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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I am looking into a Disney Cruise for next December. We will do the land and sea package with 4 nights at Disney and 3 nights on boat. I've heard that booking them seperately is less expensive. Is there any truth to that? Did you book through Disney Cruise Line or did you go through someone else? I am always looking for the better deal! We have been to Disney before but never on the cruise. My kids have never stayed inside of Disney though. More than likely we will be staying category 11 or 12 for money reasons. So anything that you can tell me about weather in December on the cruise and the islands would be GREATLY appreciated. Anything about those categories would be greatly appreciated. ANYTHING that would be beneficial for me to know would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks so much.
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I too am all about saving money and if I pay a $1.00 more than I have to, I feel like I did not get the best deal. But that site has some great advice.
The first thing I would do - if you haven't already - is to pre-order the 2008 edition of PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line guidebook. It really will be invaluable to you as you plan your first cruise and will help to answer a lot of your questions.
I just wanted to say that we stayed in a category 11 stateroom last year and we loved it. It was such a nice layout and not having a porthole or a verandah never bothered us once - and it meant we could save our money for shore excursions.
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In that vein, can you switch your booking from the original, on-line DCL booking to AAA and not lose anything? My DW booked our trip and then I got involved in the planning.
thanks!
In that vein, can you switch your booking from the original, on-line DCL booking to AAA and not lose anything? My DW booked our trip and then I got involved in the planning.
thanks!
You should be able to I booked my next cruise while on board. The gal even filled out the paper with the information for my TA. (They can take charge of the reservation with just the reservation number if I am correct)
The land/sea package with DCL offers a fixed choice of resorts depending on the category of cabin you book. If you book a category 8-12, then the land portion will be at a moderate resort; category 4-7 are at selected deluxe resorts and suites are at the Grand Floridian.
For example, if you were going to book a deluxe resort with a category 4-7 cabin, then the DCL package can be a good value. What you can't do by booking a package is 'downgrade' your resort choice by choosing a less-expensive value or moderate resort.
If looking to maximize your Disney dollars, then booking a less-expensive lower category with a value or moderate resort will save you the most money. This is our number-one favorite way to save our guests money while still having the best of a WDW vacation and a Disney cruise!
This is a great time to book your Disney cruise as rates are out for 2009 and are generally the lowest that they will be. A small deposit locks in your price and gives you lots of time to make payments!
One thing to keep in mind is that only selected resorts particpate in the DCL transfers. If you book your resort stay at a value resort (which don't participate) you have to get yourself and your luggage to a participating resort for pickup. DCL transfers can be pricey - depending on the number of people in your party, a towncar might be cheaper and definitely would be quicker and less of a hassle.
December is a wonderful time to sail - the water on Castaway Cay was a bit chilly for me (but I'm partial to bath water!) although my kids certainly enjoyed it.
Hope this answers some of your questions!
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Lynn
Yes, I am a Disney Addict... and I'd rather be cruising!.
I wondered this also. Because I really want to stay at AKL and have a verandah on the cruise I kept figuring a significant saving doing the package, but wondered why they always say you save money doing it separately. It does make sense if you are choosing a Value/moderate though. From my figuring using separate cruise line/Disney site resort figures the package with the deluxe saves around $800 since it will be savannah View.
Open to any advice though if I am figuring this wrong. I do like the ease of transfers also however. We decided to try the catagory 6. Really excited to experience a Disney cruise and already loved Disneyworld from December 2007.
I wondered this also. Because I really want to stay at AKL and have a verandah on the cruise I kept figuring a significant saving doing the package, but wondered why they always say you save money doing it separately. It does make sense if you are choosing a Value/moderate though. From my figuring using separate cruise line/Disney site resort figures the package with the deluxe saves around $800 since it will be savannah View.
Open to any advice though if I am figuring this wrong. I do like the ease of transfers also however. We decided to try the catagory 6. Really excited to experience a Disney cruise and already loved Disneyworld from December 2007.
