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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We drive every time, but it's "only" a 10 hour drive for us. We actually enjoy it, and it's just become a tradition. The drive down always includes my hubby doing something silly that gets the kids tickled (talking in a crazy voice, etc) and the drive home is spent reliving our favorite parts of the trip, what we want to do next time, etc.
We've been 3 times and are going back twice this year. We flew the first time, drove the second and flew the last.
After we drove last December (it was a 16-hour drive for us and we spent the night in Mobile), I told my wife I'd never be driving it again.
For one, we like to take short trips (maybe 4-5 days), so driving for those types of trips doesn't make sense (2 days on the road each way and 4 days in the parks). When we went last December, we were there for 8 days, so driving for 4 days was acceptable.
Also, our flights this time were under $350 round trip together. You can't drive for that cheap. It'd be close to $300 by the time you do hotel, food, gas, wear on car and flying is worth the $50 price difference.
As others have said, though, the trip down allows for looking ahead, fun antics, etc. and the trip back allows for reminiscing on the trip. So that's a good thing should you have to drive.
I've never driven to Disney. 6 hours in a car is about my limit (that would translate to 4 days each way for me). I have thrown around the idea of driving down in the summer (when I have a lot of time off) and making a real road trip of it, stopping to see things along the way. That I would enjoy. Two full days in the car each way, not so much.
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I nearly always fly (DH had lots of frequent flyer miles before he retired). I've driven three times--spur of the moment with teenage boys each time. It's 14 car hours, plus stops, and we usually break it up into two days--my sister lives in SC, so it's about 9 hours to her house and then 7-8 to Disney (not quite the shortest drive). It wasn't too bad. I was the only driver, so I needed to get a good night's sleep, not get up at 0-dark-30!
Flying is much more fun, but harder to get snacks and such for the room. I'd fly every time if I could! That said, if driving is the only way you can afford to get to Disney, then drive, sweetheart, drive!
I have a DVD player in my Traverse, but the guys are playing DS games or talking or listening to comedy channels on XM radio as often as watching movies. If you drive, make sure the car's in good shape, as Jennifer said, plan fun activities, don't drive sleepy, and go with the mindset that the trip down can be fun, too. Enjoy!
We always drive and it's about 16 hours. We make 1 overnight stop. We also like to check into an offsite hotel before we check into Disney, that way we are fully refreshed for our Disney trip and save some money.
...go with the mindset that the trip down can be fun, too. Enjoy!
I bet a lot of others share my view that the trip TO Disney is lots more exciting and enjoyable than the one FROM.
Going home, no matter how tired and ready to sleep in our own bed again we both are, going home is still dreary.
This last trip, day two of the drive home was rainy almost nonstop from around Nashville into St. Louis, and that's one very long haul to be dealing with slick roads and occasional downpours.
Not much fun on top of my typical wanna-go-back blues.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I think one thing one needs to be acutely aware of if driving is weather. My middle guy did a road trip from New England to Texas one year, taking several days each way (he and his wife and friends bird so there were lots of stops). What they were not prepared for and what scared the daylights out of them was a snow storm through Georgia and Alabama. These young adults all grew up in either northern New England or upstate NY so were used to driving in the snow. But they had never experienced anything like driving in the snow in Alabama and Georgia. It took them a couple of extra days on the way home and they eliminated stopping to see a friend because it was out of the way a few miles.
If you drive when weather may be an issue, make sure you can add some extra days to your trip.
We are in NC on the SC border and we always drive. We do the drive overnight. DH prefers it that way because DS and I are asleep and not bothering DH. We leave around 9pm and DH drives until he gets to the rest stop right outside of Orlando. He stops there and gets a couple hours of sleep. We usually get back on the road and hit the hotel by 7am. We are always able to make rope drop at MK. About half of the time our room is ready when we get there.
We have never driven but it would be at least a 19 to 21 hour journey without stops. We jave always flown and befoee 9/11 it was so simple. Posy 9/11 it has been quiye a bit more challenging. We are considering driving to VA & trying the auto train this next trip. Just not sure yet.
I wanted to add that, while it is vacation week in New Hampshire, it might not be vacation week in other parts of NE. I'm a teacher so I have to go during my spring break. Last April, I found flights out of Providence that were half the cost of Hartford/Springfield because Rhode Island's break was different from ours. The Providence airport is an additional 15-20 minutes drive from my house but it was well worth it. Have you considered other airports? Yes, you'll have to drive farther to the airport but it's better than 4 days on the road IMO.
I've never driven and unless I move much further south to make the drive less than 6 hours, I will probably never drive. Its a very long drive for me - 15 or 16 hours. Now DD16 makes it 2 drivers, but I don't think I could relax if she was driving. Not to mention that I'd lose 4 days just driving and end up with only 5 days at Disney. By flying, I can have 7 or 8 days at Disney. And I don't like the idea of all the wear and tear on my car. And if I rented a car, between that and the hotel, I might as well fly. I can usually manage to get flights for a fairly decent price - and its just me and DD16, so the cost is reasonable.
I agree that if you have a large family, driving probably makes more sense based solely on costs.
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We drive 10 hours to get to WDW. Sometimes we leave in the afternoon and stop in GA to do the rest of the drive the next day and get there early. Most of the time it's straight 10 hours.
Just did a trip to MI....14 hours there. One day. Two drivers.
We drive every year and as the older sole driver I break it up into two days from Virginia near D.C. We go to Santee, SC (exit 98 - 458 miles) which is about 9 hours of driving for me with a lunch stop and one or two potty/gas breaks. We grab some dinner and relax in the room, get the free breakfast in the morning (Hampton Inn), gas up across the street, and head out for the second half of the trip (402 miles to WDW).
My adult son has autism and my husband must travel with medical equipment, so driving works much better than flying would--and it's cheaper. We regard the drive as part of the adventure, and like Jennifer, we appreciate the freedom to make and modify our own schedule. But as a train lover, I'm still hoping to try the Autotrain at least once as the northern terminus is only about 25 miles away from me.
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We made the trip in 2012, and will be driving again in June. We will have a caravan going out there this time. We are purchasing a Suburban soon, and my daughter and her friends are following in our Expedition. I'm trying to convince everyone to stop for the night, but they have all decided to drive straight thru. My brother will also follow us in his Expedition with his family. It is a nice drive. Good luck to you
We are road trippers and have done the Boston to Florida (not just Disney) many times. I also grew up taking road trips to florid a minimum of 2 times a year.
You have to break it up with the kids and so you and the Hubby are refreshed at the start of your vacation.
We have done the 2 day trip and the 3 day trip. If you have the time I HIGHLY recommend the 3 day trip for the way there and the 2 day trip for the way back. We make it part of the vacation so it is not all about the destination it is about the voyage too!
I would love to give you tips on where to stop and fun things to do along the way (usually food to history related). Feel free to private message me.
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We actually enjoy it, and it's just become a tradition. The drive down always includes my hubby doing something silly that gets the kids tickled (talking in a crazy voice, etc) and the drive home is spent reliving our favorite parts of the trip, what we want to do next time, etc.
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