A 40th celebration to end the world! PHOTOS ADDED 1/1 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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The new A330's that Virgin bought recently are two class planes. We are flying on one in February it has a small premium economy cabin and a large economy cabin. It Iis the same plane as I fly buisness class to when i fly to Australia for work and the cabin has the same number of seats across so you might find it roomier than the 747 premium economy. The flights back from orlando overnight tend to still be the old 3 class 747's. I expect the premium economy cabin to have much less space in them as there are more seats in the same space. I wonder if that explains why the premium economy upgrade is always much cheaper on the way back.
The new A330's that Virgin bought recently are two class planes. We are flying on one in February it has a small premium economy cabin and a large economy cabin. It Iis the same plane as I fly buisness class to when i fly to Australia for work and the cabin has the same number of seats across so you might find it roomier than the 747 premium economy. The flights back from orlando overnight tend to still be the old 3 class 747's. I expect the premium economy cabin to have much less space in them as there are more seats in the same space. I wonder if that explains why the premium economy upgrade is always much cheaper on the way back.
Ah - interesting stuff. I must admit I'm keen to try the new A330s, as I've heard so much about them and how much better they'll be - they can't be worse than some of the old planes we've had on the Orlando route over the years. For too many years, Orlando has had the oldest planes in the Virgin fleet and it's always really annoyed us...
Cheryl, your plans are coming together nicely -- now, here's hoping the money holds out. Disney is so good at parting oneself from one's finances.
Trust me, I know that only too well! These days, I try and keep a much closer eye on our vacation finances, rather than getting a horrible shock when we get home and that seems to work so much better. Less fun, but better in the long run...
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Warning about Dollar. We just used them this past trip and got 4 vans. All 4 of us were lined at the counter at the same time and all 4 of us were arguing with the clerks. We got a great deal too. MUCH cheaper than any other site I saw.
All the clerks were foreighn with a heavy accent, which made it hard to understand them. Then they inisisted we HAD to add insurnace. WE all kept saying no and they kept saying yes. I told our guy that my SIL is a big wig with Hertz and she told me that you NEVER need to add insurance as our own policies will work just fine. (we could've gotten a discoutn with Hertz, but even then the Vans were almost twice as much) He told me that was a lie. Hertz runs things differently, which is NOT true. This guy was such a jerk and my BIL was standing right next to me and his guy was saying pretty much the same stuff to him.
Once I convinced this guy that I wasn't going to get insurance, he told me to start checking off things on the little computer pad and he told me to hit agree to everything. I asked again, "so you want me to say yes to everything?" and he said, yes, but be sure to read it so you don't agree to anything you don't want. Then he continued to talk to me while I read. Luckily I did read too as there was something about an additional price that I thought seemed odd and checked no on that.
I got my print out and my price was supposed to be $266.03 for 8 days. It had some things added on the bottom as well and I questioned it and they told me "no I wasn't being charged for that, those were opptional things I did not agree too". OK.
I was going to really check this when I got home. My family did go home before I did and they returned all the vans. My Aunt was charged over $600 for hers, My BIL was charged over $400. I quickly checked my statement when I got back to my sisters house and mine was correct and my cousins was correct as well. My guess is that my BIL and Aunt both just checked yes to everything when they were told to without reading it. My Aunt syas they charged her $29 a day for insurance that she told them she didn't want, and doing some investigating, Dollar has a lawsuit against them for doing this sneaky thing.
She has called her drecit card company and told them they will NOT pay that portion and she has started writing letters to Dollar.
I am not saying don't go with Dollar, but just be VERY careful on what you check that you agree to. Everyone was tired when they arrived and it was easy to just start checking yes to everything without reading as we all wanted to get on the road.
Now I also have a friend that uses Dollar a lot and loves them, but my guess is that she knows about reading the terms and not checking anything off that agreed to pay more money.
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More terrific planning! It's interesting about the westbound planes having no upper class seats. Glad you were able to get the upgrade for your return flight. on the cruise update, too! Funny that, I think, your first cruise was with an inside cabin and you are now up to a cat 4. Can't wait to see photos of that stateroom!
