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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Anyone know of where I can book a Disney Cruise, and get some type of discount? Will AAA give a discount? I'd like to book a cruise for Oct. 2007. Any help would be great!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
You have to do some shopping. Some travel agencies block-book staterooms at low, early-booking rates. As Disney's rates go up, the agencies can still offer rooms at the lower rate.
If such block-booked rooms are not available, you won't find many discounts as such. What you'll typically see are incentives - flat dollar amount credits on your stateroom charge account, gift baskets, etc.
Definitely, check with Costco, airlines that are offering deals at their web sites, etc. Those deals are probably based on advance block bookings, rather than a special price the agency receives from the cruise line. Generally, cruise lines have been instituting policies that make it difficult or impossible for an agency to offer a percent-off discount on rooms that are booked directly from cruise line inventory.
__________________
Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
We have begun planning the Wonder Wedding (we keep playing with the name, will probably change a few more times ) and family has started jumping the gun on us befre the first newsletter to let them know the tips and tricks of booking that we have found.
So far, SIL-to be found a GREAT price on Travelocity. BIL-to be could not find same price, but found one on Priceline. Each were ~$300 in savings. MIL-to be made hers AARP, which was routed back through.. you guessed it, Travelocity!
Now back to Discounts from Disney (LOL) Disney could offer a group discount of $25 off each booking as long as we had a min of 8 rooms booked. Anything under that, no discounts, etc. Here is the RED FLAG If you book through anyone other then Disney, and need to make any additions, changes, etc... you have to go through the company you booked originally through. ie. SIL forgot to add a crib and high chair, called Disney and was told she needed to call Travelocity to add those. Same with transportation, IF you choose to take the Disney Transportation (one way or two way) can not be added by Disney.
DF feels that all in all, using Disney Cruise Booking for everything (Stateroom, Air and Transportation) a) save a HUGE headache for us on a Day we DONT need the added stress and b) the cost all washes out in the end.
We booked our cruise through AAA during their annual travel show, and saved about $300 based on prices I saw on DCL website. We are also getting free luggage as an incentive and because we booked and paid our deposit, we received a free sketch from a disney artist. We chose Donald Duck. It is a pencil sketch and really nice once I get a frame for it.
As Dave mentioned many travel agencies have groups already set up for some cruises and are able to offer those rooms at a rate lower than Disney's current rates. Depending on the sailing and category these savings can be HUGE.
If you book through any travel agency, you will need to deal with them for all the details of your cruise (that's what they are there for.)
Make sure when you are checking out TA that you know their cancellation policy. We went with one agency and had to cancel our trip (mom got diagnosed with cancer) and they charged us to cancel our reservation. AAA doesn't charge you if you would have to cancel (within the Disney guidelines of course).
__________________
here, there, and going back
Disney World May 2001
Disney Land July 2001
DisneyWorld & Cruise September 2003
DCL Nov 27th-Dec 4th 2004
WDW & DCL Sep 12th- Sep 22st 2007
Our AAA charges 35.00 to cancel for any reason. And they didn't even book for us, we booked on board. We did get a decent price and a shipboard credit, then transferred that cruise and another very expensive alaska cruise to them and got NOTHING. That doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that the agent doesn't seem like she wants to do anything. We told her that we plan on doing quite a bit of traveling and that we go to Disney several times each year and she said we should probably book our own Disney trips and cruises because we would get better rates!
Is this really true? I never used a travel agent before, aren't they supposed to be like travel counselors? We went to them because the we had booked our own first Disney Cruise and probably overpaid! And the Alaska thing was so difficult not knowing what we were doing. Should I be looking for another agent or is this standard?
Thanks in advance for any input.
No, bcrosby33 that is not really true. TA's should always be able to get you the going rate or better. They should NEVER cost you extra! And yes, TA's should be like travel counslers. That is part of what I love about being a TA. Helping people plan their vacations and helping to make them extra Magical by giving them all sorts of tips, helping with itineraries etc. I'm sorry to hear you have a TA who just doesn't seem interested in helping your family. Please know most TA's are not like that. I recommend you find a new TA. Hope that helps a little.
The only thing I charge for is domestic air. But you should be able to do that yourself. The travel suppliers pay me. I do have a cancellation policy that has a charge to it, but the number of covered reasons covers almost everything. Even more than what insurance covers.
I also bust my can to find the best rates, and keep looking. This spring I got a customer upgraded from an inside to an oceanview on RCI for the same price. I also got her a single at the double rate.
A good TA should be your hero. Don't expect miracles (I can't get a free upgrade everytime), but do expect quality work.
We used a TA with Small World and were very happy with what she was able to do. The way she booked it she was able to get us a $75.00 on board credit and since we used our Disney Visa to pay for it we got an additional $25.00 onboard credit. Our TA also got us a better price than Disney, Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, etc. and got us a better room too!
www.dreamsunlimitestravel.com is who I've used for my last 2 cruises. They are now offering Shipboard Credits of $25.00-$100.00 on regular itinerary cruises. Plus whatever their discount is on top of that.
__________________
4 Day Land/3 Day Disney Cruise June 2004
7 Day Eastern Caribbean and 5 nights POFQ
Stateroom #6058
Sept.1-14,2006
15 Day Eastbound Repossession Cruise 2008
A good TA should be your hero. Don't expect miracles (I can't get a free upgrade everytime), but do expect quality work.
We have booked 5 Disney cruises. Two through Disney, Two through Costco, and the most recent through our local travel agent and I will always go back to the travel agent from now on.
Here's why: as people have been saying, there are no real "discounts" (although I think AAA Carolinas does offer one Disney Cruise per year, a specific AAA sailing which I BELIEVE is during hurricane season and it is discounted). There are so many little details associated with a Disney Cruise that can translate into a big headache when you don't have a good travel agent to "cover your back".
Here are the examples I can think of:
1. We booked our latest cruise on our last cruise and got the onboard discount (oh yeah, that's a discount). BUT, there were no more connecting rooms, which we pretty much have to have. We were told by Disney and by Castaway Club to keep calling for availability and I did to no avail. On a whim, I walked into a local travel agency and asked her if she could help us with this. Essentially for us it was a make or break- we would cancel if we didn't get adjoining rooms. She called me the next day: DONE!
2. We booked our excursions online. For one of our excursions the system allowed us to book our DD9 but then would not allow us to add anyone else. I called Disney and they said the excursion was full. I called our travel agent and asked her to see if she could get all 5 of us in. She called me the next day: DONE!
3, Yesterday she emailed me our plane reservations. We will be arriving kind of close to one of the excursions we booked. I emailed her back and asked her to double check with Disney to be sure this gave us enough time to go on the excursion... you guessed it- she took care of it in the blink of an eye.
I have been so impressed with her, that we just booked a WDW trip with her (and she did get us a discount, but that is for another posting).
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
DVC Member BWV- 6/08
) and family has started jumping the gun on us befre the first newsletter to let them know the tips and tricks of booking that we have found. 
Linear Mode
