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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Another excellent trip report!!! I always enjoy reading your honest points of view on things. Your input of using the DAS and fp+ was extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing! Amy
Congrats Darlene! What a Fantastic Trip and Trip Report!
You think you were tired... I was feeling the exhaustion from all of you going here and there... and such long days too! You did alot more things than I do and I am by myself! Plus the fact you went to bed late and got up early too.
I am on the edge of my seat waiting for your wrap up!
As always I learn so much and LOVE hearing all about Abby and Lenny!
So...when is your next Vacation at Disney? Have you, Lenny and Abby discussed it yet? Just curious! : )
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OMG!!! I promised you guys it wouldn't take me a month to do my final thoughts and here it is already over a month later . I am so sorry. I will definitely post something and with Christmas vacation starting Tuesday afternoon for me - and for almost 2 weeks - I will have more time to do just that. I did proofread it and had Lenny critique it but there was some stuff I wanted to add before posting it.
I know it's not any consolation but I haven't even gotten to my Christmas cards yet - and I typically do them Thanksgiving weekend so I'm just way behind in everything it seems. Again, I'm sorry but I will post my final thoughts eventually.
Okay, it's several months late but here is part 1 of my Final Thoughts:
Final thoughts - in no particular order:
Lenny losing his glasses. In a way, it was pretty funny. He gave me a hard time when I lost mine so now the shoe was on the other foot and he now knows what it's like. It was worse for him though. I got mine back the next day (or maybe two days later - I'd have to go back and find it in my TR). It took him two weeks to get his. Yes - he did actually get them back. A week after we got home, Disney happen to call my cell phone while we were grocery shopping. They had a pair of glasses roughly matching Lenny's description. When I read the information off the temple of the matching pair Lenny was wearing (he couldn't see it without his glasses) the girl said it was a match and she'd mail the glasses back to us. Two weeks to the day Lenny lost them, we got them in the mail at home.
Abby's iPad. Before we left home I really thought the iPad would be a great "tool" for Abby. It would keep her happy and busy at the airport and on the plane. I also forsaw us using it in the parks to keep her happy and calm in the long lines I thought we'd be waiting in. That didn't happen. Abby did use the iPad at both airports and on the plane to Disney (she slept on the way home). At Disney however, her iPad went unused the entire time! The first day we took it into the parks but not once did we use it so it was left locked in the safe the rest of the week. There were lines we did wait in but once again, I was way overthinking things before we left. In the past, Abby had done well waiting for 30 to 40 minutes (mostly in the wheelchair lines) with nothing to do except talk to us or look at the maps and times guides so I don't know why I thought she wouldn't be able to handle a regular line with a comprable wait. She did absolutely fine the first day without the iPad so that was one less thing to carry during the day.
My iPad. I had planned on using this myself on the plane and at the airport just like Abby. At Providence, by the time we got to our gate, it wan't worth taking it out of the bag. I did use it a little bit on the plance but without enough elbow room, it wasn't enjoyable to use. When we were at Disney and going to Walmart, I did use it for the maps and directions I had put in there (they were AAA maps and directions I made up here and then took pictures of). I had also planned on taking it into the parks as a back up iPad in case Abby's ran out of battery. The first day, I left it in the room safe not thinking. Since that first day in the parks went so well without one, I certainly didn't need the second one either. At night, however, it was a different story. I usually keep track of our receipts and money spent during the day so I used the calculator app I downloaded before leaving. I used it as my alarm clock in the morning - although I did wake up before it went off more often than not. I went to WDWmagic to see what the current news was and I learned about the extension of the ITTBAB refurbishment and the video from ToT if you had purchased MM. I read news about my local supermarket chain - Market Basket - that was shut down by employees protesting the CEO they liked being ousted by his cousin and the customers that were boycotting it in support (I was one of them). That was finally resolved on August 27th and I can shop there once again. I read a few threads on the boards here and there and learned that Robin Williams died but I didn't do any blogging - I only read things. I had taken my keyboard with me but I didn't set it up (pats self on back). I used the iPad to change one and only one FP and finally I used it to check out my photopass photos at night. That way I would know if my MM was working (it was) and if any photos were missing (some were). In the end, my iPad turned out to be an unexpected useful tool for me.
