Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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09-03-2002, 03:03 PM
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#1
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 453
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AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
Jean,
This past August we traveled round-trip on the AutoTrain and stayed at the BWI - I made all of the arrangements myself. We couldn't get travel insurance that covered the entire trip.
If we use your services, can you sell us travel insurance that will cover both the transportation tickets and the hotel accommodations? Also, are you familiar with all of the room types offerred on the AutoTrain?
Thank you! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
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09-03-2002, 07:12 PM
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#2
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Racine, Wisconsin
Posts: 2,003
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
I have to be honest and say I have never done autotrain for a client. The only insurance that I can/would do is directly connected with WDW or any cruise line. Private travel insurance is something I do not get involved in. Most of my clients book room only with 5 day cancellation policy and they book their own air, which insurance could not be bought for or even needed in that case.
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09-05-2002, 09:22 AM
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#3
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 7,150
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
I can help with the Auto Train! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] I have taken it the last three years down and was planning to do it again but the prices were a bit high (of course now they are lower AFTER I got the plane tickets!). Watcha need to know?
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09-06-2002, 11:16 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Traveler
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 453
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
Kim,
Thanks for your offer - I've actually just returned from an AutoTrain trip. I wanted to know if Jean had any experience with the AutoTrain and what accommodations are available before we decided if we'd ask her to book our next trip.
We loved the AutoTrain and plan to take it home on our next trip! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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09-09-2002, 01:36 PM
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#5
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 7,150
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
How did you get home? I mean duh the Auto Train, but did you stay in a bedroom or not? There are three kinds of bedrooms, Standard (which are small and fit 2 adults), Family (which fit a family of 4 comfy, nice and big) or a Deluxe (which has a shower and potty in it, the others you have to share with the other people with you on the bottom half of the train, which really isnt that bad).
We have only done the family bedroom and I highly recommend it to anyone who has kids and wants to do the Auto Train. The room takes the whole width of the train and there are kids beds and two adult beds. DH and I slept on the bottom while DD slept on the top for the kids beds were a bit too small for her. I love the Auto Train!
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09-11-2002, 01:34 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Traveler
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Concierge Level: 2
Posts: 453
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
We took the AutoTrain down and back.
Our rooms were on the top half of the train (I’ve been told that the noise from the tracks is much louder on the lower level.) We slept in two Deluxe Bedrooms ‘Ensuite’ which means that the wall between the two rooms was folded away creating one open room with four beds, two potty/shower chambers (yes, I showered on the train), two sinks, and two lounge chairs. We have 5 small children (8,7,5,3,18mo) so this arrangement worked wonderfully for us. DS 8 and DD 5 slept in the top bunks, DS 7 and DH slept in one lower bunk and DD3, DD 18mo, and I slept in the other lower bunk (the lower bunk is much larger than the top bunk, so this wasn’t too bad). On our next trip, we won’t all fit in two rooms so we’ll probably arrange a third room in the same car.
The meals were delicious and the waitstaff was very accommodating. We watched Spiderman in the club car after dinner while our beds were being prepared. Everyone slept well on the way down, but on the way back DD 18mo was a bit of a terror [img]graemlins/dizzy.gif[/img] (too much fun in WDW, perhaps?). We were grateful that we were in our own room and not in the general seating area disturbing the other passengers.
The train was 4 hours late going down and 3 hours late coming home (normal arrival time is 8:30 am). On the way down, the tracks were too hot, so the train had to travel at slower than normal speeds. Heading north, the train hit a car that two morons left on the track - it took 2 hours to clear the tracks and file the necessary reports (no one was hurt and the 2 dopes were found and arrested). While the delays did put a bit of a wrench in our plans, it was great to relax in the privacy of our room. Several of our kids even took naps so that they were ready to go when we arrived at the station.
We thoroughly enjoyed our AutoTrain experience! We were grateful that we could leave all of our luggage (clothes for 11 days for 7 people [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ) packed in our car and just take a couple carry-ons with us. Another great advantage (of any train, not just the AutoTrain) is that it forced us to take a breath and RELAX [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] as our vacation began. We arrived at our destination refreshed and ready to have some fun, not frazzled and exhausted. On the way home, we were happy to leave the driving to someone else – we were wiped out from having fun at WDW.
(I plan to post a brief AutoTrain trip report later today.)
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09-12-2002, 09:05 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 7,150
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Re: AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance
Okay, now I remember, sorry for the brain fart! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Wow, I have never had that much of a delay on the train! Usually we arrived about 9 to both destinations and I think just once did we arrive before scheduled time.
For me it always seemed that the trip home was worse than the way down as far as bumpiness (if that is a word) and sometimes got worried for I knew that we were going at a good rate of speed! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
But the good thing about taking the train is it does force you to relax and to sit back and enjoy the world passing by you out the windows. It is such an experience and wish that I was doing it this year again, but Im sure that after I fly, I will be saving lots of money for the train again!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Glad to hear that you had a great time with the Auto Train even though it did run late for you!
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