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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well being a WDW veteran pretty much think we have seen and done it all in one trip or another. Dont get me wrong I LOVE LOVE my disney and my DD (4) is my disney Minnie me ... So proud of that by the way last few trips we have enjoyed 2-3 down days and it was so nice to hang by by the pool and took my DD to ft wilderness for pony rides and walking around there. Got me thinking about other fellow WDW veterans as well and how do you vacation in the world? Would love to hear and maybe get some new fun ideas how many down days do you incorporate in your vacation and what do you do with them ?
In the past we have not had down days but did not spend much time in the park each day either. Usually would go in the morning for a couple hours, then back to the pool and after dinner head back for a while. I like the parks best at night. On our next trip in November we will be going to the water parks for a couple days but we will not be going into the parks.
I usually only schedule one down day & it's not really a break. We do go to a park that day but we don't stay all day long like we usually do. That night I drop my DD into one of the kids clubs so we have a "break" from each other. I go out with a friend of mine & DD gets a night out with her kids.
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We have never had a "down day". We go from morning til late, late night! We do eat -3 table service meals a day, so we take our down time then.
Rarely, we go to Disney Quest (never a rainy day - those are the busiest days), or play putt-putt. We don't do pools, really. We have pools here at home.
My kids will be 11 and 7 for this trip and we are not schedualing any down days. We do have a couple of days that we are planning on heading to DTD or back to the pool after we have dinner. I can't see about spending money to go to the water parks when we get season passes for Six Flags Great America and it has a great water park attacted to it that we go to almost weekly.
The past 2 years (the only times I've traveled to WDW with kids), we vacationed for a total of 5 days. 2 of those were flying days where we just wandered the resort or left early in the morning.
Our kids were 2 1/2 and 8 months this time. We had 2 park days and 1 'down' day. The down day consisted of a character breakfast, swimming, and walking around the monorail hotels.
At this age, my daughter would have been happiest if we just went to the pool everyday. We also came back to the room everyday after lunch for a nap.
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We don't schedule down days, but we primarily do park touring in the morning, take a break for the afternoon, and maybe visit another park for a while in the evening. We do enjoy more laid back activities like DTD, resort hopping along the monorail line, visiting Art of Animation, etc. I don't really consider going to the pool "downtime" as with three kids it is a lot of supervision, although less so with our older children.
We stay for several weeks so for us a "down day" is spent off property shopping or at US. Pool time is when we have a sleep in then head to the parks for a night time show. We need a vacation when we get home!
We don't do down days but we only do mornings in the park then the pool or the room in the afternoon and then out for dinner at night. This last trip we have started doing split stays so we now sleep in on each check out day and maybe do crazy golf after check out or a water park
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On our first trip, we had one 'down' day (waterpark day) and six parks days. We had a nine day trip a few years back where we had a down day as well.
But every other trip we go to a main park for at least part of each day and usually at rope drop. We originally did week stays, but have dropped our trips to five days or less mostly at this point. With short trips, taking a day off from the parks makes no sense.
We tend to build quiet time into our afternoons instead, a couple hours at the pool or sitting in the room watching tv before dinner.
We don't have down days. Last year was the first time we left the parks earlier in the evenings and relaxed more at the resort. This year on our last day we don't fly out till the evening...trying to decide what we can do till about 2pm. I'm thinking about doing the monorail resorts...never done that.
....we don't really schedule in any down "days". On our arrival day ...we get to the resort by 10:30 or 11 am ...and then settle in and hang by the pool until late afternoon .....then go to DtD for dinner and shopping. That's as close to a "down day" as it gets.
...if we go to a park with morning EMH's ...we'll get back to the room early afternoon and hang by the pool for a few hours before heading off to a park in the evening.
...sometimes we add in a non-Disney day and go to Universal ...but that's hardly down-time.
....the more I examine the schedule while at WDW ...it appears that I work harder there than at home!!!
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We don't schedule "down days", in fact we don't schedule anything but our dinner ADRs. But...since we stay at POFQ most of our trips we have enjoyed letting DS go fishing at POR, renting the boats, taking the ferry to DTD, renting the surrey bikes and DS favorite pool "Old Scaly" is always a must.
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... So proud of that by the way 
last few trips we have enjoyed 2-3 down days and it was so nice to hang by by the pool and took my DD to ft wilderness for pony rides and walking around there. Got me thinking about other fellow WDW veterans as well and how do you vacation in the world? Would love to hear and maybe get some new fun ideas 
how many down days do you incorporate in your vacation and what do you do with them ?
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