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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hopping allows me to split days; you see, I can go to AK and be done with everything I want to see in about 1/2-2/3 of a day. So what do I do with the rest of that day? I hop to another park and keep going. Likewise, MGM usually takes me 2/3 of a day, so I'll usually hop to Epcot when I'm done there. This prevents me from wasting part of a day's pass.
Hopping also allows me to change parks on the spur of the moment if something unexpected comes up. I have often gotten to my planned park first thing in the morning only to find it so crowded that I couldn't breathe. Since I always have the hopper option, I simply choose another park when this happens, and avoid the worst of the crowds.
Then there is dining flexibility - I can sometimes only get my ADRs for 'Ohana or Chef Mickeys on days when I am planned to be at Epcot or MGM or AK. But when dinner is over, I may not be ready to call it a night, and with the hopper option I have the ability to go into MK to repeat a few favorite attractions, or watch Wishes.
On the last day or so of my trip I will usually do some shopping. One thing I have often had happen is that I saw a particular t-shirt or souvenier in one park that I simply couldn't find anywhere else, and with the hopper option I can easily go back to that park briefly on my last day to pick up that item.
Making the most of any WDW vacation requires flexibility and the ability to change your plans on the fly when something unexpected comes up. The hopper option is the ultimate in flexibility, letting you change in mid-stream the single largest and most important aspect of your plans - where you are.
We hopped last year, and chose not to this year. I think we will do fine without it. I too can think of many other ways to spend the money. We bought six days of tickets, and since there's four parks we will be able to revisit our favorites more than once.
I will say that it made planning a bit tough. I had to choose my days/parks wisely since we would be there from start to finish.
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Offsite May 2005, POR September 2006, POR August 2007, POFQ December 2008, POR February 2010,
Pop Century April 2011,
we debated over this very same thing....and in the end hopping won out... i cant imagine not being able to go to epcot if i dont want too.....DH and DD can go ride at MK and i can shop at WS..... and then meet them there for dinner later.... its well worth the extra duckies ($$)
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It gives you a lot more flexibility but that said we only hop about two out of seven days. I guess it really depends on how good a planner you are and if you can stick to your own plans (we have a little problem with that sometimes.)
We love to hop! I find the best way to take advantage of EMH. We go to the morning and ride all we can then take a break when the park gets too crowded and spend the lat afternoon and evening at a different park. My family loves this option!
We are going to hope on our next trip in 08. We have never hopped before, but we decided to this time since the last time we missed out some stuff we wanted to do. We did not get to see and do things at the Magic Kingdom because there just was not enough time we could not go back and do the park again.
We always hop. If nothing else, you might start at one park, and find it too crowded, so you could go head over somewhere else! We just like to sometimes head one place for dinner, too.
We almost never hop. We've done it once to catch Illuminations, and we usually do an extra half day each at Epcot and MK. But other than that, we stay in the same park all day and never have a problem with that. So I guess on a cost-per-use basis we've paid through the nose. But I like having the option.
I have done WDW both ways and the hopping is convenient so this time we added it, but if someone needs to save money to make the trip more affordable it is not difficult to cut it out. You just spend a day at one park & anything else you plan for that day is outside of the four parks. WDW has so many fun things outside of the parks it is easy to do. If I didn't have a hopper & had that many days I would leave one day towards the end unplanned so you can decide which park you feel you missed too much & go there. I guess the best way to figure out if you need the hoppers would be to make 2 plans, one with hopping one without and compare them.
We will probably not hop during our vacation. It is our first trip to the World in over 20 years, and our first family trip with our son. We will be going at a 5 year old's pace, taking breaks when needed, etc. Our basic gameplan is to take a 10-11 day vacation, with a 6 or 7 day ticket (I haven't decided yet) plus waterparks, etc. I've allotted 2 days for MK and EPCOT, 1 day for AK, and MGM. I've included one "park-free/hotel pool" day in our plans as well. We may also do one day "off site" at Seaworld. So much has changed since the last time we were there, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to determine "when" or "where" to hop intelligently. In spite of all of the reading that I've done, I really haven't been able to develop a good "hopping strategy".
The thought of making ADR's based on an undetermined hopping schedule is more than my brain is able to process right now. I'm having a hard enough time trying to figure out where we would like to eat based on what park I think we will be in that day!
With that said, the hubby has already asked "when we want to make a second trip" when young son is a bit older. We will be skipping rides like Space Mountain, Everest, Rock and Roller Coaster, etc. because of height requirements this trip. It might make more sense to hop on our 2nd trip when our son will have more flexibility in his ride selection!
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