tips for staying off property for US and WDW? - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Marriott Cypress Harbour is a nice place. but agree about it being to far from WDW - but that is less to do with where it is -than the layout of the resort.
too many speed breakers and the speed limit is 15 mph - so it can take almost 10 to 15 minutes if you are in the back to get out the front gate.
that is way too long. plus you had to watch for kids running across the parking lot.
(think it was bad design) - because the resort itself is just lovely. but for getting out of the resort it is definitely a pain.
the best western lakeside is awhole lot closer to WDW - so are several other timeshares.
I´ve stayed at the Hyatt place at the entrance of US. I found it both nice and very convenient, with a free continental breakfast...free ride to US (but you can walk 10 minutes and be there too). We did not rent a car and used the iRide bus for going to others places in the Idrive - the bus goes every 10 minutes and we got a 5 day pass. This trip we stayed 5 days and aimed to visit US parks and others non-disney so a offsite place was convenient.
Next trip we are going to do a split stay (5 nights at US - they have those 5 nights discount package that equal to a 3 night stay) than a 4 night onsite. So we planned to visit both US and IOA, Sea World and Discovery cove during off site portion (no rental car once they offer shuttles and we will have the iRide troley also avaliable). During onsite portion we will visit WDW parks (we´ve booked a 2 "one" leg shuttle from Mears , and we will use ME for returning to airport).
thanks everyone - there is a lot to consider since we are going in Canada's March Break, so I expect crowds will be huge. I've sent in an email to Universal because their hotels are showing no availability for March on-line, so they are either sold out already or they just don't do on-line bookings yet. I've been doing some reading on the boards here and discovered that the express passes that we buy only allow one ride per person per day while the on-site hotel key offers as many rides as you want, so that may be a deciding factor. I am a WDW fan and I can't see us returning to Universal very often, so if we like a ride, then it would be nice to go on it a few times. I almost wish we were just going to WDW - it's so familiar the only questions are where do we make our ADRs and where to stay on property
Awhile ago I went to WDW in March and swore I'd never do it again. (That was back in 2000, but I doubt it's changed much, crowd-wise.) Plan carefully! I remember being shoulder to shoulder and I was shocked b/c I'd never been to WDW when it was so crowded. It's like anything else though. Plan carefully and you'll be fine.
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