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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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I am going to Disney World form Dec. 28- Jan. 2 for the first time. I have a few questions. I have heard the crowds are really bad at that time. Am I going to be able to see anything if the crowds are that bad? Also, what is happening in the parks on New YEars Eve. I am 25 years old and I will be traveling with my parents. Also, we want to stay at Dixie Landing. How early should we make our reservations.
My husband and I went to WDW between Christmas and New Year's in 1984-85 and I was amazed at the number of people who could squeeze into the parks! We still had a good time, but weren't able to ride the attractions as much as on previous or later trips. On New Year's Eve, we plunked down in front of the castle at MK at 4:30 PM so that we would have good seats for the midnight show and fireworks. We sat thru about 7 performances of the Kids of the Kingdom -- by the last performance we could sing every song and dance every dance with the best of them! We did enjoy talking to CMs who were there for crowd control, but taking turns going to the bathroom and getting food and drinks was NOT enjoyable. Also on our list of things not to do again was the 90+ minutes it took us to get back to the monorail to go home while it was raining!I guess if you can put up with all that and still have a pretty good time, you are definitely a WDW fan -- big time! If you can hack all this, you should definitely make your reservations ASAP - there are a lot of people who want to celebrate the New Year in WDW. Good Luck!
Cruella ºoº
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It all began with a father with two daughters...
Disney has special New Year's Eve festivities at every one of its major parks. Although most folks want to be at Magic Kingdom or Epcot, MGM and Animal Kingdom also have cool parties. All of them have big fireworks shows, plus live entertainent, special parades, etc.
We were at WDW this past New Year's Eve (Millennium, Part I). First tip: Don't plan to drive anywhere on New Year's Eve. Use Disney transportation. The roads were totally clogged with off-property visitors hoping to get in, and nearly every one of those cars was turned away. Disney kept some back routes closed off so that the buses could get through.
The parks will be very crowded. Epcot was worse than Magic Kingdom this year (due to the Millennium Celebration). Disney promised its resort guests admission to one of the four major parks, but couldn't promise which one. Our first choice was MK, and we got in (although the bus ride took over an hour). We arrived at around 9:00 AM, got a hand stamp at noon and left to take a nap, and returned at 5:30 PM. We didn't have trouble getting back in (but we might have). Although the crowd was large it did not seem unusually large until Midnight approached and everyone gathered by the castle. Wow! What a crowd! We didn't try to camp-out like Cruella did - we toured the park, left Fantasyland and headed for the front of the castle at around 11:00 PM, inched our way through the crowd and had a great view. We managed to do far more rides and attractions than we had planned, and altogether had a magical day and night.
Crowds are at their annual peak between Christmas and New Years, but they didn't seem that much larger than we had seen at other busy times. Don't expect to see "everything" and you may be pleasantly surprised at how much you can see. Expect to see everything and you'll be very disappointed.
Note that FASTPASS return times were very long for some attractions. If you didn't get a FASTPASS for Test Track or Kilimanjaro Safaris in the morning you stood little chance of riding at any time of the day.
Definately book your reservations as soon as you can. However, if they're all booked up, don't lose hope. This past Fall Disney had a lot of rooms become available once people (and travel agencies) that had reserved years earlier on "spec" released those reservations back to Disney (it was either that, or pay for them).
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