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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We went to last Tuesday's party and found the crowds to be crazy for everything we tried to do. We did get right on the curb for the parade- but only b/c we staked out our spot an hour before. Our biggest complaint wasn't the crowds- b/c that is very understandable and something we were prepared for- BUT we ran into TONS of people w/o wristbands, saw castmembers check them and do nothing about it. I felt truly ripped off knowing that I spent $150 for my family to have a "special" night when the girls trying to butt in front of us for the parade should've been shown the door. Instead they were allowed to slink back into the crowd only to find another family on down the street to butt in front of. Very rude.
We tried to see Belle's storytime but couldn't b/c most of the people crowding around the spot didn't seem to have a CLUE there was a party going on and they needed a wristband. Come on. You didn't see ALL the signs and wristband checkers??
Our highlight was getting Toontown all to ourselves. My girls loved being in Minnie & Mickey's houses all by themselves. We rode Goofy's Barnstormer with no wait- it was great.
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We had a similar experience last year at MNSSHP. It seemed to be overbooked and saw many guest without the wristband and even heard a few talking about how they just stayed from the day and no one questioned them. We didn't have a good experience at all. The upside is that we tried again this year, this time for the P&P Party and found it to be delightful! I guess it may be hit or miss for these events but I think the CMs should do something to prevent guests from staying and not paying and also not overbooking the parties.
We attended MVMCP on the 18th. It was sold out, and more crowded than I had hoped, but overall, I didn't think the crowds were too bad. We had our wristbands checked several times over the course of the night. I almost bought tickets for the 16th, and wish I had, that evening was really chilly and I bet that kept people away.
We were at WDW the first week in June this year also, and the crowds were better this trip (12/15 - 12/20). I lost hope of a crowd-free trip when I saw how many people from this board were planning Christmas trips at the same time. I have to say if I'm going to stand in line, it is much more enjoyable when the weather is 70 degrees than when it is 85+.
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We did not go this year but are going next year. WE went last year and here is what I think: We paid extra and would not be happy if there were a lot of people without writsbands/tix who stayed over making it more crowded. BUT here is the thing we truly had a fantastic time even with the crowds, we did not ride anything at all that night )except the monorail) because we can ride anytime...we were there for the decor, the show, parade and firworks only. Yes we saw Night before Christmas show, watched the fireworks (staked out about 30 min. prior, and saw 2nd parade (stayed put after the fireworks). We don't mind staking out spots ahead and staying firm when others try to butt in (I will not tolerate that after sitting so long). We did not even bother with the cookies and cocoa (really after all with eating dinner just before the start of the party who needs to eat anyway), we did not feel we wnated the "free" cookies and cocoa enough to stand in a line for them. So we just did the things we really wanted to do and enjoyed just being there and watching people, shopping post party for mdse, and it was magical...no complaints here at all! Will we do it again...you betcha..gonna take the whole 6 member party with us next time!
We were in the MK on December 18th during the MVMCP and while it was definitely crowded, I have to say that I thought it would be much worse knowing that it was sold out. We had dinner at Tony's and were seated on the front porch which was wonderful viewing for the parade! From our location we could see tons of cast members checking people for their wristbands. Some were checked several times by different cast members--they appeared to be on top of things, but I'm sure it is hard to keep track of everyone.
We were also there on the 18th and thought it would be worse since it was sold out. Got on every ride we wanted with little or no wait, decent viewing for fireworks. Got hot cocoa and cookies from Tommorrowland Terrace during the second parade and watched it from a distance on the seating there by the water. All in all was a very good night.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. We were there on 12/14 and loved every minute of it, although I don't think our night was sold out. We've been to the Party when it's sold off quite a few times before and have never felt it's that crowded.
