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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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This is a shame to hear. I am in the process of planning a trip for DH's work convention. I have had two conversations with CMs on the reservations line and one on the dining reservation line and all three conversations have been wonderful. The CMs have been helpful and friendly and gone above and beyond.
I wonder if the issues are primarily in park based CMs.
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!! OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
When we did the Backstage Magic ABD to Disneyland one of our guides is a senior guest relations cast member at Disneyland and California Adventure. We were chatting with him at one point about how different Disneyland is to WDW, just in feel and everything and even he admitted that the CMs at WDW were rude when he was there.
I agree. In the 16 years we have traveled to WDW annually, I have noticed a decline in service. It's not blatant, but you can tell Disney has cut corners over the years. We have noticed a decline in food quality over the years as well.
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You vote with your emails sent to Guest Communications and, if you feel you must, by taking your vacation monies elsewhere.
Economic reality being as it is, we'll get improved treatment and better quality food only when and if we demand both. Otherwise, Disney naturally will assume that people like what they're getting.
If you're displeased by what seem to be declining standards, say something where it can have an impact.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
You vote with your emails sent to Guest Communications and, if you feel you must, by taking your vacation monies elsewhere.
Economic reality being as it is, we'll get improved treatment and better quality food only when and if we demand both. Otherwise, Disney naturally will assume that people like what they're getting.
If you're displeased by what seem to be declining standards, say something where it can have an impact.
Hear, Hear!
If there is a problem you've got to let someone know...hopefully things will improve as a result, but they'll NEVER improve if no one says anything.
I haven't had any really rude experiences, but I have overheard CMs chatting in an unprofessional manner. Even slightly negative chats about life outside the park "Do I really have to take a gift to this party...?" take me out of my happy place a little.
CMs complaining about customers or their shift is a huge "no-no"! I never do this at work and I would be devastated if someone overheard me complaining about a co-worker as well. It's just not the way things are done, dang it! Sounds like training, wages, and benefits need to go up. Someone in the upper eschalons needs to get some servant leadership training.
We normally get good and sometimes exceptional service, even at our value resort (Music), but last year I got spoken to quite harshly by a woman at the check-in desk at Tusker House. She seemed to be on some kind of power trip and demanded that I get in line until called to check-in. For the record, there was a milling crowd, no line, and no one waiting to check in when I walked up. She made me wait five minutes, then told me to come over. The guy who checked us in was very nice, but it does make me leery of going back to TH again. I might say something I regret if I were to get that woman again. Definitely not magical.
We just returned from DL and had a wonderful magic moment with CM'ers of both CA and WDW! (the 3 young ladies from WDW were standing next to us as we were all waiting for World of Color). They were talking to the CM of our section and spoke about how much they LOVE working for Disney.......they even challenged the CM to some Disney trivia questions (apparently they had been challenged with a hard one by their supervisor at work). We all played along and it was great!! We were all given Mickey stickers just before the show......
We normally get good and sometimes exceptional service, even at our value resort (Music), but last year I got spoken to quite harshly by a woman at the check-in desk at Tusker House. She seemed to be on some kind of power trip and demanded that I get in line until called to check-in. For the record, there was a milling crowd, no line, and no one waiting to check in when I walked up. She made me wait five minutes, then told me to come over. The guy who checked us in was very nice, but it does make me leery of going back to TH again. I might say something I regret if I were to get that woman again. Definitely not magical.
We had a similar experience checking in for BOG lunch. We arrived 15 mins early, and the only people in line to check in were a walk up party of 7 or 8. Even though the CM said to them, "No problem we can seat you now." she told us that we were MUCH too early to check in, and we should return "At your EXACT ADR time, and not a minute before." Unnecessarily rude, IMHO.
Not something I would ruin my day over, but certainly not what I expect from a Disney CM. And thankfully, this type of behavior has been the exception rather than the rule on our trips.
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We go to WDW almost every year and usually stay at OKW. We have been there many times and are very familiar with the resort. On our 2014 trip we noticed a lot of things that were not up to "standards." Trash around the resort, room issues, etc. When we return I wrote an email to guest services (I think that is what its called). I was very surprised by their response. I received an email from them and a couple days later also received a phone call. I talked with the person about 20 minutes and they seemed genuinely concerned and asked me for details of my issues. I then received another email thanking for my time bringing the issues to them. Last year when we visited I thought the resort was back to its standard to what we all expect. I don't think its because of my concern they fixed things but if you don't contact them with your issues they will never know there is a problem.
We had a similar experience checking in for BOG lunch. We arrived 15 mins early, and the only people in line to check in were a walk up party of 7 or 8. Even though the CM said to them, "No problem we can seat you now." she told us that we were MUCH too early to check in, and we should return "At your EXACT ADR time, and not a minute before." Unnecessarily rude, IMHO.
Ummmm, aren't we told to arrive 10-15 prior to our ADR time? I thought that was standard procedure.
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!! OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
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I was thinking the same thing as Bee, I just got back from Disneyland and I can think of only one CM who went out of their way to help me find something but no CM was rude to me, in fact when I approached them to ask a question they were always helpful or tried to be and answer my question. I think with common curstsey going out the window in society, CM's expect to be treated poorly, or rudely by visitors and are wary about stepping forward - afraid a guest will yell at them or curse them; polietness goes both ways.
Ummmm, aren't we told to arrive 10-15 prior to our ADR time? I thought that was standard procedure.
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Originally Posted by Angela531
That's my thought as well...
Yes, that has always been my understanding and I regularly arrive to every ADR about 15 minutes early. I said as much when the CM told us that we were MUCH too early. I politely said, "My understanding was that we were expected to arrive 15 minutes before our ADR time." The reply I got to that was, "Well, not here. Come back at your exact ADR time and not one minute before."
Yes, that has always been my understanding and I regularly arrive to every ADR about 15 minutes early. I said as much when the CM told us that we were MUCH too early. I politely said, "My understanding was that we were expected to arrive 15 minutes before our ADR time." The reply I got to that was, "Well, not here. Come back at your exact ADR time and not one minute before."
That made the comments exceptionally rude IMHO.
And in response to that, I would have said., "Thank you for your information, I would like to speak with a manager now."
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!! OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
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