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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 think we're going to head down an evening early. I am going to book anywhere that will accommodate us (I am thinking an evening at Coronado Springs) then we'll get up early, head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge, check-in, and be off on our day. I'd rather just get home from work on Monday and leave. I usually use this time to get my nails done or go shopping for groceries, but I think I am just going to get the house sitter to come early.
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Last edited by TheMadonna3; 11-10-2015 at 10:34 AM..
My husband loves the Barber at the Art of Shaving in DTD (don't correct me on the name, I know it changed, I just haven't accepted it yet) named Edwin. So, last night on the way home from work I called and crossed my fingers that Edwin had appointments and he did. We took the latest available appointment. Well, with that set, since POR has access via boat to DTD, I decided on POR. So, now we are going Dec 21-27! I got the room at a Passholder rate of $199, so not too bad. They offered me a preferred room for $321!! No thanks, for $100, I'll walk.
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Last edited by TheMadonna3; 12-10-2015 at 04:54 PM..
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I've lost about 50lbs since the last time I was at Disney so yesterday I went and bought a few things to wear on the trip. Nothing too crazy since I am still losing weight, but I definitely needed new under garments.
Anyway, we need to select our magic bands and we have one of every color already so we're all having a tough time deciding what color we want. I wish they'd come out with some more colors or maybe colors based on the season or something. I bought some stickers to decorate our red and green magic bands so maybe I'll just order replacement ones. I have to do it now as the 21st is 30 days! Now to complicate matters, we also get to choose bands for our POR stay.
So our plans look like this:
Dec 21:
I will work this day and leave work around 3, so I plan on getting in at 7am. That is really tough for me, but if I wanna leave around 3, I better do it. We'll have the car packed the night before, I'll just take my husband's car to work, and when I get home I will just pack my toothbrush and we'll be off. If Jay has the day off then he'll do our errands. If not, I better get that done the day before too. The cleaning lady will come while we're away so I won't worry too much about having the house clean. Jay, however, has two house projects he has to finish. He needs to do some work on the handles for the cabinets, install a magnetic catch and wet sand down all the paint. Then, he needs to put in some wood pergo at the entrance to our bedroom. I told him I am not leaving until my house is done.
Now the fun stuff :
We'll leave for Disney, HOPEFULLY (if I can get my family's @$$ in gear) by 4-5pm. It takes me 45 minutes to get home, so if the car is packed and all I need to do is change my clothes, then we can leave by 4. I'll do the drive to Disney, otherwise, I am a neurotic wreck. If he does even one mile under the speed limit, I lose my mind, so it's just best if I drive. We'll get to Disney by 6 and be checked into our room by 6:30pm. Then, we'll head down to the dock and take the boat over to DTD. The new Indiana Jones restaurant is in very close proximity to the barber and so is Paradiso 37. I am deciding if maybe we'll grab a 7pm ADR here and then as soon as we're done we can head over to the Barber shop. Once Jay is done, we'll get back on the boat and head back to POR for some R&R.
Dec 22.
We'll pack our stuff and leave it with bell services for xfer over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Then we'll head to AKL to check in and then to AK for our fastpasses. We'll spend some time exploring before heading back to the resort as we have an early dinner reservation at Boma. After dinner, it is time for the pool and then we have our 9:15pm check in for the night safari
Dec 23
Starting our morning out with a round of mini golf at Winter-Summerland. I'm still unsure how we'll get here as in if we'll take the bus or if we'll just drive our car. After a round of mini-golf, we're headed to Epcot for a reservation at San Angel. After that, it's time to head to Hollywood Studios to A) get our passholder spectacles and B) check in for Merry & Bright Dessert Party
Part of the reason I don't want to take the car is because we're moving so much this day and it would be a lot easier on buses, but the wait times I think would kill our plan so maybe we'll drive to BB for the mini golf and then go valet park at Boardwalk to head to Epcot so this way we have access to the car and can take the boat over from DHS after we leave the party. It just seems to be the best option because it's easy to get to Epcot and DHS from there. We have fastpasses this day, but the only one we care about is the Star Wars ride and that one is the lastest time window.
Dec 24
We have fastpasses for MK this day. We may or may not use them. It will depend on how busy things get. However, we have a dinner reservation for Sanaa, which I am super stoked about.
We may choose just to hang back and sit at the resort - we're at AKL afterall!
Dec 25
Fastpasses for Epcot this day. Again, no concrete plans to use them. We have a 3:00 Xmas dinner reservation and then after that... AFTER THAT we're headed to Disney Springs. We plan on going to Splitsville to put our name down on a lane and then over to the movie theater next door for the new STAR WARS movie!!
Dec 26
Fastpasses for MK. Again, depending on crowd level, no real plans to use them. If we don't think we'll head to a park, I always cancel them so other people can have them. However, we have to head into the park for the Wishes Dessert Party as a final farewell of our trip
Dec 27
We head home and do laundry and settle in before I go back to work. I don't mind working the week of New Years and I only have a 4 day week anyway, so that's perfect
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OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!! I am LESS THAN THIRTY DAYS AWAY!!
Why is it that right before a big trip, you always find something you absolutely need to buy? Our high end luxury mattress blew out the side supports. I have no idea what I did with the warranty information and neither of us wanted to spend any time trying to sort it out so we decided we'd just go buy a new bed. We've had it 5 years and that's kinda my limit on mattresses anyway, so we weren't too broken up over needing a new one. We were just kinda bummed about the timing. A good high end mattress can cost upwards of $5k and that's not what I felt like spending before a trip I plan to be carefree on. We went to 3 different stores and laid on every single bed. Not only do I want something to be high end, but I want it to look high end. I'm talking big and fluffy and commanding. The bigger the mattress, the happier I am. Or so I thought.
