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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
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We weren't interested in the food at DHS, so we returned to our resort for a shared plate of Chicken Penne Alfredo. Then we put on our suits and sat at the baby pool. Actually, I sat in it with my Kindle to read. There were a few children in it with their parents, but they stayed away from me and I didn't get splashed. DD sat under an umbrella. About 20 minutes there and DD decided to go in and nap. Not long after, it started to rain and I joined her in the room. I turned on the Olympics.
We left the room between 4:30 and 5 to go to DTD. Decided to take the car there.
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PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
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Well, it is a 10 hr drive each way and that part's not fun. But we are close enough that we've done a couple impromptu visits over the years.
One good thing about the long drive this time. It gave DD big blocks of uninterrupted time to read her summer assignments for AP English class. She finished one book and got started on the other. She'd been so busy with the summer class she was taking and her volunteering, that it pushed back all her AP assignments to these last weeks before school starts.
I love your 'observation' report! You two packed in quite a bit in your little get-a-way!
I really appreciate the heads up on the 20% coupon and wifi. (It makes up for the tears I shed after reading your post about bounceback offers.)
I especially appreciate that you included your drive time info. My husband wants to move to NC - his family has been there since the mid-1600's (yes, 1600's) and one of his selling points is that I'd be closer to WDW.
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
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So, we headed for DTD in the car. We parked kind of far from where we were headed by mistake. Those lots are confusing. It was still drizzling, so we got out our only umbrella to share. Our goal was the bar at TRex. Once we got there and looked at the appetizer sampler, we realized that it didn't have what we wanted, so we made our way to Rainforest Cafe instead. The building has a lot of exterior work being done and it looks closed from afar. Luckily it was open and there was plenty of room at the bar. We settled in and ordered the Appetizer Adventure. We've done this one night of each of our last few trips. One of our few traditions.
We had been contacted by Shell of the South (Michelle) prior to our trip. Her family arrived on this day and she had agreed to try to meet up with us. I had texted her when we left for DTD. She said that she and her daughter would be leaving shortly after us. It took them forever to get there by bus. First the wait for it and then a really round-about trip there. They were able to get seats next to us because a family was leaving. They hadn't eaten since breakfast, so they decided to order their first ever meal at RC. This was the first time we've ever met and I have to say, it was just great to get to know them a bit. I hope we can do it again sometime. I love that they took time in their special trip to come spend time with us.
We parted ways after eating. DTD had really increased it's crowd since the rain had stopped. DD and I made a stop in Team Disney and bought some t-shirts for DH, DS, and DD. Off to the car. We had thought we'd go straight to MK from there, but decided to go back to the room to drop off our stuff and get different shoes on DD. Plus, then we didn't have to deal with trams and ferry boats.
Bus luck was still with us, one was waiting for us when we got to the stops. Am I thinking correctly that the chain corrals for the stops didn't exist at the All Stars before? They've got them now.
Short ride to MK and we arrived with the hoardes. My gosh there were a lot of people entering the park! Even the security guy checking bags wondered if there was something going on he didn't know about.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
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MK was pretty crowded. It was around 8pm and people were lining the streets for the Parade. DD and I went toward Tomorrowland to see if any Fastpasses were left at Space Mtn. Nope and the wait was 80 minutes. We noticed that Tomorrowland Terrace was not open and they were setting up for the Dessert party while walking there.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
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We decided to go see what was going on in Storybook Land. We took the back pathway by the railroad. It was crazy busy there. I can't remember the exact wait times for Goofy's ride or Dumbo, but they were more than we were willing to wait, so more than 25 minutes for sure. The walkways were very crowded and we decided to get out of there fast.
We were able to ride Winnie the Pooh without much wait though, so that was good. We noticed that Peter Pan had no more Fastpasses as we went by, so we went to Haunted Mansion which was less than 5 minutes wait for us, but was posted as more. It stopped twice while riding but got going quickly both times. Then it was onto BTMRR for Fastpasses that were only about 45 minutes away. So we got in line for Splash, which was posted at 40 but was more like 15.
Back across the parade route and on to BTMRR after picking up two more Fastpasses. This ride was pretty rough. We were in the front car and were whipped into each other a lot. We couldn't keep ourselves from smushing each other as we went around the bend. It wasn't all that fun for us, but the family in front of us was having the time of their life. It was a couple with their little girl of about four and they whooped it up all the way around. It was so cute!
We still had time to kill, so we walked over to Pirates. It was practically a walk-on. We were seated in the front row of a boat with another couple. This has never happened to us before. Has anyone ever had to sit with strangers on Pirates? I questioned the CM on that and she said, yes, four to a row. The people behind us got pretty wet in the cannon fight area. There is a cannon that goes off close to the boats now that sprays pretty high and far.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
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Posts: 36,592
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My observation is that this report has actually turned into more of an actual report than a group of observations. I guess it's just easier to remember it all in order.
I'm going to have to get DD to help me remember some of the actual tidbits that we heard around the parks that caught our attention.
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DD sat under an umbrella. About 20 minutes there and DD decided to go in and nap. Not long after, it started to rain and I joined her in the room. I turned on the Olympics. 
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Pixie Dust
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So jealous you can pop to Disney for the weekend! 
I guess it's just easier to remember it all in order. 
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