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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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My reasons for the split-stay and how the all-out portion came about:
Ok. As I said before this trip went through many changes both during the pre-planning and also after originally booking it. It was originally supposed to be a week at BWI. Then I remembered how much I loved my stay at CR a few years ago. In 2008 I stayed there on one of my rare non-solo trips with some friends. They had never been to Disney so I was trying to convert them. I was unsuccessful in this mission however. All week all they did was complain about prices, and heat, and lines. We went in late April so yeah we still hit some of the Spring break crowds. Nothing like Easter or summer crowds though. It was also unusually hot and humid early that year with temps in the mid to upper 90's every day and humidity at July-August levels. The one saving grace for myself was at the last minute beforehand I decided to get my own room rather than share theirs. So I had a place of refuge at night. One of my favorite activities after a hard day at the parks and dealing with little snide comments was to sit out on the balcony with my iPod, sipping scotch, and watching the Magic Kingdom empty. I decided then and there to return someday on a solo trip.
Fast forward to the present. I decided this was the time to return. When I originally booked it was for a 7-night stay at BWI Water View w/8 day park hopping and DxDP. I decided to shorten my trip and changed it to CR Atrium Club Level (I stayed Poly club-level once via an upgrade at check-in and loved the extras) MK View w/5 day park hopping and DxDP. Well since then I've also tentatively planned trips for the fall and also plan on going for my birthday in January of 2012. So I thought to myself why not just get an AP. So, I did. When I called to change from a MYW package to an AP package I got a CM who apparently did not know it was possible or how to do it. I was a bit frustrated but decided I would call back later and talk to a different CM. We had left it by reducing my MYW tickets to a 1-day park hopper. Why still the park hopper? Well again the CM thought it wasn't possible to change it to basic. See what I mean about the guy? Really should have gotten his name. Don't like to get people in trouble, but he needs to be educated more about the system. In the meantime though I gave it a little more thought. What if I took the couple hundred I saved on reducing my park tickets and upgraded to the Premium plan. So I called back, downgraded to the 1 day basic ticket and upgraded from the DxDP to the Premium plan all for not much difference in price from my original BWI reservation. Then using the AP I decided I could afford to add on what became the first part of my trip bringing me up to a 9 day stay. My longest ever solo or otherwise. All of this happened within the span of a week. I was literally calling Disney once a day to make more changes. Sometimes more than once a day.
Awesome plans thus far, When I went on my solo trip I did the Platinum plan and stayed at AKL (the trip I decided to check out DVC and later that year became a member) and it was one amazing trip. Whispering Canyon Cafe is fun (get ready to be made fun of) Teppen Edo is lovely. Lion King show in AK was fun and I was surprised at the level of talent from the performers, it really is a must-see. Both WL and Contemporary are great resorts you will definitely enjoy your time there. Happy planning and safe travels.
I did a Platinum plan trip at AKL as well in Feb 2008. I just don't think I took enough advantage of all the extras - didn't get a massage, skipped La Nouba, didn't use photopass. I enjoyed the Wishes cruise, but felt it a little lacking without the music. I played golf once, but as I'm not a scratch golfer I felt bad being paired up with someone who was much better. I rented one of the little speedboats and did the KTTK tour. Highly recommend it by the way. That's really all I did with the plan. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite trips I've ever done, but I think I wasted it a bit. The Richard Petty Experience wasn't available as an option back then. I almost bought the Platinum this time just for that.
As you'll see coming up I plan on taking full advantage of the Premium plan.
Everything is looking good so far. I don't know how I would feel about taking a solo trip. At this point, my husband and I don't have kids, so if I went without him I would probably be in the doghouse for....six months or so.
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Day 5:
Now that I'm so close to Contemporary I'll probably just get up around mid-morning and take my time before check out. I'll let Bell Services transfer the bulk of my luggage, but I'll go ahead and take a few essentials over with me. Now all I have to do is take the boat to the CR instead of the bus-park-hotel transfer. Yay! Check-in at CR. If my room isn't ready I'll just head over to MK for a few hours. I'll settle in my room when it's available. My only adr is a 7:50 dinner at Narcoossee's*. I've also got reserved seating for Wishes viewing that night (a plan perk). Depending on my balcony view though I may skip it and watch it from the room. Not planning on any EMH's.
Day 6:
I have designated this my non-park day. I do have a 9:15 breakfast at The Wave*. Plan on spending some time at the pool and renting either the little speedboats or maybe a pontoon (plan perk). Had thought about playing golf, but I did so a few years ago on a solo trip and didn't enjoy it. I love to play, but I only play a couple of times a year. I was grouped with a couple of guys who were much better than I was, and I felt like I was slowing them down. In the evening I have a 6:50 adr at Fulton's*. Then my first time to see La Nouba at 9:00. As I've said before, I'm not a real lover of shows, but I always hear how good this is and almost make plans to see it. Then I wind up scratching those plans. This time I'm going to see it as it's already paid for (plan perk). Afterwards, this is when I miss Adventurer's Club so much. I'll probably just make my way back to the resort now that it's gone. Probably should keep it an early night anyway because....
Day 7:
Early morning! The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour* (plan perk). Starts at 7:30. I wanted to do multiple tours this time to take advantage of the plan. I decided on this one because I've always been fascinated by trains and it seems to be less intense walking than KTTK. I loved KTTK, but my feet were about to fall off afterwards. It didn't help that I did it late in the trip after I was already tired of all the walking every day. I've always wanted to learn more about the trains though and see the roundhouse and where all the tracks meet. Afterwards I'll probably take a break and get a light snack for brunch. Then early afternoon it's over to DHS for more of RnRC, Backlot Tour, Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, etc. Maybe, just maybe I'll conquer my fear of ToT as well. I'm not a big fan of heights and drops. I love roller coasters and EE in particular but I'm still squeamish of the first really big hill on EE. But I hate free fall type drops. So I've never been on ToT. I've booked the Fantasmic! Dinner Package at Mama Melrose's for 3:30. I imagine I'll hang around the park until the show. I've only seen it once so I'm looking forward to it again. Then back to the resort.
Day 8:
Undiscovered Future World tour*!(plan perk) Yes tours 2 days in a row. Hope it won't burn me out. This one is a little more involved than the steam trains, but still FW is more compact than MK. Looking forward to learning more about the different pavillions and the history of perhaps my favorite Disney park. Lunch mid-afternoon at Le Cellier. Haven't eaten here in many years. Looking forward to that cheese soup again! Free time afterwards. Depends on my energy level at this point. May hit a few favorite attractions from different parks one last time. EMH that night at Epcot, but again energy level may be a factor. No dinner adr scheduled. Leaving it all up in the air. Oh yes, forgot I have reserved viewing for Illuminations(plan perk) that night. I love Illuminations probably more than Wishes though it's a close race. I always try to end my last night in the parks with it.
Well I just made another major itinerary change to my trip. I have switched flights again. I'm back to flying in and out of GSP Greenville/Spartanburg. It's a much nicer road to travel and less time to Raleigh for me. Plus, the fares were slightly cheaper when I checked today. Has anyone used SWA out of there yet? I think it just opened up this month. Any problems?
Your plans are looking great! We took The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour a few years ago and truly enjoyed it. My DH builds model train layouts and we've been on two vacations by train because he loves them so much. I did this tour as a Father's Day surprise for him and was so happy with how much we all enjoyed it.
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Probably should keep it an early night anyway because....
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