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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Even though I've said I'm not ready to plan with our next trip aimed at next February. So which option would you choose for a two-week trip, taking into consideration that I like a good value....
1) one week at POR under stay play package,nthey move to akl for room-only. Do expensive ts spots while under dining plan. Possibly add water park option for leisurely / rest days
2) rent car during second week and see some other spots (though I could care less myself to leave Disney property). Dh would like legoland or sea world or both.
3) 5 night min for POR package, then room-only to akl for about 4 nights, then 4-day Disney cruise
4) 9 or 10 nights room discount at akl, then add tickets and ding - or no ding. Then 4-day cruise.
5) save Disney cruise for bonus 40th birthday trip in early November 2015, so long as she still agrees to WDW trip in winter 2016!
Can't decide if I care about the cruise enough to add on that cost. Far less expensive to do option one or two.
Well I love the mix between cruise and land.... partly because flight tickets are a major cost for us, so longer vacation with multiple venues is the way to go.
I'd probably consider a mix between a moderate + cruise + deluxe resort, with longer WDW stay in the beginning with tickets (and maybe dining plan - but I do prefer pay OOP for meals once we usually share appetizer and desserts) . Probably option 3 would be my choice
I'd probably just pick one resort for the entire trip or maybe a cruise (never cruised though so not sure how likely I'd be to do it) followed by a stay at one resort. However, I like to settle in for the duration and while I like the idea doing a split stay in theory I'm not sure if I'd like the reality of it. Having said all of that of the options you presented I'd probably choose 1 or 4.
I would choose 4 in a heartbeat! Or numbers 2 and 5 provided that 5 was a 7 night cruise. Or I'll suggest a #6 - 7 nights at AKL and a 7 night cruise. I love DCL almost as much as the parks so my dilemma on a trip as long as yours would be not "Do we do a cruise?" but "How long of a cruise can we do?"
I get a kick out of how different everyone's responses are : ). If we did the 4-day cruise, it would only be if they had the 20% off for Canadians deal. For November cruise, I would lean towards 7-night, given the ordeal of flying there and all. Prices are very reasonable at that time and it's apt to be a 2 day week for school with pd days and Remembrance Day. I suppose I'll need the hubby's opinion eventually!
I, in the small minority that never seems to tire of WDW. We've half 9 or 10 days for all. 3 trips in last two years. Never left WDW and never wanted to. Panic at the thought of only a week at WDW! Oh and I'm not liking the high 7 day cruise prices in February.
Location: Panhandle of Florida - The Emerald Coast
Concierge Level: 4
Posts: 894
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 13
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 7
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 1
I'd do a variation of #1 & #2 in that we LOVE Port Orleans (tho' stay at FQ)....we didn't like our stay at AKL... so I wouldn't do a split stay. there Now IF you want to do a split stay...why not incorporate that in to #2, get the car and stay at Royal Pacifica and take in the Universal Parks with front of line access? Just a thought anyway.
We enjoyed LEGOLAND but other than how awesome Mini-land was, it's all pretty much geared towards little kids. Our DS was around 9-10yrs old at the time and the only thing he enjoyed there was mini-land and the robotics instruction. We got to that park at 11:00 and were gone by 3:00 at the latest and never went back.
Sea World is pretty neat, but my guys were pretty much bored - except for just a few rides - and were ready to be gone.
We did a split stay one year...went to Universal Parks for a few days, then on to Tampa for Busch Gardens. But other than leaving the area like that, split stays aren't my cup of tea.
On the upside, you have plenty of time to plan.... dream...and plan some more. And that's half the fun!
Mamas an, what didn't you like about akl? Distance from the parks? We loved POR, except for the busing craziness. I would do FQ, bug my girls want the royal rooms again.
I wouldn't want a split stay on a shorter trip, but I'm pretty sure we'd enjoy a week at each resort. We'd take advantage of proximity to things while at each spot;I.e, enjoy the boat to dd again from POR and give the girls a chance to do the POR pirate adventure, since they enjoyed the gf one and pirates league so much. Meanwhile, we'd save ak time for when we've moved to akl. Would love to do blizzard beach again too, but historically it's never open in February.
I'm hoping we get the legoland thing out of our system this summer when the new discovery centre opens in Boston. I think I'd try sea world if I had to puck one non-Disney park. Zero interest in ever returning to universal. Zero interest in Harry potter and my girls are not into thrill rides. Also no note rest in staying anywhere off-property.
Location: Panhandle of Florida - The Emerald Coast
Concierge Level: 4
Posts: 894
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 13
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 7
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 1
How old are your girls? DS enjoyed the robotic class at LEGOLAND, and in Florida, we actually have a Lego League. It's all robotic competition and teaches the kids programming, etc. Really an awesome program. DS made the robotics team in 5th grade and their team beat out even the middle schools in our area to make it to state competition. If they like legos, it might be something you could check on for them. Even my niece, now in college, does robotics.
Our first trip to Universal was just ok. I kept comparing it to Disney and it didn't meet my standards. The next time we went, we stayed on site and it was better. But my guys love the thrill rides and I must admit the coasters are way better than Disney's. DS got picked in the show at Ollivanders, so that was the icing on the cake.
Sea World is a beautiful park, mostly shows and a few good rides. I think that had we taken DS when he was younger he would have loved it. It's a shame Tampa's a good hour drive from Orlando instead of handier, because Busch Gardens is beautiful and has a good selection of rides and animals. It felt much more relaxing (and clean) than Universal.
Our stay at AKL was a disaster from the start. We were paid in full....and upon arrival were told our reservations had been canceled... and this was the week of Thanksgiving. Housekeeping was nonexistent. The staff was rude. It was even hard to purchase or pick up items at the shop there because they just didn't want to be helpful in any way. They had one poor lady near tears trying to get her package. The pool was pretty small, compared to other resorts and the kids didn't linger there long. I kept trying to keep a positive attitude because the resort itself is beautiful. Friends of ours stayed the week before we did. In fact they checked out the day we were arriving. When we compared notes after our trips, it seems they came away with the same discontent for the same reasons. So we'll go back to ALK from time to time to eat at Boma, but not to stay. I know others that have stayed there and loved it. So perhaps it was in a bit of "transition" that particular month. I truly hope so.
My girls are 5 and 8. They do live Lego and so dies my big kid hubby. He's got a Star Wars Lego shrine! One of these years we will brave the May heat for HS Star Wars weekend.
I do enjoy helping friends plan, right down to the last detail. My friend went with her family last month and took detailed notes from me so they wouldn't miss a thing. They had a blast and were so thankful for my tutorials!
I have never been to Legoland in FL but we did visit Legoland in CA. IMO, your girls are the perfect age for Legoland. If you think you would like to visit I would take the opportunity to do so on your next trip. I would say that once kids hit 10, the park won't have the same appeal. Although we, as adults, really enjoyed all the models most attractions were much more appealing to the under 10 set.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
