you probably already know this, but Harry Potter is [crowded] - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
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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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Yes, it has been and it will continue to br crowded for a loooong time. Even die-hard Disney-ites are taking a day to venture over. US / IOA are both very cool parks to visit. IOA has many killer rides
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We were there on Tuesday morning last week. Unfortunately I forgot the Park opened at 8am, and we got there for what I thought was a 9am opening. So there was already enough people in WWoHP that we had to get "entry tickets" for a 9:30 entry to the land. We did Jurassic Park without a wait while we waited for our time. Then we entered the WWoHP at 9:30 and found that the lines for the shops were already long and that the Forbidden Journey ride had a 90 minute wait. We got in line and actually waited 60 minutes before we were on board. When we came out Dueling Dragons (is that the old or new name) was down. We ended up with early lunch without much problem in Hogsmead Tavern. Went and did other areas of the park and returned in mid-afternoon (no need for entry tickets at that time) and did Single Rider line with virtually no wait for Forbidden Journey at that time (regular line listed as 75 minutes if I remember right). Still could not get into Ollivanders or Durvish and Bangs without waiting in the hot sun, so we decided to skip after a short wait in line (that didn't move) and I rode Dragons while DD waited with no wait at all. There was no problem getting in the other shops, but they were crowded.
If you go, get there at park opening. Get in Ollivanders line first. Do the rides after the shops.
We were there on Tuesday morning last week. Unfortunately I forgot the Park opened at 8am, and we got there for what I thought was a 9am opening. So there was already enough people in WWoHP that we had to get "entry tickets" for a 9:30 entry to the land. We did Jurassic Park without a wait while we waited for our time. Then we entered the WWoHP at 9:30 and found that the lines for the shops were already long and that the Forbidden Journey ride had a 90 minute wait. We got in line and actually waited 60 minutes before we were on board. When we came out Dueling Dragons (is that the old or new name) was down. We ended up with early lunch without much problem in Hogsmead Tavern. Went and did other areas of the park and returned in mid-afternoon (no need for entry tickets at that time) and did Single Rider line with virtually no wait for Forbidden Journey at that time (regular line listed as 75 minutes if I remember right). Still could not get into Ollivanders or Durvish and Bangs without waiting in the hot sun, so we decided to skip after a short wait in line (that didn't move) and I rode Dragons while DD waited with no wait at all. There was no problem getting in the other shops, but they were crowded.
If you go, get there at park opening. Get in Ollivanders line first. Do the rides after the shops.
Wow! I will definitely check park opening time and make sure my family gets ready promptly that morning. We are staying onsite and will most difinitely take advantage of the one hour early entry we get with that!
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Originally Posted by HiddenMickey
We were there on Tuesday morning last week. Unfortunately I forgot the Park opened at 8am, and we got there for what I thought was a 9am opening. So there was already enough people in WWoHP that we had to get "entry tickets" for a 9:30 entry to the land. We did Jurassic Park without a wait while we waited for our time. Then we entered the WWoHP at 9:30 and found that the lines for the shops were already long and that the Forbidden Journey ride had a 90 minute wait. We got in line and actually waited 60 minutes before we were on board. When we came out Dueling Dragons (is that the old or new name) was down. We ended up with early lunch without much problem in Hogsmead Tavern. Went and did other areas of the park and returned in mid-afternoon (no need for entry tickets at that time) and did Single Rider line with virtually no wait for Forbidden Journey at that time (regular line listed as 75 minutes if I remember right). Still could not get into Ollivanders or Durvish and Bangs without waiting in the hot sun, so we decided to skip after a short wait in line (that didn't move) and I rode Dragons while DD waited with no wait at all. There was no problem getting in the other shops, but they were crowded.
If you go, get there at park opening. Get in Ollivanders line first. Do the rides after the shops.
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Guess I'll be waiting too! Was thinking about it for March 2012... But since the little one still isn't tall enough for most rides, we will wait HIM out!
