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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'm hoping to plan a trip to Tokyo Disney in the next year or so, and I would like to a have decent guidebook to peruse before I go. I've read plenty of trip reports, in addition to as much online information I've been able to get my hands on.
I could order the Traveler's Series Guide to Walt Disney World, but I am currently living in South Korea, so it would take quite a while for it to get here. The same issue lies with Kevin Yee's book.
Anyways, I was wondering if the Passporter's Guide to Tokyo Disney is projected to be completed within the next few months or not? Being able to access a digital copy would be really nice in my current position.
I suppose either way I would end up waiting a while to get access to any guidebook, but the Passporter would be my preferred option, and I don't really want to spend money on one guidebook only to spend the additional money on the Passporter when it comes out. I also don't want to wait months in hopes that the Passporter will come out and not have enough time to order and receive a different guide before I go on my trip.
The last information I have found in regards to the publication was from last July, when it was still being written. I'm not all that familiar with the publishing process, but I figured at least some progress would have been made in almost a year.
I can help out a bit, as I'm the person writing it! I have finished writing it and it is in the process of being edited. It can be a long process, as there's only one editor and she has been working on other books - we already have a book out on Disneyland Paris and the Tokyo Disney one is the next one due out. She also has to do updates on the existing e-books, again something I know, as I've just been updating one of my existing e-books. I'll ask Carrie to have a look at this thread and see if she can give any indication of a rough publication timescale.
The timeline for publication is still in flux. In addition to needing time to finish editing and laying out around work on our other books, there will need to be time for revisions (due to changes related to the Tohoku Earthquake) and about a 6-week peer review process. I can't see it being done in less than 4 or 5 months from now, to be honest.
Whether that will give you enough time to plan I guess depends on your process and when you're planning to go. I planned our trip to Tokyo in just 2 weeks, and we had an amazing time. Actually, you might find the Introduction portion of my Tokyo Disney trip report somewhat helpful, as I wrote it like a mini-travel guide (and much of the same info will be in our book). Here's the link:
I always find it helpful to have multiple sources of information when planning a trip. And since our e-books are an instant download and start at only $5, you might still find it a good deal to download our guide even if you start planning with other sources.
Cheryl - I'm in the process of reading your TR right now (pg 31 of the Disney part).
Carrie - I've already read yours, which is where I first figured out that Passporter was likely going to come out with a guide at some point in the near future.
At the moment, I'm still deciding whether I want to go in the Fall or the Spring, so it seems if I hold off until the Spring, it will likely be complete in time for my planning.
I probably don't NEED a guide, but I'm so used to having practically unlimited information available for WDW that I feel a little lost trying to plan for Tokyo Disney. I'm sure everyone who has gone to TDR has experienced this...
I'll probably go ahead and order the Traveler's Series Guide, but I'll keep a look out for the Passporter!
I know that feeling only too well of feeling lost, as you're right, there is so much information out about WDW, hence why we decided to do a PassPorter, as it seems there's a niche in the market to fill.
I have to say that I adored the spring and we are planning our return for spring again, as seeing Japan with the cherry blossom out was such a magical experience.
Since I am in South Korea right now, while the cherry blossoms do have some pull, I know I'll get to see them here, so I am not as worried about them as I would be otherwise. I'm more concerned about the balance of weather and crowds. I would love to go in October to see all the Halloween decor, as I haven't seen that in the US parks, but I have heard it is one of the most crowded times at Tokyo Disney.
It seems, in general, the crowds are lighter in the spring, but being the paranoid person I am, it worries me that if I put it off that long, I won't get to go at all (travel budget and imminent danger being significant factors). Besides, unless I can finagle a trip to Hong Kong in the meantime, it would mean no Disney for 1 1/2 years, our last trip being last November. Even if it wouldn't be too long for myself, or my slightly less Disney obsessed husband, our son was only 3 months old on his first trip. Waiting until he is 1 1/2 is a lifetime from his perspective!
I just wanted to add that if you visit TDR in Sept/Oct, the halloween decorations and attractions will be operating. The parks will be packed!!! Even if it is pelting with rain - the parks will be packed!!!
The reason for this is when you purchase your park tickets (the 3 day ones) you need to specify a first use park and date, then you can only visit that park on day one and the other park on day 2 and finally you can hop between the two on day three. Therefore if the weather is poorly the people still go there...
Count me in for waiting for Cheryl's Tokyo guide - I can't wait to go again!
That's what I was afraid would happen. I just don't know if I can handle waiting until the spring, and the winter will likely be too cold for my son. We would plan our Disney time for weekdays, but the calendar for all the hotels still indicate that weekdays all Fall are a "season" busier than the weekdays in the Spring.
Maybe I should do Hong Kong late November or even December (from what I can tell the weather is much warmer there in the winter) to get my Disney fix, and go to other places in the meantime?