So Jay and I spend Veteran's Day just lying around trying out different mattresses and I am just hating everything we are laying on. We avoid the Tempurpedics because we both believed we wanted a coil based firm pillow top mattress. Out of frustration, Jay lays down on a king size Tempurpedic model they had in the store. Then he tells me to come over. I lay down on it and I never wanted to get up again in my life. OMG this thing was amazing. We ordered it right there. Then, Jay starts commenting how the adjustable base is really nice and we should consider it. Next thing I know, not only do we buy a mattress I didn't think we'd like, but we ended up getting the base that moves the mattress in all different directions to go with it. I actually fell asleep in the store.
Well because we wanted to save some $$$, we decided to order one from the clearance center. They had one close by and if we could wait 3 days, we could save 50% off what the mattresses were going for and they'd even give us $600 off the adjustable base. Well, that was over $3300 in savings to us, so we decided waiting 3 days was worth it. In the meantime, I actually sold our old mattress for $100. So, I got free delivery and I got paid for someone else to come take my old mattress away. It was awesome.
So, the big day comes and they deliver our mattress. It looks just like the one we ordered from the store. The reason it ended up on clearance is because it had the slightest little dirt mark on it from where it looks like someone dragged it on the ground or the plastic broke. Not anything that a little Shout couldn't take care of. Anyway, so I lie down on this mattress and it just doesn't feel right. I'm convinced it's just me. Jay signs the papers, tips the delivery guys and off they go. About 2 minutes after they leave, I hear Jay say, "Oh $h!t, it's the wrong mattress!" They delivered the next model line DOWN from the one we ordered. They look identical, but they sure don't feel identical. I immediately flip out and panic and call the store. They assure me that they will fix it in the morning and to just try and get some sleep.
I try and lie down on this mattress, we do have the adjustable base after all and we even think that maybe if we like it we can save ourselves even more money. Well, I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely crying. It was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever tried to sleep on. Jay is tossing and turning, I am beside myself thinking I have made a horrible mistake by not sticking to the coil mattresses. The catch with the savings was that we couldn't return the mattress if we didn't like it, we were stuck with it. Thinking that since these two are close in make, I was going to hate the one we actually ordered. I am in a panic.
Jay goes down to the store first thing in the morning and gets the situation sorted out with getting the offending mattress out of my house and getting us the correct one, but I am still in a panic thinking I am going to hate the new one. Jay calms me down, gets the store to deliver the correct one immediately, and says it should all be sorted out by time I get home from work. Well, it wasn't, but it was shortly after. I was very hesitant to even lie down on the new one after the experience I had the night before, but Jay encouraged me and sure enough, it was just like the store! I went in the hot tub to soothe my aches and then showered and lied down in our new bed. If you have never tried the Tempurpedic line, give it a shot. Each model is SIGNIFICANTLY different in feel, even if they look alike, so if you don't like the first one you try, keep trying.
Anyway, in Disney news, we all selected our Magic Bands. We waited until the LAST MINUTE to order them so I am glad I checked when I did. We almost missed our chance to choose our bands. I was going to decorate them, but unless I paint them I don't think that's going to happen. I had gotten some stickers to put on them, but then I remembered, stickers will come off in water. DUH!
So, I told the fam damily about adding on the extra night to our vacation and the boys were excited and mom was hesitant about switching resorts, but when I told her that Disney would xfer our stuff over to AKL, she seemed more relaxed about it. She even seemed excited about going to see Bob down in the lounge if he's performing that night. She asked why I added on the extra night and I told her that we're always so stressed out the morning of trips that maybe it would just be better to head down the night before and she agreed.
Now as far as work, I had taken off the 22-25, using only 3 vacation days and I was going to work on the 21st because in my line of work, Mondays are actually pretty easy for me - usually. So I figured I would work the easiest day of my work week. However, going through my wallet this evening, I found a card from my primary care doctor that has me scheduled for an appointment on the 21st at 9:45am or something like that. I wouldn't get into work until about 11:30am in the morning due to the commute. So, I am considering just taking off that Monday as well, keeping my appointment, coming home, packing the car, and then leaving. I might be able to get to Disney a little earlier if Jay can handle all the errands like picking up the groceries and having the car washed, oil changed, tires rotated, etc. while I am at the doctor. If he gets an early start I know he can do it and then we can always take a nap at Disney
I'm going to ask my supervisor tomorrow if she minds me just taking the extra day off since I'd be in late anyway due to the doctor appointment. If she says no, I'm rescheduling that appointment! LOL
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Last edited by TheMadonna3; 11-22-2015 at 11:19 PM..
Well, I got the 21st off, but we had to strike a deal. I have to work the Sunday the 20th instead. This is ok! I'll get paid for a quiet day at work and I'll already be out and about so I can run some errands. While it would have been ideal to be off the 19-27, it was never the plan. I'd rather give up a weekend day when I get paid MORE vs working the weekday when I'm really anxious about getting out of work and get paid LESS. So, this really works out well in my favor. As soon as my appointment is done, I'll run home and maybe we can actually leave!
Glad it worked out ok for you! Love that you were able to add the extra night!
Me too! And I think it means a lot to my family too. My husband is really excited about getting there an evening early and I am more relaxed about not trying to cram in as much Disney time as possible or trying to get to AK before the fastpass window. Now I know I can stress myself out as much as I want the day before and wake up the 22nd fully charged and ready to go!
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Good job on the AP rate, too! 
Now to complicate matters, we also get to choose bands for our POR stay. 
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I'm goingto Disney World!!! 
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