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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I was told casitas 1,2 and 3 are preferred. How long of a walk is it to the main pool from there? Are there any shuttles that run through the resort? We are traveling with my mother who has emphysema so walking long distances is an issue. She is getting an ECV for the parks but not the resort because she doesn't want the hassle of it on the buses. Anyhow, any insight would be appreciated.
Also, how crowded is the peppermill in the early morning? We are going June 5-12. We are planning on eating around 7 or 7:15 in the morning and then going to the parks for rope drop.
We have 3 kids ages 8 and under. Do you think they would enjoy CSR?
The casitas are on one side of the lake main pool on the other side which could be a long walk for a physically challenged person but if you take it easy and slow it will be ok, last trip my Dh was just getting the movement back on his left side so walking was slow and easy he only went to the pool once or twice but it is a lovely walk....casitas are preferred due to their location to El Centro, I think. We prefer them. I requested casitas 1 or 2 with my Dh trouble walking and we did just fine.
BTW.....The arcade is also by the main pool and the kids will love the sand play area and the 8 year old will love the slide at the main pool. The quiet pool is also nice for a quick swim when we didn't want to walk around the lake to the main pool we used it. Pepper market food court didn't seem any more busy than any other food court in the early mornings.....we loved getting bfast early and sitting next to the lake eating it before we boarded our bus of the day.
POR is great in its own right.....but I think they still have double beds we love the queen beds at CSR.......Like the pool better at CSR......theme for kids isn't better at one rather than the other.
The cinnamon rolls are huge and yummy....that is it all in IMHO of course.....Have a blast!
We went to CSR a month ago. We had a preferred room, but I think we were in the Cabanas. I loved our location. It was very close to pkng lot, quiet pool, buses, and main bldg. It was not that far from main pool. My dd is 2 and she loved all the pools. I don't remember PM being busy ever, but I can't speak for June. I would definitely stay again!
Here's my take... in August we were stuck in Casitas (5A I think), which at first annoyed me because I had requested Cabanas to be close to the pool. The trek to our room with all of our luggage - in the rain nonetheless - was not fun. (Because it was raining, bell services said it would be about an hour to wait for help and we had dinner ressie's so we could not wait)
However, by the end of the trip, I realized for us, it actually worked out better. Here's why
1 - Our bus stop was the first stop on the property and the bus was mostly always empty when we got on. By the time we got to the El Centro stop a lot of times the bus was full. Those poor people must have waited for busses a LOT that week!
2 - Yes, we were far from the pool, but not unbearable, and to be honest we only made it to the pool once! We just didnt want to waste our park time in the pool. There was a quiet pool right outside our door and my kids would have been perfectly happy there. There were too many unsupervised teens and drunks adults hanging around the main pool and we did not stay long. It seemed like it would be noisy for those buildings very nearby.
3 - We only ate once at the Peppermarket (which we actually hated BTW) for dinner because we wanted a quiet evening one night. We wished we had eaten at another hotel to be honest. We requested a microwave and had a fridge so we stocked up on breakfast foods and snacks and ate breakfast in the room. The distance to the main building was never an issue for us because we never really went there.
While I loved CSR for the Queen beds, fridge and microwave, and the price, I don't think we'll stay there again.
There is no shuttle, though you can take the resort busses from the Caistas stop around to the main pool or main building, but you can't ride it back. That is what confused me, I read that there was a DTD bus that went the opposite direction so you could ride a bus one way or the other around the hotel, but the DTD busses always went the same direction the resort busses went while we were there. They went Stop 4, Stop 3, Stop 2, Stop 1 and then left the hotel.
There is a PTA convention there for 3 days during our dates. How does a large convention impact the experience? Are the foodcourts and pool swamped? Or does it go unnoticed?
Thanks!!!
We have stayed CSR three times. Twice in Sept and once in Dec. There was a convention there one of those times (that we noticed) and it was no big deal... no impact on anything.
The beds are really nice and the updates are great.
They also have a great pool with a really fun slide and the hot tub is nice as well. All three times we stayed in Cabanas. The first two were Cabana 8 and the last time was in Cabana 9B. it was a short walk to the bus, the pool and the main lobby and PM. The grounds are quite lovely.
We stayed in POR way back when it was Dixie Landings so I can't compare.. but I will say no one ever complained about CSR.
We have stayed CSR three times. Twice in Sept and once in Dec. There was a convention there one of those times (that we noticed) and it was no big deal... no impact on anything.
The beds are really nice and the updates are great.
They also have a great pool with a really fun slide and the hot tub is nice as well. All three times we stayed in Cabanas. The first two were Cabana 8 and the last time was in Cabana 9B. it was a short walk to the bus, the pool and the main lobby and PM. The grounds are quite lovely.
We stayed in POR way back when it was Dixie Landings so I can't compare.. but I will say no one ever complained about CSR.
We stayed in 9B too! I would definitely recommend that location.
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We've stayed twice in Casitas 2 and our reservations were not for preferred rooms. (I don't think Casitas 2 or 3 are.) We liked the location a lot, very close to the main building (where we picked up the bus to the park), at the first drop off stop for the buses in the evening. It was a bit of a hike to the main pool, we timed it at about 7 minutes going either way around the path, but we used the pool each day last Feb (nice weather!).
as per your question about a convention, it depends upon how big the convention is. i attended the NCTE convention this past november (english teacher convention) and i would have to say it DEFINITELY impacted all three resorts (there were sessions at CSR, YC/BC, and CR); as a convention-goer, i felt very badly for all of the people trying to vacation there, particularly around meal times. however, if you plan to be in the park during 'business hours'--between 9am and, say, 5pm, this won't affect you. but if you are trying to eat at the food court for lunch it may be an issue.
I was told casitas 1,2 and 3 are preferred. you are correct, these are the new preferred locations. How long of a walk is it to the main pool from there? about 5-10 min walk, depending on your speed. Are there any shuttles that run through the resort? they no longer offer a guest golf cart shuttle service. conventions sometime pay for this service. We are traveling with my mother who has emphysema so walking long distances is an issue. She is getting an ECV for the parks but not the resort because she doesn't want the hassle of it on the buses. you can use a wheelchair at the resort.. Anyhow, any insight would be appreciated.
Also, how crowded is the peppermill in the early morning? We are going June 5-12. We are planning on eating around 7 or 7:15 in the morning and then going to the parks for rope drop. That time is not a problem.
We have 3 kids ages 8 and under. Do you think they would enjoy CSR? they will love the pool and playground area
The convention is the National PTA convention so people from all 50 states and other countries where there are military bases will be there. I was at last years convention held in Memphis TN and can tell you that 3-4 hotels were booked full surrounding the convention. We are also going to this years convention but are staying at POP for that reason because of the crowds. Good Luck!
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. Anyhow, any insight would be appreciated.
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