Oh...decisions...decisions... At least the park in Shanghai won't be open before I leave here, or else I'd be dealing with even more indecision!
Maybe I should do Hong Kong late November or even December (from what I can tell the weather is much warmer there in the winter) to get my Disney fix, and go to other places in the meantime?
Oh...decisions...decisions... At least the park in Shanghai won't be open before I leave here, or else I'd be dealing with even more indecision!
We were in Hong Kong for a week in mid February and we enjoyed the weather. It was just pleasant. That was a nice time of year to visit - I think we were there about two or three weeks after Chinese New Year and they still had all the New Year celebrations going on at Hong Kong Disneyland. It's a beautiful place full stop to visit. As I say, we were there a week and, to be honest, we didn't see anything. I'm hoping to go back one day to see some more of it - and of nearby China!
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February is definitely something to consider, but I have to decide if there is enough we want to see in the rest of Hong Kong to warrant a trip at all. I can justify spending time (and money) at Disney in Japan, because we have a long list of other places to see while we're there. Hong Kong would be nice to go to, but the rest of China requires an additional visa. We will likely be applying for and getting said visa, but it will only last 6 months and I do not anticipate doing all of China at the same time, so once we get the visa we need to go to all the places in mainland China that we wish to see, which includes Hong Kong, if we determine we wish to see some places outside the city. Since the rest of China doesn't bode as warm of winters as Hong Kong, we would need to be certain that we do the rest of China either this fall or next spring. In general, we'll probably do separate trips to Beijing and Shanghai, so do we really want to spend more time in China, or would we rather go somewhere else entirely such as Thailand or the Philippines?
I suppose, one of the reasons, I was hoping to get to Tokyo Disney this fall was so I didn't convince myself against it by the spring time. Too many places exist in this world! Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who was content to stay in one place their entire life, then I remember how boring that would be...
February is definitely something to consider, but I have to decide if there is enough we want to see in the rest of Hong Kong to warrant a trip at all. I can justify spending time (and money) at Disney in Japan, because we have a long list of other places to see while we're there. Hong Kong would be nice to go to, but the rest of China requires an additional visa. We will likely be applying for and getting said visa, but it will only last 6 months and I do not anticipate doing all of China at the same time, so once we get the visa we need to go to all the places in mainland China that we wish to see, which includes Hong Kong, if we determine we wish to see some places outside the city. Since the rest of China doesn't bode as warm of winters as Hong Kong, we would need to be certain that we do the rest of China either this fall or next spring. In general, we'll probably do separate trips to Beijing and Shanghai, so do we really want to spend more time in China, or would we rather go somewhere else entirely such as Thailand or the Philippines?
I suppose, one of the reasons, I was hoping to get to Tokyo Disney this fall was so I didn't convince myself against it by the spring time. Too many places exist in this world! Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who was content to stay in one place their entire life, then I remember how boring that would be...
There are parts of China that you can see on day trips from Hong Kong without the need for a full visa - we visited Macau and I know that there are other day trips to places like Guangzhou, which I'm keen on doing whenever we get back there. Honestly, we found more than enough to do and see during a week in Hong Kong and there's no way I'd have tried to fit in anything on mainland China in that trip, apart from the odd day trip. By the way, I can thoroughly recommend Macau - a stunning and very unusual place.
And boy do I hear you about there being too many places in the world to visit - you should see my travel list for the future!
I'll have to look into the places where we wouldn't need a full visa.
What I'm really hoping for is a MWR (military tour group) trip to be planned for this Fall/Winter. They did one last year, and while it was really short, I think a similar set up would be a good compromise between myself and my DH. Apparently, if we go through MWR he wouldn't have to charge leave. Even though the cost would still be there, at least it would free up a few extra days for somewhere else.
The one they did last year was over a long (4day) weekend with one full day touring with the group and the other full day basically "free," and of course the partial arrival and departure days. Since the Hong Kong park is so small, I wouldn't have a problem spending only one day or even a partial day there. I also think I would get my fill of Hong Kong in the rest of the time. I'm sure I COULD spend more time there, but it isn't at the top of my list.
Unfortunately, this project was put on hold after the tsunami. So many things changed that we didn't feel comfortable publishing a book until one of us had a chance to go back to Tokyo Disney to update our research.
You might check out my Tokyo Disney on Two Weeks' Notice trip report. The Introduction post is a mini travel-guide that includes everything I learned about money, hotels, airfares, getting around, etc.
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I have finished writing it and it is in the process of being edited. It can be a long process, as there's only one editor and she has been working on other books - we already have a book out on Disneyland Paris and the Tokyo Disney one is the next one due out. She also has to do updates on the existing e-books, again something I know, as I've just been updating one of my existing e-books. I'll ask Carrie to have a look at this thread and see if she can give any indication of a rough publication timescale.
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