We went on the 11th, too, and we weren't able to do much of anything. We had a 6:20 ADR for CRT, and by the time we got out of there it was 8:30 and we were missing the parade. We were way back and couldn't see, and although I tried to hold DS up high enough to see it, I couldn't hold him for long and I felt that we really missed out. The kids were tired so we didn't even see the fireworks or go on any rides, much less try to see Santa or do any character meet and greets. I was extremely disappointed at the time, but now I guess I'm thinking that we wouldn't have been able to do it anyway with the crowds.
We were in the Park all day so we got our wristbands early. I wasn't looking around at other people to see whether or not they had them on, but I did wonder how Disney planned to get people out of the park at the official closing time. I don't see how they could have done it.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those that did not purchase tickets for the party itself, as long as they resort guests (of any Disney Resort) they may stay in the parks but cannot ride any rides. I'm pretty sure this was the case with P&P party. People can stay to eat, shop, watch parades and fireworks but are not permitted to ride any of the rides are take part in any specialized activities.
Only people who have tickets are to be there at party time. The shows and parades are special to the party. EMH allows people to stay, but not go on attractions. There is no special events during that time.
We were also there on the 18th and thought it would be worse since it was sold out. Got on every ride we wanted with little or no wait, decent viewing for fireworks. Got hot cocoa and cookies from Tommorrowland Terrace during the second parade and watched it from a distance on the seating there by the water. All in all was a very good night.
Liz
That's exactly what we did on 12/21! I was expected it to be very crowded, but that was not the case. It seemed less crowded than the party we attended on 12/18 in 2005. Both were sold out. We arrived at 4pm and it was crowded at the time because the day guests were still there. It started to thin out after Wishes. We had dinner at Pecos Bill's, which was practically empty. Much different story than 2 years ago when we had to circle like vultures looking for a table. We rode lots of rides and had our hot chocolate and cookies at the Tomorrowland Terrace. We watched the 2nd parade and the fireworks from this spot. We were very pleased with this year's party!
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those that did not purchase tickets for the party itself, as long as they resort guests (of any Disney Resort) they may stay in the parks but cannot ride any rides. I'm pretty sure this was the case with P&P party. People can stay to eat, shop, watch parades and fireworks but are not permitted to ride any of the rides are take part in any specialized activities.
I'm almost positive this is not the case. If you saw anyone w/ out a wristband, my guess is that they just didn't get "caught" by a CM. All special events at a party should be for party guests only. It's what's included in the ticket cost.
We were at the party on the 11th as well.. I would agree that the crowds were really really crowded. In my opinion, the park was more crowded during the time of the party than it was any time the entire week we were there. We ended up skipping alot of the party activities and just making the best of it. At least toward the end, the crowd started thinning out pretty good, and we had pretty good access to the characters for the kids.
There were numerous characters in Frontierland with hardly anyone around them at the end of the night. We got to spend a good bit of time with Woody, and found Brer Bear, and the Country Bears wandering around, and had a good bit of time with them. Brer Bear even grabbed the leash from our 2 yo's harness from us and walked him around. I would say that was the highlight of the night, and worth every penny of the price.
The fireworks were really crazy, and we couldnt even get to see Mickey's night before xmas, which was one of the reasons for going.
I am glad that we got to go to the party, but I would really have to consider hard whether next time we would pay extra to go to the party.
As far as the wristbands go, I didnt really pay much attention to how many people were there that didnt have them, (there were so many how could you tell?) but I would say that our wristbands were checked more during the extra magic hours at the other parks, then they were at the party. I would say MAYBE once or twice did a CM check our bands...
Last edited by nitstalker; 01-01-2008 at 01:19 AM..
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We were in the MK on December 18th during the MVMCP and while it was definitely crowded, I have to say that I thought it would be much worse knowing that it was sold out. We had dinner at Tony's and were seated on the front porch which was wonderful viewing for the parade! From our location we could see tons of cast members checking people for their wristbands. Some were checked several times by different cast members--they appeared to be on top of things, but I'm sure it is hard to keep track of everyone. 
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