Nanb
Land/Sea packages include a standard view room. You may be able to upgrade to a different view (ie: savanna view at AKL) but this may not always be possible. When comparing prices, make sure you're looking at the cost of a standard room.
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Lynn
Yes, I am a Disney Addict... and I'd rather be cruising!.
I am very flexible on my dates for sailing. Can anyone tell me the best time to go? I don't want to go when it is very crowded but I want the weather to be beautiful and the water to be like "bath water". Is this even possible? I sure am asking for a lot aren't I? LOL!! So when are they less crowded? When is the water warmer? Thanks again. I'm going crazy trying to plan this.
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"Crowded" isn't the issue on a ship as it is on land. There are just so many staterooms, so many guests, and the ship is designed to acommodate them all. There are a few locations on board that will be crowded at certain times of the day (Atrium Lobby during dinner hours, Mickey and Goofy pools on a nice day, outside the Walt Disney Theatre before a show), but for every crowded spot there's an uncrowded place just a few steps away. The main thing is, a ship is not a theme park, where the attendance might vary between 5,000 and 100,000 depending on circumstances. The Disney ships rarely sail below 90% capacity or so, so the difference between "crowded" and "not-so-crowded" is quite small.
Water temperatures and air temperatures in the Bahamas and Caribbean? Air temperatures only change about 10 degrees between summer and winter. Water temperatures vary by about 5 degrees between summer and winter. Now, on a cloudy day, or right after a storm, the surface water temperatures will be cooler, but it's only relative to the difference between warm bathwater and cool bathwater.
All that said, if you can travel in the period after Easter week and before Memorial Day weekend, you'll have great weather and relatively uncrowded ships. What's more, it's the very start of hurricane season - in most years there's maybe one storm during the month, and chances are, it won't be happening where you're cruising (and even if it did, ships move to avoid storms).
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Land/Sea packages include a standard view room. You may be able to upgrade to a different view (ie: savanna view at AKL) but this may not always be possible. When comparing prices, make sure you're looking at the cost of a standard room.
Yikes, thanks Lynn. The travel agent at dreams unlimited specifically told me the room was Savannah view, hmmm. I suspected she was new when I knew all rooms looked out to parking lot/pool etc if not savannah and she thought some were inner rooms. Time to write back for clarification. If they hadn't offered the $200 online credit I'd be with another agency for sure. Hard to give up that $200 though.
Do you think with AKL it really would be cheaper to do separately if Savannah View, I have just been getting the online quote off the disneyworld and disney cruise sites, is that the best way?
Yikes, thanks Lynn. The travel agent at dreams unlimited specifically told me the room was Savannah view, hmmm. I suspected she was new when I knew all rooms looked out to parking lot/pool etc if not savannah and she thought some were inner rooms. Time to write back for clarification. If they hadn't offered the $200 online credit I'd be with another agency for sure. Hard to give up that $200 though.
Do you think with AKL it really would be cheaper to do separately if Savannah View, I have just been getting the online quote off the disneyworld and disney cruise sites, is that the best way?
Nanb
After brief panic I decided to check directly. I called the Disney cruise line on their 800 number to ask about AKL and apparently the AKL are Savannah rooms. Perhaps they do this because there rooms are slightly cheaper than the deluxe resorts room rates. Either way, thank goodness, I really don't want to change again Always better to be sure though and they definitely said Savannah. Still open to new info but at least this looks promising.
Hi everyone. I am planning my first ever disney cruise line cruise for the eastern intinerary with st. maarten for april 11 2009. It will be the first ever vacation for me and my son, who will be 14 at the time we set sail, and our first disney vacation, and our first cruise. Needless to say, I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET!!! LOL! Please be free with advice, tips, best time to book, TA recommendations, etc. Thanks, and I hope to get the chance to meet some of my fellow passporter members on the ship.
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