10 for 10 in 2010 – Our Joyous January Journey Pre-Trip Report - UPDATED 1/20 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Congrats on preordering the CD! I did the same thing and I stopped at every Photopass photographer I saw. I figured I paid for it, I'm going to take advantage of it.
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Congrats on preordering the CD! I did the same thing and I stopped at every Photopass photographer I saw. I figured I paid for it, I'm going to take advantage of it.
Congrats on ordering the CD! I got some great pics from the photopass CD's! I would definately to encourage you to stop at ALL photopass guys and take several shots each time to get your money's worth and to get some awesome pics!!
I think you will get a lot out of the CD. When you get the discount, it is definitely worth the money.
Disney mail is the best. (Although i have not received any Disney mail on any of my trips! Everything is always through my parents name, so it goes to them. My next trip should get me Disney mail, yay!)
So first the fun news, we got more Disney mail today! This time it was the personalized PhotoPass card that came with my CD pre-order. It's very cute and will be a nice keepsake from the trip.
Now on to the glitch...we have one evening that DH and I are planning to go to DHS ourselves. I decided that it might be a nice idea to make an ADR for right before the park closes and for the past week or so I've been trying on the online system and nothing is available -- at best I could find something at like 4:20 p.m., which is way too early. Then it dawned on me to check the park hours and low and behold they switched the closing time from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. It looks like that's the only night that month that DHS closes that early so I'm wondering if there's a private event.
In any case, we already have childcare lined up and we can't make that any earlier, so the earliest we could get back to the park is about 5 p.m. That only gives us an hour in the park -- do you think it's worth it? The one thing I really want to do is ToT (it's my fave and not as much fun riding alone -- DD isn't tall enough so we do child swap). I'm thinking that could be accomplished in an hour, right? Afterward the plan was to explore the Boardwalk so we'd just have more time for that.
Going to another park that night probably isn't an option because we're trying to avoid getting park hoppers this time around (we picked this night because we'll be spending the morning/early afternoon at DHS with DD). I don't want to switch around our days at this point because it would entail too much re-jiggering of ADRs.
DH thinks we should just take a wait and see/wing it approach. I'd kinda like to have a gameplan though because it's not like we can cancel the childcare at the last minute (well we could but there's a penalty). And if we don't have hoppers and we don't go back to DHS, I'd want an ADR somewhere.
Oh wise PassPorters, give me your thoughts/ideas/suggestions. Go to DHS for just an hour...forget going to a park altogether and go to dinner somewhere...suck it up and pay for hoppers (we may only end up using them the one time though).
Congrats on the Disney mail! Sorry about the park hours! If you just want to ride ToT and then are going to the Boardwalk after, I think you'll be fine! Dinner at Kouzzina or Flying Fish?
Bummer on the change of hours! Obviously, an hour will be more than enough time to ride TOT! If the main goal in the child care was to explore DHS together, I'd cancel. Now, if the main goal is to have a date night- then keep plans as is and enjoy the hour in the park and then move on to the Board Walk!
Congrats on the Disney mail! Sorry about the park hours! If you just want to ride ToT and then are going to the Boardwalk after, I think you'll be fine! Dinner at Kouzzina or Flying Fish?
You must be reading my mind--I was looking at menus and thinking how delish Kouzzina looks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by debrabrown
Bummer on the park hours! I think squeeze in the ride when you can and get an ADR somewhere nice. Might as well make good use of the childcare!!
So true -- we rarely have a babysitter at home so it nice to have a kid-free evening on vacation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by B.M.
Bummer on the change of hours! Obviously, an hour will be more than enough time to ride TOT! If the main goal in the child care was to explore DHS together, I'd cancel. Now, if the main goal is to have a date night- then keep plans as is and enjoy the hour in the park and then move on to the Board Walk!
Thanks! Hopefully the line pixies will be with us and there won't be a wait at ToT. I was thinking we could get a FP before we leave in the afternoon, although we'd have to make sure the ones they're distributing are for after 5 p.m.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sorry about the early closing on DHS! I have to agree with Marnie -- ride ToT and then head to Boardwalk for some dining and atmosphere.
Thanks for the re-assurance. I think DH thinks it's a little nutsy to go back for just one ride, but I wanted to explore the BW too, so we'll just have more time for it than originally planned.
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This time it was the personalized PhotoPass card that came with my CD pre-order. It's very cute and will be a nice keepsake from the trip.
-- at best I could find something at like 4:20 p.m., which is way too early. Then it dawned on me to check the park hours and low and behold they switched the closing time from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m.
It looks like that's the only night that month that DHS closes that early so I'm wondering if there's a private event.
. Go to DHS for just an hour...forget going to a park altogether and go to dinner somewhere...suck it up and pay for hoppers (we may only end up using them the one time though)
atmosphere.
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