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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Congrats on your upcoming trip! I am another one waiting for those 2014 rates to be released. I wish our Legislators would give us State employees a raise too. We have not had anything in the last 5 years. OH well. Life goes on. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!.
I'm waiting for 2014 rates too. However I'm looking to go in the summer so still have a year to plan. I'd be going crazy if I was going in Jan/Feb and still not set yet.
Love your style! I don't think you could go wrong with either POR or AKL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KHarrod
Oh I'm so excited for you! Congratulations on nailing down some details! I really hope you get to surprise DH with AKL! That would be fantastic! Congratulations on your raise! DH and I are feeling your pain...we are Federal employees and haven't seen a raise in about 3 years.
I really hope I can surprise DH too. Although I've almost blabbed 4 times already... I really suck at keeping my mouth shut. The raise is much needed. We haven't had any in 5 years. They have a provision in the House raise package that gives some retro pay for 2012, but I might not qualify. I worked in this legislative office from 2007-2010 and then left for a year to go to another non-legislative department and came back in 2011. To be eligible you have to have worked consecutively from Jan 1, 2011.Well I didn't so I don't get the payout for 2012 retro pay even though I was working here all of 2012. Oh well. I still get retro pay for 2013 so AKL still might be in our future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
So glad some decisions are being made. Hope you can surprise DH with AKL. We love it there!
I'm glad things are shaping up. It's nice to have a plan. I'm hoping for AKL and the surprise, but my guess is it won't end up being a surprise. I'm not really good at keeping quiet. After the zoo this weekend I think my kids would LOVE AKL.
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
I am too not-so patiently waiting for the 2014 rates to come. I need real rates to seriously crunch some numbers and decide what we'll be doing.
I'm starting to think the rates will never be released. I just looked up the ADR date for our trip and it's the end of July/beginning of August. I'm really hoping they release the rates before then. I want to be able to make my ADRs! If it comes down to it though I'll make a room only so that I can make my ADRs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Congrats on your upcoming trip! I am another one waiting for those 2014 rates to be released. I wish our Legislators would give us State employees a raise too. We have not had anything in the last 5 years. OH well. Life goes on. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!.
We're on 5 years without a raise here. But it's finally coming through. If the Senate would ever meet about the raise package. I work for a non-partisan legislative office so we do a cross between the House and Senate packages. The house has been released, but the Senate hasn't even met yet. Hopefully you'll get something soon in your state!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
I'm waiting for 2014 rates too. However I'm looking to go in the summer so still have a year to plan. I'd be going crazy if I was going in Jan/Feb and still not set yet.
It is incredibly frustrating when going in Jan/Feb.In 2012 I was able to book by the beginning of August with a free dining discount. I'm hoping the same happens this time. Of course that's just a week away!
It's a bit quiet on the trip front. Since Disney hasn't released the 2014 prices I haven't booked. I know I could call and book a room only, but I'm a computer programmer so there's something in me that insists that I can do just about everything over the internet. I'm not worried about the resorts being booked and I'm putting money aside so it doesn't really matter if I'm able to make payments. So I'm in no rush. I know when we're going and that's all that matters. Of course last week someone posted here on PP that they heard a rumor that the 2014 prices were going to be released. Last week... I'm still waiting. Part of me wishes I had never seen that post. And even though I'm not in such a rush to get the trip booked I'd book it in a heartbeat if I could book it online. Don't try to find the logic. There isn't any in my world.
I have been watching airfare lately. I think I've become a bit obsessed with checking Kayak. Last night I checked and the flights had dropped $70. Part of me wanted to immediately book, but I decided to wait it out. I've heard that the best time to buy is 3 months before the flight. I'm at about 7 months out. So I think I'll just watch it a little bit more and see what the prices do. I think if they go down again I'll jump on it. If they go up I'll kick myself for not buying. Since I started watching airfare the prices stayed at $414 for about a month. It's quite a bit more than the $270 we paid last time - 2 years ago. I'm hoping they'll at least stay at the $344 I saw last night and as long as they're lower than $414 when I do buy I think I'll be happy. Of course Cameron now recognizes the Kayak app on my phone. "You checkin' da airplanes mommy? Is da money cheaper? Can we go to Dizzy World yet?" See there must be an obsession with it on my part if my (almost) 3 year old knows the app. And what it's for...
The other trip related thing I can report on is that we took the kids to the Children's Museum and Zoo over the weekend. How is this related you ask? We'll I guess the fact that we took them really isn't. What is related to the trip is the strollers we used when taking the kids to these places. See on the last trip we took our ginormous Graco travel system stroller. You know the ones that you buy when you have your first child and you're unaware that they weigh a million pounds and don't easily fit into the trunk with the diaper bag and all the other stuff you have to schlep around when you have a small child (the stuff that you don't really need, but you think that you do because you read on the internet that you should always carry with you). Yeah we took one of those. And really it wasn't horrible. At least not if you ask me. Talk to my husband who had to fold it up and drag it on to the buses and you might get a different perspective, but for me it wasn't that bad.
