Who do you use to book your trip to DisneyWorld? - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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Since I don't expect to get a better deal thatn the 4 for 7 promo, I booked our latest trip throught the WDW website. I like the ability to modify my reservation myself. Another bonus is that I can look up my reservations online. I booked our last trip through AAA because I was able to get the discount on the room portion of our package. We went Thanksgiving week and there were not a lot of promotions. If I were to to use a TA, I think that I would use a TA that specializes in WDW vacations.
I use Small World Vacations and haven't had a problem with my TA yet. She is beyond wonderful and hopefully when I get to Disney all of her planning will have paid off.
I book through WDW. I like to do the planning myself and I also subscribe to mousesavers newsletter so I have the heads up to any discounts that I can apply to my trip. Since I have been booking through them, I have always known about a discount and had them apply it with no problems.
The only time I didn't get a discount was when I used my TA (maybe there wasn't one available).
I've used Karen at Magical Journeys for the last three trips.
Like others have said they are up on all the discounts and will apply it to your reservation even before you know there's a new discount!
A few months ago I received a pin code for 40% off and all I did was email Karen, tell her the code and what resort we wanted. By later that day it was booked. When I recieved a second pin code a few weeks later for free dining, she gave me a price on that as well and I was able to compare the two.
I always book through Disney, and I love all the perks/features you get when booking directly through them. Also, I've heard horror stories from people who've booked through TA's and other sites that have gone under/lost their money/ressies, and they've had no recourse, so I will always book through Disney.
I've booked both ways. I've booked myself thru WDW. But if I'm booking at a time when I know there will be several different discounts, I like to book thru a WDW specialized TA who will know the day a discount comes out, will do the "Disney Math" , & will automatically adjust your res. to get the best rate available.
If you book with WDW, they won't tell you a discount is out, you have to ask for it & monitor the sites, this one & mousesavers to know when the discounts come out & phone WDW to have it applied, same with a TA that isn't knowlegable with WDW travel.
I like to book my own flights & ADR's. Last Jan I got my park tickets from Undercover Tourist & was impressed with how fast they arrived.
I have done mine myself because we have exchanged my parent's timeshare for Disney. I have had several conversations with Magical Journeys (Wendy) and plan on using them for my 2010 trip. They know about all the discounts when they come out and will automatically apply them for you and send you and email with what they have saved you.
I did not know tha Judi was a TA though, so I will definetly look into using her next time.
When booking a Disney property (I often stay at SOG) I have used Sara (Belle*) and Suzy (Suzymouse) at Mouse Fan Travel. Both have been wonderful at answering my many emails! I love the fact that they will book any ADRs that I want to make as being a teacher, I am usually on my way to work at that 7:00am "magical calling" time!
When we went in Feb 2008 I wanted to reserve our place a year in advance.. I went to AAA and they said that they couldnt reserve my package... well they cant, but they never offered me to hold a room only until the package was available... friends told me that they could do it, so why couldnt I ... I called Disney myself and the CM told me that they can do a room only to reserve where I wanted and at the 6 month mark for my vacation I could change it to a package deal at no cost... so that is what I did... and also thanks to this wonderful site and Mouse Savers I got info on a discount and ticket upgrade, and called Disney to ask them if I applied the code what would I save... The CM was very nice and helped me the whole way through... Our next trip we will still use Disney to book our vacation.
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