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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Due to continually rising fuel prices, Disney Cruise Line® is implementing a fuel surcharge.
The surcharge is $8 per person, per day for the first two Guests in a stateroom and $3 per day for all other Guests. It is effective for new bookings only made on or after May 28, 2008. Additionally, the surcharge will be capped at $112 each for the first and second Guests in a stateroom and $42 each for all other Guests in the stateroom.
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Lynn
Yes, I am a Disney Addict... and I'd rather be cruising!.
This could only be a matter of time, since most of the major cruise lines have already been imposing similar charges. Some have been doing it for so long that they've already announced additional rounds of increases.
Disney's rates sit somewhere in the middle of the pack, with Carnival recently announcing a bump up from $5 to $7 for the first two passengers, and Royal Caribbean charging $9.
What'll it mean for specific itineraries? It will add $22 per day for a family of four in a single stateroom. So, that would be $66 on the 3-night itineraries, $88 on the 4-night, and $154 to a 7-night.
The cap of $112 per person for each of the first two guests would only kick in on itineraries longer than 14 nights. This year, that would only apply to the few people who might book last-minute passage on this summer's 15-night Eastbound Panama Canal repositioning cruise. I think it's a safe bet we won't see a 21-night itinerary on next year's schedule.
Since this only applies to new bookings made after May 28, there will be little or no impact for folks sailing on the West Coast itineraries and most of the summer sailings (they're already pretty much booked-up).
It's also sort of unusual for Disney to make announcements of this sort a month in advance. It may be that they'll be testing consumer response over the next month, before the charge goes into effect. We may not have heard the last of this.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
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I think Disney announcing it this far in advance is in reaction to some of the legal actions that have come about in the last few weeks with some of the other (cough RCI) cruise lines. This actually gives me added incentive to push DCL between now and the end of next month.
One of the ultra luxury lines (RSSC?) regretted to announce a fuel surcharge. $3/p/d. Of course, when you're paying upwards from $800/p/d for your room, the fuel is probably already covered.
Thanks for the info, I'm glad we are already booked!
Kind of on the same subject, do you see Disney raising the price of meals, which will affect the price of cruises and (on-shore) dining plans because of increasing costs of shipping food?
Thanks for the info, I'm glad we are already booked!
Kind of on the same subject, do you see Disney raising the price of meals, which will affect the price of cruises and (on-shore) dining plans because of increasing costs of shipping food?
DCL only takes on food at its home ports (Port Canaveral, and Port of Los Angeles for the West Coast itineraries), so I don't see transportation costs being significant for the food. The cost of fuel to transport the food once it is on the ship is undoubtedly included in the surcharge. Since the only meal DCL charges for is Palo, and the food costs for Palo are just a drop in the bucket compared to overall food costs, I don't see any change in the Palo charge either.
Since cruise lines (including DCL) use demand-driven pricing (there's never an announced "list" price), they can slip in a price increase at any time without folks knowing why it's happening (or even that it's happened). The only reason to tack on a fuel surcharge is to be able to blame external circumstances and separate that cost from the list price of the cruise. The same is true of the current policy changes for airline baggage. It's a way to pass along cost increases without increasing the quoted base fare of the flight.
As to the cost of the dining plan and meals on land? People in the restaurant business will tell you that food is only a fraction of the cost of any meal, and transportation costs are only a fraction of the cost of the food, so I don't see Disney adding a fuel surcharge to the dining plan. Restaurant prices will probably creep up, as food costs are going higher even when you don't include the cost of food. I expect Disney will hold off on a dining plan increase until the 2009 dining plan is announced. After all, if fewer people go to WDW because they perceive prices to be going up, then Disney has a whole lot more to lose than just a few dollars on each dining plan.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
DH did some researching and it looks like you have to be paid in full for it to not affect you. So, for example, we just booked Oct 3, 2009, but won't pay it off until sometime next year. It looks like we'll be charged the surcharge....
DH did some researching and it looks like you have to be paid in full for it to not affect you. So, for example, we just booked Oct 3, 2009, but won't pay it off until sometime next year. It looks like we'll be charged the surcharge....
That's not the information that I received from Disney. Like Lynn said, the information we got says for new bookings only made on or after May 28th. I would think that if you're already booked, this would not affect you. I could be wrong, though.
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What if you are already booked for Sept. 2009 and you want to change to June 2009? I have friends who are contemplating this now. Is that a new booking?
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What if you are already booked for Sept. 2009 and you want to change to June 2009? I have friends who are contemplating this now. Is that a new booking?
I don't know if it's considered a new booking (I would think it would be), but it shouldn't matter as long as they change before May 28.
I've actually emailed DCL, so that I have a definitive answer in writing to put in our folder. Not that it will protect us, since they have the right to modify things at any time, but it will help us if we want to raise a stink and maybe get something back to make up for it (if they charge us, that is).
What if you are already booked for Sept. 2009 and you want to change to June 2009? I have friends who are contemplating this now. Is that a new booking?
It would be considered a new booking. So do it chop-chop if you can.
As far as making it part of the price vs a surcharge (here comes tacky), if it's a surcharge, it's not commissionable.
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Thanks for the info Lynn and Dave 
. And it might not be the last time either
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