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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I would have been upset about the tickets too, but I watched it on You Tube, and leaving would have been the right decision. It just would not be a show that I would really want to see. Disney will have to reevaluate this situation and put more days for the show.
We left as well - showed up about 6:30 (walked over from Boardwalk because even the boat lines were crazy!) - lines were already formed and quite lengthy for the character spots and the shop. Got a few drinks at Tune-In (also super crowded with a "line" for the bar) and then had dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby - hoping that as things started it would disperse a bit and get less crazy - it didn't and we left and luckily were able to watch the fireworks from our balcony. Not the same at all but still a one-time experience since the Studios rarely does fireworks like that! Add us to the list of "glad we left"!
I stayed until the bitter end. Yup - I'm that crazy.
I spent the morning at the park and left after lunch around 1:30pm. I took a nice nap and went back to the park at 4:00p.
I bought my Maleficient ears that morning. I later wished I'd picked up a pair of Ursula too but by then it was too late.
The traffic was already a mess at 4:00p and I'm so glad I decided to take the bus. I was in the park by 5pm.
I walked by the Villians Meet and Greet Area and saw lines already formed even though no one knew which Villian was going to be in which line.
Then I immediately headed over to the ABC Commissary to grab a bite to eat but the line was out the door.
So over to Backlot Express I went where the lines were more reasonable. In addition to my meal, I ordered 2 extra bottles of water to carry in my backpack because I had a bad feeling there were going to be lines everywhere and I was right.
I also had tossed a couple of granola bars in my backpack and that's what I munched on when I wanted a snack so I wouldn't have to wait in lines.
It was crazy crowded but I still enjoyed it all including the dancing and spent time taking pictures of the Villians in between them meeting with people. I also found where the Villians entered the dancing area so I could take pictures of the Villians who were only at the dance party too.
Yup - I'd do it again even though I didn't get back to my hotel until 2am and had to be up at 7:30am to get ready and head to the Reflections of Evil Pin Trading event at Epcot.
That was one wild weekend.
Someone wrote up a good review of Unleash the Villians on WDWNT. I enjoyed reading what he wrote and seeing all the pictures he posted. It would be nice if Disney turned this into some kind of hard ticket event (especially for this time of year) because clearly people like the theme and would most likely pay to enter and have the crowds be a lot more manageable. Hear that Disney - do MNSSHP at the MK on some nights and Unleash the Villians at the Studios on other nights. Not that I ever plan on going this time of year to either but I think it's a good idea
We were there too, our bus driver took a poll and decided to drop us off at boardwalk probably saved us all 2 hours, we aren't much for standing in line so took a few villains pictures from a distance. We stood in line for 40 minutes at backlot express, then later into the night stood in line for about 20 minutes for a beer and then they ran out. We only went on one ride and tried to make the most of the night, but it was very clear they were not prepared for these crowds. We heard a few cast members by Star Tours saying it was a "gong show"
We had every intention of going, but decided not to once we saw how crazy things were early on. We were there at 5:30 for characterpalooza and had intended to go elsewhere for dinner, hang out at BCV, and then head back about 10:00. But the crowds, even at that time, looked crazy and we decided to avoid it.
I read somewhere (can't remember where) that a big part of the problem was that Disney didn't "black out" Cast Member entrance for this event and thousands of CM's descended on the park as well (at no charge). Disney Land DID blackout CM's, so they were able to handle the crowds a little better, and also anticipated the higher crowd level for the event. Lesson learned for WDW. Maybe they will be better prepared next time. This sounds like it would have been a fun event, if it weren't for the wall-to-wall crowds.
I read somewhere (can't remember where) that a big part of the problem was that Disney didn't "black out" Cast Member entrance for this event and thousands of CM's descended on the park as well (at no charge). Disney Land DID blackout CM's, so they were able to handle the crowds a little better, and also anticipated the higher crowd level for the event. Lesson learned for WDW. Maybe they will be better prepared next time. This sounds like it would have been a fun event, if it weren't for the wall-to-wall crowds.
We talked to a few cast members attending the event while in line for food.
We took the boat from Epcot to DHS for Unleash the Villains, and ended up waiting in the boat line and then sitting next to and having a great conversation with a nice young man who is a CM at Epcot (we actually saw him working at his ride later on in our trip and we remembered each other and said hi and asked how the Villains night had gone :-) ). He was going to DHS, but hoped he would still be able to get in as the CMs had been warned that they may cut off CM admission at some point if the crowds were too high. He also said that many of his CM friends were planning on attending the event.
When we arrived, I though the crowds were crazy high then, but obviously not "too high" in TPTB's eyes...
FWIW for future events like this -- the boat *from Epcot* was a great way to get to DHS. The wait was a bit longer than it should have been at Epcot (no explanation was given, but when our boat finally did show up, there were another couple behind it waiting to load, so my guess is that they got bottlenecked somewhere...). But once we were on it, it was great. The lines for the boat were long at each of the resorts and I am pretty sure that not everyone could get on at all the resorts and had to wait for the next boat. However, the boat in to DHS was much smoother than buses or cars would have been. So, it is a strategy I recommend for the future for anyone going to an event like this at DHS -- consider taking the boat from Epcot as your transportation in...
(another option would be walking from the Epcot/DHS resorts...)
We went as well--we're locals, so we didn't take the day off, we just went in the evening. Spent 2 hours trying to get up the off-ramp to Lake Buena Vista Blvd., while DH waited on hold to try to find out if Disney was parking people elsewhere. Finally got to the top and made the turn to the right only to finally get a CM on the line who told us to turn around and park at Epcot. Why in the world didn't Disney have traffic signs out? I emailed them to complain and make suggestions--they were very gracious, but their "apology offers" (you know, the family FPs, the free villains photos . . .) simply didn't make up for the lack of magic. Even the event itself wasn't nearly as special as I'd hoped, partly because of the crowds, but partly just because Disney didn't plan it as well as we expected. "Hades' Dance Party" sounds like Hades will be out on the stage all the time, right? We hardly saw any villains, and my daughter couldn't even dance with anyone in her fancy dress because of the crowds. Just goes to show you, the magic doesn't always work. I hope they do more villains events after this and help tame the crowds!
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We only went on one ride and tried to make the most of the night, but it was very clear they were not prepared for these crowds. We heard a few cast members by Star Tours saying it was a "gong show"
This sounds like it would have been a fun event, if it weren't for the wall-to-wall crowds. 
we went too--very disappointed
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