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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Okay, this may be the dumbest question ever asked on the board but, when everyone says they call to check on their waitlist, what do you ask them exactly? The reason for this question is that I'm currently booked at my home resort at SSR, my parents are booked at their home resort at AKL. I waitlisted myself to stay at AKL since it would be easier for us to travel as a group (I'm pregnant and my husband has MS). It's getting down to the wire, and we're almost to our 31 day mark, so I called a couple of days ago, and just asked how my waitlist was looking. All I was told was that I'm still waitlisted for AKL. I kind of felt stupid because I already knew I didn't have the room because I went online and checked before I called.
Am I asking the right question when I call
__________________
Melissa
Last edited by honeybee723; 10-29-2008 at 10:50 AM..
Based upon what I have read on the Internet, it appears that DVC's waitlist system doesn't operate in realtime. In other words, if someone cancels an exact match for my waitlist request, the room does not instantly get booked in my name. Instead there is a process which runs in the afternoon which attempts to match waitlist request to currently vacant rooms.
It's probably an issue of computing power in DVC's systems. Having a process continuously running which evaluates the waitlist vs. room vacancies would require a lot of resources.
That said, here's what occasionally happens. Someone cancels a room at 10am. At 11am a member calls who just happens to be waiting for the dates/room/resort that were canceled. The member says "can you check my waitlist request." Lo and behold, the member is told that the request just came thru.
IMO, this is more of a coincidence than anything else. Reading a handful of DVC forums, I maybe see this story once every 2-3 months. So it doesn't happen often.
Often times it leaves the member thinking that he/she may not have gotten the room if not for the phone call. But honestly I think the odds of someone else calling about those exact dates/resort/room size/room category before the waitlist process had run for the day are pretty slim. Chances are the same member would have gotten the room via the waitlist later in the day.
The other issue that occasionally happens with the waitlist is that requests will disappear. This one is harder to quantify. Every so often you'll read a member say "I asked to waitlist, called 2 months later to check and was told there are no waitlist requests on my account." Impossible to tell what's happening here (CM didnt' set-up waitlist correctly to begin with, computer error, member was mistaken, etc.) Again these are few and far between. I guess it wouldn't hurt to double-check.
Actually, I just called, because I have been on a waitlist for Jan 1 for 4 months! They had 4 different options for me, and all of them were on my waitlist! I grabbed what I needed, and then asked about the waitlist situation.
He said that what REALLY happens is that if someone cancels, it FIRST goes into the "general inventory", and if someone calls in the minutes/hour it takes to get through the computer system onto the "waitlist inventory", then it is available to be booked!
I would definitely call every day before you go just to be sure. I was hoping for and got the Animal Kingdom!
Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. When I was originally waitlisted for SSR, I just patiently waited, and lo & behold it eventually came through...I never called them once. At first I thought I would be bugging them because as "tjkraz" stated, it all seems like coincidence, and if it was going to happen it would happen without me calling.
With that being said, since it's getting so close, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. I'll try again a couple of more times before we leave, but if not, it looks my me and my parents are staying on two different ends of the earth on this trip
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He said that what REALLY happens is that if someone cancels, it FIRST goes into the "general inventory", and if someone calls in the minutes/hour it takes to get through the computer system onto the "waitlist inventory", then it is available to be booked
That's pretty much what I was trying to describe. The waitlist requests don't get processed immediately (in realtime) thus cancellations are first returned to the general inventory. What I would question are the odds that someone would actually call looking for an exact match before the waitlist is processed.
For instance, let's say I call at 1pm today and cancel an AKV Jambo House Standard View One Bedroom for June 1-6. What are the odds that someone will call between 1pm and whenever the waitlist is processed (4pm? 5pm?) looking for that resort (AKV), room class (Jambo Standard View), room size (One Bedroom) and dates (6/1 to 6)? In most cases I suspect these cancellations roll right to the waitlist and all is well.
We have used the waitlist 4-5 times ourselves and have always been offered something.
Calling daily is certainly an option, but not a catch-all. If you call at 10am, it won't help you if someone cancels at 11am. If you call at 2pm, someone could cancel at 3pm. It's really just a stab in the dark.
Calling daily is certainly an option, but not a catch-all. If you call at 10am, it won't help you if someone cancels at 11am. If you call at 2pm, someone could cancel at 3pm. It's really just a stab in the dark.
You're 100% correct. It's basically a gamble, and I'm one of the most unluckiest people you will ever meet
__________________
Melissa
Last edited by honeybee723; 10-31-2008 at 08:10 AM..
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but, when everyone says they call to check on their waitlist, what do you ask them exactly? The reason for this question is that I'm currently booked at my home resort at SSR, my parents are booked at their home resort at AKL. I waitlisted myself to stay at AKL since it would be easier for us to travel as a group (I'm pregnant and my husband has MS). It's getting down to the wire, and we're almost to our 31 day mark, so I called a couple of days ago, and just asked how my waitlist was looking. All I was told was that I'm still waitlisted for AKL. I kind of felt stupid because I already knew I didn't have the room because I went online and checked before I called. 
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