Can you get a dinner reservation if you wait?? - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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I, too, would have a back-up plan. I wouldn't count anything out as people cancel ADRs all the time sometimes waiting until the last minute. The advice given to me is check back a couple times a week, then in the 3 weeks before you go check multiple times a day if you have the time.
I called once to change a dining time (NOT during free dining) and I was unable to change it. I think you'd have to be extremely lucky to get any kind of ADR last minute during free dining.
I think during a time like Free Dining it depends on the location. For example I was at the Polynesian one night and Free Dining had just started. Just for fun I wanted to see how long the wait at Kona Cafe was. I just had dinner so I wasn't trying to eat there. I was told it was at least 60 minutes or more, but if I wanted to the Cast Member was ready to take my name down and give me a pager. So there was room without an ADR if I was willing to wait.
You won't find anything at the popular restaurants but I'm sure you'll be able to find someplace at the resort hotels or at Nine Dragons or Restaurant Marakesh in Epcot. Tokyo Dining in Epcot will also probably have availability.
Good suggestions -- and Tokyo Dining has become a little hidden gem for us. I've had 2 of the best steaks I've had anywhere on property here. Hibatchi-cooked steak. . .oh my yum!
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I've gone 3 times during free dining (I don't do it but do use my TIW card) so far and many, many places in the parks were not even doing walk ups.
Same here. And, the last few years at least, free dining seems to keep being offered when we go, however, I'm so glad that they've held off announcing it until after I've already made the bulk of my ADRs! I then at least can get everything I want -- too bad I then can't change my mind.
So while free dining won't eliminate all restaurant choices, it'll definitely restrict availability quite a bit.
We usually only do le celier and either the Laua or hoop de doo as ADRs. All the other days we make up our mind in the morning on a few choices an then go to concierge and they let us know what is available and we go from there. This gives us more freedom on what park or what we want to do.
As everyone else has mentioned, free dining is going to be what makes this challenging (especially at a hot ticket place like BoG.) When free dining isn't offered, we have great luck walking up but during free dining, it's very tough. I would suggest getting there when they open for dinner if you are going to try walking up....
We have not been able to make adr's at a few places we wanted to try, so we may try once there and maybe split up our party to less people. Time will tell.
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