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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Yep, you read it right...I have the most wonderful DH ever!
He just booked flights for my youngest DS and me on my favourite airline to Tokyo Disney for 8 days! OMGosh I'm so excited! I need to decide which hotel and do some serious planning as we are going on June 2nd. Wow! Did I mention how excited I am?
I'm looking for any ideas or tips about weather,special events (easter celebration will still be on) and character dining (looking to book toy story at Diamond Horseshoe but I can't navigate Japanese website...) TIA
I can't help with that time of the year, as we went in March/April for cherry blossom. However, if you can afford it, the MiraCosta gets my vote as your resort. It is just stunning and having your own entrance into Tokyo DisneySea is a very special perk. We went for a room with a view into Tokyo DisneySea and that was amazing.
If you have problems with the Japanese website, then try emailing them. I wanted tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show when it was on there and the booking was all in Japanese. I emailed, explained the situation and they booked us front row seats, with us collecting the tickets from the box office. It's still rare for them to have English speaking visitors, but in my experience, when they do and you get in touch with them, they will go out of their way for you.
With eight days, are you planning on spending some time in Tokyo as well? I would say you probably need no more than four or five days in Disney itself and Tokyo is a beautiful city. It would be a shame to go and not see some of the sights there.
Any other help you need with planning, just shout and I'll do what I can to help!
I looked into the MiraCosta hotel and can only get the first two nights of our stay there so didn't book yet. However we can get every night at the Disney Ambassador hotel for a little more each night. I will be travelling with my 6yr old DS and I probably wouldn't like to do a split stay for such a short time.
We last visited in Sept & Oct 2010 and toured the city and also Osaka via bullet train (including a visit at Universal Studios). I would like to have just one day away from the Disney resort just to visit the multi story toy stores (my DS remembers clearly the amount of LEGO he got there last time). During our previous visit it rained every day very heavily but we still managed to do all we wanted in the parks (and with a family of 5px that's a great feat) so we are hoping for better weather despite June being the wet season-lol.
Thanks Cheryl for the tip on the restaurant booking - I'll be sure to check it out.
I can understand you not wanting to do a split stay for that amount of time and if you can get the Ambassador, I'd go for that.
with the weather - I hope it rains less this time around! We were so lucky with the weather on our trip, beautiful blue skies and lovely and warm every day we were in Disney.
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Slight change of plans...
I called the TDR reservation centre and booked the Disneyland hotel (superior room - cheapest option still available-lol) for all but two days. I'm hoping that I can nab the MiraCosta for our final days.
The CM told me that as it gets closer guests realise their plans have changed and they cancel to avoid penalties. So it was better for us to know we have somewhere for the beginning of our trip rather then stress over it.
I have checked out the Tokyo Bay Hilton and they have plenty of availability for our final nights if need be. However I'm still hanging to stay at the MC (TA keeping tabs and me checking online each day should hopefully get us in).
And thanks to Cheryl I know when to call back and arrange our Woody & Bullseye meal - one month in advance of meal. THANK YOU!
Slight change of plans...
I called the TDR reservation centre and booked the Disneyland hotel (superior room - cheapest option still available-lol) for all but two days. I'm hoping that I can nab the MiraCosta for our final days.
The CM told me that as it gets closer guests realise their plans have changed and they cancel to avoid penalties. So it was better for us to know we have somewhere for the beginning of our trip rather then stress over it.
I have checked out the Tokyo Bay Hilton and they have plenty of availability for our final nights if need be. However I'm still hanging to stay at the MC (TA keeping tabs and me checking online each day should hopefully get us in).
And thanks to Cheryl I know when to call back and arrange our Woody & Bullseye meal - one month in advance of meal. THANK YOU!
Glad I could help!
Wow - congrats on the Disneyland Hotel, it looked amazing when we walked through the lobby. I hope the MiraCosta works out for you.
You might want to check out the Sheraton for those last few nights as well. We only spent one night there, but we were very impressed with it.
Quick question for anyone who has visited TDR - I usually leave small gifts each day in the room (from mickey of course) when we travel to WDW. However this trip I will be with just my youngest DS. Is there any service in Tokyo Disney like the Disney Florist or Memories by Betsy?
Really it's not such a big deal but at 6 he really won't believe that Mickey left them for too many more years if any! I do want to make this trip special. It is the first time (aside from the newborn stage) where I have taken one child and not the others.
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Quick question for anyone who has visited TDR - I usually leave small gifts each day in the room (from mickey of course) when we travel to WDW. However this trip I will be with just my youngest DS. Is there any service in Tokyo Disney like the Disney Florist or Memories by Betsy?
Really it's not such a big deal but at 6 he really won't believe that Mickey left them for too many more years if any! I do want to make this trip special. It is the first time (aside from the newborn stage) where I have taken one child and not the others.
I never came across any. I have to say one of the best things were all the toiletries in the room. We took ours with ours - they were just so beautifully wrapped, so if you could sneak some of those out of sight, you could then put them out. I seem to remember we got toothbrushes as well as the traditional body lotion. I think there was note paper and probably slippers as well?
Thanks again Cheryl! I just called and booked "Woody's Roundup" show and meal and the "Polynesian Luau" for days 1 & 3. I was able to call the Disney Reservation Centre and confirm our booking (as I had added my Mum) AND book the meal reservations. The CM tried to offer me Chef Mickey's as well but we had already done that last time (my DS remembers the Jelly Belly beans at the dessert station-lol) and I wanted somewhere new to us.
I also gave up on staying at the Mira Costa but I'm really happy we get to spend so long at the Disneyland Hotel...then off to the Tokyo Bay Hilton (which I got for the absolute cheapest rate at 34 000Yen for TWO nights-WOW!!!)
Upside is we can purchase park tickets from the DL hotel and they will be hoppers for the length of stay. Yes! Park hopping from day one NOT day three as we were expecting. Since it is my DM's first time I'm guessing we probably won't need to park hop the first day anyway but it's nice to know we have the freedom to do so. She is busy checking out the shows and restaurants she would like to visit - not long now!
My DD has already requested that we bring home "anything Donald" AND the slippers and small tin from the amenities kit in the bathroom. I am sure we will be doing lots of shopping.
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