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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Dawn we just got back from California. A CM at the Vineyard Room told us The Electrical Parade was only going to be there for another week or two before being replaced by The Toy Story Parade which will actually be an afternoon parade. CA is getting ready to do some major rehab work.
You may want to further investigate before your trip to be sure that's accurate.
I have a call to make to DL Vacation Planning this week so I'll verify. I'm going by the calendar on the DL site., which still shows an 8:45pm showing on the 13th.
The Pixar Play parade is at the same time as the Block Part Bash was last year when I went so this is just replacing that from what I understand.
stake out your spot ASAP for Fantasmic! and defend it. I had a great spot on a bridge by Pirates (thanks to someone on the boards, can't remember who, but they gave that advice.) but a couple with a huge stroller pushed in, and somehow i got stuck behind a tree. no fun.
Go early in the day...be at DL when it opens or for early entry if you qualify..see Nemo first and then the Matterhorn since there are no fastpasses for Matterhorn. Park hop to DCA at 9:30 to ride Soarin' and be ready to head for your next big attraction at 10. I agree with the suggestion of White Water Snacks - so close and so peaceful. Take a break in the afternoon and come back to enjoy the nighttime spectaculars!
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Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
I would say to not watch the parade at the beginning and the end because when they stop for a special performance en route, the first and last float do not have anything interesting except flags waving, while Lion King has people flying up and down ropes and Pinnochio (My personal favorite!!!!) has bungee jumpers. To comment on the whitewater snacks, we LOVE it there because they have wonderful grilled cheese (as said before) and also have GREAT steak nachos and pizza! The pizza is very good, but if you like pizza crispy, you won't like it anywhere in Disneyland.
Upon reaching the Hub...we always start to our left (ie: Adventureland). Why? the majority of people will go to the right (Tomorrowland).
Going to be at DL in a couple days, so I thought this would be a good thread to read.
When I think back to all the times we visited DL, we always go to the right in Tomorrowland. I wonder why that is. Hubby and I were just discussing where to start on Sunday. I said Tomorrowland. I think now it's because it brings back memories. But, I think we start in Adventureland on Sunday and see how it goes.
Thanks for the tip!
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
I found the best viewing spot for the parade when we were there. We went to the first parade of the day, which started near IASW. We went all the way to where the parade started and sat opposite IASW on the wall. Since IASW is closed there is a construction wall (themed to IASW, so it doesn't look bad) directly in front of IASW and no one can sit there. The parade makes one of its performance stops there, as well. The best part was having no guests in the background of my photos! Of course this tip only works for as long as IASW is closed; not sure how it will work out once IASW reopens.
Thanks for this tip!!
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
I would say to not watch the parade at the beginning and the end because when they stop for a special performance en route, the first and last float do not have anything interesting except flags waving, while Lion King has people flying up and down ropes and Pinnochio (My personal favorite!!!!) has bungee jumpers. Hope this helps!
The Lion King themed float stopped directly in front of IASW, so you can see the performance en route. The CMs around us said they stopped in at least 3 spots along the parade route.
I have a list that I found somewhere listing all of the usual parade show stops, and it lists three stops for each float on the parade. I would post it here, but I copied and pasted it into word, and I forgot to add credit to the author. I don't want to post it without giving credit. I'll see if I can find it online again.
For those with little ones, where the trip will focus on the young rides, rather than the thrill rides, we found that heading straight back to Fantasyland gave us ample opportunity to ride everything without long lines. Dumbo is first (since the line backs up quickly) and the few dark rides the kids were willing to do come next. Spend the time in Fantasyland and when Toontown opens an hour later (or two, if you were there for early entry) you can head in there and do Go Gadget Coaster and RR Spin without big crowds as well.
By the time we leave, we are grateful to have done it then, when we see the crowds building up in Fantasyland. Depending on the kids' mood, we might visit Fantasy Faire and then catch the train (the entrance is right next to FF) to another land.
Does anyone have any suggestions for Nemo? We haven't ridden it yet, because even when we headed to it first thing, the wait was over an hour long. We weren't willing to do that at the expense of a huge chunk of time for other rides.
If you are not traveling with little ones, we found the best time to do really anything in the park is after the fireworks and Fantasmic is all over. Especially Mansion, Pirates and Splash Mountain for those who don't mind getting wet at night!
The bigger attractions like Space Mountain, Indy, Nemo-those are usually packed until the park closes and the best thing to do is get a fastpass if you can ( although I don't believe that Nemo has one yet.) Star Tours and Buzz as well as the Matterhorn are also pretty light around these times. And you can pretty much always get a fastpass for Thunder, even as late as 8PM or later. We never wait in line, we always get a Fastpass.
Of course this all varies, especially around summer time when it gets a little more crowded. But usually in the slower times of the year, we can have a great time on a typically more crowded than usual day-Saturday-and ride almost everything we set out to. So fear not, Disneyland is hard to predict. Some days it will be packed to the hilt and others when you would expect it to be crowded, it surprisingly isn't for some reason. The best thing to remember is to have a great time no matter what you are doing, because after all, you are at The Happiest Place on Earth!!!
--If you have an early entry, save your trip on the submarines for that day. Get to the park about 20 minutes before the gates open, and when you enter, take the path that has the Matterhorn immediately to the left of you. It's by far the fastest way.
Have a GREAT trip!
Does the monorail still run in the morning with a stop in Tomorrowland right next to the submarines? How about on early entry days? We used to ride the monorail in and get a headstart by getting off at the Tomorrowland station. This will be our first trip back in years and the first since Nemo opened so we're wondering if that trick still works.
Having just been there in April, I really appreciated the tip about going to the left first (this would be in DL.) We hit 4 of the major attractions with no wait!
My second tip would be to hit Peter Pan early. While we went to Fantasyland in the morning, we skipped PP because the line had a 20 min wait. It never got shorter. It went to 40 min and stayed there the rest of the day. The rest of the rides in Fantasy moved rather quickly. The Adventures of Snow White never seems to have a line.
Blue Bayou Restaurant-If you really want to eat here, make advanced reservations. We tried to get walk-in seating and there was not a seat to be had. If you didn't have a reservation, you were turned away. We headed to Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante in Frontierland instead. All the times I've been to DL, I've never eaten there. It yummy! Buffet style and if you have food allergies, be sure to ask. They will accomodate.
Speaking of restaurants... lunch is not served until 11:30am. If you are an early riser to make the most of the parks and want lunch early, it ain't gonna happen. Unless it's a Quick Service food stand like Bengal Barbecue that opens at 11am. And if this is the case, be one of the first in line. The line gets long quickly. Despite all of Disney's research to start lunch at 11:30am, the lines show that people want lunch earlier!
If you want front seats on rides, don't be afraid to ask. We may have waited just a tad longer to get a front seat (highly suggested on Space Mountain), but we were never turned down.
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~Joby/Lil~Me stealing Capt. Jack Sparrow's treasure!
When DL and DCA gets really hot and crowded, I duck into theaters to cool off. For 20 to 30 minutes, I can sit in relative peacefulness, rest the feet, recharge the batteries and soak up the AC.
My favorite places in DL to "rest" is Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Disneyland the First 50 Magical Years. If I;m in DCA, I go to It's Tough to be a Bug, Golden Dreams (it's a must see!), and Muppet Vision 3D.
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Love being Goofy on Space Mountain!! LOL 
Unless it's a Quick Service food stand like Bengal Barbecue that opens at 11am. And if this is the case, be one of the first in line. The line gets long quickly. Despite all of Disney's research to start lunch at 11:30am, the lines show that people want lunch earlier!
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