I made a HUGE mistake!! I am so mad at myself! - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Good luck getting this resolved! Did you use a Disney Specialist TA? You should be able to find the number for their main office and ask to speak to the owner or manager. Explain the problem and see if they can set it right.
I have heard that you can call Disney to ask if there are any pin codes in your name. Since the card was misplaced maybe you can call Disney to ask about that exact pin code & the offer? That is what I would do. Also, if your travel agent "used" the pin code she should have a record of what the pin code number is. You could possibly get that number from her & then call Disney to ask what the pin number is good for?
I have one pin code floating around my email for moderate resort at WDW for $119. a night. The dates are good for: Sunday-Thursday nights 10/1-10/6 and 10/10-10/31. I know you can't use my pin code but maybe this was what you recieved & will help you?
Don't give up yet. There is always a solution or a way around it.
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Planning a trip to WDW is like planning a wedding... If you expect things to be flawless, you will be sadly disappointed. If you know that there will be less than perfect times & decide to just laugh them off, then you will be excited when you find the magic all around you.
Do you still have the pin#? If not I would ask the TA for it and then call Disney and explain what happened and see if the are willing to make a new ressie or apply it to your existing one.
I am so sad for you. Call Disney and have then look in your account. The pin code should be listed under your address. So even if you can't find the card, they can give you the number. We have gone to disney 4 years in a row--and have NEVER gotten a pin code during a time when could use it (I am a teacher and can't go during the regular school year), but my TA has me call often to see if there is one attached to my account "just in case." Then you could re-book with Disney direct and get exactly what you want.
I'd cancel...and rebook with the AP rates. Cancel now...so you can get your deposit back in time to rebook. It's not worth the hassle and complain long and hard about TA.
I'm sorry that you're having trouble and I hope you get it resolved but I do have to say you're wrong when "everybody" says a TA is the way to go - I never have and never will use one. I would never even recommend one. I do everything myself and that way, there is no middle man to mess things up because she's so busy helping more than one person at a time.
I agree that even if it were during black out dates; you should have been told that and given the option to change the dates.... As for the AP rates; I would prob just book myself.... I think that may be the only way you feel comfortable at this point...
I'm sorry for your frustrations. Keep in mind that you'll find all sorts of opinions on any number of subjects on an internet forum. For every person that says they swear by a TA, another will say they want the control. One thing everyone on this board agrees on, for the most part, is how important it is to have a TA that specializes in Disney travel. If yours is supposed to, then you need to complain to the higher ups in the company and, if you don't leave them, get another TA.
I used one for a DLR trip, once, to actually give a PP friend a commission (didn't need too much assistance with booking it). She ended up going to another company in the middle and my ressie transferred to a TA that we did not like. I took it to the manager and she offered to move me to another TA that was on PP, since she realized why I'd book with the first TA.
It looks like you got an inexperienced TA (at least with Disney). I realize this may affect your judgement on whether you ever use one again, but I agree with many others to resolve this specific instance - take your complaint to the higher ups and see what they can do to right this wrong. Give them a firm deadline to fix it (say, by Wednesday) and let them know if they don't, you're going to cancel everything and book yourself. Meantime, on Wednesday, get the pricing and book yourself.
Give the company a chance to fix it. They won't know how bad their agents are if people don't give feedback and they won't be able to fix it if you don't let them know what's going on.
The pin code should be listed under your name/account with Disney. Call them and ask if you have a code attached to your name/account and explain to them what happened.