Jan 2016: Everyone and Their Mother Goes to Disney - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Wow this is such a huge fiasco, I now realize the trip I planned for our extended-family-in-law of 10 Italians (and by that I mean big personalities) was actually smooth sailing and very pleasant in comparison to what other people go through! Curious to see how it all turns out.....
Okay, I'm back, but first I must share two really, I was going to say important, but one is about my total inability to grasp the obvious...so, maybe not important.
NUMBER 1 THING TO SHARE:
So PhilsEagles08 posts quite a bit and I've seen that user name tons of times. The whole time I've assumed that some guy named Phil really liked The Eagles and Disney. I kind of wondered about him, as it seems a little vain to refer to The Eagles as your own and the posts just didn't read like a dude named Phil was writing them. Also, I don't really like The Eagles and had to second guess someone who was a big enough fan to make a really old band part of their user name. For what it's worth, I'm pretty old too, but the Eagles were old before I was. Don Henley's Boys of Summer was my favorite song for awhile in the late '80s.
And then, one day, I was reading and realized it was a woman. And that she really like the Phillies and the Eagles TEAMS and her name is not at all Phil and she does not have an affinity for aging rock stars (well, maybe she does, but it's not reflected in her user name).
So the next time any of you feel like a total idiot remember this story and feel better about yourself.
NUMBER TWO THING TO SHARE:
In an insane turn of events, one in which I would have lost my shirt if betting were involved, my kid is swimming, such as it is. Like for real, not climbing up my body as if I were a tree and he were a monkey, in the water with arms and legs moving!! Nuts, I tell you, nuts! Our preschool/daycare had a family event (monthly afterschool stuff for each group of kids) at the pool (isn't it awesome that our preschool has a pool!!??? and it's still cheaper than Doodlebugs and Kindercare with their fences and astroturf). All the other boys in Adam's class had that chest/arm floatation thing that they didn't have when we were kids but is awesome. They were jumping and swimming and NOT hanging on their mommies. Peer pressure can be a fine, fine thing. Adam wanted one and I told him we'd go to Dick's immediately. We did. He has swam six of the last eight days, for hours each time!! Before you get all excited, he still doesn't want to get his head wet and insists on the poorly fitting goggles. But progress, people, progress!!
Now, then, onward and upward.
Okay, so Mrs. Neighbor has just discovered that she spent a s---ton of money on a DVC account with 140 less points than she thought. I told the DVC rep on the phone that we would call back when we'd done a bit more math and profusely thanked her. Surprisingly, Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor were not as upset as I suspected; perhaps they are better people than me and don't get worked up about water under the bridge, or maybe they decided not to have a meltdown in front of their neighbors. I don't know.
We did some math quickly, trying to see if we could preserve their 10 days in a one bedroom savanah view AND a December trip in a studio standard view AND get me some points. Sort of, we could. I could buy one time use points from DVC but would still need to borrow some points. Mrs. Neighbor could cut her vacation by one day, switch to standard view and then borrow for her December trip--keeping everything mostly intact.
The loss of one day meant switching plane tickets for her family and SW is awesome with no change fees, so we looked. Of course. Of COURSE the fares were significantly more, so now they were looking at one less day of vacation AND a couple hundred dollars in airfare changes. Drawing board time!!! I suggested that they keep the flights they have a book a cash room at a value resort for one night; in January that's about $100, Disney will move the bags and you can get to AKV first thing the next morning.
So we all go to bed with that plan--I will buy points from DVC and borrow a few from Mrs. Neighbor; they will book a standard view instead of savanah for nine nights and book a value for one night.
Because I'm insane and can't sleep pretty much ever (does postpartum insomnia ever go away? Am I postpartum at 4.5 years?) and do math in my head to relax sometimes I woke up with a different plan, one I'd started pursuing around 2AM, even before telling anyone else.
Aaahahahahaha!!!! I'm definitely female & I have a bra thread to prove it (have you seen my squeaky bra thread recently?!) lol. I'm posting a lot lately because I'm home on "illness" (I'm still mourning the loss of my fiancé) & since my employer can come to my house at any time during my shift to verify I'm actually home & not vacationing in Europe, I read the boards most of the day. I'll be going back to work in a little over a week so I'm sure my time here will be settling down. BTW, there is a super old pic of me & my DD in my profile & yes you are correct, I like the Phillies & Eagles!
So did Mrs & Mr Neighbor book the separate room value room or did your new plan trump it?!
Sounds like Adam is really enjoying being a fish this summer! At least a fish that keeps its head above water!
Your plan to buy some points and borrow some from Mrs. Neighbor and to have them downgrade to a standard view room sounded good. Can't wait to hear what you came up with at 2AM.
Okay, I'm so glad I hadn't just take a swallow of something to drink or it would have been all over my computer with your story about PhilsEagles08. Congrats to Adam on swimming! I'm still reluctant at 57 to put my head underwater, but now it's because it messes with my dye job. Can't wait to find out the plan that was born at 2 AM.