FP+. I liked it, I really did, especially being able to make them in advance. Once we were at Disney, I had the "freedom" to not have to run and race for the more popular attractions before the lines got too long. I could pick and choose what I wanted. I could change things if needed (and I did once on vacation). Abby did get anxious a few times over it but not to the point that I wouldn't use it again. The whole time we were there (9 days in the parks), we attempted twice to get a 4th FP. The first time was just to try it out since there was no line and we were able to get something we wanted. The second time was just to kill time and see if there was anything but a CM announced there were no FP for the coasters or the speedway so we just got out of line. The rest of the time, we just didn't want or need more FP. Overall, I liked it, liked how it worked and will most definitely use it again.
DAS. When I first heard about the changes to the GAC, I had concerns. After it was implemented as a DAS and I heard more about it, I was convinced it was something that would work well for us. I am happy to say it worked really well for us. Since I had an old GAC to show, it was easy to obtain for us and it was easy to use. Yes, we might have had to go back and fourth a couple of times to get a return time and then actually use it but I tried to minimize that as much as possible by remaining in the general vicinity. I also like how with the new DAS, we would get to the wheelchair area and there wouldn't be a huge line in front of us. That was always frustrating to me. We'd use the GAC and end up in a long line of people so sometimes the wait in the FP line plus the wait in the wheelchair line left me feeling like I was being punished for having disabled family members. Not with the DAS. I also liked that the return time was open ended with the DAS. There were a few times we went back to a ride hours after we were able to because that just happen to be how it worked out. Before we left for Disney though, I tried to plan out what rides I would use the DAS for just like I did with FP+. Some I knew we would need it for - Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, Toy Story Mania - the rest I really wasn't sure of especially when it came to Lenny's scooter. Once in the park, it was so easy - and I didn't need to do any planning ahead. We walked up to a ride and if the wait was something Abby could easily handle, we got in line. If the wait was outside of that time, we got the DAS return time. I'm very happy with the new DAS and how well it worked.
Combining the DAS and FP+. Both the DAS and FP+ worked well for us so using them together was flawless IMO. The only "problem" we had using both was Lenny would get confused at times. I would tell him we'd have a return time for a ride and he wouldn't know if he had to scan his MB or not. As the week went on, I tried to be good with telling him what kind of time we had - DAS or FP.
Wheelchair return times. These seemed to vary not only from ride to ride but also from CM to CM. We experienced four different ways of this being handled.
1) A couple of CM's asked for Abby's DAS to fill in
2) Some CM's gave us a card with only a return time on it (rides in Fantasyland for instance)
3) Some CM's gave us a card with an hour window to return in (Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain for instance)
4) Some CM's would send us right to the wheelchair line (if the line wasn't long at all).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about how the wheelchair times worked. I understand it's all about crowd control (especially at the more popular or slower moving lines). I'm just letting people know that using this required just a bit more attention (at least for us) than just a DAS time because of the different ways it was handled. Just like the FP+ and DAS, we will definitely be utilizing it again on our next trip for Lenny.
The rental car and Quicksilver. It's easier just to lump these two things together. This year because of rental car costs, it was cheaper for us to rent and return the car to the CCC rather than rent it there and return it to the airport. DME wasn't an option so that left a taxi or limo service to get us to MCO. Since Quicksilver is a forum sponsor and comes recommended by other PPers, I looked into them. Actually I made Lenny call (he wanted to try them so he might as well help). We found out we could be picked up at the CCC so that's the route we decided to take.
The car we got this year was a Jeep Grand Cherokee that had California plates on it. I don't know the year but it was a newer model - it had a touch screen in it but no CD player (at least not one we could find). It was comfortable and had more than enough room for us and our stuff whether it was the scooter or the luggage. It did talk to us a couple of times - we don't know why or how - but other than that, once Lenny got use to driving it, we could just get in and go.
For Quicksilver, we did a reservation for a van so it would fit three Pooh sized people plus all our luggage without a problem. On our departure day, Quicksilver showed up with a Cadillac Escalade that we had been upgraded to (there was a message on my phone about it so I knew ahead of time). I wouldn't personally want to own or drive one - for me it's just too big - but to ride in one? It was nice and comfortable and the driver was nice. She was actually about 20 minutes early for us but had no problems waiting until our car was checked into Alamo. She helped us load and unload our luggage and she drove well too becasue I dozed on the way to the airport. I can't do that with everyone no matter how tired I am. With that one experience, I too will now recommend Quicksilver and will not hesitate to use them again in the future.
