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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Making ADRs for seven people was a lot harder than I thought. The first hard part was making sure everyone was happy. We each made a family list of requests and then came together and compared. I was pleasantly surprised when about half of our lists matched. Next came the task of deciding which days to dine together and which days to split up.
Then the real hard part came the morning of our 180 day mark. We split our list up so we could work on getting reservations at the same time. My sister and I were both up at 5:00 am (CT) the morning of ADRs and pretty soon my sister was calling me because she could not get anything we wanted for 7 people! Ugh! We found that we had to be VERY flexible with our times. Even then, we ended up having to split one ADR to a reservation with 3 and a reservation with 4. It was such a pain.
Here is our final list (for now ):
Day 1 (arrival day) : Liberty Tree Tavern dinner @ 7:40 – my sister's family only as I do not like to have a reservation on arrival day.
Day 2: Biergarten dinner @ 7:35
Day 3: Minnie's Seasonal Dine at Hollywood and Vine @ 4:25 - This is the one we had to split up and do a reservation for 3/4 as we could not get a reservation for 7, but we were both able to get the same time.
Day 4: Crystal Palace breakfast @ 10:40 – my family only. Lexi has to dine with her beloved Pooh bear.
Whispering Canyon Cafe lunch @ 1:30 – my sister's family only
Chef Art Smith's Homecoming dinner @ 6:00 – my family only
Day 5: The Garden Grill breakfast @ 9:05
Chefs de France late lunch/early dinner @ 3:10 – my family plus my niece (she is taking French in school and wants to order off the menu in French!)
Via Napoli late lunch/early dinner @ 3:10 – my sister's family minus my niece.
Day 6: 'Ohana breakfast @ 10:30
Day 7: no ADR
Day 8: no ADR
That seems so complicated as I wrote it all out, but the changes we made happened over time, so it really was pretty easy to keep up with. I really don't foresee any more changes, but you never know!
Oh! I was also going to say I was so disappointed because we originally booked Biergarten on a different day with the Candlelight Processional package, but the more we went over our plans the more in made sense to move it to another night. Well, we were not interested in the narrator on the other night at all, so we dropped the CP package altogether. I was SO bummed. The only good thing is that the CP package costs 2 TS credits, so dropping it gave us an extra TS credit and we won't have to pay for any meals out of pocket.
Up next: A few crafts for the trip!
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As a quick side note, I will be leaving tomorrow for a girl's trip to Vegas. I will be there for four days, so it will take me a bit longer to respond to comments and get another update in. I hope you all have a great week and see you when I get back!
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Too bad the process was a pain, but at least you got most of the ADRs you wanted.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I know what you mean about making ADRs for a large number of people. It can be quite challenging to get people to agree. But it looks like you've got a great list.
Joining in! Great start and great introductions! We just got back from a trip with my sister and her family and we had the best time. Luke's brother and his family have stayed twice at CSR and loved it. Hope you all enjoy your stay there, too. Glad you all managed to get your ADRs even though you had to tweak them some.
I am back from Vegas! It was a blast, but I am so glad to be home. I've spent the last few days getting caught up on things,so I'm sorry I've been neglecting my TR, but things have calmed down and I will be able to do more regular updates!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
Bummer about the CP but your ADR's look delicious!!!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Too bad the process was a pain, but at least you got most of the ADRs you wanted.
I am happy with what we were able to get even if it was a bit of a process getting there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great list of ADRs!
Have fun in Vegas!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
I know what you mean about making ADRs for a large number of people. It can be quite challenging to get people to agree. But it looks like you've got a great list.
Hope you're having fun in Vegas!!
I am so used to planning for my little family of three it was a big change adding in another family to plan with. Luckily we are all pretty easy going and we don't get offended if we want to split up for meals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great dining plans!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Joining in! Great start and great introductions! We just got back from a trip with my sister and her family and we had the best time. Luke's brother and his family have stayed twice at CSR and loved it. Hope you all enjoy your stay there, too. Glad you all managed to get your ADRs even though you had to tweak them some.
Thank you for joining! I am finally getting caught up on the boards today and reading your TR is on my list!
For each trip we take, I try and do a countdown for Lexi to visually see so she isn't constantly asking when we leave. For this trip we checked out Pinterest and found a super cute Winnie the Pooh countdown chain.
First all of the supplies:
I picked up the paper at Hobby Lobby when they were having a sale.
We cut strips, decorated them, numbered them and then linked them together. We made Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore.
Here is a close up of each link.
Here is a picture of them hanging on the wall. By the time I remembered to take a picture we had already made it through our Tigger countdown.
We are now down to just Pooh! We started the countdown at over 200 days and we are down to 39 days.
Another project for the trip is one that Justin has been working on. He made Star Wars t-shirts for the boys using a bleach technique. They turned out so good.
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I was SO bummed. The only good thing is that the CP package costs 2 TS credits, so dropping it gave us an extra TS credit and we won't have to pay for any meals out of pocket.
I will be there for four days, so it will take me a bit longer to respond to comments and get another update in. I hope you all have a great week and see you when I get back!
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Luke's brother and his family have stayed twice at CSR and loved it. Hope you all enjoy your stay there, too. Glad you all managed to get your ADRs even though you had to tweak them some. 
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