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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I like that idea especially if they do it in Epcot for Soarin.
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It would be very nice for Soarin'. After you walk all the way into the building, down the stairs, and then you find out there are no fastpasses left -- YIKES!
I love the idea of a centralized fast pass machine! I think it would allow you to spend your time better and not have to back track so much.
I like it as long as they also keep the FP resources at the ride/attraction itself. I'd hate to have to continually go back to a centralized location to grab another FP when I was eligible for another.
Interesting article!! I think it might be a good thing if they still kept the Fastpasses at the attractions too. It mght save me having to walk all over to get me next fastpass which is really helpful at AK.
It's like rebates -- the more people who actually remember to use them, the less they'll offer them.
If you have to "manage" FPs and do a little legwork, the majority of people won't want to deal with the hassle and more FPs will continue to be available for those of us who do the legwork.
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Interesting.....and I am not surprised that this method is being tested.
I actually think this is a good idea....as long as times can be posted for each attraction.
A small sentence in the article was also interesting. Wristbanding the kids to save time in measuring their height at the attractions sounds like a good time saver. There could be a different color for each height level and each child would be given a wrist band for the highest level they meet. But - must not forget the little ones who would be disappointed without a band for themselves so they could be given one that does not signify a height level but they could have a wristband all their own just like big sister and big brother. Thoughts??
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A small sentence in the article was also interesting. Wristbanding the kids to save time in measuring their height at the attractions sounds like a good time saver. There could be a different color for each height level and each child would be given a wrist band for the highest level they meet. But - must not forget the little ones who would be disappointed without a band for themselves so they could be given one that does not signify a height level but they could have a wristband all their own just like big sister and big brother. Thoughts??
I have actually always found it interesting that the Disney parks DON'T do this . . . many other theme parks do, in order to save time and save them from having to measure each and every kid.
At Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion, we have gotten height wristbands for DD and it has made it a lot quicker to get on the rides . . . the ride attendants check for the wristband and off we go. There have been times that DD took the wristband off towards the end of the day, but she was just measured at the ride entrance.
As for the centalized FP machines . . . I am kind of torn. While I agree with Eileen, I do think it would be more convenient for those rides that are a longer walk and such.
My gut response -
If they centralize it and it became as the blogger said a reality with signage and on the park map, they would take away the individual ones. This would be another cost-cutting plan for Disney while still meeting the guest desire for the FP. Instead of 3 cms by the ride FP machines, there would be the one location with one cm.
I am leaning towards liking the idea more than not. It definitley will be fun to see how it all pans out!
I think it's an interesting idea ... but I worry about the people who will just "get one" since they see the central location and then not use it ... I think there will be more folks who will get fastpasses only to not use them, since the location is centrally located.
I don't like the idea. I see a huge pile of people standing in a line wondering what its all about. Besides, if people are too lazy to walk back to the actual ride to get the fastpass then what's to say they would even use it if they got it. That would mean none for people that would. As for walking all the way to Soarin' to find that they are out of fastpasses, check the tip boards in the various areas of the park. They tell you what the wait times are and whether there are any fastpasses available for the ride.
Let's remember that it was the blogger's front line CM friend who was expressing wishes that a wristband system be instituted, and that the FP machines at the attractions be eliminated. It sounded to me like an employee hoping some of his/her least-favorite parts of the job went away. Let's face it, even with wristbands, there has to be a CM at the head of the queue to look for the wristbands. They can't get rid of that CM, because they don't want guests going all the way through the queue before they discover someone can't ride. That just leads to unhappy incidents, and unhappy guests.
Disney has tested wristband systems in the past, but they haven't been instituted. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it has to do with the amount of time, space, and resources required at the front of the park. I have a feeling whatever benefits may have been gained (guest confidence that their little one will be treated consistently all day long, 5-10 seconds saved per guest at each attraction's measuring stick, etc.) didn't balance with the down side (additional staff at the front of the park, crowd bottleneck, etc.).
I have a feeling Disney wouldn't get rid of the FP machines at the attractions. One reason they're there is so people won't be too disappointed by long lines. Move the machines out to the hub and there's no longer an easy alternative to waiting on the standby queue. Imagine a front line CM having to tell a guest at the FP Return queue,"Yes, you can get a free FP and use this queue, too, but you'll have to go to the center of the park to get it."
I also think that centralizing the machines (with none at the attractions) simply centralizes the bottlenecks. Guests will need help, no matter where the machines are located, and if all the guests who need help are clustered in one place... I don't think it'd be a pretty sight.
This seems like a fairly prelimimary test, on a very low budget. What they do with the test are another matter. They could be testing the concept of doing this at a variety of locations around the park - Space Mountain FPs available at, say, Splash Mountain and Peter Pan's Flight, Splash and Peter Pan FPs at Space Mountain, etc.. And/or, they could be considering putting FP distribution near the tip boards (as well as at the attractions), so guests can act on some of their plans immediately "Lets do Pirates now, since it's a walk-on, and get a SM FP for later, since it has a long wait."
One reason Disney has the tip boards is to steer guests to less-crowded parts of the park/attractions. Distributing the crowds more or less evenly around the park means it can hold more guests before guests get the impression the park is crowded (and start leaving). Having some FP machines near the tip board helps facilitate that - folks can head over to a relatively quiet part of the park without having to visit the crowded part for the sole reason of snagging a FP. That reduces the appearance of crowding even further.
Any change "distorts" the existing system, and I'm pretty sure they can program the system to account for the changes that inevitably will take place. It'll be interesting to see what comes of all this (if anything).
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Let's face it, even with wristbands, there has to be a CM at the head of the queue to look for the wristbands. They can't get rid of that CM, because they don't want guests going all the way through the queue before they discover someone can't ride. That just leads to unhappy incidents, and unhappy guests.
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