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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Another reason I declined was because I thought they were doing this to cut back on housekeepers. A $50 gift card is not worth someone losing their job. We got the best service we've ever had this last trip.
It's not a way to cut back on housekeepers but a way to cut back on the cost of cleaning all those towels and sheets every day. I think it's more an environmental move than anything. Even though they say that if you leave your towel hung up, they won't refresh it, they always do. I have yet to stay at a Disney hotel where I haven't had my towels changed even when I hang them back up, indicating I DON'T need or want a new towel. Which means they are needlessly doing laundry they don't have to increasing their environmental footprint when they are trying to decrease it.
Declining housekeeping during my stay at the Dolphin was the first time I didn't have my towels refreshed needlessly while at Disney.
Also, when I stayed at a hotel in Quebec City in the fall, they had the same sign in the room. "If you want your towels refreshed, leave them in the tub. If you would like to keep them, please hang them back up." Again, this is the hotel's way of reducing their environmental impact. We didn't need our towel's refreshed so we hung them back up . And guess what. The hotel staff DIDN'T touch them, they left them. Know how we know? Because they looked exactly the same as how we left them. Unlike at Disney when we would walk in and find the towels looking like they did the first day we arrived.
We also took this last October in POFQ, we got a gift card for $120 which was a good chunk of spending money for us! We always tidy our own bed anyway, plus we always dry out towels we use as it is better for the environment not to be washing towels every day. And every few days we had our bins emptied and the towels refreshed, so that was nice.
We have a bit of a coffee habit so always buy a box of Folgers (yum - can't get this in the UK!) coffee bags and a jar of coffee whitener for the room anyway, so not leaving us fresh coffee every day wasn't an issue either, plus we could have just rung housekeeping for more if we'd needed it.
And on top of this, we have an Owner's Locker box which has a stock of toiletries in it, so we didn't even need more of that every day too!
But I think it is definitely down to each individual - we are a tidy couple with no children travelling with us, if we had a teen it might be a different story!
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Darlene, I hear ya on them remaking the beds. We take our own blankets (and pillows) and have everything just right, and then they come along and change it. At least they’re doing their job , and I’m sure they just don’t know what we expect from them.
It might be more that they’re required to make up beds a certain way which you likely guessed.
My mom worked for a while as a motel maid and said they were required to change out all linens daily, even those appearing unused. So, if you as a guest there made your bed beautifully, it would still get remade according to the head housekeeper’s specifications. That maids did things as expected was checked at random. You could be fined or even fired for not meeting standards.
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Last edited by Her Dotness; 01-18-2018 at 11:50 AM..
For those of you who like the bed and pillows a certain way, have you tried leaving a note on the bed for housekeeping? I wonder if you say something such as, "Please don't remake the bed. I like it the way it is," if they would leave it be. I would think guest request should outrank their standard for making the bed.
For those of you who like the bed and pillows a certain way, have you tried leaving a note on the bed for housekeeping? I wonder if you say something such as, "Please don't remake the bed. I like it the way it is," if they would leave it be. I would think guest request should outrank their standard for making the bed.
I haven't tried for that but I did leave a note a few years ago for something else - I forget what it was - but the note went ignored making me believe that at least some of the housekeepers may not be able to read English.
I have a Dh who likes everything to be neat, so he tidies our room every day that we’re on vacation, The mousekeepers should love us bc all the beds are made, trash collected, dirty towels are all together, etc.
Darlene, I hear ya on them remaking the beds. We take our own blankets (and pillows) and have everything just right, and then they come along and change it. At least they’re doing their job , and I’m sure they just don’t know what we expect from them.
I would take the gift card. We grab towels off the cart anyway. All that needs to be done is take out the trash.
I had a fleece blanket, bought the purchase with purchase cute fleece blanket which I used on the bed since it was Dec. our mouse keeper put it back on bed the way I had it Came in handy for the flight home too!
I had a fleece blanket, bought the purchase with purchase cute fleece blanket which I used on the bed since it was Dec. our mouse keeper put it back on bed the way I had it Came in handy for the flight home too!
I find when it comes to additional blankets, the housekeepers usually will leave those on the bed. I've put the additional blankets found in the closet on the bed, and the housekeeper will usually make the bed and leave it on the bed, actually making it into the bed for me.
Don't you love those fleece blankets? I have a ton of them. If they are a purchase with purchase, I always try to get one. They make great airplane blankets.
For those of you who like the bed and pillows a certain way, have you tried leaving a note on the bed for housekeeping? I wonder if you say something such as, "Please don't remake the bed. I like it the way it is," if they would leave it be. I would think guest request should outrank their standard for making the bed.
I do this for our disney cruises, sinc eyou cant really decline housekeeping there [we normally decline it for hotel stays as we dont need it].
Printed "DO NOT MAKE BEDS" on half of a letter size card stock page. Folded the page in half like a tent and placed it on the bed corner closest to the door so it was obvious. I put it on even if we have managed to speak with the stateroom host and ask them to not make up the beds, as we have learned they sometimes forget your instructions. Never had an issue with the sign up.
I use it in hotel rooms too, in case housekeeping ignores our "no housekeeping" request.
I took the deal. I travel solo and bring my own bed sheets that I wash during my trip. So I really do not like them coming in and messing with my bed and stuff. I ask for extra towels at the beginning of my stay(or go and get more) and I take what little trash I have with me when I get my morning coffee. Last trip I got $80 and that is a couple of very nice meals for me. Heck of a deal.
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I'd gladly take any extra money. I just pull the covers up and hang up my towels. The only thing I'd be worried about is trash, but we generally don't have that much as we are generally in the parks from open to close. I'm only sleeping and showering there - and sometimes a dip in the pool or hot tub.
I'd gladly take any extra money. I just pull the covers up and hang up my towels. The only thing I'd be worried about is trash, but we generally don't have that much as we are generally in the parks from open to close. I'm only sleeping and showering there - and sometimes a dip in the pool or hot tub.
We declined housekeeping during our stay at the Dolphin over Christmas. All we did with our garbage, which was mostly disposable hot drink cubs and water bottles, on a shelf near the coffee maker in our room. Then when it was getting to be too much, we'd grab one of the large Disney bags we didn't need and toss it all in there and throw it in the garbage on the way out in the morning. You could also just leave it outside your door with a note to have it disposed of. We got 2 free water bottles delivered and our coffee supplies replenished daily and they were hanging on our room door handle so we could have just left our garbage outside the door and it would have been taken care of.
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At least they’re doing their job , and I’m sure they just don’t know what we expect from them.
Came in handy for the flight home too!
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