you again. We will be back in December, but a couple of weeks after you. I look forward to hearing about your stay at the Yacht Club. We don't get much info. on that one. I also look forward to reading about your cruise. Maybe I'll write a little something about our Christmas stay at the WL, so Muffin can share in that one.
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Since I simply had to make just a few changes, I'll explain what happened subsequently 
.
WDW at Christmas time!! And!! We got a free cruise with RCCL and would also love to see the ship all decked out for Christmas.
But where???? 
We also considered the Grand Floridian again as we have visited it at Christmas time and it is absolutely gorgeous!! 
We love the back entrance to Epcot and we love the walk over to the Boardwalk!! The more we thought about it, the more excited we got and we decided that this was going to be our holiday adventure for this year!!
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
and some of my favorite islands too!!!
Looking forward to see your ADRs! 
. I think we are neck and neck excited!!! 
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