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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 love camping and I would say "Go For It". We tent camped for years when the boys were young and then bought a pop-up camper that slept 9! What a great experience for her! I'm sure there are showers and laundry facilities. You can go to allearsnet to find out all the amenities. Have fun!
Oh my gosh...I'm so jealous! Camping would be awesome at Disney and I would say that just seeing how excited she is about it would get me excited!! I wouldn't need that though because I would love to do that and it is way cheap at that time which is great for you guys! I don't think you'd regret it...I really hope you decide to do this but it is totally up to you. Hope that no matter what you decide, that you have a wonderful, magic time in Disney and your daughter and fiance as well! Good Luck and have a fantastic time planning your trip!
We camped in a tent at FW in 1999 in August (heat, humidity, yuck) for 8 nights. I loved it except for the humidity which made everything damp - clothes, towels, sheets. But in November you shouldn't have that problem. However, I took bug spray and those Off coils that smoke, and we never saw a bug our whole trip - in August! Amazing.
My suggestions:
check out Jeff Spencer's FW page at http://home.hiwaay.net/~jlspence
He has tons of pictures of FW, even the camping loops and comfort stations. I have also emailed him before, and I'm sure he would be happy to write you back if you had any further questions.
Take a small refrigerator or plug-in cooler to keep drinks and food in. You've got electricity at your campsite, just run an extension cord inside your tent. There are ice machines at the comfort stations, but you have to pay for the ice.
Make sure you have a reliable rain cover or canopy for your tent. You don't want any leaks to ruin a WDW vacation. We also used a shade canopy to create a covered front porch for our tent.
Take something for a door mat, and use it! Also consider making a rule of no shoes inside the tent. The sand they use for the campsite really sticks to your shoes and tracks inside the tent pretty bad.
Take some sort of shoes to take a shower in. The non-slip surface in the shower stalls hurts bare feet!
Request Loop 1500 instead of 2000. It is a small loop so no matter where your site is, you will be close to the comfort station and bus stop. You will also be right across the street from the Meadow area - trading post, swimming pool, campfire circle, bike rentals.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. I know, it's hard to find other people who have stayed at FW in a tent.
I think you've got to try it, at least once!! Especially in November, that time of year has got to be so much better than the warmer months. Get some yard guard, spray it around your site and enjoy
I also like the idea of camping 1/2 the time and hoteling the rest of the time. Not a bad split!
It looks like I am going to be one of the only negatives here, however, here is my advice. We are "true blue" campers. Tent and all. WE LOVE IT and can't wait for our next camping trip. However, I would recommend a hotel instead. We were at the Wilderness Campground for our trip in November, as my mom and sister (both of them have campers) were staying there. We were planned for a tent there, and decided a few months prior to our trip to upgrade to a hotel. WE ARE SO GLAD THAT WE DID! The weather was beautiful, and the campgroud is gorgeous and looks to be a lot of fun. However, since we were going all day long, it was so nice to have a real bed to sleep in,& a toilet & shower within just a few steps. We said several times how glad we were that we did not bring down our tent.
With all that said, I realize a budget is a huge concern. We have to count all our pennies. We would have done fine in the tent, however, I don't know that we will ever go down and stay in the tent. If we had a camper, that would be a different story. I did check into renting a camper from home (Virgina) and driving down or renting one down in Orlando, but it would have cost so much more!
I didn't realize that they had changed the Value season! That truly stinks. Good luck with your decision, and remember, you will have a great time either way. Just wanted to give you a few things to think about - coming from die hard tent campers!
I was a camping snob, my parents never did it and I would never even consider it. Then we got a cheap rate to stay at one of the Ft. Wilderness campers (back in the 80's) and it was so beautiful in the campground that I fell in love with it. Just like everything else that Disney does, it is pretty close to perfect. So my husband and I bought a tent and brought our three boys down to WDW to camp. We had only stayed in a tent once before. We loved it! Bad part? We were spoiled and have not camped since because we could never find another campround like it.
Have fun!
Suzie
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