The Frozen Package. We thoroughly enjoyed it. If I sat here and said "this is what we had and this is what it would have cost if we bought things OOP" it would probably turn out that I spent more than I needed to. In the end, I paid for an experience and it was worth every single penny to us. We enjoyed the parade refreshments as well as the parade. It didn't seem overly busy that day but whether it was or wasn't, we definitely had more elbow room to see the parade than we would have if we weren't in a roped off area (which with an Autistic child can be very important).
The sing along we really enjoyed too and the seating was good. I read a review online - after we got home - and I was surprised the reviewer was unhappy that the package seats were behind the wheelchair viewing seats. I don't konw - maybe it's becasue Lenny uses a scooter that it didn't bother me they were in front of us even though we "paid" to sit front and center. The show itself was fun - we saw it three times during our trip - and dit idn't get old.
The dessert party had so much food and drinks to choose from. Luckily it wasn't all sweets because it also doubled as our dinner. There was fruit, cakes, cookies, chocolate, ice cram and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). While we did enjoy everything we had, the fruit and chocolate covered things are what I enjoyed the most.
The fireworks and viewing area. The viewing area for the fireworks was the same as for the parade only bigger. The way everyting was set up though, you kind of had to choose between seeing the stage show fully or the fireworks fully. We chose the fireworks and watched what was happening on stage on the big screen they had set up. The only downside to the whole thing IMO was that the CM's constantly had to keep people from entering the roped off area. Some people saw open spots and just disregarded that a) it was a roped off area and b) everyone in the area was wearing special lanyards. I don't know if people just stopped trying to get in there once the "show" started of if I just didn't notice it any longer. That really was the only downside though to the entie thing IMO. Would I do it again? It's really tough to say as I don't know if after this summer it'll ever happen again. If I could get it, I might try in the future for the Wishes Dessert party in the MK though.
The AS Music Food Court Refurbishment. I don't regret staying at the resort despite the fact we didn't have a food court. We did have access to refillable drinks which on one hand was kind of a pain - someone had to get it for us - but on the other, because someone gave it to us in a paper cup, I didn't have to use the refillable one all the time and have to constantly wash it out. I really don't know now what kind of food or how much of it they had. When we first arrived and went in there, some of the choices they had were already completely gone even though it was only 11 am and I never went back again to see if it was ever stocked better. We had snacks in our room so we never went hungry. In a way, it would have been nice to have a food court so in the morning, I could have grabbed stuff to eat while we got ready. By not having it though, it forced us to get ready first and then get food - which we did on non ADR days at McDonalds - so in the long run it worked out well not having it. I think for most things that have a pro and con list, one of those lists ends up longer. For us and the food court refurbishment, it seems like both sides of the list are equal in length so while it was a pain, it didn't impact our trip negatively.
Just some more info on the refurb too. Just like last year at AS Sports, Disney did have busses going to the other AS food courts but we never took them. They also had the food trucks from DTD at the resort too during the day. I know for breakfast it was there by 6:30 I want to say and I think the dinner one left maybe 10 pm. I'm not entirely sure about the hours as we never even wandered over to the trucks but they were there and I'm not sure it was even posted anywhere online for people to know about.
DME. I still like DME to get to Disney. They do the driving and they do the lifting and lugging of the luggage. I absolutely love that. Going back to the airport though, because Lenny needs the wheelchair, it would be very difficult for me to handle luggage plus him so that's why we don't use it going back. After the disaster of using RAC last year, I won't be trying that again any time soon and I want at the airport when I want there, not when Disney tells me I'm going so it's just easier to get myself there somehow - and this year, it was with Quicksilver.
There are other things I've had final thoughts on but I have to go back and think about what they were. All of what you just read, I actually wrote months ago but just never proofread or posted. I'm going to try and finish up my final thoughts so stay tuned.
Great final thoughts, and thank you for sharing your trip with us!
I find it near that the food trucks were at AS to replace food court.....I am a sucker for a good food truck
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. I am so sorry. I will definitely post something and with Christmas vacation starting Tuesday afternoon for me - and for almost 2 weeks - I will have more time to do just that. I did proofread it and had Lenny critique it but there was some stuff I wanted to add before posting it.
but I didn't do any blogging - I only read things. I had taken my keyboard with me but I didn't set it up (pats self on back). I used the iPad to change one and only one FP and finally I used it to check out my photopass photos at night. That way I would know if my MM was working (it was) and if any photos were missing (some were). In the end, my iPad turned out to be an unexpected useful tool for me.
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