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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 usually go to WDW just after Labor Day. We love the low crowd levels but all the rain so much. Looking at this years calendar, I was thinking Nov. 4-12 would be awesome because it should be the last week of F&W and the first week of the Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, after looking a little more closely and reading another post about the decorations, I'm not sure. The first weekend is a half marathon, the second weekend is Veteran's day and I'm not sure how many of the decorations will be up at that point. Can anyone that has been at that time offer advice. My biggest concern is crowd levels.
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Jun 93-off site, Aug 99-CRS - Jun 00-GF, Aug 04-CBR, Aug 06-POR, Sept. 08-WL, Dec. 10-POFQ, Aug 12-AoA & DCL, Nov 12 Paradise Pier DLR, Feb 13 AKL, Oct 13 CBR/YC & DCL, Sept. 14-BC, Sept. 15-ASM
Last year I arrived on Nov. 11. All of the parks were decorated for Christmas except for Epcot. It doesn't put up Christmas until after F&W. I didn't go into the resorts, except POFQ where I stayed, but I don't believe the decorations were up there yet. I truly can't remember. I was able to go to MVMCP at MK and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas vibe at the parks.
I've been around that time twice - some decorations were up but not all, especially the resorts. I will say weather was perfect both times. Crowds are so unpredictable that it's hard to say. There always seems to be something going on so I'd just go with what works best for your family.
Now I'm also seeing something about "Jersey Week". What the heck is that and when? I'm starting to think late October may be better for us but I love Christmas.
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Jun 93-off site, Aug 99-CRS - Jun 00-GF, Aug 04-CBR, Aug 06-POR, Sept. 08-WL, Dec. 10-POFQ, Aug 12-AoA & DCL, Nov 12 Paradise Pier DLR, Feb 13 AKL, Oct 13 CBR/YC & DCL, Sept. 14-BC, Sept. 15-ASM
'Fraid you'll be disappointed where resorts are concerned. Your stay is likely too early for any to be decorated until perhaps the end of your atay.
We've been twice the week before Thanksgiving week a few years ago ('13 and '14) and saw only a couple resorts decorated by the very end of that week. Not that I'm certain that's all that may have been because we left on Saturday both times so weren't going to other resorts much on Friday.
Crowd levels were so low that week that we often walked onto rides like Haunted Mansion and Pirates. Only the crazy-popular ones like Mine Train, Soarin' and Toy Story really needed an FP.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Last edited by Her Dotness; 10-17-2016 at 01:46 PM..
the actual best week of the year is the week after thanksgiving week. the decorations are slowly going up, so you get to watch christmas be built, so to speak. and the parks are EMPTY. everyone was either just there for thanksgiving week or will be going for christmas (and also everyone is prepping for the holidays) so the crowd levels are crazy low. i was so alone in AK once that it was creepy.
I bet the week right after Thanksgiving would be fabulous for both decorations and crowd levels. Another plus is that the special holiday events like Epcot Storytellers start after Thanksgiving.
For someone who loves Christmas and hates crowds, I'm thinking that would be the best week to go if possible.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
NJ has "teacher workshop" days usually in early Nov. All public schools are closed so therefore parents tend to travel. I've been during this time and didn't notice any discernible crowd difference.
I would love to go right after Thanksgiving but the only time we went for "Christmas" was a week after Thanksgiving in 2010. It was so cold we had to buy coats, blankets, extra gloves, hats, and scarves and we were still miserably cold. It was a record low year. I don't think I will ever get my family to take that chance again. We are from St. Louis so we are used to really cold as well as really hot and humid. We would rather be hot than cold. I know we won't get the full Christmas experience but some is better than none. Unless the crowds are ridiculous, then I'll do the Fall decorations again.
I think I may be overthinking it!
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Jun 93-off site, Aug 99-CRS - Jun 00-GF, Aug 04-CBR, Aug 06-POR, Sept. 08-WL, Dec. 10-POFQ, Aug 12-AoA & DCL, Nov 12 Paradise Pier DLR, Feb 13 AKL, Oct 13 CBR/YC & DCL, Sept. 14-BC, Sept. 15-ASM
<----------- See where we live? I DO know precisely how you felt. We have had that same experience the week before Thanksgiving week both times we were there then. Fortunately, only for a couple days each time.
It was January of '10 that we were there when Orlando had similar temps the entire week but for a single day of normal weather. Even windchills in the 20's in the afternoon!
The problem is that you can be that unlucky anytime from early Nov. until Mar. Doesn't happen often, but it sure can.
We had summer heat all the week up to Christmas last year, highs near 100 several days. I even got heat rash!
Florida weather can be insanely unpredictable that time of year.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I'm thinking we will go in late October and just enjoy the Food and Wine and the Halloween Party which we haven't done. Thank you all for the advice. Sometimes we stress over things that don't really need to be stressed over.
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Jun 93-off site, Aug 99-CRS - Jun 00-GF, Aug 04-CBR, Aug 06-POR, Sept. 08-WL, Dec. 10-POFQ, Aug 12-AoA & DCL, Nov 12 Paradise Pier DLR, Feb 13 AKL, Oct 13 CBR/YC & DCL, Sept. 14-BC, Sept. 15-ASM
We just came back from a trip beginning 11/5 and I have to say the crowds were unexpectedly high. Between half marathon, end of Food And Wine, Jersey Week, and Veteran's Day weekend it was busy. Epcot was insane busy. One day it took us almost half hour to get into parking lot there, but that was a weekend and last weekend of F&W so I'm sure a lot of locals. The Christmas decor was up in all of the parks but not so much in resorts yet. Towards the end of the trip Disney Springs was decked out too and Santa was meeting and greeting. It seems as soon as Halloween ends it evolves in Christmas season quickly. Weather was comfortable and a couple days cooler but only long sleeve cool, not winter coat cool. I think we'll go earlier in fall next year.
We just came back from a trip beginning 11/5 and I have to say the crowds were unexpectedly high. Between half marathon, end of Food And Wine, Jersey Week, and Veteran's Day weekend it was busy. Epcot was insane busy. One day it took us almost half hour to get into parking lot there, but that was a weekend and last weekend of F&W so I'm sure a lot of locals.
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disney offered insane deals to florida residents this year. we were at epcot on random saturday in october and it got so crowded they closed the parking lot. i've never seen any disney park that crowded. it's not the time of the year--it's the new lower pricing. i'm imagining disney world is going to be a lot more like disney land in that respect, if they continue with the discount tickets.
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