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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We recently had to cancel our trip (we were scheduled to stay at Bay Lake Towers November 7-14. We are owners at Bay Lake) because my husband was hospitalized. He is doing much better and we're now trying to figure out how to use those points.
We have an October use year, and understand we can use those points up until September 30 of 2016. We have been told, of course, that we will have only a 2-month booking window in order to "reuse" these points.
Does anyone have experience with this scenario, and ideas as to best time to try to use them? We've looked, for example, at two months from now (not that we would go then anyway) and there is no availability at all at any DVC property. Are we going to probably face this any time of year -- or might there be times that are less likely to be fully booked. Are we probably going to have to waitlist and hope for the best?
We had booked a 1 bedroom, but are open to a studio as well. We have 241 points in holding, and only 19 more points available to use (those 19 points would be borrowed from 2016).
Is there any hope that Disney would take pity on us and let us book sooner, based on the fact that we had to cancel due to a medical crisis? When I called to cancel that certainly didn't seem to be in the offing, but you never know if maybe we could argue for an exception being made.
Basically I'm looking for any advice and counsel your wise heads can offer.
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I never knew about the 2 month booking window. So even if you tried to use them at your home resort, you can't book more than 2 months out? I'd assume you'll need to book at a low use time - no festivals, holidays, school breaks.
You may just need to check availability anywhere, to see what comes up. Have you thought of a non-WDW stay? Vero Beach is lovely, as is Hilton Head.
Yup, 2-month booking window. We'd prefer Bay Lake, but would go elsewhere. We also are planning to go to Disney this coming August (we also have a wedding in the area at the same time), and were planning at staying at Boardwalk then (using totally different points, a different contract).
We're now thinking we might book in a regular fashion in May, and try to use those holding points for the August trip, when I suspect we might have slightly better luck.
Thanks for the input! Vero Beach or Aulani both sound wonderful, but I think are not in the offing this year.
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Points end up in Holding when a cancellation occurs on less than 30 days notice.
The reasoning behind the rule is that the odds of another guest actually booking and being able to use that room on short notice are far lower than when cancellations are made months in advance. Disney sells enough points that if all members are using their points, EVERY room should be filled EVERY night of the year. Any room sitting empty potentially means that a fellow member will be unable to use their points.
Thus the trade-off for cancelling on short notice is that you can only re-book on short notice.
It is unlikely that Disney will make any exception to this rule. Officially their stance is that they offer vacation insurance options to cope with personal emergencies. We've been members for 12+ years and have never purchased insurance. However, we do so knowing that there's a chance we will someday lose points if an emergency arises at the last minute. (That 12 years of vacation insurance would have cost a lot of money!)
The busiest time of the year for DVC has proven to be late-September through the New Year. In the spring and summer there will be many opportunities to book on 60 days notice. April and May between Easter and Memorial Day is one of the slowest periods remaining.
You'll probably end up at Saratoga Springs or Old Key West (if you want to be at WDW), but it's better than losing the points.
Points end up in Holding when a cancellation occurs on less than 30 days notice.
The reasoning behind the rule is that the odds of another guest actually booking and being able to use that room on short notice are far lower than when cancellations are made months in advance. Disney sells enough points that if all members are using their points, EVERY room should be filled EVERY night of the year. Any room sitting empty potentially means that a fellow member will be unable to use their points.
Thus the trade-off for cancelling on short notice is that you can only re-book on short notice.
It is unlikely that Disney will make any exception to this rule. Officially their stance is that they offer vacation insurance options to cope with personal emergencies. We've been members for 12+ years and have never purchased insurance. However, we do so knowing that there's a chance we will someday lose points if an emergency arises at the last minute. (That 12 years of vacation insurance would have cost a lot of money!)
The busiest time of the year for DVC has proven to be late-September through the New Year. In the spring and summer there will be many opportunities to book on 60 days notice. April and May between Easter and Memorial Day is one of the slowest periods remaining.
You'll probably end up at Saratoga Springs or Old Key West (if you want to be at WDW), but it's better than losing the points.
Thanks for the info! We've never gotten insurance either, and I agree with your reasoning as to why. But I am curious: If we'd purchased insurance, we wouldn't face this short-booking window?
I do completely understand Disney's rationale for the short window, and don't object. I was just curious if they would ever allow for "hardship" kind of exceptions.
Interesting info about slowest booking times. Thanks for that!
But I am curious: If we'd purchased insurance, we wouldn't face this short-booking window?
Insurance doesn't impact DVC's operating rules but it does allow you to recoup some (or all) dollars associated with a trip which is missed for a covered reason.
I don't want to answer your question definitively since I'm not familiar with the exact terms of any vacation insurance policy. By cancelling a couple weeks in advance, it may have jeopardized your ability to receive insurance compensation.
However, if you had simply left the reservation in place and been unable to travel on the scheduled dates, you would have been eligible to collect compensation per the terms of the insurance agreement. Assuming you had insurance, of course.
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