Seriously considering a quick trip for F&WF in October! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Location: A little over 1000 miles from my happy place!
Posts: 1,628
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 6
Likes (Received): 1
Thanks (Given): 7
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Seriously considering a quick trip for F&WF in October!
Crunching the numbers now to see if it could work for a quick mother-daughter trip (yippee no kids or hubbies!!!!) in late October. So excited to even be seriously contemplating this. Mom and I really need the break. First of all, trying to decide if we should stay on or off site. If onsite, would probably do a value resort (maybe POP) to keep it cheap (no stay at my beloved POR this time!), but since I won't have my own children, am sorta reluctant to stay somewhere where there will mostly be kids (sorry if that makes me sound horrible, but again, am really looking forward to having a break from my precious children!). If offsite, was considering the Buena Vista resort close to DtD. Anyone stay here or know if it it's a good place to stay? Would have a car, so transpo not a problem. The plan would be to do a quick two-night visit with the first day spent at DtD and maybe touring some of the resorts, and the 2nd day spent doing the F&WF (yum!!!), and then checkout the 3rd morning with maybe a nice breakfast at Boma before leaving. Any suggestions on doing a short trip like this would be much appreciated, especially from anyone who has visited during the F&FW before. Sorry for the rambling long post, but right now I'm just kinda putting it together. Oh, almost forgot, any rumblings of some room discounts being offered in October?
I would stay onsite. I heard rumours about some free dining dates coming out Aug 3, but it's only rumour, and don't know if the dates are during F&W either. Do you have AAA? Maybe you could get a room only AAA discount?
What about the Dolphin? If there's availability. I know the Epcot resorts fill up during F&W. But Sheraton is running several discounts, and if you are a teacher or work in a school, you can get a fairly good discount sometimes.
Definitely stay on-site if you're planning on having adult beverages at the F&WF. There are children at all the hotels. The ratio may seem higher at POP since it's so large. Most children are around the pool though. Hope the numbers work out for you. Mother/daughter trips are great!
If you will have a car and want to save money, the Buena Vista Suites would be a good choice. The cost is about the same as at the Value resort on Disney property, but the rooms are much larger. Check Mousesavers.com for possible discounts. The free breakfast is quite good -- not at the level of Chef Mickey's, but far better than a food court that's you'd have to pay for. We've staying there several times when we had a car and wanted to spend a day or two at Disney World.
There is a bus that runs to the parks that you could take on the day you go to the Food and Wine Festival, but when you go to Downtown Disney and Boma you can drive yourself in about the same amount of time as driving from a Disney resort would take.
Sure, the Disney resorts are more interesting and have perks such as extra magic hours, the Dining Plan, and charging privileges, but it sounds as if you wouldn't use those this trip. This is the only off-property resort I've stayed at lately, so I don't know much about other hotels nearby. We chose Buena Vista Suites because it had separate beds for my husband and me, our daughter, and our son. If you need just 2 beds there are other choices, but I don't know if they're appreciable less expensive.
....I've have also expressed DEEP INTEREST to my wife about getting to WDW for some of the F&WF. (translation: I whined at her).
It seems that we were always at WDW for Jersey Week (1st week of Nov)...and one of the benefits of that..was that F&WF was going on...and we loved it. Now that my youngest daughter is in High School...and has mostly honors and advanced placement classes...she really can't miss even a day of school without falling behind. So...my wife said, "let's see how the money goes"...and maybe WE (her/me)..can get there for a long weekend". ( gee...I hope her business REALLY DOES WELL this fall ).
Location: A little over 1000 miles from my happy place!
Posts: 1,628
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 6
Likes (Received): 1
Thanks (Given): 7
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Thanks for the responses! Checked out rates on Mousesavers this morning and looks like we would be able to get a really good rate for Buena Vista. This may be a good option for us as they also advertise included breakfast. Still working on putting together exact costs. We have AAA which may also be an option if we can get a good discount to stay on-property (always preferred if possible!) so I'm going to check that too. The good news is that more and more it looks like this will be a go after a few more number crunches!!!
About This Page: 
) in late October. So excited to even be seriously contemplating this. Mom and I really need the break. First of all, trying to decide if we should stay on or off site. If onsite, would probably do a value resort (maybe POP) to keep it cheap (no stay at my beloved POR this time!), but since I won't have my own children, am sorta reluctant to stay somewhere where there will mostly be kids (sorry if that makes me sound horrible, but again, am really looking forward to having a break from my precious children!
). If offsite, was considering the Buena Vista resort close to DtD. Anyone stay here or know if it it's a good place to stay? Would have a car, so transpo not a problem. The plan would be to do a quick two-night visit with the first day spent at DtD and maybe touring some of the resorts, and the 2nd day spent doing the F&WF (yum!!!), and then checkout the 3rd morning with maybe a nice breakfast at Boma before leaving. Any suggestions on doing a short trip like this would be much appreciated, especially from anyone who has visited during the F&FW before. Sorry for the rambling long post, but right now I'm just kinda putting it together. Oh, almost forgot, any rumblings of some room discounts being offered in October?
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
at the F&WF. There are children at all the hotels. The ratio may seem higher at POP since it's so large. Most children are around the pool though. Hope the numbers work out for you. Mother/daughter trips are great!
PassPorter Guide Author
) so I'm going to check that too. The good news is that more and more it looks like this will be a go after a few more number crunches!!!
Linear Mode
