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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So we now have the 1st night at our beloved WLV - Studio. Then we are 5 nights at SSR 1bdrm; then 3 nights at BLT.
We are wanting either a studio or 1bdrm for the 1st 6 nights and want to keep the BLT reservation.
I've been calling most every morning. I do have a waitlist for the first 2 nights for a Studio at the WLV and then another waitlist for the next 3 nights. I figured it would be easier to break it up.
Anyone else call daily (yes I know I can check online)? Do you think I have more of a chance of catching something or do waitlists get immediately filled? Any advice?
I've been SO SUPER sick this week so I'm working on ADRs today, but from what I've heard, due to free dining (BLAH) a lot of reservations are already gone. We never normally travel during free dining for this very reason.
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Yvonne:
My Gorgeous Daughter the Graduate----------------->
I have called frequently about waitlist in the past and even checked while on property. Neither helped me get one . I hope yours comes through, I've heard a lot of people have gotten their waitlist we were just not lucky that year.
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I've never called for my waitlist, and have had one go through roughly a month before my trip (literally days before I was going to call and cancel the waitlist), and one that didn't happen at all.
IMHO, I don't really think calling helps, because I think that it's more of a numbers game - if what you're looking for pops up, and you're at the top of the list for that, you're going to get it. If they don't have it, they don't have it, and calling isn't going to change that. That being said, I wish you in getting what you're looking for!
I went through a phase of calling regularly and I don't think it helped at all. When I stopped calling for December, our waitlist came through a couple of days later...
Hmm. I've had several CMs tell me that someone could literally call in and if I'm on the phone and happen to be there, they would give it to me, a live person asking. Of course, that would be rare right, except, by calling I got my first night at WLV.
So who knows. Maybe it's soothing to me to call or MAGICAL to call...ahahahahaha.
I REALLY appreciate those who answered! I'll let you know if anything changes.
__________________
Yvonne:
My Gorgeous Daughter the Graduate----------------->
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We used waitlist last year for a December trip. We started out with three reservations. Cash-DVC-Cash. The waitlist came through on both ends. The first part was very quick. The second a couple weeks later. I just checked on line from time to time. No need to call. It does not change availability.
The waitlist really is a flawed process. It doesn't appear to run in real-time rather in batches. In other words, if someone cancels your dates, that cancellation doesn't immediately match-up with the waitlist. Instead there is a process that runs several times per day to try and make matches. The downside is that if someone calls between the cancellation and the waitlist batch, the room will never get to the person on the waitlist.
That said, it's a pretty big shot in the dark to try calling and find a match. You would have to call within a few minutes of someone else canceling an exact match for your waitlist request--before someone else took the room and before the waitlist process ran. I'm guilty of calling myself but have never successfully obtained a room with one of those calls.
By and large we've had pretty good success with the waitlist. I just bailed on a waitlist request but this one was fairly unrealistic. I got on the waitlist only 3 months out and only waited about 6 weeks before just deciding to book elsewhere.
Every other time we've gotten on the waitlist we did have something come available. It works best if you get on the list very far in advance (like 6+ months out), are only looking for a small number of nights and are waitlisted for a resort/room category that has a lot of rooms.
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. I hope yours comes through, I've heard a lot of people have gotten their waitlist we were just not lucky that year.
in getting what you're looking for!
PassPorter Guide Author
but have never successfully obtained a room with one of those calls. 
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