Confessions of a WDW Addict (Pre-Trip Report) - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Congratulations on getting your FP+. I for one am also on the look out for the Mine roller coaster to be added to the system. We have 16 days before we arrive so maybe it will happen.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Congrats on getting all of your choices. I'll be anxious to hear how the changes to FP+ work out with your touring plan.
It will be interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Congratulations on getting your FP+. I for one am also on the look out for the Mine roller coaster to be added to the system. We have 16 days before we arrive so maybe it will happen.
Oh how fun. Let me know if you find it listed prior to your going. Have they started tesing it or soft openings yet? I have not heard. I hope you get to ride and report back.
__________________
Click Here or on the picture above to read by personal travel blog.
I have not posted in several days, but to be honest I have not known what to write about. I am in that wird place where there in nothing really to do expept wait and read.
One thing that I did do in preparation was make three purchases.
Putchase #1 - New Tennis Shoes. I hate to buy shoes. I am just tooooo cheap. I usually buy a $20 pair from Wal-Mart. They will usually last me a year. This time I splurged. Ended up a Shoe Carnial at their BOGO weekend. Founf a pair of black New Balance that I have started wearing to break in. Also got a pair of "nice" flip-flops, if there is such a thing. The total for both was only $66, so that was not to bad.
Purchase #2 - On a recient trip to Wal-Mart I strolled through the purse section and found a draw-string backpack. It is just a sinple black pack, but will hold more than enough and will not take up any space. I think it cost $9.
Purchase #3 - This was a big one for me, and my wife does not know yet. Thouh she may by now, as it may be delivered today. I cought a new point and shoot camera. Our old digital camera was not doing to well and our phones do not take the best pictures. So I started searching and reading reviews. I decided an a Samsung ST150F 16.2MP Smart WiFi Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 3.0" LCD Screen (Black). It had great reciews and seemed to be pretty simple to use. I hope it was a wise purchase. To be honest there were two reviews that specifically mentioened using it on a WDW trip, so I sprung for it. On Amacon with free shipping is was $92.
I saw today that they were doing a commercial with people and actors on the Mine Coaster so hopefully it will open after the dedication on May 2nd. We can only hope. We are going to be there May 6th so I hope we get to ride it.
I saw today that they were doing a commercial with people and actors on the Mine Coaster so hopefully it will open after the dedication on May 2nd. We can only hope. We are going to be there May 6th so I hope we get to ride it.
Congratulations on the purchases!!
I hope you get to. I am excited to ride it. I keep checking FP+ to see when it shows up.
__________________
Click Here or on the picture above to read by personal travel blog.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
For the past week I have been going back an forth about the DDP. When I started planning, I assumed we WOULD get it. Just so all meals would be paid for and I would not have to think about it once at the parks. Then later we decided not to, thinking we would save going OOP.
However, for the last week I have been in that planning slump. The wife and I are 38 days out. It is still to early to really start to pack, so all I can do is read and worry about "doing the right thing." So I started to look at dining again.
When I looked at the DDP again I saw that it would be essentially $121 per day for the wife and I. That would be right at $850 for the trip (7 nights). Being this is a special 15 Anniversary Trip that did not sound too bad. I even called to check the price with WDW, but their computer was down yesterday when I called, so they could not add it for me.
I guess that was a good thing, as it gave me more time to research. Now I am sure it is not for me. Let me just share with you what I discovered with a couple example days.
Day 3: Animal Kingdom - When I really took a series look at the menu I realized it would be hard for us to get $121 worth of food out of the day's credit. Let me explain. We will do Flame Tree BBQfor lunch. When I really looked at the menu to see what we might actually order, this is what I found. I will likely order the 1/2 Slab Ribs ($12) and my wife would be fine to share, but lets assume she will not. She would probably get the BBQ Pork Sandwich ($10). We are both fine with water, probably prefer it. And looking at the menu, neither of us would order their desert choices. That means our LUNCH TOTAL would be about $22 - and that is for both of us. Then for dinner we have a Yak and Yeti ADR. This was the one place from our trip in 2010 that we both wanted to return to. Looking at the menu, I would probably order the Honey Chicken ($19), but I can also see me ordering the Steak & Shrimp ($27), which I ordered and loved last time, so I will go with that. My wife will probably order the Sweet & Sour Chicken ($19). Agian, water will be fine for us, and though unlikely we might share a desert - say the Fried Wontons ($9). That bring the DINNER TOTAL to $55. Even when I allowed $10 per day for extra snacks, the GRAND TOTAL for Day 3 is $87.
That is a saving of $30. That would have been lost money on the DDP which would have been $120. I though it might be a rare example, so I did another day, one I though would be a good deal on the DDP
Day 7: Magic Kingdom - Lunch will be at Cosmic Rays. With the fixens bar I honeslty think we will share one lunch, but for our purposes here I did not make that assumption. I think I'll probably get a Chicken Sandwich ($10), wife get Burger ($11), water to drink and there is no attraction in the desserts for me. LUNCH TOTAL is $21. For dinner we snagged BOG. I plan to order the Lamb Rack ($28) and betting the dear wife will get the Chicken Brest ($23). We will still do water, but I am sure we will both order a dessert ($10). That brings Dinner Total to $61. I am still allowing $10 for snacks in the park. That makes Day 7 GRAND TOTAL $92.
That is still a savings of $18 from the DDP. So you can see why I have made this choice not to do the DDP
There were a couple days of our trip where we will spend right at $120, but it just does not add up for us when I look at the trip in its entirity. If my estimations are correct about what we will "actually order" then I have our food cost closer to $670, rather that $850. That is a big saving, that can not be ignored.
So, I have made my decision and I am sticking to it -- I think. I have seen the numbers, so why would I even consider the DDP? Who knows, I hope I do what I know is right. I just like the "WDW Punch" too much I guess,
Please tell me I am making the right choice!
__________________
Click Here or on the picture above to read by personal travel blog.
The exact same thing happened to me last week. I strongly considered the DDP just for the convenience of having everything pre-paid. But the more I thought about it the more I was convinced that it wasn't for us. I know we'll come way ahead paying for everything oop, even with all the adrs I have planned.
I'd say trust your instincts. If you think you'll be better off without the DDP, then that should be your decision.
About This Page: 
Congrats on getting your fastpasses!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Deb
Holly: 
I have seen the numbers, so why would I even consider the DDP? Who knows, I hope I do what I know is right. I just like the "WDW Punch" too much I guess,
Linear Mode