Just got back from our WDW and Universal Studios trip. WWOHP was very crowded. Our family arrived early for the park opening. As so as you go through the gate everybody goes right to WWOHP The first day I waited in line for about 30 mins for the Journey ride . There was alot of grumbling about the ride not working. I asked various park employees if the ride was down and either recieved no answer or they had no clue. (this is where I learned how spoiled I was by WDW) The line for Olivanders was always packed , didn't even attempt that store. We did get on the other rides fairly easy. The Town of Hogsmeade was very true to the story. Butterbeer was awesome! The journey ride was not a express (similar to fastpass). If you do not stay on Universal property you have to pay extra for the express pass. (beware it is for a one time use for each ride that has xpress. Also the price for July Aug was 49.99 per person . This another way we are spoiled by disney, the ability to get a fast pass is available for everyone who buys a ticket no extra charge) Other then the insane crowd, both US/IOA were alot of fun. Disney World of course was Awesome!!!!! No complaints loved every minute of it. Contemporary was a treat. We watched the fireworks every night from our room. (This was great for the kids for they have trouble with the loud noises.) I enjoyed every morning having coffee and sitting on the balcony looking out over the Magic Kingdom. I was sad to leave my Happy Place. Oh well time to plan my return trip lol
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We just got back from Universal. We went last Monday and Tuesday. The morning wait time was 2 hours. BUT if you went back in the afternoon, it was only 45 minutes both days. Everyone seems to rush there in the morning. We took our time and were able to shorten the wait time in half. We didn't even attempt Ollivanders but did wander about Hogsmeade.
I went last July and found that arriving closer to closing was actually a lot better. There was only about a 30 minute wait to get into Honeydukes (we sipped butterbeer while we waited) and it was about the same amount of time to get into the Three Broomsticks for fish and chips. We got there about 2 hours before closing.
We also were able to attend a special event where our group was let into the park after closing time but found it was actually easier to shop when the park was open! (of course riding the Forbidden Journey was much easier when the park was closed to the public). That ride will probably always be crowded but if shopping is your thing, get there a couple of hours before closing while everyone is in line for a last minute ride on the Forbidden Journey and shop it up!
We went to US/IoA three times between 7/31 and 8/8 (Sun 7/31, Sat 8/6 and Mon 8/8), and were able to do everything in good time....longest posted wait-times for Forbidden Journey was 60 minutes (and that was mid-morning.... wait times were 40 minutes or less in late afternoon). It is imperative to be at IoA at park opening and head straight for WWOHP.
Also, there are two other entrances to the store that you can purchase wands from. There's a queue set up that people stand in line for to get admitted to Ollivander's, where the wand-selection process is performed, but after that process/show is done, those guests are shuttled off to the same store that has entrances to the right of the Olivander's door and at the rear of the building to purchase the wands.... If you are not interested in seeing the wand-selection process (and note that not everyone in the wand-selection process actually has a wand select them - it's only a few from each group), just enter the door to the right or at the rear of the building... it may be crowded, but there was no wait to get into those doors on the days I was there while the queue for Ollivanders was quite lengthy.
Also note that character wands are also available from a cart at the top of the hill to the right of the entrance to Forbidden journey, and also at the giant store at the front of IoA (Port of Entry).
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I will definitely check park opening time and make sure my family gets ready promptly that morning. We are staying onsite and will most difinitely take advantage of the one hour early entry we get with that!
) The line for Olivanders was always packed , didn't even attempt that store. We did get on the other rides fairly easy. The Town of Hogsmeade was very true to the story. Butterbeer was awesome! The journey ride was not a express (similar to fastpass). If you do not stay on Universal property you have to pay extra for the express pass. (beware it is for a one time use for each ride that has xpress. Also the price for July Aug was 49.99 per person . This another way we are spoiled by disney, the ability to get a fast pass is available for everyone who buys a ticket no extra charge
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