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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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’m sure this has been asked a bazillion times, but we’re debating (again) whether we need to do online check in.
We are going to POFQ in October, and our flight gets in at 8:30 am – yeah, it was either a 2.5 hour flight and arrive at 8:30am or leave ½ hour later and get stuck on a 6 hour flight/layover. I’d rather be early and eat Beignets.
We know that our room is probably not going to be ready when we get there – and we’re totally cool with that. We have nothing planned that day other than a 7:30 pm ADR at Disney Springs.
So…is there an obvious benefit (other than saving a little time, which we have plenty of) to online check in that I haven’t considered?
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I debated whether or not to do online check in. I finally did it. We were able to put down that we would be checking in around 8am that day. Im not expecting our room to be ready of course but at least they know we will be there that morning. I am still going to call the resort to make sure that they have us down for a king bed if possible and that its our 20 year anniversary. I called last week and they said to call back with in 10 days of check in.
Dumb question here...but how does one know what room they are assigned if they check in online?
When you check in on-line and give them your cell phone number, they will text you when your room is ready as well as the room number. It can save a lot of time, especially if there are long check-in lines at the resort.
I would definitely do the on-line check-in. The Mousekeepers are aware of the time of check-in on the rooms they are cleaning, thus scheduling the order of the cleaning. I know this because a mistake was made on one of my trips and I was listed as arriving at 11 pm rather than am. My room wasn't ready until around 4:30. I had been sitting in the food court with my head down battling a headache, so headed straight to my room when I got the text and met the Mousekeeper finishing up. She was very surprised to see me and showed me what she had on her room list.
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Originally Posted by yakamishi
Dumb question here...but how does one know what room they are assigned if they check in online?
When your room is ready, you receive a text and/or email, depending on what you ask for. It will tell you your room number and the building it is in. There is also an attachment with a map of the resort to help you locate it. I will say there are times when the texts are late in coming. As I have gone to check-in to find that my room was ready and no text had been received.
I wish that we could get our Magic Bands shipped to Canada so we could take advantage of online check in. (We still can but why since we have to go to the desk regardless.)
Even when we had our Magic Bands (we left our luggage and went to the park) we still didn't get a text about our room. The CM thought it was because our phone is a Cnd number.
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I’m sure this has been asked a bazillion times, but we’re debating (again) whether we need to do online check in.
We are going to POFQ in October, and our flight gets in at 8:30 am – yeah, it was either a 2.5 hour flight and arrive at 8:30am or leave ½ hour later and get stuck on a 6 hour flight/layover. I’d rather be early and eat Beignets.
We know that our room is probably not going to be ready when we get there – and we’re totally cool with that. We have nothing planned that day other than a 7:30 pm ADR at Disney Springs.
So…is there an obvious benefit (other than saving a little time, which we have plenty of) to online check in that I haven’t considered?
I would definitely do online check-in as it provides a way for you to let them know what time you're arriving. That will greatly improve the chances of your room being ready when you get there or at least (hopefully) within a few hours of arrival. If you don't do online check-in, they won't know what time you're arriving.
We've done online check-in on our last few trips. We arrive around 11:00. All but one of those trips, we got the "room ready" text by 10:30 at the latest. The other trip we got a text around 9:30 that our room wasn't ready yet. It did still end up being ready by about 11:45. We had requested a very specific room in a building that is usually sold out on that trip so we didn't mind waiting a little longer (we drive, so we just made a stop at a Walmart to pick up some snacks and water for the room and then wasted time there). We actually got the "room ready" text just as we pulled in the parking lot at Art of Animation. You can also *really* increase your chances of your room being ready if you choose the option that having your room ready when you arrive is more important than getting your room requests...however they word that. We took that option on one trip and not only was our room ready almost an hour before we arrived, but it was the exact location we requested as well.
Personally, I don't find any downside to doing online check-in. It's a "can't hurt, might help" situation as far as I'm concerned. People still have the option to go to the front desk to check in if they want to. And if you don't like your assigned room, you can still go to the front desk to see if there's anything else available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CherryTreeLane
I wish that we could get our Magic Bands shipped to Canada so we could take advantage of online check in. (We still can but why since we have to go to the desk regardless.)
Even when we had our Magic Bands (we left our luggage and went to the park) we still didn't get a text about our room. The CM thought it was because our phone is a Cnd number.
I'd still do online check-in for the reason I posted above -- they'll know when you're arriving and there's a better chance of your room being ready when you get there. Even though you won't be able to do direct-to-room check-in, there's still the increased possibility that your room will be ready when you arrive.
I’m sure this has been asked a bazillion times, but we’re debating (again) whether we need to do online check in.
We are going to POFQ in October, and our flight gets in at 8:30 am – yeah, it was either a 2.5 hour flight and arrive at 8:30am or leave ½ hour later and get stuck on a 6 hour flight/layover. I’d rather be early and eat Beignets.
We know that our room is probably not going to be ready when we get there – and we’re totally cool with that. We have nothing planned that day other than a 7:30 pm ADR at Disney Springs.
So…is there an obvious benefit (other than saving a little time, which we have plenty of) to online check in that I haven’t considered?
I am on the same flight arriving at 8:30am in Orlando...but in September. However with every trip I always do online check-in...but I also go to the Front Desk, where it says "On-Line Check-in"...to get my official welcome pack- because I never get a text.....and then that way if I am not happy about the location I can speak to someone right there!
However all the times I have done online check in I have been quite Happy about my room & location...and when I stayed at Pop Century, I checked that I wanted my room right away but I also got the location I wanted too. Magical!
I would do it..... regardless!
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Kate in PA All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them- Walt Disney
We did online check in for 2 resorts in June - I entered our approximate arrival time and at the first resort I got a text before that time that the room was ready. At the second resort, I got a text around the approximate time that the room was not ready yet (and it turned out not to be available until the official check in time). In both cases we got rooms in the general area we requested and it worked out really well for us! I also liked having the text to refer back to for the first day or two when I can't remember the room number yet!
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We took that option on one trip and not only was our room ready almost an hour before we arrived, but it was the exact location we requested as well. 
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