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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Lenny thinks I'm the only one who does this. Can I get names of who else does this so I can prove to him I'm not and that I haven't lost my mind
Trust me . . . you aren't the only one. You should see my spreadsheets for my last few trips (and for my upcoming CA trip)! And I blame it all on DrDolphin because it was her spreadsheet that I adopted!
We have always used the DDP even as a kid when not a lot of people knew about it and you didn't have to make reservations. We always save but we do things like pay out of pocket for things that are not worth it like CRT. This is the first year we are doing the deluxe. Another reason we do the DDP is we don't have to worry about how much money we need to plan for, for food cuz most of the places are going to be paid for with the plan. This will be the first time we have to do the tip so I am curious to see how much that is going to end up being.
I've been 4x now. This trip is the first "big" one with my DH and DD, who w/b almost 7. We are doing the 1 S, 1 QS, 1 TS dining plan. In the past I have gone during off season, this time being that we are going in August for an entire week and feel that it will be very crowded. I also just wanted most of the trip to be taken care of and done....not having to worry about where we were going to eat or how long we would have to wait. When we go again it will probably be off season ....and I probably won't bother with a dining plan.....
Disney very rarely releases proprietary info like that. We've never used any of the DDP; we do TIW. As a matter of fact, I think the various Dining Plans have negatively affected the quality of the food at WDW. Long, long ago WDW food was awful and they spent a lot of time and money getting to be a place where we actually looked forward to the dining experience. Free dining has led to cost cutting and homogenization of a lot of the food and a decrease in quality
Trust me . . . you aren't the only one. You should see my spreadsheets for my last few trips (and for my upcoming CA trip)! And I blame it all on DrDolphin because it was her spreadsheet that I adopted!
Oh yeah, sure. Blame it all on Terri. I don't see her here to defend herself though
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We used the dining plan in Sept. 2007 (free dining - great deal as that was before they eliminated the app and tip) and April 2009 (ended up regretting it b/c we got upgraded to CL and the combo was way too much food for us). We've had several trips since then sans DDP.
The only time I regretted not getting it was this past trip - January 2011. We did a couple of character meals plus Tutto, which is a great deal on the DDP, and in general I noticed that the prices of kids' CS meals had gone up. I think we would've saved money on the DDP. The reason we didn't get it was because DH and I had nonexpiring tix left from October 2010 so we couldn't add the DDP without buying more tix.
The other times I didn't get the plan we did about equal or a little better paying out of pocket but the differnce was we ate differently then what is allowed on the dining plan. For examples, we'd share an app and share a dessert and each get our own entree. Do a meal of just apps and drinks, usually skip dessert at CS, etc.
Last edited by WeRDisneyFanatics; 06-29-2011 at 05:29 PM..
WE are DVC memebers with AP`s , and have always used the TIW card. This year we are trying the DDP for the first time, and will compare the savings when we get home. We found it tempting to try this year, as we are leaving in a couple of weeks, and noticed that all of the buffets were being UP charged for seasonal pricing...Hope it works out for us !!
WE are DVC memebers with AP`s , and have always used the TIW card. This year we are trying the DDP for the first time, and will compare the savings when we get home. We found it tempting to try this year, as we are leaving in a couple of weeks, and noticed that all of the buffets were being UP charged for seasonal pricing...Hope it works out for us !!
This won't apply to you as you're a DVC member, but if the restaurants upcharge due to a busy season, I understand that the DDP will be upcharged as well. It used to be that you could avoid the seasonal upcharges by using the DDP. No longer (unless, of course, you are a DVC member).
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December 2007 - 9 night family trip (dh, me, dd6.5, ds2) Regular DDP worked perfectly for us. Booked mostly buffets as ds was eating for free!
July 2008 - 5 night birthday trip for dd (me, dd7) Deluxe DDP was the right fit for that trip. We did a TS breakfast and a signature dinner every day and the snacks filled in the rest. No OOP at all! (and we used all our credits!)
December 2008 - 5 night solo trip for Mousefest! (me) No dining plan, OOP. I think I only made 2 ADRs that trip the rest was on the run. My roomie had the TIW card w/ her AP (Hi Aimee!) so we used that instead. Worked out great and fit this trip really well.
June 2010 - 5 night family trip to see ILs that live local (me, dh, dd8.5, ds4) This was a last minute (booked beginning of May! ) to see stepFIL who was having some serious health problems. The kids stay/play/dine free deal was being offered and we grabbed it (cheaper to stay 5 nights w/ the deal than 3 nights w/o it!). The deal came gave the kids a free QS plan so we stuck w/ that and regretted it. Our touring style really utilizes TS meals, especially in the summer to give us a rest from the heat/humidity. We ended up spending way more OOP than it would have been to upgrade to the regular plan so I am doubting that we would ever opt for the QS plan again.
