Just back 10/15...thoughts about our experiences - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Sadly that was our experience the last time we were in Epcot for Food and Wine at a weekend - we swore that we'd never go to Epcot again at a weekend during that period, as it was just horrible.
RANDOM PARK THOUGHTS: Primeval Whirl in AK is just too rough. It was the worst ride ever. I was slammed against the side bar so hard at one point that I was hurting for awhile. Is this ride due for some maintenance or is it always this bad? DH used to like it so I am guessing it wasn't always this painful!
LikiTiki Room: I had never done this show before. It was so bad that DH and I could not stop laughing! Im glad I saw it once. I think they should turn the building into a dole whip serving area with AC and seats so your whip doesn't melt so quickly outside
Figment: This was also a first time for us. So cute!
Sum of all thrills: another first. This was fun. I can't wait to bring my son to this. The actual ride part is not for people who don't like confined spaces. It is very tiny and claustrophobic. I sat that part out but DH liked it. We were the only ones in here which surprises me.
Tower of Terror-still my favorite!
Haunted Mansion: The interactive line is nice. I know some people absolutely just love this ride but for me its ok.
Little Mermaid show at DHS: ok, I love this. I think its so cute and really holds your attentian.
Nemo musical at Ak: one word-amazing!! We had never seen this before and I was so impressed. I love the Lion King show too but this one at least had backs on the benches.
spce mountain: so fun but man is it rough. my back got tweaked on it a few times.
alladin's magic carpets-another first and DH and I laughed so hard with the spitting camel. We felt kinds stupid on such a kiddie ride but we had so much fun we did it again!
New Under the sea ride: very cute. The line to get in is very ornate and over the top (in a good way). The ride itself is similar to like a haunted mansion but with a little mermaid theme.
__________________
Oct. 31-Nov. 5, 2014 BWV with DH and DS, Nov.9-17, 2013 BCV with DH, DS (7), my parents and sister, October 2013 WL with just DH
Dec. 10-15, 2010 POR with DH, DS (4) Ddad(60)
DS on his first trip! January 2008 Windsor Hills
TR http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...irst-trip.html
Food and Wine: We didn't do it. We had plans to do it on our last day but just didn't get to it. We did future world Saturday morning. Around noon we headed over to World Showcase knowing it would be mobbed. It was. We went on the rides at Mexico and Norway. Then we walked back to Canada for a 1:30 ADR at Le Cellier. In the short amount of time we were in the WS I was annoyed. There were tons of drunk obnoxious groups of people. A lot of groups were people in their twenties with matching shirts that said things like "Team drunk" It was so early and I can't imagine what the night would be like. I guess Im just too old for that stuff now. Most food lines were about 30 people deep. im not sure how quickly they moved. As soon as we finished lunch we got out of there. I wish we had gone back Monday but my feet were killing me from our commando touring lol. Im sure Monday would have been much tamer.
That was my experience. I was not impressed with Food and Wine in the evening. I was there on a Saturday. Everyone had t-shirts advertising they were there for the drinking. My favorite was the drunkateers. By night time it was not very Disney Appropriate. I just wanted to get my kids out of there.
Just jumping in here - GREAT trip!!! So nice to be able to get away with just your hubby!!!
We were there the week before you - so we also did the F&WF - we had gone twice, the first being on a Weds evening - it was great - crowds were manageable - only encountered one really grouchy person - but then we dared to go again on a Friday evening...........WHOA! Much different experience - but having already been once a few days before, we were able to avoid some of the crowd issues and knew exactly where we wanted to go back.
I have noticed the same thing about Ohana - we usually do the breakfast there, and this last time, we waited for 40 minutes beyond our ADR time!!! Talk about throwing a wrench into your plans for the day and the food was just "eh" this time
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Weather: when we booked this trip in September I was thinking mid october would be in the 70's. I have no idea why I thought Florida would be so cool but anyways....we were surprised to hear how how it was the week before we left. People all over the boards were complaining about horrible humidity. i began to get nervous about that since DH and I HATE humidity.
Saturday was warm and a bit humid but still had a nice breeze. It wasn't a miserable humidity, just enough to make you sweat a bit. Sunday and Monday were just gross. The humidity really took a lot out of us. Fortunately it didn't rain at all our entire stay so i am very happy for that. I probably wouldn't go again in October since humidity is a big annoyance for us. Next year we are planning to go in November and I hope it will be cooler/dryer.
Crowds: overall not bad at all. Its much easier to tour with just DH and myself so maybe the crowds were worse than we realized but we were pleased. We never waited longer than 20 minutes for any ride. We used fast pass a few times. I must say that we thought fast pass was slower now that they enforce the time window. We always were able to pretty much walk right onto any ride with a fast pass but this time we still had to wait. RnR had a posted time of 45 min and with a FP we waited 15.
If humidity is not an issue for you I think this would be a good time to go. Im hoping crowds are similar (or even less) on our November 2013 trip.
__________________
Oct. 31-Nov. 5, 2014 BWV with DH and DS, Nov.9-17, 2013 BCV with DH, DS (7), my parents and sister, October 2013 WL with just DH
Dec. 10-15, 2010 POR with DH, DS (4) Ddad(60)
DS on his first trip! January 2008 Windsor Hills
TR http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...irst-trip.html
Hmmm... I'm debating on dates for next year - one option is early October, but I'm thinking, after reading your thoughts, the very end of October would work better for us weather wise.
Great thoughts on your trip! We WL, and I commented to Luke while reading that I want to stay there again before long. MNSSHP is my favorite Disney special event. We made the mistake in '09 of going to the F&WF on a Saturday, never again. We went on a Tuesday two weeks ago, and it was pleasant until evening when the crowd increased. We went in November of 2010 and the weather was magnificent.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I can't wait to go on the Little Mermaid ride for myself in December. 
It was so early and I can't imagine what the night would be like. I guess Im just too old for that stuff now. 
Most food lines were about 30 people deep. im not sure how quickly they moved. As soon as we finished lunch we got out of there. I wish we had gone back Monday but my feet were killing me from our commando touring lol. Im sure Monday would have been much tamer.
Jen
WL, and I commented to Luke while reading that I want to stay there again before long. 
MNSSHP is my favorite Disney special event. We made the mistake in '09 of going to the F&WF on a Saturday, never again. We went on a Tuesday two weeks ago, and it was pleasant until evening when the crowd increased. We went in November of 2010 and the weather was magnificent. 
Linear Mode
