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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We are planning on going coming to the World Thanksgiving week of 2014. I know there are large crowds at the park at this time. Is there any other things to do while we are there that will be less crowded due to all the parks being filled? (ex: Downtown Disney?). We will be there the week after also and can take the kids to the parks at that time instead.
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We have booked a bounceback Disney cruise on the Disney Fantasy for the week before US Thanksgiving week in 2014 and are trying to decide when to put the bulk of our "land" days -- before or after the cruise :-) One of the considerations is the thanksgiving crowds...
That said, there are MANY things to do that time of year (and other times of year, but that time of year is extra magical because of the Holiday/Christmas decorations !! :-)
Some ideas:
Explore the various resorts... and they are all done up with Holiday decorations, which adds extra magic. Many have gigantic decorated trees in their lobbies. Some examples:
- Grand Floridian has a life-size gingerbread house in the lobby that you can walk through (in past years it is typically open 10am-10pm), and inside it is a shop you can buy gingerbread shingles from :-)
- Wilderness lodge is decorated and has a gigantic multi-storey tree in its lobby, which just adds even more to its theming;
- you can get a DOLE WHIP in a cup at Captain Cook's (a quick service restaurant) at the Polynesian resort (no need to go to Magic Kingdom or wait in the horrendously long Aloha Aisle lines!!) :-)
- visit the geyser and beach and theme pool and water theming at Wilderness lodge (you are not allowed to SWIM in the pool if you are not a WL guest, but just walking around that whole water courtyard and then tracing the "river" up to its start inside the lobby is pretty amazing !!)
- many of the resorts have an evening campfire with FREE marshmallows, followed by an outdoor movie on their beach (or other location, it may, for example, be by a pool); sometimes there is a sing-along after the campfire and before the movie. Note that other than at Fort Wilderness the sing-along only involves humans, no characters. Also, when we went to Wilderness Lodge's campfire a few weeks ago (we were staying at WL), the marshmallows were Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallows, and they and the roasting sticks were free. There were two CMs to supervise the activities, and one of them was the marshmallow-loader and stick-issuer. Everyone had lots of fun, and you got to have as many marshmallow refills as you wanted, adults and kids alike :-)
- if you are at MK and need a break, take a boat launch to one of the close-by resorts (Grand Floridian (has Gasparella's), Polynesian (has Captain Cook's), or Wilderness Lodge (has Roaring Forks)) and grab a meal or snack or beverage (esp if you have your RFID resort refillable mug with you -- then it is free!!) at THEIR quick service restaurant (see name above), rest a bit, explore the resort a bit, then go back to MK or park hop or go back to your resort, or off to another to explore or do something else entirely.
- visit the beach at the Poly to watch MK's Wishes fireworks
- visit the boat launch dock at Grand Floridian to watch MK's Wishes fireworks (someone may have a better recommendation of where to watch from; they pipe the soundtrack to speakers at the restaurant right next door, so you can hear it as well as see it :-) )
If you have a Parkhopper pass, go to Hollywood Studios one night just to see the Osbourne Lights. I have found taking the boat launch from Epcot can be an effective and pleasant way to get there.
Park hop via circuitous routes that let you explore some resorts !! E.g. if you are going to downtown disney and are at a resort -- take a bus to Port Orleans Riverside, explore that resort a bit, then get on the boat launch to Downtown Disney !! :-) At MK and going to AK > Go via Animal Kingtom Lodge and check out their theming and holiday decorations.
Some parks have great holiday decorations OUTSIDE the parks. For example, AK's huge tree is outside the gates. If you don't have a park hopper or won't be visiting a park, you can still see some of their holiday decorations from the outside. We won't be doing AK on our Nov 2014 trip, but I am thinking of doing a late lunch at Rainforest Cafe at AK and using that to see the decorations outside AK and also then hop over to AK Lodge to see their decorations.
I would not hesitate to go to any of the parks on Thanksgiving Day. In fact we've done the MK over the past few years ON Thanksgiving Day, and found it remarkably UN-crowded. In fact 3 or 4 years ago we got to the park, went on everything we wanted to in about 3-1/2 hours, and looked at each other and went... "ok, now what!"
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