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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Are you able to take your own luggage off the ship or do you have to set it out and claim it? I ask this because when I cruise with Royal Caribbean, you could take your own luggage off if you wanted to, before your scheduled time. Are there restrictions?
They pick up the luggage the night before, and it is set out in the terminal by ship deck/room. I had them move my main suitcase and pulled my own carryon (overnight change of clothes, toilet kit etc). It only took about a minute to find my bag and go to the immigration/customs check point (another about 2 minutes)
If you really want to carry your luggage off the ship, you can, but if you eat breakfast in the dining room, you will probably not be able to get back in your room after breakfast. So, any luggage you are carrying off (including anything you need after 9 pm or so the previous night) will need to go with you to breakfast.
We have had no problems with Disney offloading the bulk of our luggage. Most or all of your bags will be arranged in stateroom order in the terminal. Once, a couple of our bags had wandered a few spots down, but we still had no trouble finding them.
We found the debarkation process much smoother than on our Royal Caribbean cruise in 1997. RC may have changed their process since then, but I remember waiting in a lounge to be called by groups to disembark. On Disney cruises, once the ship is cleared by the port authorities, you are free to leave at your leisure.
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I know you can carry your own things off but if you are a big packer like me then it is much easier to just let Disney do it for you. The bags are easy to find in the terminal and debarkation starts at about 7 am. Anyone who wants to leave asap can, we actually left at apprx 8:30 because I could not bear to leave.
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Love, April
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass;
it's about learning to dance in the rain.
We wanted to leave early so we could make it back to the parks that day. Didn't have any trouble finding our bags, clearing them and getting to our car. We did skip breakfast- noticed a lot of people spending time doing that so there wasn't a big crowd down in the luggage claim area.
I hate the way Royal Caribbean does their debarkation. It took us at least an hour to get off the ship and get through customs. The line was insanely long and no place to sit (I have a bad knee),
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Julie, what ship and port? I've only had good experiences with RCI WRT getting off the the ship. The issue really isn't so much the line as it is the port. Or even the specific pier for places like Miami.
they said that you can take off your own, but they do not reccomend it. It is easy and fast to claim it. They take it off, and the luggage is put into different groups, so it is fast to find. Like we were the "daisy" group. It took us like less then a minute to find it. They said mainly because you have to take all of you luggage with you to the fianl breakfast, it is a pain to take it off yourself. Once you leave you room in the morning, you can not return. Hope this helps.
I hate the way Royal Caribbean does their debarkation. It took us at least an hour to get off the ship and get through customs.
I understand. I hate being told when we can leave - and if we're ready prior to that, we'll have to sit around and wait. That's something I like about Disney...they understand that people have a natural variety to their mornings and don't enforce (based on cabin number) when you leave. Disembarking with Disney was easier than either RCI or Carnival. Since DH and I are early risers, both other cruises we had to sit around waiting.
We do have to put tags on our luggage, which is based on where you are on the ship (so cute, too! I got extras of each and they are on a photo memo board of the cruise), but that was just for organization when we went to claim our luggage and did not pertain to when we could leave.
I remember waiting to get off our RCCL cruise. . .sitting in the lobby chairs surrounded by people. I am so glad to hear that will not be the case with DCL. I think we will get some cookies or fruit or something from room service the previous day and snack on them that morning. We will get off the ship and over to Universal, and have a "brunch" there before we hit the parks.
You can go to the buffet and eat breakfast. My husband and I are early risers and we ate there and were off the ship before our assigned breakfast time!
Thanks for all the info everyone! It is making me feel much better.
The problem with RCCL is even though there is an assigned time, they let people who want to take their own luggage off leave whenever they want. As a result, I think everyone felt they should just leave whenever they felt like it. The line went from the landing one deck above, down the stairs, up a 1/2 flight of stairs, through the far side of the lobby, through the dining room (the perimeter no less), through the other side of the lobby, out the door, down the gangway, through the tunnel thing to customs.
Don't forget about the process that they use now days for those that are on airplanes... if you are on almost anything other than Southwest then Disney will check your bags from your cabin door to the final destination. You will not even have to worry about customs or anything... so you just walk right out to the bus... then to the airport and onto the plane.... no bags to drag nothing.... what a great way to go!!!
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