We leave in 6 days - 6 - and I just made a dining reservation...... - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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
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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.
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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 leave in 6 days - 6 - and I just made a dining reservation......
for Hoop Dee Doo!!!! I can't believe they had anything at all opened.
But here's the backstory. I was talking with Lenny over the weekend about getting pressed pennies. There are 4 new ones at FW and I was kind of hoping to skip them. No such luck - Lenny wants to get them and while we're at it, he said we have to eat at Trails End. He really enjoys there - especially the fried chicken so Sunday morning, I was online and I was able to get an ADR for our first day (7/20) at Disney World. That didn't really surprise me as it's a resort non-character meal - I didn't see a problem getting the ADR. I didn't really want to get it as I didn't want an ADR on our first day but I figured we'll try and I'll hope we won't be too tired to go there.
So tonight at dinner, we were talking about our vacation and Lenny told Abby how we're eating at TEB on our first day. Abby looked sad and said "maybe some day we can eat at Hoop Dee Doo." We ate there 2 years ago and Abby really, really enjoyed it but last year when I made my ADR's, she never said anything about it. Until we showed up at FW for our TEB dinner. She kept saying she wanted to eat at HDD. I tried to get us in but the only availability that day was at 9:30 that night which is way too late for us. Abby accepted that and I told her we'd try again some day. Well tonight at dinner when she made that comment, I felt really bad. Abby really asks for so little when it comes to our Disney trips that I asked Lenny his opinion. He said "what the heck, just see if anything is available." Needless to say, my jaw hit the floor when I went online and saw that there was availability on Wednesday. It gave me a choice of categories so instead of booking online, I called - and yes, there was availability. We took category 3 as I'm not above saving a little bit of money - like I said, we've been before so I know exactly how the seating is - and I know we'll see everything fine. Now to go tell Abby. I wonder if she'll be happy or not
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Hi, Darlene,
We'll be in WDW the same time as you and I made a lunch reservation at LTT just yesterday. In fact, I was poking around and was shocked to see that there was even room for the 8 of us at the MK fireworks dessert party on the evening of the 20th! We're passing on that one, but I thought that always sold out right away. When I was loooking yesterday, there were many TS restaurants (character and non-character) available during our upcoming stay.
Perhaps guests inclined to eat TS meals have moved their vacations to August to take advantage of the free dining offer?
Have a wonderful vacation!