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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mini-Pre Trip Report - I don't mind if I do..............
Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Diane (age 48) I live in Southern New Hampshire with my three girls and my partner (Tom). Tom and I have been together for 7 years now. My two oldest are in college and my youngest is going into High School. Speaking of high school, I work for our local school district, so my vacations are limited to school breaks – which makes things difficult if you want to take advantage of certain special times of the year at Disney or their value season. The last time I was able to go “home” was in 2010 (four long years ago). That trip, I went with two of my girls, while the oldest was in college at the time and could not come.
Over the last four years, my youngest, Emma, (now age 14) has developed the love for Disney that I possess. I’m hoping (finger’s crossed) that Tom will follow suit some day. He has other obligations right now with his own two girls, that sort of prevents us from vacationing together, other than short trips to the mountains or the coast of Maine. So we will wait it out and in the meantime I will plan trips with my own kids! Seeing that I am providing for my girls on my own at this stage of the game, I can not afford to go to WDW too often. Hence, the last trip was four years ago. This is just unacceptable to me to wait that long, so I bit the bullet and booked a trip for our February break from school 2015. I didn’t think it appropriate to write a pre-trip report this far out, but then I got to thinking – why not share with all of you. So I would welcome any and all suggestions or advice!
This trip will be for Emma and myself only. Although I feel a bit of guilt not taking my other two girls, it is not at all possible, as one of them is in Nursing School and the other is starting her 2nd Bachelor’s degree. Secretly, I’m thrilled that it will be just Emma and myself as we have been hard wired the same Disney Way, if you know what I mean. She appreciates all the little touches that Disney provides, and the behind-the-scenes things as well. It will be a super trip and we are so looking forward to it.
Up Next: Length of Stay; Resort; and Firsts for Us
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Great start! You and Emma will have a fantastic time together. I have kids in middle school through college, so I know what you mean about the vacation times not coordinating. Is this a surprise for Emma or does she know? I think the best part is the planning and anticipation. Looking forward to hearing the details of your trip!
Sounds like an awesome trip...can't wait for more details. And by the way POR is one of my favorite resorts.
I agree 100%! This trip we intend to rent a surrey bike and explore the grounds
Great start, Diane! [IMG]file://localhost/Users/dfigaro/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_image002.png[/IMG]Awesome that you are getting to go back after waiting so long.
Thanks Cam! By the time we go, it will be five years – way too long in between trips!
Great start!!
I'm debating whether to start mine...and we're at 179 days.
Please do, I’d love to read it. Actually, reading these boards is the only way I’m able to keep my sanity while I wait it out…..
Great start! You two are going to have a great time. Can't wait to hear more.
Thank you! I hope I’m responding in correct “passporter boards fashion”. This is new to me…
Congrats on booking!!! I love mommy and daughter trips!!!
No kidding, right? Especially when your daughter is feeling the Dis Love like you do!
Great start! You and Emma will have a fantastic time together. I have kids in middle school through college, so I know what you mean about the vacation times not coordinating. Is this a surprise for Emma or does she know? I think the best part is the planning and anticipation. Looking forward to hearing the details of your trip!
Thanks Sue. No this is not a surprise, Emma is planning right along with me – which is so great. Just the other day, she sent me a text from her father’s house….”mom, did you know they have something called Lafou’s Brew?” Of course I did!
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Having been away from planning a Disney trip for so long, had me thinking that I simply must tell other like-minded folks, like those of you reading along, all about my plans. Now, we all know that plans change and evolve – a living document so to speak – but it sure is fun to dream and plan and prepare. So here goes!
We will be arriving on February 21, 2015 and staying for 8 nights at POR Riverside (Mansion section). I love Riverside for many reasons. First, I can afford it – sort of – and seeing that I can no longer manage at this stage of my life to spring for the Poly (my first love) or AKL anymore, I am comfortable going back to POR. It really is a beautiful resort and close enough to everything, including DTD. So Riverside here we come. I would really like to be able to manage to transfer to AKL for a couple of nights, but I don’t think it is in my cards this trip. Emma would LOVE to stay at AKL and I would love to surprise her with it. I was looking at possibly renting DVC points, but I’m a little hesitant about how all that “works”. Any of you ever done this before? I have also never done a split stay and to be honest I’m not sure I want to pack up and transfer. However, if I did do that, I would transfer at the end of my trip to a Deluxe. I know it has been done all the time by other folks.
