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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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For my family since im the planner not my wife we come up with a park then we hit the rides an attraction in a somewhat order but basically it is commando for us !!lol
I use tour guide mike and I visit parks when he says we plan the rides etc in order he says if they are what we want to do...I was happy to find that this gave me alot of "filler" time and I did stuff that wasn't high on our list during that time.
I use tour guide mike and I visit parks when he says we plan the rides etc in order he says if they are what we want to do...I was happy to find that this gave me alot of "filler" time and I did stuff that wasn't high on our list during that time.
We did this too. This was my kids first trip and I wanted to make sure they could go on as many rides as possible without waiting in huge lines. We had lots of filler time and were able to do the things the kids really enjoyed a few more times.
We never felt rushed and the kids were so much happier without having to wait in lines. I'm taking a girls trip with my DS and SIL this November and I don't think we'll do a touring plan. But I think that when we take the kids back next year we will go with the touring plan again.
We plan an AM park and a PM park to visit and where we will do our table service each evening. Outside of that, we don't plan. Also, if we decide that we want to visit a park other than the one we originally scheduled, than we just go do it! We have been enough, that although we do make plans, we are also happy to just play it by ear as the day dictates. We always have the PH option on our tickets, so that is easy to do!
I pick a park for each day, make an ADR for somewhere in that park, and that's pretty much the size of it for us! The rest is open for whatever we want to do at any given moment. We do know we plan to head straight for Space Mt right at park opening on our first MK day, but again, that COULD change! I don't want to miss any unexpected magic b/c I'm tied down to a detailed plan! But that's just me!
We pick which parks based on EMH or special events, then ADR's for each day and that is all. We no longer go back to the hotel for breaks, so we stay at each park all day. So we really do have alot of time. We also go to WDW when the crowds are not bad (End of Oct) which helps. We do have a list of must do rides but we really do wing the rest....
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( 1990/ Disney Cruise/CBR, 1992 Disney Cruise, 2003 WV,2008 WV.
Our only "plan" is what park to visit and when/where we have ADRs.
Beyond that -- we're flexible.
We know what things we really want to do in each park, so we'll usually do those first, or pick a travel route that gets us in the area of each thing. But I find the touring plans too structured for my family. So much of the "magic" just happens, that I wouldn't want to miss it rushing across the park for a fastpass.
We plan which park during each day/evening we're there. We also book ADRs in advance. We normally have an average two ADRs a day. We plan which attractions/rides to hit first, and then depending if we have something going on (ex: MVMCP, CP, etc.), we work our plans around that. Sometimes we visit a deluxe resort during a mid day break or during the evening, sometimes we just hit Epcot and check out WS. I don't plan out every single detail, but we do have structure on what we do on our vacation. For our family, this works best for us.
The extend of our planning is which park in the morning and which park in the evening. Because we are not morning people, the morning park is based on whichever park does not have EMH and if and where we have made Lunch ADR's . We usually stay in the park until about 2:30 (give or take) and then hit a waterpark. The waterpark choice is made at that moment. The evening is pretty much based on which park has EMH. I usually try to set dinner ADR's for in that park or at least very close to it (i.e. we are in the MK and we have ADR's at Chref Mickey's). As for what we do in the park, we play it by ear and see what happens.
These days, having been so often, we usually only plan which parks we're going to each day, which meals we're having and maybe a few highlights that we want to hit in each park and that's it.
We plan the parks we will visit each day according to the crowd calendar. Then any ADR's we have, some days it is CS only, some days 1 ADR, and a couple of days 2 ADR's. Then any special event such as MVMCP and Candlelight Processional. We do the parades and beyond that it is pretty much what we decide we want to do. Going in Nov and doing each park 2 days, we cover everything we want to do.
So far, this is really my first trip that has been planned in advance at all. I'll be there the same time in Dec as the OP, and I've basically got planned where I want to eat each night, and which park we'll do, based on where we're eating and when the Christmas party is.
I have a basic idea of what rides and attractions I want to go on, so I don't feel a need to plan the whole day. Like you said. Go with the flow of where the day takes you.
I base all my parks and ADR's on the days Tour Guide Mike tells me are good days for that particular park, but besides that we wing it. I know which rides are popular and plan to go as soon as we can, but if we don't make it or like this trip we will most likely miss Soarin' which isn't too bad for us because we live in California and visit DL often, I don't tend to let it ruin our trip and we either try again later or just save it for the next trip.
My inlaws are great for scouting out characters so we use them a lot for that LOL. My best memory with my dd last trip was when she saw the trains by Germany for the first time. Absolutely loved it! And some of our character meals.
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LOL. My best memory with my dd last trip was when she saw the trains by Germany for the first time. Absolutely loved it! And some of our character meals.
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