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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I booked our resort reservations in late October and then I had to wait until November 6 to start making our dining reservations. For those of you that don't know, dining reservations can be made at 60 days out. At first with just a 3 day trip I wasn't sure I wanted to be bogged down by reservations, but after a bit of research I decided we wanted to do the World of Color dining package. Ariel's Grotto seemed to be the restaurant that would appeal to Lexi the most, so I went for that one.
DL started offering online dining reservations in October, so I hopped on the computer on day 60 and kept getting a server error. Alrighty. I decided to try again after work and see if the bugs were worked out. No such luck after work , so I had to call. I got a very nice CM that explained there was a glitch for AG and no one (not even them) has been able to book the WoC package for AG the past couple days. I decided to go ahead and book one of the other restaurants, just in case and then keep trying until the glitch was worked out.
The next evening after work, I called and got another very nice CM that told me she hadn't had any luck that day, but she would give a try. To her surprise she was able to make it all the way through and changed my WoC package to AG! I booked a 5:30pm reservation for 5 to include Brian and Whitney and chose the 9:00 showing of the WoC. While I had them on the phone I also added a 7:00am breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on our last day. That will just be the three of us as I figure Brian and Whitney would not want to get up that early. The parks open at 8:00 that day, so we can enjoy a character meal on our last morning before we head to the parks.
So there you have my very long explanation for just 2 dining reservations!
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Glad you were able to get AG for WOC pkg. We didn't get to see it, so that is another reason the girls and I want to go back, plus I want more time in DL. There was so much we didn't ride or even get to see. BTMRR was closed, so we never even went back that way, we never went into Toontown and we only saw TL on our way out of the park at midnight.
I am so excited for you!!!
Very smart to get the WOC package! I found the character meals a lot of fun at DLR-- they're not quite the same as at WDW. You get more characters, and not all related to the theme of the restaurant.
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So glad you were finally able to get Ariel's Grotto!
Quote:
Originally Posted by stardust190
Glad you were able to get the WoC package you wanted!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Glad you were able to get AG for WOC pkg. We didn't get to see it, so that is another reason the girls and I want to go back, plus I want more time in DL. There was so much we didn't ride or even get to see. BTMRR was closed, so we never even went back that way, we never went into Toontown and we only saw TL on our way out of the park at midnight.
I am so excited for you!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Glad you were able to get the WoC package at AG!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Very smart to get the WOC package! I found the character meals a lot of fun at DLR-- they're not quite the same as at WDW. You get more characters, and not all related to the theme of the restaurant.
I was very excited today when our doorbell rang and it was UPS with our Disneyland package. Included was all of our documents, our park tickets and three very nice Cars themed luggage tags. They are now stored in a safe place until it is time to pack.
Of course I had to take a few pictures to share with you guys!
Everything together.
The inside of the envelope which held all of our paperwork and park tickets.
Our park tickets.
Our luggage tags. I turned one over so you could see the back.
Since I have my last week of work next week before Christmas break and then Christmas itself coming up I found that the excitement for our trip has been pushed aside. Receiving our paperwork and tickets really made the trip seem real and the excitement is beginning to grow!!!
As far as park plans go I have a rough outline, but nothing is concrete other than our dining and WOC reservations. Our first day, Thursday January 2, we will head out bright and early from Brian and Whitney's house and hopefully make it to Disneyland a little after park opening. We plan on starting out at Disneyland and then taking a mid-day break to check in at the Disneyland Hotel.
After we check in and explore the resort, we will head out again to the parks. We have park hoppers, so we could end up in either park after our break.
On our second day, Friday January 3, we will head to California Adventure for the extra magical hour. We will start in Carsland and go from there. We have 5:30 dinner reservations at AG with a voucher to see the 9:00 WOC. I am excited that all of the Holiday decorations/celebrations will still be around until January 6th, so we get to see WOC Winter Dreams. Tonight CA is open until 11:00pm and DL is open until midnight and we plan on squeezing out every possible minute. If we end up taking a mid-day break on this day, I would love to spend a bit of time at the Grand Californian to check it out and take pictures.
On our last day, Saturday January 4, we have 7:00am breakfast reservations at Goofy's Kitchen. I am excited to try a character meal at DL because, as Lauriep mentioned, you get more characters and they don't necessarily go with the theme of the restaurant. It will be a surprise who we get to meet! After breakfast we will probably finish up our packing and then head out to the parks. We will choose which park that morning and go from there! Our flight leaves LAX at 5:45pm, so we will probably head to the airport about 3 hours before our flight.
It will be a whirlwind trip, but just enough to get our feet wet. I hope three days is enough to really get a feel for DL.
I love the way puts these packages together. Very festive and exciting and the luggage tags are really nice.
I think with three days and staying on-site you'll definitely have enough time to get a good feel for the resort. If you focus on the attractions that are different from WDW and also take time to enjoy the charm of DL, you'll have a great time.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
I decided to try again after work and see if the bugs were worked out. No such luck after work 
, so I had to call. I got a very nice CM that explained there was a glitch for AG and no one (not even them) has been able to book the WoC package for AG the past couple days. 
I decided to go ahead and book one of the other restaurants, just in case and then keep trying until the glitch was worked out.
I booked a 5:30pm reservation for 5 to include Brian and Whitney and chose the 9:00 showing of the WoC. While I had them on the phone I also added a 7:00am breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on our last day. That will just be the three of us as I figure Brian and Whitney would not want to get up that early. The parks open at 8:00 that day, so we can enjoy a character meal on our last morning before we head to the parks.
PassPorter Guide Author
Liz 
everyone!
Included was all of our documents, our park tickets and three very nice Cars themed luggage tags. They are now stored in a safe place until it is time to pack.
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