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Way to go Adam! Mine is doing the same this year. He wears the arm/waist thing but refuses to go under. He'll be 5 in September, so maybe it's an age thing.
And I dint think the mom insomnia ever ends, at least I don't see it happening any time soon.
It must be a toddler swim year as mine in 7 weeks went from clinging to zipping about with a float belt & a noodle. Hope he doesn't loose all that swimming until our next set of classes. And I love peer pressure currently with regards to our shy shy toddler. It always helps when he sees others doing something...not that he always follows but usually.
Can't wait to hear about the 2 am insightful plan - I get those too. That's why there is pen & paper on my night stand for the things I think of in the middle of my insomnia nights.
I have a solution to all our ills, it's going to cost a tiny bit more for everyone concerned and it all took place last month, so forgive my fuzzy numbers on this.
To get this trip right for our side I need 36 points. Mrs. Neighbor is turning up a few points shy of one night she needs to complete her two trips. She was going to transfer 12 to me with the remaining 24 purchased from DVC; then she was going to pay out of pocket for a value resort for one night. She'd have 3 or 4 points left over to bank.
But!! I'm a genius!!
24 one time points from DVC will cost $360, plus I'd be in hock to Mrs. Neighbor fo 12 points. I could pay her $100ish and her value room would be covered but she's still going to have to move her family after one night's sleep. OR. OR!! I could get my 36 points from another owners, say, from that OTHER board. And she would get to use her 12, plus the 3 or 4 she has left and then buy 6 or 7 one time use points for $90-$105 and get her whole reservation in one room (a one bedroom standard AKV).
But I've got to find points, like right now. So at 2AM I start sending PMs to everyone I can find whose willing to transfer and has the right UY points. Some replied that they don't deal with point totals that small, others only wanted to rent points rather than transfer (why, I have no idea), but then Mrs. A from Virginia came to the rescue!! She had points, and I could 'have' them!! But her husband was working a brazillion hours and couldn't call to transfer the points until the following Monday, five days later. I'd have to hope that our room was still available and trust this lady and get Mrs. Neighbor to agree.
Mrs. Neighbor right away saw the smarts of this. She was going to have to spend about $100 to get a room anyway, she might as well get it this way. I was spending more this way, but getting myself out of owing the neighbors anything.
Mrs. A and I exchanged many texts and much information and I had no reason to believe this would go poorly. On the appointed day she texted me that the deal was done and I could paypal her mother...Red flags. Her mother? What grown up DVC owner advertising points for transfer doesn't have a paypal account? And why did her husband have to call, not her?
The panic was deep and I wasn't near my computer to confirm the transfer. I tried to do it on my phone and it was showing nothing. I texted Mrs. A and said as much and she told me you can't see point transfers, you have to call to confirm. I was worried this was BS too, that I was being taken for $420 and would have no points and my reservation would be gone.
About 30 seconds later a DVC CM confirmed the transfer, booked my reservation and I sent the paypal to the mother of Mrs. A. Panic for nothing, all is well.
And just like that, I'd solved everyone's problems.
Alas, now we've got on going texts about planning dinners together...
That was a clever solution to the points situation, but like you I'd have been a little suspect after needed to transfer to funds to her mom's PayPal account. Very odd, but at least it worked!
I'm so glad it worked out for both you and Mrs. Neighbor! Great thinking!
We have never rented points, so I'm not real clear on how it all works. So, please excuse my ignorance...what is the difference between renting and trading? You paid for the points, so why is that trading, and not renting?
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I'm so glad it worked out for both you and Mrs. Neighbor! Great thinking!
We have never rented points, so I'm not real clear on how it all works. So, please excuse my ignorance...what is the difference between renting and trading? You paid for the points, so why is that trading, and not renting?
When you rent someone's points they make a reservation for you using their points, they still control the points and the reservation; if they screw up, fail to pay dues or otherwise are jerks, you could lose. Transfer makes the points mine, they become part of my account and I control their use, although there are rules about Use Years.
There is some question about DVC actually allowing money exchange, the contract language can be fuzzy on the owner's ability to transfer and rent points to others for money.
When you rent someone's points they make a reservation for you using their points, they still control the points and the reservation; if they screw up, fail to pay dues or otherwise are jerks, you could lose. Transfer makes the points mine, they become part of my account and I control their use, although there are rules about Use Years.
There is some question about DVC actually allowing money exchange, the contract language can be fuzzy on the owner's ability to transfer and rent points to others for money.
Thanks for the explanation! I hadn't heard of that before, but it certainly seems like the way to go, as far as being in control of the points.
It would have helped if I'd gotten the terminology right! I was thinking you said trading points...if I'd have looked back I'd have seen you said transfer.
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Congrats to Adam on swimming! I'm still reluctant at 57 to put my head underwater, but now it's because it messes with my dye job. 
Can't wait to find out the plan that was born at 2 AM. 
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