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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm not a member of the DVC - although I so wish I was! I'm curious though, as to where you can go instead of going to your home resort. I saw some places listed on the DVC website, but it also mentioned some "500 hotels" that I couldn't seem to find a listing of. One of my hesitations about buying, besides the fact that we already own 2 timeshares, one of which we LOVE and the other, with Fairfield (who we actually don't own that many points with anyway), that's working good for us now, but isn't looking like it was really such a good deal, is that we aren't too fond of flying, so while I would love to go to Disney every year, I'll never be able to get my DH on a plane that often. And he doesn't like to drive anywhere more than about 6 hours away...so driving down is probably not an option either, at least not too often, if I can convince him at all. So I'm wondering where we could exchange into. I was also wondering how many points a DCL cruise cost. Any input would be appreciated!
You can exchange with anywhere Interval International has timeshares. There are also several other hotel/locations you can exchange with. If you call DVC they can send you a book which lists all of the exchange locations and points costs. The cruise is actually a ton of points and it would probably be better to pay cash for it.
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As mentioned, you do NOT need to own II to exchange. We stayed at a beautiful II resort in curacao for only about 125 pointd for the week in a 1 BR.
You can peruse the II exchange sites at the following website: Disney Vacation Club | Login
It shows up at "DVC Login", but does not require a password and has pretty pictures and everything!
I'm a little confused about what you guys mean about exchanging with II... although I probably wasn't clear about what I meant...what I meant was that if one of my 2 timeshares that I already own were affiliated with II, then I could try to exchange my existing timeshare for one of the DVC's for a week and try out the DVC one...Or if we decided to sell one of our existing timeshares and get a DVC one instead, if they both used the same exchange company we could always go back to our current resorts on the years that we couldn't go to Disney. But, I checked the II online listing and the resorts that we usually go to are not listed.
You are correct. I misunderstood what you were asking. I thought you were asking if you purchased a DVC timeshare where could you make exchanges. The only outside timeshares that can exchange for a stay at DVC (without owning a DVC) are II timeshare owners.
I'm not sure if I am right but I think that if you wanted to exchange with DVC through an affiliation/ownership with II, than you would get one of the DVC resorts only not any of the ones listed with II.(A member of DVC is giving up their Resort to someone from II while they get a resort listed with II) If you sold one of yours for DVC than you can exchange with a very extensive list of II. We have gone to Arizona, Nevada,New Hampshire and Hawaii. There is a list at the DVC member site but I don't think you could sign in without a membership password. On a final note I think that buying into DVC was the best thing we ever did (And did go check out many other Timeshares)
Thanks for all of your input. I'm bummed, though, because at this point we can't afford to buy another timeshare and since our existing timeshares are with RCI, we can't use one of our existing timeshares to exchange into one of the DVC resorts. Of course, we could pay to stay there, but if I remember correctly, they were pretty expensive. I'll just have to add "Purchase DVC" to my wish list and if we ever start getting bonuses again at work - I'm in! Right now we have 2 weeks a year with one company and 1 week a year with Fairfield, but we usually use that for 2 weekends instead. So taking one more week of vacation a year (if we got into DVC) isn't too crazy an idea...
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Just so you're not too bummed, I've heard from people who have II that it's near impossible for them to get into a DVC resort because so many people want them. So even if you had an II timeshare, you still might not be able to get into a DVC resort.
Oh really, even within II it's really hard to get into a DVC resort? In any case, I am having DVC info sent to me, so when I win the lottery or something, I'm all ready to buy! Every time we use our timeshares, the discussion comes up about whether we should buy more time with the ones we already have. So it is possible that we could buy another one. This way I'll already have the DVC info as a comparison. Thanks again for your help!
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