August 2011 - 5 night family stay after Dream (me, dh, dd10, ds5.5) Free Dining!! Regular DDP. We were able to snag the free dining deal when we booked at the end of last summer. It has proved to be a great thing since dd is now considered an adult! We will see how we do savingswise after tallying all the receipts. There are only 2 buffet meals that have been planned (generally we do more than that) so it should be interesting seeing how it will pan out.
That all said. I work hard at maximizing our savings. We try to only use the TS credits for dinner and this trip will try and spread out the CS credits to share a bit more.
The scheduled TS meals don't bother us at all. I carefully choose our park days and make the ADRs at times that work for us. We have yet to regret making an ADR or have it hamper our park touring.
ETA
I did some really quick math.
Our upcoming 5 night trip we will be dining at 1900 Park Fare, Coral Reef, Boma, 50's Prime TIme Cafe, & Chefs de France.
I priced out a lower priced menu item, drink, and dessert for each restaurant and rounded the price to the nearest dollar ($36, $34, $40, $26, $40 respectively) then priced a burger platter and drink (no dessert) at $12 and multiplied it by 5 (FWIW, we rarely order burgers, usually get pulled pork, chicken sandwiches, 1/2 rotisserie chickens, salmon, etc which are pricier but I was looking for a baseline).
When I add all that together I get $236 for an adult ($176 TS and $60 CS). The regular DDP is $230 for five nights. So $6 savings per person not including CS desserts or snacks, and based on lower cost meals (which we tend towards higher end fish/beef, etc).
For the children's plan the TS meals alone come to $66 as compared to the $60 cost. That doesn't include the CS meals at all or the snacks.
I left tax and tips out of the equation because they need to be paid for either way.
So all that to say that used wisely, the DDP definitely can save you money!
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Christine
Last edited by Minniemouse27; 06-30-2011 at 12:54 PM..
Big fan of the deluxe plan myself. We use the regular plan once and it wasn't enough food for us. I didn't like having to bring food from home to use for breakfast.
Even though the tips can get pricey, we normally eat the way the deluxe is laid out. It has always saved us money, even with upgrading DS8 to an adult.
We've done the deluxe plan 4 times now. 3 were upgrades from free dining. The other we paid full price as a package deal with a room discount.
In the summer I like to use the QSDP as it lets us come and go as we wish plus we eat less in the heat. This trip we are splitting our stay and have the regular dining plan for the first half as we had 3 ts meals already planned so it saved us money and then for the 2nd half we have the QSDP. I love having everything paid for in advance.
PS - I stay away from other Disney boards as they aren't as friendly as this one!!
We've used the DDP for the past 6 years. I even did the DxDP once (too much food). I was a little ticked when they took away the app and tip. This December is probably the last time we will use it. Our only must do's are Biergarten and Narcoossee's. I think we'll start eating more counter service. Or eating our main meal at lunch. Honestly the savings is getting to be minimal. And we don't really need all of those snacks.
Wow! I can't believe people would fight about this subject! *Glad I found this board first & I will not stray after hearing this story hahaha*
I agree with the others--they definately have the stats. I was kind of surprised to hear the stat from one poster RE: 75%..but, when I think about why I love the DDP it makes sense.
I love it because for me it adds to the whole magic of it all...its prepaid, I don't need to do anything but pick a meal. I would never go to the restaurants I do without the plan-the prices are simply too much to look at in reality. *Rest assured I am sure I really do pay those prices, but somehow having prepaid makes it different haha
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Trust me . . . you aren't the only one. You should see my spreadsheets for my last few trips (and for my upcoming CA trip)! And I blame it all on DrDolphin because it was her spreadsheet that I adopted! 
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) to see stepFIL who was having some serious health problems. The kids stay/play/dine free deal was being offered and we grabbed it (cheaper to stay 5 nights w/ the deal than 3 nights w/o it!). The deal came gave the kids a free QS plan so we stuck w/ that and regretted it. Our touring style really utilizes TS meals, especially in the summer to give us a rest from the heat/humidity. We ended up spending way more OOP than it would have been to upgrade to the regular plan so I am doubting that we would ever opt for the QS plan again.
We will see how we do savingswise after tallying all the receipts. There are only 2 buffet meals that have been planned (generally we do more than that) so it should be interesting seeing how it will pan out.
MaryBeth, Mark Jr. & Mark Sr.
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