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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Most folk probably know this, but I certainly didn't, so I wanted to share.
My DH and I have vacationed at WDW in Florida for 2 years now. This Christmas trip, we decided to go for annual passes; we're FL residents living about 1.5 hours from Orlando anyway, so what the heck. Since our birthdays fall in January, we decided to purchase our passes in January as birthday presents. We had an un-used day on a no-expiration ticket from our vacation Dec. 18-21, so we went to DHS on Friday, Jan 4.
At the end of the day, I suggested stopping in at Guest Services and picking up our annual passes instead of buying the tickets online. Boy, was I glad we did.
Because our vacation was within 14 days (barely, the wonderful CM Mary made things work for us), we could upgrade our tickets rather than purchasing an annual pass. Considering that we were purchasing FL Resident Premium Annual Passes, that took our cost from $460 each to $203 each. My jaw dropped, and then I got excited. In essence, because we had already taken (and paid for) our vacation, my APs cost me about 40% of what I was expecting.
I've read a lot of schtuff about Disney and ticketing, etc., but I hadn't seen anything about the ticket-to-annual pass upgrade. I wanted to share that tidbit in case anyone else was as ignorant as I. My thanks to the CM; I would have blindly paid the full price for the Annual Passes, and thanks to her, my 3-day park hopper turned into a 60% discount!
Actually, upgrading passes is a fairly common topic on the boards, but it's one that bears repeating over and over again for those who haven't seen it.
One thing you forgot to mention is that when you upgraded those partially-used MYW passes to APs (or in your case, FL resident APs, which have blackout dates on discounts and such), the APs were backdated to begin on the day that you first used the MYW passes. In other words, if you first used the MYW pass on Jan 1, you could upgrade them to APs any time before Jan 14. But if you upgrade them on Jan 14, the AP's expiration date will still be Jan 1 of next year, because that's the first day that you used the MYW pass.
Another rule to keep in mind is that if you have a MYW pass with the Water Parks and More option, it can only be upgraded to a Premium AP (which includes the water parks.) MYW passes that do not have the Water Parks and More option can be upgraded to a standard AP (which does not include water parks) or to a Premium AP (which does), and all you pay is the difference in price.
But again, all these upgrades must take place either before you use the ticket, or within the 14-day window after you first use it. Even if you have the no-expiry option, you cannot upgrade a ticket after the 14-day window has passed.
One more qualifier - One MYW ticket gets upgraded to One AP. You can't take MYW tickets (used or not used) and combine them to get one AP.
Enjoy those APs! I haven't had an AP myself since 2005, and I miss it, but with only going once a year now, it's just not cost-effective for me these days. If only MouseFest's dates were staggered by a week each year to allow two of them to take place within the same AP period, I could get an AP every two years and save myself a bundle on park passes, room rates, dining, shopping...
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Actually, upgrading passes is a fairly common topic on the boards, but it's one that bears repeating over and over again for those who haven't seen it.
Enjoy those APs! I haven't had an AP myself since 2005, and I miss it, but with only going once a year now, it's just not cost-effective for me these days.
I knew that I could upgrade my tickets within my vacation; I added the no-expiration option to MYW tickets last year, but I was not aware that the tickets could be rolled into annual passes. When we first spoke to the CM, she told us that we could get a discount by upgrading, but that our renewal date would be Dec. 18, the first day of the vacation. I figured the discount would be $50-100, and told her we'd just buy the APs. The thing that surprised me was how BIG the discount was. I had no clue that a leetle 3-day-park hopper would give me over $230 worth of savings.
I admit that I am extremely excited to have APs again. My DH and I had APs from 1997-2000 and dropped them because we felt that the customer service we had received in our last year was no "Disney experience," and we weren't getting much more than admission with the pass. Recently, whether it's an actual change or a case of "absence makes the heart grow fonder," we've felt that the magic has returned. We have repeatedly encountered CMs who go out of their way to do special things and create the glorious illusion that Disney really is a magical place where people are treated as people, not just as "customers." And, of course, the perks are, as you said, quite wonderful. Again, I don't know if it's older-and-wiser perception or an actual change, but it seems that post-9/11 Disney has been focusing on its Florida and domestic markets more, offering discounts and benefits to lure us in. (In our case, it's working). We're intending on picking up DDE (and, yes, I know about the gratuity change for 2008 and am fine with it) and eating our way around the World. And, since we upgraded to a premium AP, I'm planning on going to my first water park. I've lived in Florida 12 years, and I've never been to a water park, which is pretty sad.
All right, I'll be quiet now; I'm excited, and I'm burbling. But the thing that surprised me most was the AMOUNT of discount from the tickets...I had no idea that upgrading rather than buying would be that nice to my wallet (actually, to my Disney Visa). 3 days paid for 60% of a year...wow....
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Ticket upgrade to AP
My jaw dropped, and then I got excited. In essence, because we had already taken (and paid for) our vacation, my APs cost me about 40% of what I was expecting. 
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3 days paid for 60% of a year...wow....
of Florida residents that can get these wonderful rates.
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