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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
My mom just got recently diagnosed with Parkinsons. Should she get a GAC? We will have one for my son (autistic) but I'm wondering if she wouldn't benefit from one too? Since it's all so new I'm not sure how she'll do with all the walking. I was thinking GAC for shaded queue waits and being able to sit. What do you think? Also, should I have it noted on our reservation at BWV and request a room close to the elevators? TIA
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
I would go ahead and get a GAC for your DMom as well. ON our last trip we had a GAC for my DD with Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis (a physical disability) and also one for my DBF with Social Anxiety and OCD. They each needed accommodations for for their disabilities. They both got a stamp for the use of alternate entrances where available, it was each for separate reasons. DD needed it because of her wheelchair, and DBF needed it because his social anxiety would cause him to have anxiety attacks if the crowds were too large for him and he were trapped in a queue line that he could not get out of. (Thankfully, this never happened since he made good use of his GAC.)
Decide what would best help your DMom and then get her the GAC. You never know if you might separate and do something on your own. This way if your DMom is not with you and your DS then she can still get the accommodations that she needs.
I've got a little different perspective and I'm not sure that a GAC will provide as much assistance as you think it may.
Most of the queues are shaded or roofed in some cases are even indoors. The one attraction where we have had trouble with the queue being in the sun is the Nemo musical at AK; we asked there about any ability to wait out of the sun and were told they had no accommodation for that.
If you are concerned about walking enough to think of a room closer to the elevator, I think you will find that she needs a wheelchair, ECV or a rollator (a rolling walker with a seat). We have seen many people using rollators on our last 3 trips to WDW - they provide support and stability while walking, a place to lean against and a seat that can be folded down whenever the user wants to sit.
Most attractions either have slowly moving lines that are constantly moving or, if you are standing still in a preshow, they don't normally have anywhere to sit. With a GAC, you may be offered a wheelchair for use in the line, but there is no guarantee they will have one.
Also, the GAC won't usually shorten the distance walked - and some queues are very long, whether you are in the Fastpass or Standard line. For example, someone used a pedometer to measure the distance from the entrance to the queue in Soarin' to the boarding area and found it was 1/4 mile. After riding, you have to walk the same distance to get back out again (plus go up and down the very steep entrance hill to get into and out of the Land).
Just the distance going around the lake at World Showcase is 1.1 to 1.3 miles (shorter if you walk closer to the lake, farther if you walk closer to the buildings). When you put all the walking between attractions together, she will be walking much more outside of queues than waiting inside the queues where a GAC could help her.
So, my suggestion would be to talk to her about a wheelchair, ECV or a rollator (if she wants to walk). She would not need a GAC to use those and I think having a mobility aid would make for a much more pleasant vacation.
I would also recommend a ECV for her. I personally would get a GAC id she does have a ECV stamped to use the handicapped entrance. The reason I recommend this is simple.. Some ques are not too easy to negotiate with a ECV. I learned this the hard way, & when a cast member refused to let me enter the handicapped entrance without a GAC & I had to go all the way back to the EPCOT entrance to get one. It took me almost a hour to get from the back of EPCOT to get it & return to the ride.
I will never not get a GAC & if I don't need it OK, But if I do need it, I have it!
I also found the Toy Story Mania que impossible to get through on a ECV & use my GAC there..
I agree with Deb I've seen many guests having difficulties with the EVCs/wheelchairs at some of the rides and a GAC would have been more help to them. I would get it just in case. I've she doesn't end up needing it that's great but I think the piece of mind having it will be worth the stop to pick it up.
I've got a little different perspective and I'm not sure that a GAC will provide as much assistance as you think it may.
.
I agree with that. I think WDW has taken pains to make so many of the queues fully accessible for many disabilities. If the GAC doesn't provide much assistance, it would probably be because, as far as reasonable accommodations go, not very much is really necessary.
WDW also has a Guidemap especially for Guests with Disabilities.
The old format was a booklet, but the new format since about a year ago is a map, very similar to the ‘regular’ park maps. You can find them at the entrance of each park in the large rack of park maps. If you don’t see them there, you can pick one up at Guest Relations or the place where ECVs and wheelchairs can be rented.
Those maps include a map that looks like the regular park map, but has additional information about things like wheelchair entry instructions for the different attractions. In most cases, you will see that the handicapped entry is listed as “Enter through the Standard queue.” For the attractions with Fastpass, the instructions usually say to “Obtain a Fastpass or use the Standard queue.”
AK and the Studio were built with Mainstream, wheelchair accessible lines for almost all attractions. Epcot and MK were not built to be fully accessible, but as attractions have been added or renovated, they added Mainstream Lines as much as possible.
About This Page: 
Our last WDW trip as a family 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I've seen many guests having difficulties with the EVCs/wheelchairs at some of the rides and a GAC would have been more help to them. I would get it just in case. I've she doesn't end up needing it that's great but I think the piece of mind having it will be worth the stop to pick it up.
Linear Mode