It sounds like the upgrades will be worth it! Especially flying upper class on the way home.
I'm glad to hear you seemed to have a good experience booking Death Valley through the national parks website. Our summer vacation this year will be Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde national parks, and I need to get started on planning!
Warning about Dollar. We just used them this past trip and got 4 vans. All 4 of us were lined at the counter at the same time and all 4 of us were arguing with the clerks. We got a great deal too. MUCH cheaper than any other site I saw.
All the clerks were foreighn with a heavy accent, which made it hard to understand them. Then they inisisted we HAD to add insurnace. WE all kept saying no and they kept saying yes. I told our guy that my SIL is a big wig with Hertz and she told me that you NEVER need to add insurance as our own policies will work just fine. (we could've gotten a discoutn with Hertz, but even then the Vans were almost twice as much) He told me that was a lie. Hertz runs things differently, which is NOT true. This guy was such a jerk and my BIL was standing right next to me and his guy was saying pretty much the same stuff to him.
Once I convinced this guy that I wasn't going to get insurance, he told me to start checking off things on the little computer pad and he told me to hit agree to everything. I asked again, "so you want me to say yes to everything?" and he said, yes, but be sure to read it so you don't agree to anything you don't want. Then he continued to talk to me while I read. Luckily I did read too as there was something about an additional price that I thought seemed odd and checked no on that.
I got my print out and my price was supposed to be $266.03 for 8 days. It had some things added on the bottom as well and I questioned it and they told me "no I wasn't being charged for that, those were opptional things I did not agree too". OK.
I was going to really check this when I got home. My family did go home before I did and they returned all the vans. My Aunt was charged over $600 for hers, My BIL was charged over $400. I quickly checked my statement when I got back to my sisters house and mine was correct and my cousins was correct as well. My guess is that my BIL and Aunt both just checked yes to everything when they were told to without reading it. My Aunt syas they charged her $29 a day for insurance that she told them she didn't want, and doing some investigating, Dollar has a lawsuit against them for doing this sneaky thing.
She has called her drecit card company and told them they will NOT pay that portion and she has started writing letters to Dollar.
I am not saying don't go with Dollar, but just be VERY careful on what you check that you agree to. Everyone was tired when they arrived and it was easy to just start checking yes to everything without reading as we all wanted to get on the road.
Now I also have a friend that uses Dollar a lot and loves them, but my guess is that she knows about reading the terms and not checking anything off that agreed to pay more money.
Thanks for the warning and I'll definitely keep that in mind.
We have to buy insurance when we book the rental, being international drivers, as oddly ours wouldn't work in the States. However, we've had it in the past about "you have to pay this" and I just say "it was all paid for upfront in the UK - if there's a problem, I'll speak to a manager" and they tend to back off, but I do hear you about arriving tired and signing things - we did that once in Spain on car rental and ended up paying more and I was livid.
More terrific planning! It's interesting about the westbound planes having no upper class seats. Glad you were able to get the upgrade for your return flight. on the cruise update, too! Funny that, I think, your first cruise was with an inside cabin and you are now up to a cat 4. Can't wait to see photos of that stateroom!
We've done all sorts over the years. Our first class was 7620, which was one of the few to originally be a category 5 or 6, so that really spoilt us. Then we ended up inside for the Med cruise (the only way we could afford it ) and on the Dream and then a category 5 on the Alaskan cruise, so this will be the top category to date. The only ones we haven't done are oceanview staterooms, but I don't think I could bear to see the sea and not be able to sit out on the balcony by it.
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For too many years, Orlando has had the oldest planes in the Virgin fleet and it's always really annoyed us...
Less fun, but better in the long run... 
) and on the Dream and then a category 5 on the Alaskan cruise, so this will be the top category to date. The only ones we haven't done are oceanview staterooms, but I don't think I could bear to see the sea and not be able to sit out on the balcony by it. 
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