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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well, the park hopper is not worth it for 1 day. At least we did not find it to be so. Probably because the park was really busy on Saturday (Jan. 30.) Radiator Springs Racers was out of Fast Passes by 11:30am. Hyperspace Mt. had a wait of 1 hour & 75min. Rides that normally have minimal wait times or you can practically just walk on, had at least 35+ minutes. For what is suppose to be a slow weekend, Saturday was not slow. Bottlenecks in so many of the transition areas....it was not pleasant.
We didn't do our Visa perks Meet 'n Greet on the CA Adventure side, but did on the Magic Kingdom side. It was an Imperial Meet 'n Greet. Now, I've only done one of these and it's a surprise on who you get. Our one and only time we met Stitch. It was great! Stitch really interacted with us, signed an autograph and so on. This time we met Kylo Ren. (see attached photo) Ok, I expect the Cast Member to stay in character, but he refused to sign an autograph. He said "no" to that and when I mentioned to my son that he probably won't like the shirt he had on, we go "absolutely not". Those were the only words uttered. There was no Meet 'n Greet line, but we were rushed thru like the building was on fire. Maybe it was the end of a long shift. Maybe the Cast Members were not having good days. I don't know, but not the experience I was expecting.
Tomorrowland Terrace was extremely slow. We stood in line for 30 min just to order. I have a food allergy, so it can only be prepared by the chef (or so we were told), but somewhere along the line our order was forgotten about. So, it was almost an hour from the time we ordered to the time we actually ate.
On the plus side.... Blue Bayou was excellent! The Chef Jessie was very nice and my meal was great. Hubby finished off his jambalaya and kiddo dined on kid's grilled chicken over noodles.
Space Mt-now Hyperspace Mt-was one of our fave rides. (We didn't wait in that line, we fast passed at noon & had a return time of 8:30pm.) For those that don't know, it's been face-lifted to fit into the Star Wars theme. I don't know if it's a permanent change, but it was a nice change. Star Tours is already updated with the new movie. That was pretty cool.
I finally rode Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I'm a bit claustrophobic, but my family talked me into it. You know, it wasn't too bad. Our sub smelled like old pee, but you ignore it and the story line was cute. So, score one on the new experience.
We weren't there at the crack of dawn and our poor feet/legs didn't last until closing, but we feel we made the most out of a 1 day visit!
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
The crowds sounded ridiculously large. But otherwise sounds like you all had fun for a one day trip.
Looking into it, it was an Annual Passholders weekend. So, I'm sure that contributed to the crowds, let alone it just being a Saturday. I looked at the attraction wait times yesterday on my Disney app, just to see, and Hyperspace Mt. was only 40 min. This trip was impromptu, but if the next one is planned, definitely going during the week. LOL!
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
I do want to add that the castle was absolutely beautiful for the Diamond celebration. We took pictures on our cell phones, but it didn't do it justice.
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
Did you do any of the evening entertainment--fireworks, parade? It looks like World of Color is back up now--was it up when you were there, and did you see it?
Ages ago, my parents, kid sister and I spent only one day at Disneyland, long before CA was added. I thought a single day there was pretty doable.
I sure sympathize with your frustration at thinking you'd chosen a workable day only to find it more crowded than expected. We PassPorters manage to cope pretty darn well when plans go a bit awry, don't we? Sounds like you kept up our image nicely and squeezed quite a lot of fun out of what might have left anyone but a PassPorter awfully disappointed.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I also am a big fan of Hyperspace Mountain. I thought the starwars music really improved the attraction, and it was fun to imagine shooting down other craft.
Did you do any of the evening entertainment--fireworks, parade? It looks like World of Color is back up now--was it up when you were there, and did you see it?
We normally don't do the evening entertainment. We are a ride type of family, so while everyone is lined up to see the parades and such, we hop on the rides.
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
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Ages ago, my parents, kid sister and I spent only one day at Disneyland, long before CA was added. I thought a single day there was pretty doable.
I sure sympathize with your frustration at thinking you'd chosen a workable day only to find it more crowded than expected. We PassPorters manage to cope pretty darn well when plans go a bit awry, don't we? Sounds like you kept up our image nicely and squeezed quite a lot of fun out of what might have left anyone but a PassPorter awfully disappointed.
A single day is doable and we go often enough that we know what we like and hit that and just walk on by the what we don't like.
I do like my Disney app that I downloaded for wait times. Instead of staying in one land and hitting most of the rides, we did a lot of walking back and forth based on the wait times for rides. And a lot of made up games and I Spy to pass the time in line!
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
I also am a big fan of Hyperspace Mountain. I thought the starwars music really improved the attraction, and it was fun to imagine shooting down other craft.
It was fun. Die hards of Space Mt may not like it, but if you are a Star Wars fan, it was pretty cool.
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
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