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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
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.
How does it work if you book your room separately and buy your tickets separately? Do you end up with a room card and a card for your tickets? Last time we went we booked a package and just ended up with one WDW card that we used for everything.
We always book and get the tickets etc. at different times. I actually think it's easier with 2 tickets, but how should I know, I've never had them both on one card! One is your room key, the other is a paper ticket. I think you can buy your park passes at the resorts and they are plastic and resemble the room key, as I have done this with Typhoon Lagoon admission. Any more questions? I'll be glad to help! Where are you staying?
We booked our rooms as room-only and then got our annual passes upon arrival (got ours at Epcot). Then your room key is a plastic card (like a credit card) and can be used to charge to your room if preauthorized. Our annual passes were thin cardboard, but can be easily replaced if bend too much, etc. It wasn't difficult at all to have the room key and passes separate. However, like the previous poster, I've never done it the other way.
We wore lanyards with ISU i.d. "wallet" (credit card size) hooked to the lanyard. We put our room key and personal i.d. on one side and our pass (with each one of us carrying one of our children's passes) on the other side. Always easily accesible when we needed them and never had to worry about losing them. Worked great!
Thanks for the input! We are looking into staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort next June. I guess I'm just kind of leary about booking everything separately and trying to keep track of it all. Last time we went, we booked through AAA and it was nice having them put everything together for us.......the airfare, the resort, the tickets, etc. All we had to do was show up.
I've always booked everything separately. I don't think it's too much to keep track of (4 things: air, car, room, pass), and I'm one of those people who loves to plan almost as much as the trip itself, so it doesn't bother me at all.
Even before I had a Passporter, I have always made up a notebook, a binder, a folder, or something to keep all my trip plans. As long as you keep it all in a central location, somewhere safe in your house, (i.e. not under the coffee pot or anywhere the kids or dog can grab it), your trip plans will be easy to access. I also make a new folder on my computer and keep a text file in it with all my reservation numbers and dates, which I can print out as a summary whenever I need it. A monthly calendar page for the month of your trip (you can print one from MS Word or Publisher) is also helpful. Write down nightly dinner plans and times, flight times, and other important scheduling stuff ("Keys to the Kingdom, 9am") on here and use it as an index for everything else in the folder.
Booking a la carte is not only fun, but gives you far more flexibility in your trip, and will save you tons of money, since you're not buying packages with features you might not use, and you can search for the best prices on airfare, rental cars, and room rates indipendently of each other.
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