From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 17 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
That was a whole lot of traffic! We loved our 2-bedroom villa at OKW back in the fall. It really is the perfect spot for larger families. Sharing the room with June's family was so easy there.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Getting caught up. I miss Busch Gardens. My aunt used to live in Clearwater, and then in Largo (between Clearwater and St. Pete), and when I'd go visit her, Busch Gardens was usually part of the trip. Sadly, she passed away in 2011, and I haven't been back to the Gulf Coast since then - combination of too many memories, and not wanting to leave the Disney Bubble.
Sorry for your loss. I can understand you not wanting to return there.
That was a whole lot of traffic! We loved our 2-bedroom villa at OKW back in the fall. It really is the perfect spot for larger families. Sharing the room with June's family was so easy there.
Having now stayed in one ourselves, I can appreciate that so much more.
Sunday 26 February – part one: why can’t we go to the ticket booth?
Once again, the day got off to an early start – 2:05am to be precise – when Mark had a coughing fit and woke me up. After I don’t know how long, I did finally settle back into some form of sleep, and the next time I surfaced, it was just after 5:00am, as I knew he was up and about, as I could hear him tapping on his laptop keyboard.
I caught up on the trip report, and eventually got going, putting our extensive kitchen facilities to good use to… make a cup of tea! It was nice to finally see what the view outside was like, after guessing last night…
We headed out about 7:40am, and it was a beautiful morning…
However, we soon hit traffic, as we obviously didn’t leave it late enough for all the race traffic to be out of the way.
I have never seen so many Disney buses together this early in the morning!
We made it to the Studios just after 8:00am, which was Extra Magic Hours opening, and we were very glad we’d both decided to go bagless. Stupid us, we attempted to get into the park, and of course our Annual Passes weren’t linked to our account. It just figures… We were told by a very surly Cast Member that we had to go to guest relations, which I thought was wrong. After all, if it was ticket related, why couldn’t we go to any ticket booth? In the end, I lost my temper waiting in line when they patently didn’t have enough Cast Members working for the number of people in line (it was a lot ) and I went to check if we could go to a ticket booth. Of course we could!
We finally got into the park about 20 minutes later, and I went to get a Disability Access Card (have I got that right? It’s the new name for the Guest Assistance Card) and that was fine, but we were a bit shocked to be told that Disney are planning to phase it out. Apparently, the idea is that all queues will be wheelchair accessible. ok, so how does that work for me then? I asked the Cast Member if they’d have a wheelchair available at every attraction for me then, and she said which didn’t surprise me.
I then went on to ask how it would work for a family whose child is autistic and has difficulty with crowd issues, and she couldn’t answer. I did say that I didn’t think this had been thought out at all. I suspect Disney is trying to crack down on abuse of the system, which I get, but I can happily produce a letter from my doctor, saying the problems I have, except Cast Members aren’t allowed to read it, from what I can gather, due to privacy laws, which seems crazy to me.
Oh and even better, apparently they keep having issues with the Disability Access Card and Annual Passes, so she suggested we go to guest relations every day we’re in a park first thing to check it is still on there until we’re sure it is. Really? Good grief, this is nuts!
Anyway, after such a rough start to the day, things can only get better, right? Well, we managed to snag a Photopass photographer…
… then we headed in here to get breakfast.
The second we saw these…
… we were sold! As someone said on Facebook later, a bit of a weird breakfast, and it was, but it worked for us.
From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 3/26
Yikes, sounds like a rough start! I can't believe they're planning on phasing out the DAC. Hopefully that was some misinformation! I really don't see how they can do that, when so many people have reasons to need it that aren't strictly wheelchair related. (Although it would be wonderful if they could eliminate abuse of the system.)
Beautiful views from your room, wow! Good use of the facilities to make some tea.
Not surprised the traffic was still bad that early with the race going on. That's pretty normal!
But I am surprised that the folks at DHS were giving you such a hard time with your AP situation. That's not cool. And what's this nonsense about doing away with the GAC (or whatever it's called?)?!?! That will simply not work for many, many families. If I ever get my DH back to WDW, he will need one with his multiple back issues. Oh boy.....
OH - and that's what I call the breakfast of champions.
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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I still think it's weird to see the Great Movie Ride instead of the Sorcerer's hat when you enter the park. I really miss the hat
It is weird, but I was never a huge fan of the hat in all honesty. I always liked to see the Great Movie Ride, but you don't really even get to see that with the Star Wars stage there.
Yikes, sounds like a rough start! I can't believe they're planning on phasing out the DAC. Hopefully that was some misinformation! I really don't see how they can do that, when so many people have reasons to need it that aren't strictly wheelchair related. (Although it would be wonderful if they could eliminate abuse of the system.)
I know - I just don't see how phasing it out is going to help those who really need it. And as for stopping abuse of the system, I think the only way is for people to provide evidence of why they need help, but as I understand that, that won't work, as even though I can provide a letter from my doctor explaining my condition, people can't read it due to privacy laws. With that restriction, I just don't know how they'll ever stop abuse.
And what's this nonsense about doing away with the GAC (or whatever it's called?)?!?! That will simply not work for many, many families. If I ever get my DH back to WDW, he will need one with his multiple back issues. Oh boy.....
I know. There are so many varied reasons why people need the GAC/its successor and I just don't get how wheelchair accessible lines are going to help with that.
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OH - and that's what I call the breakfast of champions.
Ugh, I hate to think about them phasing out disability access, and it makes me so mad to think that people abused it and will now impact those who really need it. Wheelchair access is great, but we also cannot do 2 hour waits if we want DH to be able to ride more than one thing a day.
I hope your day improves from the park-entry frustrations! The cupcakes were a good start!
Nice views from your room at OKW! I can't believe the amount of WDW buses on the road so early! I can't believe the way the CM acted to you regarding your APs! You are having so many problems with tickets and MBs on this trip and doesn't make sense! I hope the whole situation is rectified shortly!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Ugh, I hate to think about them phasing out disability access, and it makes me so mad to think that people abused it and will now impact those who really need it. Wheelchair access is great, but we also cannot do 2 hour waits if we want DH to be able to ride more than one thing a day.
Honestly, reading everyone's comments, all with very different circumstances for needing accommodations, just makes me wonder what on earth Disney are thinking with this. I really hope the Cast Member was off the money with her comment, but sadly I got the impression she wasn't.
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I hope your day improves from the park-entry frustrations! The cupcakes were a good start!
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We loved our 2-bedroom villa at OKW back in the fall. It really is the perfect spot for larger families. Sharing the room with June's family was so easy there. 
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I can understand you not wanting to return there.
After I don’t know how long, I did finally settle back into some form of sleep, and the next time I surfaced, it was just after 5:00am, as I knew he was up and about, as I could hear him tapping on his laptop keyboard. 
It was nice to finally see what the view outside was like, after guessing last night… 
Apparently, the idea is that all queues will be wheelchair accessible. 
ok, so how does that work for me then? I asked the Cast Member if they’d have a wheelchair available at every attraction for me then, and she said 
As someone said on Facebook later, a bit of a weird breakfast, and it was, but it worked for us. 
I can't believe the way the CM acted to you regarding your APs! 
I hope the whole situation is rectified shortly! 
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