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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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CR had never ever done it for me and probably far down the list of resorts I'd want to stay at. That said the kids have put it high on their list and well making them happy trumps my list . Room preferences? Obviously MK view is most desirable so what can you tell me about the other room categories?? Location?? Noise from the lobby??
I'd love to hear any and all opinions. TIA
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Rooms in the CR Tower are amazingly quiet, we thought. As loud as the concourse is with Chef Mickey’s, the shops and crowds getting on and off the monorail, you’d think the rooms opening off all that would be dreadful. On the contrary. A big plus.
Here’s an equally big couple of minuses—
1) There is virtually nowhere to set toiletries beside the bathroom sink which drove me nuts.
2) Those sinks are huge, nearly flat squares that barely drain without your shoving the water toward the drain. Think about how lovely that would be when brushing teeth, and you’ll get the point.
Just try doing any hand laundry in those things. They’re scarcely 3” deep. The most non-functional sink ever!
If the kids do win you over, pay the extra bucks for an MK view room and hope you get one as good as we had. Watching Wishes was incredible! We turned the tv to the WDW channel to get the audio, cracked the balcony door and sat on the balcony for what felt like a private show.
It is convenient being a mere 10-15 minute walk from MK, especially on EMH nights.
However, that’s about it as far as I’m concerned. Just found the place unattractive and not very Disney.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
The CR is my absolute favorite resort! I LOVE sitting out on the balcony looking out over the Magic Kingdom. The fireworks are awesome to watch from there as well! We have never noticed any noise from the concourse in our room. Yes, the sinks are a poor design, but if you are going to hold that against staying there then you are really loosing out. It's so nice to be able to walk to the MK. There are so many nice dining options. One of my favorite memories of staying there was going to Fort Wilderness and getting take out chicken and having a picnic on the balcony. Boy were the other people on our boat jealous. I love everything about the CR. It's the one resort on property that is truly Walt's vision. So many people just don't understand the CR. They say it doesn't "feel" very Disneylike. They couldn't be further from the truth.
We stayed in the garden wing. The room was a nice size and it was very quiet. The bathroom was so large we stored our luggage in it. And, yes, the sinks are weird, but the linens were very nice. I loved getting on the monorail from inside the building and it's a quick walk to MK. We enjoyed our stay.
CR has long been one of my favorites (we stayed there on our first trip in 1981). The rooms are large, including the bathroom with that “challenging sink” . Walking to the MK.....a great perk. The monorail is always fun for the kids. Some very nice restaurants......The Wave, Chef Mickey’s, California Grill. Just being close to the Magic Kingdom is a giant asset in my book.
I recently stayed there in June for one night. At the last minute, I decided to extend my trip by a day. CR had always been a bucket list for me but I was never really impressed with the theme. I am so glad I stayed and would do it again. I had a garden view room on the 1st floor in the wing. I was right next to the pool and rather than a "garden view" I had a lake view!! I was a little worried because I thought I would hear the boats and water parade; no reason to be concerned at all. I never heard anything from the hall or outside. I thought at first it would be a long walk from the wing to the tower but it really wasn't - AKL seems longer. I was close to the pool and of course, MK. I really liked being able to walk to MK, go through security, and enter the park while not having to wait for the monorail or a bus. As others have said, the sinks are a draw back. I was by myself for the night and just used the extra sink for incidentals and made what space was available around the sink work. The room was large, had two queen beds, a pull out sofa, two closets, Keurig, and a very large bathroom with a separate room for the toilet. Even on the 1st floor, I had a patio and it was nice to sit outside, have coffee and watch Donald's cousins come by to say hi and wait for a snack. Another nice feature is from the tower, you can go outside and watch the sun come up over MK and the monorail go by. There are some chairs out there. Would also be a good viewing spot for fireworks, of course. If it's possible, give it a try, even if you can't stay in the tower and have the MK view. Being so close and on Bay Lake is so incredible and magical.
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We stayed at the CR and it's tied for our favorite with GF. It's so convenient with the monorail right there in the resort. We also loved the Wave restaurant, the room was great and we really loved being able to sit on the balcony and looking at TMK. The pool area was okay (for Disney) and we also enjoyed the boat rental and other water activities on Bay Lake. The only downside was that Chef Mickey's was kind of loud in the mornings but that's it. I can't recommend it enough.
As you can tell from my screen name, the Contemporary is one of our family's favorite resorts!
We stayed there on our honeymoon in 1986, and have stayed in most of the different type of rooms on various trips since then.
We have had both MK and Bay Lake view tower rooms, and loved them both for different reasons. You get the Electrical Water Parade with the Bay Lake View, and it's so peaceful looking out over the lake from your balcony.
I have also stayed in both the old North and the South Garden Wing rooms. The North Garden Wing was our favorite, even over the Tower. My girls felt like they were living in the Magic Kingdom, it was so close. If we ever buy DVC, it will be in Bay Lake Towers. The South Wing was so convenient to the pool, and not a bad walk to the Tower.
My girls loved this resort - one trip it wasn't available, so we split our stay between club level AKL and club level Poly, and I had to listen to complaints from both the kids and my husband as we rode the boat past the Contemporary, wishing we had stayed there instead. The Poly was fine, but it wasn't OUR home.
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. Room preferences? Obviously MK view is most desirable so what can you tell me about the other room categories?? Location?? Noise from the lobby?? 
Our last WDW trip as a family 
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I was a little worried because I thought I would hear the boats and water parade; no reason to be concerned at all. I never heard anything from the hall or outside. I thought at first it would be a long walk from the wing to the tower but it really wasn't - AKL seems longer. I was close to the pool and of course, MK. I really liked being able to walk to MK, go through security, and enter the park while not having to wait for the monorail or a bus. As others have said, the sinks are a draw back. I was by myself for the night and just used the extra sink for incidentals and made what space was available around the sink work. The room was large, had two queen beds, a pull out sofa, two closets, Keurig, and a very large bathroom with a separate room for the toilet. Even on the 1st floor, I had a patio and it was nice to sit outside, have coffee and watch Donald's cousins come by to say hi and wait for a snack. 
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