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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
A Royal Getaway May 22 –27, 2014 Wilderness Lodge, Old Key West
This trip started out to be a girls trip with my two nieces, Erica and Brooke, and their daughters Sariya and Kamiya, and my mother and me. However, as it turns out, A last-minute illness caused the girls to have to cancel. DM and I were sad that they wouldn’t be joining us, but there’s always next time! Also, it had been a while since DM and I had traveled to Disney (or anywhere, really) just the two of us, so we had a different reason to be excited about the trip.
When I originally booked the trip, I was to arrive with DM on Friday afternoon. Then I read about the Rock Your Disney Side event, which was to be on our arrival day. It sounded like fun, so I moved my arrival date up by one day (woohoo!), while DM would still arrive on Friday. I knew I wasn’t going to be spending the entire 24 hours in the MK, but I wanted to be there when it opened, and enjoy the special events.
Funny thing – the same thing happened for my August trip. There’s a Villains party the day before I was scheduled to arrive, so I actually extended that trip by a day to enjoy the party. I’m looking forward to it, especially after the Rock Your Disney Side experience I had. But more on that later!
I’d booked a late morning flight (instead of my usual first-thing-in-the-morning one), so I slept until my eyes popped open, then took my time getting ready. My DF dropped me off at the airport, which was practically empty. It took about 5 minutes to check my bag and go through security. Yes, 5 minutes for both things! I so love my little airport!
I bought a sandwich and a drink to have on the plane for lunch, and then went to my gate. There were actually other people there at the gate, surprisingly! It turns out that my flight was completely full!
We left 10 minutes late, which gave me the opportunity to check DM in for her flight the next day (the same flight as mine, just a day later). While in flight, I worked on my unfinished TR. I enjoyed my sandwich (turkey and cheese on a bagel, which was surprisingly fresh and tasty for airport food).
I finished the TR about 15 minutes before we landed. I was pleased to see that we’d not only made up the 10 minutes we were late at departure, but we landed a full 10 minutes early. Nice!
I headed to the other side of the terminal and checked in at DME using my Magic Band (gray for this portion of the trip – I now have all the colors and will wear whichever color matches my outfit ). The line for WL was pretty long, but I only had to wait about 5 minutes before boarding the bus. The good thing about crowds at DME is that the bus fills quickly and we were underway almost immediately.
Unfortunately, this bus thought it was coming from a WDW to the airport, because we got the farewell video. Do y’all know how sad that is, to have to watch the farewell video at the start of your trip? Well, it’s pretty sad.
We stopped at the Poly (have I mentioned my love for the Poly before ) and for once, I was glad to be not staying there – it looked awful. There were construction walls everywhere, including right at the front entrance when you first arrive. I’m excited about the changes being done, but I have to admit they really did too much at once here and I’d be very unhappy staying at the Poly in that condition.
The WL was the third stop on the bus, and once I arrived, my check-in was speedy (I’d done online check-in ahead of time). My room was ready, so I went to drop of my carryon bag. It was 2119, so I only had to walk down the hall from the lobby, no elevators necessary.
I called DM to let her know I landed safely and that I’d been able to check her in for her flight the next day. She didn’t care about where she was seated, so she didn’t do EBCI like I always do, but she was happy to have B6. Anyway, after relaxing for a few minutes, I decided it was time to play!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
The MK boat was unloading as I approached the dock – perfect timing! It was a quick ride to the MK and then I was in!
I had no real agenda this day. I figured I’d just wander around and do whatever. I had a few FP+ made for later in the day, but not really anything I couldn’t miss. I noticed the swan boat landing had been removed.
I was feeling hungry, so I decided to get food at Cosmic Ray’s. I was pleased to see short lines in there for once. I wasn’t hungry enough for a full meal (the worst part for me about solo traveling – I often wish I had someone to share food with me so I could sample more stuff). I ended up getting fries and lemonade. And that reminds me – I was thrilled to see they’re now serving actual lemonade, not that instant Minute Maid junk (or whatever brand it was).
After my snack, I went to use my FP+.
Only one problem: I was at the wrong attraction! I was going from memory (a bad idea in my case). My current FP was across the park. I stopped to get a pic of the castle on the way over.
And then I arrived at the correct FP+ attraction.
It was a quick walk through the FP queue, which pleased me. Mostly because there were three teens in front of me, and one of them would swing on the railings and “playfully” kick his friend in the back. Jerk! Anyway, luckily I didn’t have to deal with that for long.
I decided to do the HM next, where the standby was pretty short.
Next, I strolled through Fantasyland. I was excited to see the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train running because it wasn’t due to open until the day after my departure.
Unfortunately, it was for CMs only. But I filed the information away, figuring they’d start offering rides to guests soon.
Since I’d gotten a Minnie Mouse themed manicure, I figured I should take this opportunity to go meet her. Even though it was the middle of a busy day, I hoped there wouldn’t be a long wait. It was a posted 25-minute wait, but it was inside out of the blazing sun and heat, so I decided to wait.
First I met Daisy, and then I met Minnie.
Minnie liked my nails, by the way. Next up was something I really wanted to do – the Peoplemover. I knew it was going down for a refurb and I wouldn’t be able to ride it on my next trip, so I made sure to take a couple spins around Tomorrowland. I was especially pleased because the original refurb dates were going to be during this trip.
By this time, it was time to use my SM FP+ for real so that’s just what I did.
The ride photo made me laugh (not because of me, but a fellow rider – it’s pretty subtle, so look carefully ).
I had a FP+ for Wishes (mostly because I was curious about the logistics of it), but I started to get tired and felt like I should make it an early night with my super-early pre-dawn wakeup call so I could get to the MK before its 6:00 am opening.
A WL boat was arriving as I approached, and was soon back in my room at the WL. My bag had arrived, so I organized my suitcase (put on pajamas, took out outfit for tomorrow, and kept everything I absolutely wouldn’t need in the suitcase). I took a shower before hitting the sack, figuring that would save me some time in the morning.
It was about 9:00 when I climbed into bed, and I’d set an alarm for a 4:15 wakeup call. I was worried that I’d be too excited to sleep but that didn’t happ…
Up Next: Rock Your Disney Side!
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I was starting to get worried b/c I knew you had a trip, but there was NO TR! It's a shame the girls had to bail, but I can't wait to hear all about the adventures you & DM have!
Joining along to read about your trip with your DM! I always love a good P-Sha trip report!! Sorry the girls couldn't join you Sounds like a great first day! Can't wait to hear about your early-morning adventures at MK!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Great start - I always love the fact that you arrive early on (even if this trip, it was a later flight than usual) and you head straight into the parks and start enjoying yourself immediately!
As always, you hit the ground running....sounds like it was a great arrival day. Looking forward to reading about the adventures...and seeing if DM discovers any new sweet treats!
Danielle
__________________
~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
About This Page: 
DM and I were sad that they wouldn’t be joining us, but there’s always next time! Also, it had been a while since DM and I had traveled to Disney (or anywhere, really) just the two of us, so we had a different reason to be excited about the trip.
I so love my little airport! 
It turns out that my flight was completely full!
I was pleased to see that we’d not only made up the 10 minutes we were late at departure, but we landed a full 10 minutes early. 
Nice!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I was going from memory (a bad idea in my case). My current FP was across the park. I stopped to get a pic of the castle on the way over.
call so I could get to the MK before its 6:00 am opening. 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Parlor Panther in 'stalking mode'
b/c I knew you had a trip, but there was NO TR! It's a shame the girls had to bail, but I can't wait to hear all about the adventures you & DM have!
Sounds like a great first day! Can't wait to hear about your early-morning adventures at MK!!
,
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
