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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 have read the calculations for tip in the PP and I have downloaded the worksheet from the PP club. But my question is this, since we will only be eating in our regular rotation twice, and our third night will be at Palo, do we just tip our dining room servers for those two nights, and then tip our Palo servers at Palo?
And since our Palo night is our last night when can we give our regular dining room servers their tip? I read to give it to them on your last night, but we'll be at Palo..
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.
I've always tipped my dining room server for every day of my trip, even if I didn't eat in the dining room that night. Your servers also work at the other food service locations for breakfast and lunch, but don't get individual tips for those meals so I figure the tips include the service I get from all of the servers. Once you see how they all bend over backwards to make your trip special I think you'll feel they deserve the tips - and maybe even more!
As far as when to give them the tips there are a couple of options. You could stop by either before or after Palo and give them the tip - or you could give it to them at breakfast the next morning. On your last morning you have breakfast with your servers before you disembark. Enjoy your cruise!
Your servers rely on the total tip per person, per cruise. Even though you are not eating in the DR one night, you still eat at other venues during the day..
You do not tip at breakfast or lunch, and your servers do work those times.
At Palo, the service charge of $15 per person does include a tip portion. Most folks tip extra, some don't.
Make sure you notify your servers that you will be missing dinner to go to Palo.
Some folks just walk into the dining room and hand them the tip envelopes if they are missing dinner. Some folks bring their tip envelopes to breakfast on the last morning... Your choice..
At Palo, the service charge of $15 per person does include a tip portion.
Not anymore, and certainly not a tip worthy of the type of meal you are getting (ie, if you get a discount on your meal, your tip should be based on the original amount, not the discounted total). It was a while ago (late spring, beginning of summer), but we had a thread about where the Palo charge was distributed and it was determined that the server doesn't get much, if anything.
Trust me, we're not cheap tippers I wondered about the fact that they serve at other meals, so we'll definitely give the full amount. And I know we'll tip well at Palo. I like the idea of taking it to breakfast. I think that's what we'll do. And I didn't know to tell them on our second night that we won't be there on our last night. guys!!
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.
On the 3rd night of the four day cruise we received info on the amount expected per per and the envelopes for each tipped position. The server, head server, assistant server and stateroom host
We went to guest services and charged the amount for each to our ship board account for which we received a voucher to place in each envelope
We,too, went to Palo one evening but paid the full amount
We gave more to our stateroom host as he was awesome (Lido Deck 7)