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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Early EMH is great. We usually try to get MK and DHS for early hours because you can really get alot done in that hour. All the big attractions can be done and maybe even get fast-passes for the ones worth a repeat.
We have never had a problem with EMH parks getting crazy-full in the morning. However, we usually leave the park right after lunch and return to the resort for a swim. Then return in the evening to the park for fireworks and more fun. We don't use Park Hoppers.
Parks with late night EMH can get busy. Epcot -- wow. Packed out.
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"Disneyland has that thing - the imagination and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid."
--Walt Disney
We don't do EMH's either. The night EMH's dont fit our schedule; we just don't stay up that late. We do get up early enough to enjoy the morning EMH's but we don't park hop, so that extra hour simply is not worth it for us. I can certainly see how some family's could benefit from it; but it just does not work for us......
We get the park hopper and avoid the EMH park during the day. We hop back to the EMH park when they are open late. My BF and I enjoy walking around Magic Kingdom when its open till 2am and the majority of the kids have gone home. We are night owls so it works to our advantage.
We get the park hopper and avoid the EMH park during the day. We hop back to the EMH park when they are open late. My BF and I enjoy walking around Magic Kingdom when its open till 2am and the majority of the kids have gone home. We are night owls so it works to our advantage.
We always do morning EMH at MK and Epcot. You can get quite a lot done in a short amount of time. Evening EMHs have always been crowded for us, except at AK!
I went last year early sept and we went to Epcot for EMH. The longest line I waited in for a ride the whole trip was at Test Track during EMH. It was 45 minutes. We did also ride Journey to Imagination, Nemo and Friends, and Spaceship Earth. I enjoyed walking around World showcase and had kaki gori in Japan. Yummy.
for me I would listen to touringplans. Avoid the parks that are having EMH and if you plan on going to EMH avoid the more popular rides because everyone is riding those during EMH
We always do morning EMH but we park hop in the afternoon. I would say if you don't have park hoppers you might want to avoid the EMH and go with the touring plans suggestions.
I like EMH. However, if I do EMH in a park then I get the heck out of there by 10-11am and hop somewhere else. For example, if I do EMH in the morning at DHS, I hop a bus to Epcot and I'm gone! The last time I did this, my family were the ONLY people on the bus to Epcot. Then we enjoyed Epcot for a while and then jumped the monorail to MK for evening EMH.
If you do EMH-morning, then plan on hopping out of there. I usually visit a park with evening EMH closer to its closing time. So MK was open until 1am the night I hopped to it and I didn't get there until 10. People normally leave after the fireworks/parade.
I take advantage of EMH every trip and I never miss EMH in the evening. With the right plans, those hours can be the best of your trip.
I plan for the am EMH's. If we can't make the 8:00 rope drop we go to the best park and avoid the EMH park that day. We take afternoon breaks and return to the pm EMH park after dinner.
If you read the fine print it says to avoid the morning EMH park unless you are a resort guest, I just got back and we did morning EMH at AK and stayed all day, it was fine, we didn't wait in any lines hardly, walk on Kilamanjaro Safaris, 20 min at Primeval Whirl, Fast Past Everest (which was broken down). Walk on it's tough to be a bug, walk on Festival and Lion king, 10 min. at character greeting spots. Dind't ride Dinosaur, DD didn't want to, 30 min at Kali River in the middle of the day. Now this was on a park day of 10 and it wasn't recommended, it was crowded but it was the end of July.
1. Avoid a park if it has Extra Magic Hour morning. Unless you are a resort guest with park hoppers, it is usually not worth it. (Here is #1 on touring plans).
I'd think you'd be fine in September, I usually am an avid follower of touring plans but animal kingdom only worked for me on a not recommended day so I went for it and it wasn't so bad.
We actually plan our trip by the parks that are having the EMH's. We love it! We rode Splash Mountain about 8 times in less than an hour! All of the lines are much shorter than during the regular park hours, or at least have been that way when we have been there.
If you really want to maximize the amount of riding you can do, attend the Halloween or Christmas parties that require the additional ticket. Only a certain number of tickets are available. As far as my experience goes, those are the events I attended where the crowds were the smallest.
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We always avoid EMH. If you get to the park for rope drop, you really don't need it IMO.
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