Deluxe vs. Spiral Bound PassPorter - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 bought it from an Indigo book store in Toronto. And you're right - the content will still be great even if it takes me a while to get used to the different format.
My first Passporter was the spiral bound 2007 edition. I bought the deluxe 2008 edition shortly before our first trip in Dec 2007. Since then I have just bought refills for the deluxe. I love the binder and being able to take things out to take to the park rather than taking the whole binder, or adding things that I don't want to forget to bring.
But even if I have to buy the spiral, I won't complain, as the content is the same and it's the BEST guidebook I've found. I keep recommending it to family and friends when they mention possible Disney vacations.
I like the concept of the Deluxe because I can add pages of notes in the middle of the book. Plus I can add the addition pocket pages for out longer trips or when we take more than one trip in a year. I just think the binder it comes in is UGLY! so I either spend hours retro fitting the deluxe pages to fit in a PRETTY binder or I just buy the spiral bound book and deal with all my loose pages and pockets.
I wouldn't call the binders ugly, but black would be a nice option.
What I would REALLY like to see *hint hint* is a smaller (not as thick) binder cover so that I can put only the essentials in it for park days and not worry about retro-fitting or loose pages in our hotel room.
I wouldn't call the binders ugly, but black would be a nice option.
What I would REALLY like to see *hint hint* is a smaller (not as thick) binder cover so that I can put only the essentials in it for park days and not worry about retro-fitting or loose pages in our hotel room.
Pretty please?
I think the blue color of the spiral would be a great color of the deluxe binder......and I would love a thinner "pop-out" binder to take with you to the parks (I hate when my pages get rumpled and bent).....It could be like an addition in the deluxe that could be used by itself for that vacation week....all the at-a-glance pages, maps, etc. Then put back into the deluxe as part of it. I love the entire deluxe but to have a slimmer book with just my selections for the vacation week would be great. I would love to be able to customize what my personal vacation week PassPorter would be.......and any additional cost of the deluxe would be worth it.
We have looked into thinner/slimmer and cheaper binders (both for in-park use, and for archiving previous editions), but it's really hard to get the kind of quantity we'd need (significantly fewer than the number of deluxe editions sold), at a price any better than the one we get on the regular version, which we get in much larger quantities. The same can be said for the choice of colors. I sure wouldn't mind if the deluxe editions were so popular we could (affordably) offer a choice of colors and styles, but as things stand, one style has to fit all, and the feedback we've had over the years has been overwhelmingly (though not unanimously) in favor of what we do have.
We had (and still have) certain key considerations for the deluxe binder. Among them, it has to appear worthy of the term, "deluxe," yet still seem casual enough to carry around on vacation. Most folks think black is too formal and business-like. A leather-textured cover in a shade of brown similar to that of a Coach handbag seems to convey both "deluxe" and a certain amount of informality. Interestingly, we could have leather rather than vinyl at a similar price (manufacturing costs more than materials), but whenever we think of what happens to leather in a Florida thundershower....
For lightweight travel in the parks, I feel some sort of folio would be a better idea than a ring binder - room to hold a couple of PassPockets, slots for passes and ID, a pen, without the thickness and extra width required for rings. Something bigger than a PassHolder Pouch, and smaller than a breadbox. One of these day...
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
I bought my 1st Passporter spiral book in 2010 but decided to go deluxe this year because I could put in additional pockets and it would be easier to take out the pages I don't need.
A leather-textured cover in a shade of brown similar to that of a Coach handbag seems to convey both "deluxe" and a certain amount of informality.
I wouldn't describe the Deluxe's color that way, but I'd better not say what terms I'd use for that color, this being a kid-friendly site.
I understand the considerations involved in limiting the Deluxe to a one-color-for-all, Dave, and certainly would prefer that the price be reasonable above all other concerns. I'm sure price is a bigger consideration than color for most who buy the Deluxe.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Just got my first deluxe this past month and I am very happy with it! Used a spiral for our previous trip but I do look forward to using this one on our next trip. One thought on the leather vs vinyl is that there are some oddballs like me who live a vegan lifestyle and would much prefer products that are not made of animal products if possible so the vinyl cover works fine for me.
I've been delaying the purchase of the passporter. I have borrowed a friends copy for visit in 2006 & 2010. Now, I am definitely going to purchase the deluxe copy. The coupon for passport club members made it a no brainer.
I recently received my 2013 Deluxe. I absolutely love, love, love it. I organize every thing. This gives me all the pockets, dividers and labels I need. The option to only take the section I need is perfect. I'm confused on one point. Where does everyone put the binder when they are on a ride? Most parks I've been to forbid backpacks and loose articles on the ride. Are there lockers at each ride to stow it like at Universal?
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I invested in the deluxe passporter for my first trip, in 2011, and was glad I did. Got the refill for my trip in 2012, with extra pockets to fit the duration of my trip. Travelled with another person and kept all receipts in each day's pocket. It made splitting expenses later a snap. I have no problem with the size in a small backpack, I can always pull out sections I don't need for a particular day, and can put small reminders of each day in that days pocket for later recollection. Great product. - Thanks
My hubby and I are anxiously awaiting the release of the 2014 book... December, according to the B&N website! We plan to get the Deluxe version for sure! I like that I can customize it and organize everything in a way that fits our travel needs!
I love my deluxe and Have since modified it with a few large rubber bands. So if I need to remove a section I can without fighting or losing pages before removal.
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so the vinyl cover works fine for me.
At Disney World I can visit Japan. Please check-out my web site for wheelchair travel, 
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