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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 haven't been to the SD zoo since I was in college. DS has never been. You have reawakened my interest, I'm sure we'll be back there in the coming years. Thanks!
I've told Luke that on our next trip to DLR, I would love to spend some time in San Diego, but especially the zoo. Glad you all enjoyed the trip and the zoo both.
Glad you mostly had a good time, we did too. Our plaza inn character interaction was the best I've ever had. Weird how 2 meals in same week were so different.
Glad you mostly had a good time, we did too. Our plaza inn character interaction was the best I've ever had. Weird how 2 meals in same week were so different.
What we noticed was that the tables off to the sides in the corners like ours were largely skipped over.
We started the day with emh at DCA. Straight to RSR for a third round. Got our fix for this trip, I think. Then it was Toy Story. Nice to be able to walk right on! Next up was walking right on Soarin for one last flight over California.
Then beeline back to pier for Mermaid for my gang, while I did back to back rounds of Screamin with single rider option. My crew actually got pics of me on the second round, which is tricky to do.
Next, one more round on the Fun Wheel. Wish we could get on it at night.
Then we checked out the challenge trail. Sadly, cm confirmed the major staff cutbacks. No badges, maps, or little show. Recently all removed. We've curtained noticed a huge lack of cm's around the parks and running attractions. Spring breakers are still here, so cutbacks make no sense at all!
Anyway, we enjoyed lunch at Pacific Wharf. Then we bribed our girls into doing Grizzly a River Run since it was fairly warm and sunny (another great weather day). Loved that ride!
We opted to enjoy the pool area for the afternoon. So glad we did. For the record, I survived both monorail slides. They are pleasant slides.
Then we high-tailed it to DL for off only chance to see Mickey & Magical Map. Lovely show. Didn't have the wow factor of Lion King or Belle at Wdw, though.
Supper was decent at Village Haus. Rather tasty veggie burger for me. The best was 4 of us sharing dessert at Galactic Grill - Darth by Chocolate. It was rich and dense. Fairly satisfying for being shared four ways!
Will recap the night parade and fireworks tomorrow : )
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Sad to hear about the cutbacks in CMs, but it fits with what I've been hearing about Disney cutting back generally, allegedly after some projects came in more expensive than planned.
Isn't it lovely to be able to get on Toy Story so easily in Disneyland?
Oh no! I love the challenge trail. We were there in Dec and there were ample CMs and the map and sticker badge and little show. Hope they bring it back, this is one of my favorite places in the parks and I like the fanfare of the Up connection.
Sounds like you had a wonderful day in the parks. Looking forward to your fireworks and parade recap. Hope you enjoyed them.
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Finally back at my updates for a moment. We are back in New Hampshire and will be driving home today....
Monday night we finally got to see Paint the Night. We were very impressed. Really felt it was quite a bit better than the electrical parade at MK. MK's seems pretty dated to me. Really good music at DL. too.
Of course it's always stressful trying to scope out a spot. I left my family sitting waiting while I ran to get a blanket with the $20 deal. Came back and a large family had claimed my spot as theirs and weren't even going to let me sit. I explained that a path had been left beside us and we would've spread out had we thought we could. Hubby tells me these moms came along and plunked themselves there. Another husband came back to his family and they also tried to tell him they were saving the space. Um no. More of their crew kept showing up as the hour went on.
We made do and of course there was one un magical lady and her grown son in the front who refused to sit, despite CMs explaining twice that those in the front needed to sit. They weren't blocking our view, but they were blocking several kids behind them. Ugh! I kept thinking they need to listen to the recent podcast on being a polite park guest!!
After the parade, we headed down Main Street. That was pure mayhem! I'm telling you, the spring break crowds still hadn't gone home!! The fireworks were pretty awesome, though I still would take Wishes over DL Forever. Just slightly prefer. At least from Main Street view. The projections on the buildings were really cool, but really hard for the kids to see. And the castle is barely visible when you're half-way down Main Street. Given its size, they really need to cut down a bunch of trees in the circle area! I mean really!
Thanks for the update! I'm totally confused about the non-sitters. Who doesn't want to sit? Seems so odd.
I think I might like wishes better too, but I love the Owl City music for the parade! I never got a spot for it on my Dec trip, it was just too nuts. One of the best things about FP+, IMO, is priority seating for parades.
On Tuesday we focused on savouring our final day at the parks. We slowed down slightly while walking around DL and enjoyed looking in the shops and other spots. We went for 5/5 days of magic morning and once again sacrificed that first hour to get a chance at Jedi training. I sprinted ahead of my family and was third in line actually!
Once again, I was nice and sent hubby off for one more trip on Hyperspace Mtn (can't believe they don't have single rider). Once again, it still took him 40 mins at park opening! So much for trading off to run to a ride or two with the girls! Anyway, I took the 12:40pm Jedi show so we wouldn't eat up more of our morning.
We made a point of taking turns doing attractions each of us wanted to do, even when it meant waiting around, since our girls won't do thrill rides. Hubby and I took turns doing Matterhorn. We didn't care for the shakiness or jerkiness one bit. Other than that, it really wasn't scary at all. The lines for this one are out of this world, so it was nice that single rider took us each about two minutes.
We als took in Storybook Canal boats. Unbelievably slow loading attraction!! And the narrow queues. Oh my word, I can't get over how they try to squeeze people in those narrow outdoor queues at DL! I'm nit a claustrophobe, but I found that really uncomfortable all around the park.
We found Jolly Holiday Bakery for lunch and enjoyed spotting the Mary Poppins details. Really decent whole grain salad for me.
Then it was Jedi time. The girls both got to fight Darth Vader like they did last year at HS. Show was well done, though I didn't really follow the plot that well. Star Wars isn't my thing, but I live test it's a Disney draw for hubby and the girls. They got a nice Jedi training pin too.
After that we were almost ready for one more afternoon at the DLH pools. But first we went on a mission to find ice cream nachos!
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Glad you all enjoyed the trip and the zoo both. 
Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
PassPorter Guide Author
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