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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Got here safe and sound and on very little sleep! Flight wasn't bad at all for almost 8 hours. Dozed on and off. The girls didn't sleep a wink on the plane.
We got into our room at Fairfield fairly quickly. So hot we all went for a swim!
Then we did some exploring to find our way around Downtown Disney. Supper (3pm!) at Ear of Sandwich, of course! Git a shopping fix too.
Good morning from Anaheim! Slept from 7pm to 5am. Not bad for 4 hour time difference. That's Mickeys Fun Wheel at California Adventure in the back. One more night here at Fairfield Inn. Then we can move on up to Disneyland Hotel : ). 7am extra magic hour? No problem!
Glad you made it and sounds like a perfect dinner! Although I have my heart set on In 'n Out when we land! I already found the one closest to the airport!
Enjoy!!!
Sorry I've been slack on the updates! Lots of highs this week and a few lows thanks to unusual amount of rain and cooler temps the last couple of days, especially today.
Tuesday:
Disneyland day. There by 6:40am for magic morning and line was still crazy. Super mega crowded by our standards and that day got very very hot. Wishing we were already moved over to DLH that day to enjoy the pools. Anyway we didn't have an especially efficient touring day due to crowds, heat, and high fatigue.
It was good to take an afternoon nap break and heat back for 4:30pm parade in the scorching heat. Absolutely loved the parade. Did a few more attractions and called it a night before 7pm.
We were out of Fairfield Inn and checked into DLH before 6am. Immediately in love with this hotel. Feels much more like a Disney vacation for us. We were in line by 6:30am for DCA emh. Much smaller lines. We were about 4th from the gate.
Of course we made a beeline for RS. Huge fans! I think it's the best done attraction if all six U.S. Disney parks. We went straight to Soarin from there and I was so happy to get to do the original version in CA!
Followed that up with two rounds of Little Mermaid. Walk right on. Crazy what you can accomplish in that one hour. Then I flew over to Screamin' single riders line. I was on in 5 minutes flat. Huge fans of that one!
We scooted on to Mickeys Fun Wheel. Loved it. Especially the view. By 9:30am, Toy Story was a 45 minute wait. Still not bad compared to the notorious wait times at wdw. Also loved the swings. Big fans all around if the pier and cars land.
As the day went on, we also managed to take in Frozen sing-a-long, monsters, animation class, and so on. Thoroughly impressed with Cars Land theming and the park in general.
Lunch was at Flo's. Awesome turkey salad and sandwiches. Later the four of us shared a cookie crumble sundae at Ghiradelli. Oh my word....to die for!
We were spent by late afternoon, so we headed back to enjoy the pool area at DLH. Our girls thoroughly enjoyed the monorail slides and pools, even as temps were dropping below 70 degrees.
Supper at Tangaroa Terrace was AMAZING! Table service quality food for counter service prices!
Back to DL for magic morning. Killed that glorious hour mostly by standing line for Jedi training 75 minutes. Very irritating that they only had two cast members assigned to this task with about 1000 people waiting in line.
The girls and I did hit Alice in Wonderland while hubby started the wait process. Then he headed to Hyperspace, which at 7:30am already had a 40 minute wait!
By the time we got signed up, we had time to do Haunted Mansion only before our breakfast at Plaza Inn.
Plaza: really glad we took Cheryl's advice and picked this one! excellent for food. We got our much needed fix of Mickey waffles and lots of fresh fruit. The variety of characters was unbelievable, including pooh, eyesore, Suzy the mouse, max (Goofy's son), fairy godmother, Gepetto, Minnie, chip, Rafikis, Captain Hook.
Sadly, the character interaction was a gong show. Only one cast member in charge of all the characters in the restaurant! That's mind-boggling when you're used to one per character at wdw. The characters kept randomly going around and skipping our tables in the corner. We had to speak to the cast member several times to get a photo-op with each character. We sat for an extra half hour after we were done eating to accomplish this. Definitely not efficient for a restaurant!
After that we needed a little break back at the hotel. Thankfully the monorail was operating (has been off and on) and we got back fairly easily to the hotel.
We were due back to Jedi two hours later. There was some light rain while we had our break and it was sprinkling on and off as we headed back. After stressing in the long monorail line to get there, we were informed that the Jedi training was likely being canceled : (. Still waited around another 20 minutes. Informed we could have a Jedi photo-op, but no characters.
Silver lining: FPs of our choosing. I ask, "can it be for DCA?" Yes - so off to Radiator Springs we went!
Our day was much more enjoyable after that! More later...
Glad you enjoyed the Plaza, but sorry the character interaction was so disorganised. That sounds like the character meals at Disneyland Paris where we've had to grab handlers and say we've missed various characters.
Wow, super fun updates! Sorry Jedi Training was a bust, it didn't seem to put too much of a damper on your day.
Hope you all liked hyperspace. I was surprised at how much I liked it.
My hubby loved hyperspace. Our girls won't do thrill rides. I did it later that day. Didn't enjoy it, much as wdw! I dislike how jerky it is at wdw and yes it is a n improvement at DL. I still don't like having nowhere to rest my head. Would jump on Screamin over that any day!