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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 went down to Universal/IOA last week and wanted to share my thoughts about our stay. Overall, the trip was wonderful! We only focused on US/IOA for this trip (no Disney ). It was a Wed-Sunday trip, and we stayed at the Doubletree Univeral (which was LITERALLY) a ten minute walk from the Park (which was only down the street) or a $3-$5.00 cab drive.
AAA offered us a great room rate and we were able to stay in a theme park view room. Now because we were not in one of the three Universal hotels it doesn't seem like we'd have a view of anything, but we could see the tops of rides, the lights and when the sun came out in the morning, we could see the the castle from the WWoHP. We were only there for three full days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday and flying home EARLY on Sunday), so we bought 3 day Park-to-Park tickets. The weather was HOT but dry and the crowds were not bad.
As far as what my thoughts were, here they are:
Hotel: Fabulous! The hotel was clean, spacious and close to the theme parks. We were fortunate to have a couple of restaurants nearby within walking distance and there were several locations within the hotel to buy food and beverages.
Hotel Transport: Mears, as always never an issue. Our drivers were great, especially our first driver who took us to a Walgreen's to get diapers after the airline lost our bag with our baby's clothes and diapers upon our arrival.
Theme Parks: US/IOA were fun! I haven't been to either in almost 11 years, so it was a nice change. The prices were reasonable however their "express" feature is expensive. It would have increased our price ticket to $280.00 EACH. We declined the add-on and had no problems with lines.
Food/Dining. We had no reservations and ate at some great places, Hard Rock, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, etc. City Walk was a wonderful place to grab food and drinks. I highly recommend The Shack right outside Margaritaville for alcoholic beverages .
Southwest: As always, smooth sailing and no issues except the missing bag (which we got back the very next morning).
WWoHP: Did it live up to the hype? ABSOLUTELY! It was wonderful to visit and they did a fabulous job. The Forbidden Journey ride that is located in the castle was so much fun and we never waited more than 40 minutes. We did not visit the wand show at Ollivander's as the line was always incredibly long but we did visit Honeydukes, Zonko's, listened to Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms and saw the Hogwart's choir with the signing frogs. Definitely worth the visit!!
That's it. The three days were perfect and everyone had fun with no complaints. Well except for one, the parks closed at 7 on some nights which I've never experienced since Disney always has at least one park open late, but other than that, we had a wonderful time.
Now, on to planning for Disney in August and October...woohoo!!!
Sounds like fun. I really want to do WWoHP but it was cheaper for us to Disney this June when we are in Orlando. Im glad you guys had fun and your stay was great.
Sounds like fun. I really want to do WWoHP but it was cheaper for us to Disney this June when we are in Orlando. Im glad you guys had fun and your stay was great.
I'm glad you had such a good time. We always Include US / IOA as well as Seaworld in each of our WDW trips. I never understood folks who never try US because it's 'not Disney.' All three parks are great
We're going on a US/IOA only trip in Aug, and it's going to be VERY weird to not do Disney (although we WILL be hitting DTD for Gospel brunch at HoB!) I'm super-excited to see WWoHP though. I hope our trip is similar to yours, with not too much waittime!
How long did you spend total in WWOHP? I have the last day of our upcoming trip allocated for IOA so we can do Harry Potter Land. But I want to know if we will have time to do anything else before we have to leave for the airport.
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Great information, thanks for sharing! I'm planning a visit for next May with my DD9 who has become a big HP fan. (me too!)
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How long did you spend total in WWOHP? I have the last day of our upcoming trip allocated for IOA so we can do Harry Potter Land. But I want to know if we will have time to do anything else before we have to leave for the airport.
Great question. We spent about 3 hours or so (including wait time for Forbidden Journey) exploring the WWoHP. We did not ride the Dragon Coaster, but we waited 45 minutes for Forbidden Journey and then took our time visiting Zonko's and Honeydukes and the Hogwart's Express. Ollivander's is crazy busy because only a handful of people can get in at a time since it's so small. You should have plenty of time to explore WWoHP on your last day. Enjoy!
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). It was a Wed-Sunday trip, and we stayed at the Doubletree Univeral (which was LITERALLY) a ten minute walk from the Park (which was only down the street) or a $3-$5.00 cab drive.
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Disney - 9.2012
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. 
Michelle - with my step sisters!
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