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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It was awhile ago so I don't remember the source, but I thought there was a rumor of DVC expanding in a moderate resort area, I think the rumor said CBR, but take that all with a grain of salt.
The only deluxe resort without DVC villas attached is the Yacht Club as Yacht Club is technically a separate resort from Beach Club. I would think that, logically, that would be the next resort to add DVC. As the Epcot area DVC resorts can be hard to get into, I would like to see something else in the Epcot area. Not sure if there is room in the area for a stand alone DVC resort, but that's what I would like to see.
Problem with making projections is that everything is so fluid within TWDC. Everything from the economy to internal politics makes it almost impossible to predict what will happen more than a few months ahead. This is particularly the case with DVC since each resort is literally a 50 year commitment from Disney to resort owners.
Recently fallout from Shanghai Disneyland has been hitting WDW and DL like a freight train.
I think all of the Moderates have been linked to DVC at some time or another. But again, politics come into play.
Here's a story on the Ft. Wilderness DVC which was literally derailed mid-stream.
Obviously all of the design work was completed. Disney commissioned major projects at Ft. Wilderness including relocation of the Tri Circle D Ranch, which were supposed to pave the way for the DVC construction. But Wilderness Lodge became a higher priority.
It's going to be interesting to see what does happen to the DVC going forward. As Tim says, it's now fairly well known that problems with various projects (I'd heard Avatar land as well as Shanghai Disneyland) has left Disney re-evaluating everything they're doing, as they don't have the money they were expecting to.
I remember all the rumours about Fort Wilderness and I remember thinking it made sense, given its location near (ish) to the Magic Kingdom, as I could see that being a selling point. I've often wondered about the Yacht Club as well, as I assume Disney would want to finish off adding DVC resorts at all the deluxe resorts, before potentially moving into the moderates....
I would love to see a DVC resort somewhere central or maybe in the mountains. Yes I know the theme parks are the biggest draw but for those of us who have been members long enough to be ready to try something else, Aulani is an expensive flight! I was really excited by the rumors about the Washington DC site. If they put a nice theater with live shows, a themed restaurant, and maybe a mini golf course or other small attraction in an area that is heavy with family tourism I bet they could do well.
I would love to see a DVC resort somewhere central or maybe in the mountains. Yes I know the theme parks are the biggest draw but for those of us who have been members long enough to be ready to try something else, Aulani is an expensive flight! I was really excited by the rumors about the Washington DC site. If they put a nice theater with live shows, a themed restaurant, and maybe a mini golf course or other small attraction in an area that is heavy with family tourism I bet they could do well.
Actually that does sound very neat, and now I think about it, surely it's about time we had a DVC resort at Disneyland Paris? That would certainly encourage us to visit more regularly - and I'm sure it would attract a lot of investment from British families too.
I sure hope they put a sock in any more expansion...the parks have become oppressively crowded year round...they need another park to justify the levels of people
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I would love to see a DVC resort somewhere central or maybe in the mountains. Yes I know the theme parks are the biggest draw but for those of us who have been members long enough to be ready to try something else, Aulani is an expensive flight! I was really excited by the rumors about the Washington DC site. If they put a nice theater with live shows, a themed restaurant, and maybe a mini golf course or other small attraction in an area that is heavy with family tourism I bet they could do well.
I agree. And now that you have me thinking beyond WDW, I think that the Disneyland Resort could use some more DVC villas. An add on to the Disneyland Hotel perhaps? This would likely be very popular!
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With the slow sales of the Poly and Aulani and the current construction at VWL I think they might have a break,
I don't think DVC construction has a lot to do with crowd levels at the parks, the vast majority of park visitors do not stay onsite and also many of the Dvc rooms cerated recently were actually conversions of Hotel rooms not additional rooms.
I think the issue in California is just space...we were there for the first time in February, and I just don't know where they would put it??
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We were there last November and a CM was describing all the land they actually own to us. You would be surprised. There are parking lots and other businesses have been renting space from a company owned by Disney. I guess they have been buying parcels as they became available to be able to make expansions when the time is right. It would not be attached to the park but less than 1/2 a block away. They would have to figure out a way to keep you in the bubble.
I would love to see a DVC resort somewhere central or maybe in the mountains. Yes I know the theme parks are the biggest draw but for those of us who have been members long enough to be ready to try something else, Aulani is an expensive flight! I was really excited by the rumors about the Washington DC site. If they put a nice theater with live shows, a themed restaurant, and maybe a mini golf course or other small attraction in an area that is heavy with family tourism I bet they could do well.
I don't expect to see another non-park DVC anytime soon. By all accounts, sales of Aulani have been disappointing. And if DVC can't thrive in Hawaii, I'm not sure another location exists where it would.
Main problem is that while members enjoy having the variety, few people are actually interested in buying at those off-site resorts.
Going forward, I suspect DVC will rely on its trading relationship with RCI to fill that need. And if you want to stay off-site, that's really where you should be looking. The value of trading points thru RCI is quite good. Just need to do homework to understand the trading process and research the quality of destination resorts before accepting a trade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmboy95
I think the issue in California is just space...we were there for the first time in February, and I just don't know where they would put it??
There is PLENTY of buildable land at Disneyland. And since it doesn't have the high water table of Florida's swamp land, it's easier to go vertical.
Disney is in the process of expanding the parking structure out there. Once that's complete, there are several surface lots which could easily be repurposed for new use. Much of it surrounding the current Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier.
The last thing I heard about a year ago was the WL cabins and rooms being converted. Then they mentioned starting back up the Fort Wilderness / River Country plan that stopped just before ground breaking because they were worried it would reduce sales of Grand Floridian and Polynesian. After that they mentioned converting Yacht Club rooms and making part of CBR into a Moderate DVC and creating a connection from CBR to Epcot so you could boat over to Epcot. Later down the road may be an addition to Polynesian but that is all I got for now.
It's funny - I was hoping for years for DVC at the Polynesian. Now I kind of regret hoping for it. (I could fly to and stay in a real bungalow in Bora Bora instead for that kind of money!)
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