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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi all!
So, I have a question...when you buy your AP's to get your discount, you order them through Member Services, right?
Ok, so if that's how it's done....how do you get them so that it's close enough to your time at WDW so you're able to use them to their full potential? (ie. a full year)
In other words, how long does it take when you order them? Or can you get them with your discount once you're on property?
Oh wait! I actually don't want to do that, because I've decided to go with the TIW card and we won't have time to get to Member Services in any park or DTD to get the TIW card after we arrive before we have dinner at BOMA...
I don't know if I'm explaining this right, but hopefully someone out there will understand my cryptic way of asking what I need to know! LOL...
__________________
Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
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I ordered mine 3 months prior to my trip. I received the letter with a card attached. When I arrived at my first partk, I had to show ID. The person handed me a pass which is good for one year (example first use 12/2/09 valid until 12/1/10). The annual pass has the date on the back where you sign your pass.
I purchase an annual pass this time because I know I'll be back in October.
One sad thing is it won't work in Disneyland ... oh well ....
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I just went through the website and ordered them when it suited me, as they're not active until you first visit a park. I got mine back in March maybe for my May trip and Mark's back in September I think?
We've done like Wendy and bought them early and they become active the first time we use them. That way we were able to get our TIW card before our arrival. Now we just renew at the park on the day we need to as the TIW runs longer than the AP.
Ok, this sounds like it will work for us! Thanks all for the great info!
Cam, so if you only have "vouchers" or whatnot, what proof do you give when you order your TIW cards and how did you order them may I ask then? By phone? Oh! And how long does it take to get the TIW cards after you order them?
Thanks again all! You're the BEST!
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Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
We ordered the passes online before the august '08 price increase, received the voucher via email and had them activated at Guest Relations at Epcot upon arrival for our March 09 trip. We purchased the TIW when we had the passes activated. You need to have your DVC membership card and other id (they asked for driver's license). We will use the passes and TIW card again this March when we arrive a week earlier for this trip, to stay within the one year period.
DW and I just went through this last trip. We had purchased AP vouchers and wanted to have the TiW card too. We sent in all the paperwork with the voucher # and we got, cant remember if it was a letter or email, stating that the voucher # is NOT valid and you need an activated AP #. We called, since we had done it this way before, and were told that since anybody can go into a Disney store and write down a voucher # they dont accept them anymore. When we arrived at Disney and got our AP's activated we traveled over to Guest Relations and it took all of 5 min for them to print up a TiW card.
So hopefully you will have enough time to go to AK or DTD to have the AP's activated so you can get the TiW card before your dinner. Since you should only need one TiW card maybe DH can go get that while you head over to Boma and tell them your here but need a few extra min before you can be seated.
There is very, very little reason to every purchase AP vouchers in advance. As others stated, DVC simply sends you a voucher which must be activated at a Guest Relations window. If you choose not to pre-purchase the vouchers, you have to go to the exact same Guest Relations window to buy the AP, and the price will be the same regardless of whether you purchase in advance or upon arrival.
Buying the voucher doesn't save you any money and it doesn't save you any time. Keep your money in the bank until you really need to give it to Disney.
The ONLY time I would consider buying vouchers in advance is if you hear of a pending price increase. For the last 2-3 years prices have increased in early August (although that can change at any time.) If you follow the Disney message boards regularly, you'll typically hear about a price increase a week or so before it goes into effect. In that case, if your trip is only a few weeks or months away, it might make sense to buy the vouchers before the price goes up.
But please don't buy them until you have to! Earlier this year Disney distributed coupons which could be used to save 10% on the price of a new AP purchase. The coupons were even valid for DVC AP purchases. We took a trip in June '09 and were able to use the 10% coupons for our 4 APs. Saved us over $150!!! If we had purchased vouchers in advance, we would have lost the savings (or had to jump through hoops to get a refund.) Never know when a promotion like that may come up again!!!!!
hmmm...I'll have to figure this out. I wanted to have an early dinner at BOMA and then like relax around AKL and check out the storytelling, the little parade thing etc.
But, I might have to rework the schedule if we need to go somewhere to get out AP's and TIW card.....
We might not get to AKLV until like 4pm, so it doesn't leave us a lot of time to get them that's for sure...
Thanks all for your help anyway!
__________________
Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
i am sure it will all work out - perhaps one of you can go to AK guest services to pick up the APs and TIW card while the other checks in at AKV.
We were in a similar situation when we stayed at Boardwalk Villas so we planned dinner for the first night at Epcot Teppan Edo to pick up everything enroute.
Thanks all!
So, I think the plan will be...if we get to AKLV and get checked in etc. and we have enough time to get to AK before they close, we'll just go there, if not, a cab to DHS....
Still not sure what time to make the ADR for though. If it was just me and DH we could eat late, but I don't want my mom eating so late as she gets tired kind of early, so I will still have to figure out the eating time. I really wanted us to be done with dinner in time to listen to the storytelling or cultural safari, so we'll see.
Thanks again!
__________________
Lori
“I’m in a Disney state of mind……”
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner w/Fairy Godmother Travel For a Pixie Dust Sprinkled Trip!
Just a bit of unsolicited advice but trying to hit the ground running on your arrival day can be asking for trouble. Any number of things could happen to derail your plans. Flight could be running late, airline loses luggage, DME is late, DME luggage delivery is slow, long lines at check-in, room may not be ready even by 4pm (yes, this does occasionally happen), and so on.
We all like to make the most of our Disney trips but trying to micromanage your arrival day is difficult and can really lead to you starting the trip off on the wrong foot if plans go awry.
After all of these years we've learned to avoid ADRs and any strict time commitments on our arrival day. With so many variables that can work against you, in our experiences it's rare that our arrivals actually go off without a hitch. Usually SOMETHING goes wrong...usually a number of somethings.
For a nice dinner at Boma, do yourself a favor and plan it for a day when you are in complete control of your itinerary.
I agree that things may cause you to be delayed. We have made ADRs for arrival day but we try to make them for a later time to maximize our ability to make the reservation. Perhaps you could get a snack upon arrival, go get the APs and TIW card, attend to the storytelling, etc., and then enjoy a relaxing meal afterwards?
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If we had purchased vouchers in advance, we would have lost the savings (or had to jump through hoops to get a refund.) Never know when a promotion like that may come up again!!!!!
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