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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Our trip last August we spend a good amount of money on just tipping while dining. We were there 12 days and probably tipped over $500 while on the deluxe dining plan. This trip we cut down our ADR's and will not use the dining plan. We have made ADR's for this trip but not a lot. Before I was tipping between 15 to 20 percent. What do you tip while dining? Do you tip differently for buffet dining? I want to tip fairly but I don't want to go broke while on vacation.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I tip the same percentage whether buffet or not (I start at 15% but give more based on service), even though I feel buffet workers actually work harder (they get the sodas and have to clear multiple sets of dishes where "regular" restaurants usually have busboys clear the table, not the servers).
20% here too, regardless of TS or Buffet....If service is good/personable/personalized, we're bound to tip more than 20%. But we both waited tables through college, so we're a bit biased....
....we'll generally tip 20%. If the service is extraordinary...we'll tip up to 25%. That's happened twice at WDW...once last year at 50's PrimeTime (phenomenal service and interaction with the waiter)......and once a few years back in San Angel Inn (where the waiter actually sat with us a while to discuss some of the menu and drink choices). We know that the wait-staff doesn't get paid a fortune..and if they really shine while attending to us...then we thank them appropriately with a good tip.
Always 20% unless really poor or really outstanding than we adjust accordingly. It does stink to have a large portion of your vacation money going to tips but it is vacaction and we save for it.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
It doesn't matter if I'm at Disney or at home, I start at 10% and either go up or down from there. If service is abysmal they get less or even no tip, if service is good, I've been known to tip as much as 30%. I don't believe that there should be a standard. It should be based on service. I also tip less for buffets, because yes they bring drinks and clear dishes, but they do not take your order or bring your food you have to get it yourself.
I tip 20% or more for excellent service. It's extremely rare for me to leave less than 20% as I tend to assume the waiter was having an off or bad day so the service has to be truly abysmal before I tip less.
We are a party of 6 so our tip is usually auto at 18%. However, I have given more when warranted. Once when a server went above and beyond, I gave 25%, spoke to the manager about how well he treated us (I wanted a specific hot tea they served, but didn't know they didn't serve it anymore there, only in the other restaurant at that time--he went and got me some from the other place!) and I wrote a letter to the management as well to express how nice he was and how that him getting me that tea meant so much when he didn't have to do that.
I tip 15% at buffets. Other restaurants, I start at 18% (which tells you on the receipt), if the service was okay, then I leave it at 18%, if it was bad I go down to 15%, if it was good I tip 20% or more...depending.
If they didn't tell me 18% on the receipt I would start at 15%, and move up to 20% for good service and stay at 15% for bad. If it was really bad then I would do closer to 10%.
I admit too that I am a rounder. If the tip is close to one number or the other I round. Which does mean that sometimes it is slightly less than the stated percentage. For example, if the tip was $5.35 I would tip $5.
We tip based on service. We start at 15% and if the service is excellent it goes up, if it's bad it goes down. If it's just average service it stays at 15%.
15% for TS (minimum $3, even if my meal is only $10), 10% for buffets (minimum $2), rounded up to the next even dollar, same as at home.
If the service is extra good, I leave extra tip. If it's extra poor, I leave an extra poor tip.
But I also follow this: WillCAD's Four Simple Rules for Being a Good Restaurant Patron:
1. Keep it clean!
Somebody has to clean up any mess you make after you leave, and they don't get paid enough to deal with your garbage. So unless your server is Mike Rowe, have a little consideration, ya slob, and don't leave piles of chicken bones or pudles of soup, soda, or pancake syrup all over the table.
2. Keep it simple!
Servers aren't telepathic - they don't know what you WANT, they only know what you SAY. So do everybody a favor and actually read your menu and decide what you want to order before the server asks you - and then convey your order in short, simple, coherent sentences. They ain't Creskin; if they give you the wrong thing because you babbled your order in incomprehensible gibberish, it's YOUR fault, not theirs.
3. Treat them with respect!
The lowest, most despicable person on Earth is the person who thinks that a server, bartender, bellhop, painter, ditch-digger, toilet scrubber, or other person in a manual-labor job is somehow "beneath" notice and not worthy of respect. I SPIT on all those who would treat a service person like a second-class citizen! Ptooey!
4. Reward them according to their merits.
Hey, if that server did their job as they were supposed to do it, then give them a proper tip! They bust their butts to give you a nice, enjoyable, pleasant meal, and they deserve commensurate compensation for their work. If they did an OUTSTANDING job, don't just leave a few bucks on the table, TELL them that they did an outstanding job. After all, everybody can use a compliment now and then, right? And if they did a REALLY OUTSTANDING job, tell the manager - a few compliments can help out on the server's yearly reviews and salary evaluations! Wouldn't you like to get a nice raise if you did a great job?
4A. If it ain't their fault, don't blame them!
If the kitchen is a shambles, or it took a long time to get seated, or the table next to you was loud and obnoxious all night, don't use that flimsy excuse to leave a crappy tip - none of that is the server's fault. Hold them responsible only for their own actions, just as you should be held responsible only for your own. And most importantly, have a nice day!
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