When Mallory was in the oven we started having conversations about what we were going to do for strollers for the kids. Do we get a double? Side by side double? Front back double? Sit and stand? I've seen many stroller posts here on PP and I think I may have even posted one myself when we were trying to decide what to do when baby #2 came around. Well everyone has their own opinions and favorites. The doubles are nice because you can put both kids in and one parent can handle steering them both. The side by side ones are wide and although they fit through most doorways the don't fit through all of them. The front back doubles fit through doors just as easily as the travel systems, but I found them harder to steer. And found that the child in the front can easily access things you don't want them to have (or don't even realize they can reach) - like an entire shelf of animal crackers that somehow end up on the floor of the store. That may or may not have happened when I borrowed by sisters stroller and took my son and niece shopping. The sit and stands were kind of nice in that they weren't as long as the front back doubles and were as thin as the single strollers (the travel system ones anyways). Can you tell I put a LOT of time into picking out our strollers?
Well after testing out all kids of strollers I brought up the perfect question: "Which one would you rather bring to Disney?" Because that's the most important destination for us right? Who cares if they don't work well in my day to day life. Well Nate answered with "None of them." That was not the answer I wanted. We needed something and I didn't want to have to rent - plus I really wanted something in the airports. Cameron will be 3 and mostly likes to walk himself, but even after a few hours at the zoo he started whining and asking to be picked up. I doubt much will change in that department in the next 7 months. So I looked into our other options. Two singles. We could keep the giant travel system stroller for Mallory and get an umbrella stroller for Cameron. Except most umbrella strollers are so low that I don't want to have to push it around for a week. Plus two separate strollers means I can't take the kids out by myself easily places. I really wanted the double so I could handle them both myself. Nate wanted something lighter and more compact for Disney. We were going to have to own multiple strollers to accomplish that. Then I found these bad boys:
Connectors for umbrella strollers. Score. We could get lightweight strollers and connect them if I needed to take the kids out by myself. Then I found these "umbrellas" (I hesitate to call them umbrella strollers as they're larger than most umbrellas and are taller as well so no hunching over when pushing them around):
They weren't cheap, but they fit my needs. Well I ordered these strollers before Mallory was born and although we've used them a few times I still hadn't connected them. Until this weekend at the zoo (see I related my rambling back to the beginning. My old English teacher would be proud, foreshadowing - or maybe disappointed, still rambling...). It worked great! I was able to maneuver the strollers when connected very easily. They're easy to disconnect and reconnect - this system is so flexible. I actually prefer having separate strollers as Nate and I can each take a kid and maneuver around crowds or just split up if needed and not have to worry about not having a stroller for a while. But when needed we can connect them and have a single parent take both kids. Yes it was a little bulky when both strollers were connected, but no worse than that doubles that I saw. And I didn't have any problems steering when they were connected. These will be so much easier for the buses in WDW. Light and easy to carry. Only thing is when using the connectors you are supposed to use 3, but because one location you are supposed to connect at has really wide metal on these particular strollers you can't connect them (with these connectors). I found it wasn't a big deal at all though. 2 connectors worked fine all day at the zoo.
That was information overload on strollers. Maybe it's helpful for those of you needing strollers. For those of you without small children I apologize for going on and on about the strollers. It's exciting for this mama that we have something that will work! Of course those without the need for strollers probably checked out 4 paragraphs ago. Ah well.
At some point I'll have to take some pictures of the clothes I bought for the kids for this trip. I went to a consignment shop last week and picked up some shirts for Cameron (that I'm hoping will still fit in January) and some really cute stuff for Mallory. Most Disney related.
It sounds like your plans are coming together. Thanks for the stroller review. My first grandbaby is due in October. The kids want a good stroller that is not the size of a compact car. I hope you have a great trip.
I think you've come to a great conclusion on the strollers. I've been to Disney with the travel system stroller, the umbrella, sit n stand and 2 umbrellas. 2 umbrellas worked the best for us - even if we didn't have the connectors. I'm hoping soon I can ditch one of them - this next trip will be a mini test of that.
It sounds like your plans are coming together. Thanks for the stroller review. My first grandbaby is due in October. The kids want a good stroller that is not the size of a compact car. I hope you have a great trip.
