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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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View Poll Results: Would you do online checkin or wait?
Online Check-in (why wait, go ahead!)
35
70.00%
Wait until you get to the resort (better safe than sorry, do it in person)
I JUST did my online check in. I thought about waiting because I might really want a first floor room, but it's not really that important. I do wish you could make requests for that when you do the online check in but it's not a big deal.
We don't get in until 6 PM so I thought the less time checking in the better, since I have no idea how long the lines might be at that time of night.
It's really just giving them your credit card number and time of arrival, so it seems easy enough if you don't have any special desires.
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6 trips to Disneyland, 3 to WDW. Next reservations for WDW not until September 2011. sniffle
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We are planning on checking in when we get there so if we get a room location we do not like we can talk to them about it. We will be there for 2 weeks and on our honeymoon and I really want a certain location. I want to be able to tell them we will change rooms if we have to
Well I'm going against the grain here, but we go usually during value season, in Aug and/or Jan. and the queues aren't very long, and in some cases just walk up. I think it may lessen the chance of those magical free upgrades too. So, no I haven't used on line check in. If I were going during a busy time, I may. But I avoid the busy times.
We just did it in August at BWV and although there wasn't any line in either the regular check in or online check in line, our stuff was ready for us and took only about 5 minutes. I think we will do it again next year...it was a good experience all in all.
We used online check-in in August and it was great! Very easy and made the whole process go faster once we got there without losing any of the 'magic'.
i'm going to pass on the on line check in in november cause i like to talk to the cm .
and i would hate it if there was any kind of computer glitch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by guerns17
We are planning on checking in when we get there so if we get a room location we do not like we can talk to them about it. We will be there for 2 weeks and on our honeymoon and I really want a certain location. I want to be able to tell them we will change rooms if we have to
Even with online check-in you still get to speak with a CM when you arrive. The online check-in doesn't eliminate the CM helping you with your room or checking you in to make sure everything is to your liking.
Atleast that wasn't our experience with online check-in.
I did online check in for Labor Day weekend at BWV and it worked out quite nicely. We arrived around 9:00 am and all the documents were ready, and they already had the credit card number for room charges and the cell phone number so they could text us when the room was ready (that worked really well). We gave 'em the luggage, asked them to park the car, and we were off to Epcot in 10 minutes or less--and that included walking in and back out to the parking valet.
And has already been noted, there's a CM to talk to if you have any questions, etc.
I did it twice last week with no complaints. The first time at the Poly, our room was ready and waiting for us at 10:30 a.m. And it was the building we were hoping for (with no requests or faxes). Later in the week, we moved over to Coronado Springs, we checked in at 9:00 a.m. As expected our room wasn't ready, but we were off to Epcot anyway. It was the exact building we asked for. Got back that evening and our luggage was waiting for us in our room.
The whole process takes about two minutes.....your credit card info is already on file and it seemed like it was set up for frequent visitors -- they didn't go over every scrap of paper in the folder, just told us what we could find in the folder.