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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Back from Disney World 5 days ago and a long arduous 352 days till I head back.
LOVED it so much started wanting a time share at the park the minute my feet started hurting and my sunburn kicked in but my 16 year old niece and motorized scooter sister wanted to stay.
I have a large extended family that lives all over, I know that that aunts, uncles, and cousins have up to 6 kids in each family so if I want to share with them I will need loads of points.
I can't afford all the points up front so was looking around and found you can buy points on the secondary market.
My question is if I were to start buying 160 points a year in the same month for the same "Home" resort, do they automatically go into my account or do I have to lend them to myself each time I want to use them.
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I can't help you with your DVC question, but there are loads of DVC members on the boards who will be able to answer you question. There is also a DVC forum here on the boards that you might want to check out.
If all of the contracts are deeded the same (identical owners) AND you have the same Use Year (month when your points are issued annually), then yes it's fairly straightforward. All subsequent purchases can be linked to the same "Master" contract and points easily pooled.
Bear in mind that the Home resort booking window (11 months from arrival instead of 7 months) ONLY applies for points owned at a given resort. In other words, if you buy 500 points at Old Key West and 50 points at Bay Lake Tower, you can only use the 50 BLT points to book Bay Lake at 11 months. The other 500 points have the 11 month booking rights for OKW.
Also realize that while DVC is often marketed as a "club", it's a long term real estate obligation. It's admirable to think that you would consider spending tens-of-thousands of dollars to treat relatives for many years to come. But over time, many of us have painfully discovered that others aren't quite as committed. The DVC world is littered with stories from well-intentioned folks who got verbal commitments from friends and family, only to later find they have a Grand Villa reserved and only 2 others actually coming.
Aunts, uncles and families with 6 kids will inevitably have health issues, work commitments, reach an age where school can no longer be missed, kids on sports teams and on, and on, and on.
In my opinion, best thing you can do is encourage other family members to purchase their own points. Those points could then be combined with your for one large room, if necessary. That process would require some intervention by DVC customer service reps but it is certainly allowed.
Joint ownership has many pitfalls. With DVC being a deeded real estate holding, a bankruptcy, marriage, divorce, death or other circumstance which befalls one owner could conceivably impact EVERYONE. I've read of situations where DVC contracts were ordered sold due to divorce or bankruptcy of just one owner. Highly recommend consulting an attorney before this option is ever considered.
Nothing worse than being a few years into this--owning several hundred points with a yearly dues bill of over $1000--and finding that the others are not nearly as committed as you had thought. DVC only gets you the guest room. The others would still need to spend thousands on park tickets, transportation, food and other expenses. And if they aren't ready for that annual commitment, the trips won't happen.
I am not exactly sure how this works but if you can buy different contracts (all same use year and resort) and merge into one it would have one disadvantage that I can think of. If you go to sell your points, its easier to sell a smaller contract and you can usually get more $$$ per point for a small contract. I have seen a few 1,000 point contracts that are being offered for a very low per point price. If merging to one contract is an option I would prefer to keep each contract seperate.
Add-on contract purchases still retain their unique identity and can later be sold / transferred / bequeathed individually. They are never "merged" from a legal standpoint.
As long as the multiple contracts have common ownership and the same Use Year, the points can be easily combined for use in a single reservation.
You have gotten some great information from Tim (tjkraz). I can speak from experience as one of those who reserved a grand villa, after receiving commitments from 3 groups of friends who were going to stay with us. We were inviting them to stay with us for free, which I thought was a great deal for them. About 7 months before our trip, I sent out a "newsletter" of sorts in which I outlined what they could expect in terms of their expenses: flight, theme park tickets, meals at the restaurants, souvenirs, etc.; I think the sticker shock was just too much for them, and every single one of them backed out. Luckily, there was sufficient time that we were able to invite others to join us, but it wasn't the same and was actually quite annoying.
My sister and brother-in-law have two kids, and they all love Disney. I was able to convince them to buy their own DVC contract, and that works out best of all. This way, they share in the financial burden, and have also made a firm commitment.
Do not get me wrong -- we still intend to treat friends/family to group trips on occasion. It is fun to travel with people you enjoy. Just be careful not to bite off more than you can chew!
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Make sure whatever you purchase - you can use. We added on another 100 point purchase quickly in 09 after our initial purchase of 160 for the purpose of treating grandparents. Now just a couple years later they are physically not able very easily to go. It worked out because we made sure we could afford it and we like long trips anyway!
Pay attention to Tims advice - hes the best resource besides Disney themselves on DVC.
His website is Home | DVCNews.com
It has a wealth of information.
Next would be Passporters Cheryl Pendry and she has an ebook available on DVC from the Passporter store that is excellent as well.
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