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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A busy day (as usual!). Lenny may have had a few grumps, but Abby sure looks happy in the photos. They are all so good with her smiles, but I really like the first one where she is standing underneath the "Show Your Disneyside sign."
I'm also glad the DAS worked for your family. BUT, the fact that you have everything so well planned also makes a lot of difference.
I'm impressed with how much you all got done in your 12 hours at MK! Sorry Lennie felt like Grumpy part of the time, but you and Abby seemed to have had such a good time.
Sounds like the perfect start to the trip, great timing with security at the airport, DME, the scooter delivery, Alamo....it was as if everything just fell into place perfectly.
You got a great amount of things done at the MK, glad that the DAS worked well for you, it looks like between the FP, DAS, wheelchair return times and shorter standby times in the morning your days went very smoothly.
Did you find that you had to return with the DAS during the window or did they honor it when you came back later
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You guys packed a lot into day two! I was wondering how DAS would go for you guys & happy to hear it worked out well. I know the "darned if you do, darned if you don't " feeling & I too tend to make the kids happy especially in WDW.
WOW! I agree with everyone, you got ALOT done on the 1st day!! I couldn't help but shake my head about the spilled milk - sounds like my DH - it would have been my fault too!! Love Abby's Frozen t-shirt!
Wow! I'm thoroughly impressed with how long you lasted in a park on a hot day and also how much you managed to get done. Love that you do the pressed pennies and pin trading. I find those little things are so enjoyable for my kids. Abby met lots of characters on day 1!
The day was not without its glitches and grumpiness, but that's life, and on balance it seems it was a great day. You certainly got a lot done, and Abby looks adorable and happy in the photos. I especially like the ones with Merida.
Thanks Laurie. I don't know why Lenny gets so grumpy at times - he does it here at home too so I guess while I make note of it, I also can ignore it. Other than that, yes we did have a great day. Abby was having such fun and she's generally a happy kid anyway, It's really only at Disney though that I see her true smile a lot (here she bares her teeth trying to smile).
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot0001
Sounds like another great day! I'm always so amazed at how much you are able to get done. I'm also amazed that you can ride IASW 3 times in a row! I love that that ride has special meaning for you in that it reminds you of your dad. That is very sweet. Glad you all enjoyed riding the Mine Train. We can't wait to ride that on our next trip (keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to get a FP+ like you did!).
Keep trying for the FP, that's all I can say. I did mine about 2 in the morning and had no trouble getting them. It was a great day and believe it or not, we're sometimes amazed at how much we get done too. I really don't go commando we just go where we want and when and if a line is too long, we go to one that's shorter. For Small World, the reason why we end up riding multiple times is we use the wheelchair accessible boat and if no one is waiting in line for it, sometimes the CM will let us stay on. It doesn't always happen nor do we expect it to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MinneyCaT
you guys sure do
pack alot into your days.
Like I said, we go where we want and when. Other than the FP and our ADR's, I didn't plan anything else - we did what we could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by B.M.
Sounds like a great day despite a few frustrations, which is to be expected...
With Lenny, yes frustrations are always expected . I know what you mean though. I'm sure it happens to everyone at some point in time or another that we cry (or get grumpy) over spilled milk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
A busy day (as usual!). Lenny may have had a few grumps, but Abby sure looks happy in the photos. They are all so good with her smiles, but I really like the first one where she is standing underneath the "Show Your Disneyside sign."
I'm also glad the DAS worked for your family. BUT, the fact that you have everything so well planned also makes a lot of difference.
Thanks Sharon. Abby was so happy to be in Disney and she's already trying to figure out a way to go back next year. A trip to Disney without Lenny getting grumpy over something - I don't know what that's like but I'll let you know if it happens.
I did do a lot of planning for the trip - more so for the FP and the ADR's than the DAS though, I wasn't exactly sure how it would work or where we would be able to use it so the DAS was a matter of "we can use it here and now would be a good time to do it" rather than planning out ahead of time where I would try, KWIM?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
You guys really got a lot done at MK. Getting an early start really helps!
I totally agree with the early start. This is the first time we've been in the parks consistently early and I really noticed the difference. For those saying get in the park for those first 2 hours or so (part of why we did it this year), I hope they don't tell too many people because then there won't be any advantage anymore . After this year, I told both Lenny and Abby that's it, we have to be at the parks for opening from now on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I'm impressed with how much you all got done in your 12 hours at MK! Sorry Lennie felt like Grumpy part of the time, but you and Abby seemed to have had such a good time.
Abby and I are both happy to be in Disney and we usually don't have a care in the world. Lenny is happy to be there too but I don't think he can let go of things so easily, I know part of it is pain and the meds he's on so while it's understandable, it still doesn't make me happy when he is like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
Sounds like the perfect start to the trip, great timing with security at the airport, DME, the scooter delivery, Alamo....it was as if everything just fell into place perfectly.
You got a great amount of things done at the MK, glad that the DAS worked well for you, it looks like between the FP, DAS, wheelchair return times and shorter standby times in the morning your days went very smoothly.
Did you find that you had to return with the DAS during the window or did they honor it when you came back later
Everything did fall into place so nicely I was wondering when the other shoe would drop. It usually does for us (if it weren't for bad luck we'd have none at all kind of thing). When things continued on into Saturday, I was really surprised. I won't give away whether it continued or not. You'll just have to come back.
With the DAS, the way it worked was we went to the ride and saw a specific CM. That CM filled out a chart with the current time, the current stand by time, and a return time (typically 10 minutes less than the stand by time but some rides the wait was the same as the stand by time). So for example, when I got a DAS time for Splash Mountain, I got it at 4:50 PM, the wait time was 70 minutes and we could return at 5:50 to ride. 5:50 was the earliest we could ride it but if for some reason we chose not to go back until say 8 pm, the time would be honored because there was no window like with a FP. The DAS only gives a start time. The wheelchair pass however, did give us a window just like a FP (sometimes, but not every time). We did always go back to those rides within the time so I don't know if it would be honored afterwards. I would think not otherwise why give a window, KWIM?
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Sorry Lennie felt like Grumpy part of the time, but you and Abby seemed to have had such a good time. 
& happy to hear it worked out well. I know the "darned if you do, darned if you don't " feeling & I too tend to make the kids happy especially in WDW.
Dana
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