The plans are definitely coming together. Congrats on the grandbaby! How exciting. For strollers I recommend they go to a BRU store or something and test drive a few. And fold them up several times. Some are easier than others, but I love our Liteways!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I think you've come to a great conclusion on the strollers. I've been to Disney with the travel system stroller, the umbrella, sit n stand and 2 umbrellas. 2 umbrellas worked the best for us - even if we didn't have the connectors. I'm hoping soon I can ditch one of them - this next trip will be a mini test of that.
Glad to hear that 2 umbrellas works well! Good luck ditching a stroller. I'm dreaming of the day I can do that. And ditch the diaper bag, but with the way Cameron has been going with potty training it may never happen. I hope Lukas is doing better on that front!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
I used those connectors before - pretty cool. I also had a handle extender for the umbrella stroller because they are so low.
I didn't know they made handle extenders. They make everything these days!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great work on finding strollers that will work for you all!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Great information on strollers! Glad you found one that will work for you guys!
I'm far too excited about the strollers. Does that make me a complete nerd mom?
Well... Operation surprise the husband (and kids too, but they don't really know the difference) with an upgrade to AKL is underway. I was going to wait to make this decision until after the room discounts were announced (if any), but I'm not a very patient person. Heck I can't even hold out until July 10th when the 2014 rates come out. I used Disney math to help persuade me to go ahead and bite the bullet now. Originally I was going to just book POR and then if a good deal came out I was going to switch to AKL. Well ever since I wrote on here how I was going to try and pull off a surprise I REALLY REALLY wanted to do it.
I got out my calculator and researched room prices, past discounts and DVC point rental. And since I've pretty much decided that I want to go without the dining plan this time I only really had to compare using potential room only discounts. And with all my math and highlighting and spreadsheets (does that make me sound like a crazy person?) I decided to give DVC rental a try. Currently I only have a request in for a AKL value studio or standard studio. As for us financially those were the only options that made sense. I've read that the value AKL studios are hard to come by if you aren't booking at 11 months out so I'm not counting on that, but I'm kind of hoping the standard studio comes through. If not I'll likely just book at POR and then wait for the room only discounts to come out (provided they do come out). No harm in trying for DVC rentals though. If I can snag a value studio it looks like it might even be cheaper than a moderate. But my math may be wrong. If it is I don't know that I care. I was using the math to convince me to do it. The kids would LOVE AKL. We took them to the zoo and I just know they would love the animals.
I'm still not planning on telling my husband about this plan. I'm going to keep him thinking I'm booking at POR. I really wanted to call him and ask his opinion about renting DVC points. I feel a little bad about just doing it without consulting him. I feel kind of guilty about it, but I think the surprise will be worth it. I'm hoping you all on here will keep encouraging me to keep my big fat mouth shut. It's not one of my strong points.
So I'm hoping in the next day or so I can update and say we got a DVC rental at ALK, but if not I'm still planning on upgrading to AKL at some point. It just might have to wait a bit.
Flights for the trip did go back up in price from the low point I saw and passed on. That's a little stressful, but I've got a while before I have to worry about that. I'm trying to decide what I want to do about flight times. Ideally I want to arrive early and leave late. Those flights are either more expensive or slightly earlier/later than I think I want. There's a 7-ish AM flight to MCO, but I'm not sure that I want to have to get the kids up and to the airport by 5 AM. I just hate to start the trip out with tired crabby children. I'm leaning more toward a late morning early afternoon flight there and then deal with a past bedtime flight home. Who cares if they get crabby and overtired at the end of the vacation right? Better than starting the vacation off on the wrong foot. I don't know. Maybe some mom's who've flown with small children more than I have will chime in on this one.
That's all I have for now. This PTR has had far too few pictures though. And who can resist pictures of cute small people? I know I can't (although I'm biased as these are MY small people).
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Oh, your kids are too cute!
Congrats on solving your stroller dilemma! Thank goodness I'm way past that problem, although if you asked my 8 year old he'd much rather be in a stroller.
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Congratulations on your raise! DH and I are feeling your pain...we are Federal employees and haven't seen a raise in about 3 years.
Well Nate answered with "None of them." That was not the answer I wanted. We needed something and I didn't want to have to rent - plus I really wanted something in the airports. Cameron will be 3 and mostly likes to walk himself, but even after a few hours at the zoo he started whining and asking to be picked up. I doubt much will change in that department in the next 7 months. So I looked into our other options. Two singles. We could keep the giant travel system stroller for Mallory and get an umbrella stroller for Cameron. Except most umbrella strollers are so low that I don't want to have to push it around for a week. Plus two separate strollers means I can't take the kids out by myself easily places. I really wanted the double so I could handle them both myself. Nate wanted something lighter and more compact for Disney. We were going to have to own multiple strollers to accomplish that. Then I found these bad boys:
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
with AKL! Great pictures, too! 
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