When Southwest opens up flights for that time period, I will book our flights out of Manchester, NH – direct to MCO. Flying out of Manchester is a piece of cake as opposed to flying out of Boston (Logan). Not that Logan is bad, it’s just that Manchester is so flipping easy! Don’t you just love the excitement of arriving at an airport early in the morning (especially if you are leaving snowdrifts 2 feet high behind ya) and flying south to Disney? Stepping off the plan into warmer weather and seeing palm trees is amazing for a girl from the North! Nothing beats that butterfly in your stomach feeling. I still get that feeling even at my age. My first trip to WDW was in 1978 (the blizzard of ’78) to be exact! So I know the feeling well.
My dad drove my mom, brother and I straight out of the snowy Boston area and right down to Florida during that historical storm! My dad had a love for Disney as well, so I’m pretty sure that is why my brother and I eat, drink and sleep it, while my two older sisters could care less about going. Sadly, my dad passed away when I was only 24 years old, but I have my most fond memories of childhood as being at Disney with him! Ok, back to the report….
We will be taking advantage of Magical Express. We did this our last trip in 2010 and it worked out really well for us. We did not have to wait long for the bus or for our luggage to be delivered to our room. The only downside is the return trip home, as you have to leave your resort really early out in order to get to the airport. Small price to pay, I think, for great free service. Plus, I don’t want to navigate the highways of Orlando on my own.
When I started planning this trip, I was shocked at all the technological changes Disney instituted. MDX, MagicBands, Fastpass+ - what the heck happened while I was under a rock! I now have a “grip” on it all and will wade the waters with the rest of you! I still need to purchase passes and link them to my account. I’m considering ordering them from Undercover Tourist. I have never done this before, but everyone says it is a good reputable site, so I plan to do that in early summer. I will get Emma a 6 day park hopper and I’ll get myself a 4 day park hopper as I have two one day park hoppers left from a trip many moons ago that are still good. I’m not sure how all that will work out for me. I have many questions about it, such as, can I get fast passes for the old days? Will they link up? etc….I hope it all works out and is not too stressful. I just can’t see not using two whole days I have left from previous trips. They are so old that they have the no expiration on them, so I know they are good. I just don’t know how it will link up, or if it won’t.
Am with you on the Mansions...that is where I stay when I go to that resort...this time we are at POFQ my other favorite. And like you it hasn't been in the cards for me to do the high end resort..sometimes you just have to decide what is more important going to Disney or not going because you can't swing Poly or AKL..for me going will always win out and it seems it is that way for you. And I agree about Logan I try to fly out of Providence whenever I can. So sorry to hear about your Dad but as he loved Disney and passed that on to you he will be right there with you while you both are laughing and having a great time. I think this is a great way to honor you Dad's memory. Yes so much has happened..that is Disney forever changing. As I think they must do if they want people to come back even though some of the changes make me sad but got to keep moving forward, right? I don't know about the 'old' tickets so am sure someone will give you pointers on how that will work. Again love reading your plans...keep them coming.
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POR is a beautiful resort, and with it just being the 2 of you, you will have plenty of room! And honestly, how much time are you going to spend in that room anyway????
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I think I would stay at POR the whole time and not splurge on an AKL ending. I'm not the biggest fan of split stays, and I'd rather splurge on a special meal or something! As a DVC member I don't have to make that call anymore, but if you really love it there I'd seriously look into renting points! With just the two of you, you could get by with just a studio and there are usually great deals this way! But I would do this for the WHOLE stay if it were me! Of course, some people LOVE split stays. Totally personal preference!
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) that Tom will follow suit some day. He has other obligations right now with his own two girls, that sort of prevents us from vacationing together, other than short trips to the mountains or the coast of Maine. So we will wait it out and in the meantime I will plan trips with my own kids! Seeing that I am providing for my girls on my own at this stage of the game, I can not afford to go to WDW too often. Hence, the last trip was four years ago
. This is just unacceptable to me to wait that long, so I bit the bullet and booked a trip for our February break from school 2015. I didn’t think it appropriate to write a pre-trip report this far out, but then I got to thinking – why not share with all of you. So I would welcome any and all suggestions or advice!
DLinNH
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Pixie Dust
Awesome that you are getting to go back after waiting so long. 
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