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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 have only heard of upgrades when paid in full. I have heard of going from a Cat 6 to a Cat 4. I am doubtful of a Cat 3. Good luck anyway. I hope you get one.
We went from a 10 to a 6 for this upcoming October cruise...it's a guaranteed, so there's an off chance of a 5, but the pragmatic side of me knows it's staying at a 6. I'd be hard pressed to believe Disney would give a free upgrade to a 4 or higher.
We have our cruise paid for. We have 2 cat 11 rooms. We wanted cat 10 connecting rooms. They didn't have any left! So I can only hope we get upgraded to a connecting cat 9 or side by side!
I know someone who's already had a free upgrade on the Westbound TA in 2010 (so I assume they haven't paid in full yet) but it was only up 2 categories.
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We went from a 10 to a 6 for this upcoming October cruise...it's a guaranteed, so there's an off chance of a 5, but the pragmatic side of me knows it's staying at a 6. I'd be hard pressed to believe Disney would give a free upgrade to a 4 or higher.
I was just wondering, We have (2) connecting cat #6's now & I'm very happy where they are(mid Ship/Port Side) & even if they did offer us Cat#4's , unless they connected or side by side, I would problably decline the offer. Right now they still have Cat#3's available for my cruise, so I'll check it out at port & see what the upgrade cost would be.
We have (2) connecting cat #6's now & I'm very happy where they are(mid Ship/Port Side) & even if they did offer us Cat#4's , unless they connected or side by side, I would problably decline the offer. Right now they still have Cat#3's available for my cruise, so I'll check it out at port & see what the upgrade cost would be.
That's exactly our situation - we chose our rooms to be sure that we connected, but that seems to lessen our chances of getting upgraded. We joked with our in-laws that if something was available at the port (Cat 3 or higher) we would go ahead and separate. MIL's reply was, "OK, but you lose the babysitting, since we can't stay in our room." Something to think about...
For us, it's not worth it to upgrade to a Cat 4, if we separate, since we're talking a bit more length and that's it. Even if it was free, I think we'd turn it down because we'd be losing so much more not having Grammy and Grandpop next door. Another consideration, though I think it'll cost too much (even at the port) is to give up both rooms in favor of a Cat 1.
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I meant to say
Anyone ever gotten a Cat #6 upgrade to either cat#3 or Cat #2 & if so what was upgrade cost..
Has anyone been offered a paid upgrade to cat 3 or cat 2? It's not going to be very common, but in the course of 10 years it probably has happened. I'd consider the odds equivalent of winning the lottery, even if it is a paid upgrade. Since Cats 1, 2, and 3 are in such high demand, there's normally a waiting list for those rooms. So typically, upgrades for those rooms go to people who were already on the waiting list. I've heard of some surprise free upgrades to folks who weren't expecting them at all (they usually had some sort of special circumstance on their reservation - anniversary, etc.), but again, it's very rare.
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For us, it's not worth it to upgrade to a Cat 4, if we separate, since we're talking a bit more length and that's it. Even if it was free, I think we'd turn it down because we'd be losing so much more not having Grammy and Grandpop next door. Another consideration, though I think it'll cost too much (even at the port) is to give up both rooms in favor of a Cat 1. [/quote]
Same here, our staterooms #6072 & #6074 (rooms you have had in the past) allows my DD to sleep late & the GK's to get up with us. I'm an early riser & my gd is already planning to get up with me & drinking coffee on our Verandah & watch the sun come up & we're going to use that early morning time to check out the boat. If I order room service for coffee , is choc. milk one of the beverages you have to pay for?
Can someone clue me in on the upgrades... how would you know if you recieved a free upgrade? And for the extra charge upgrade, does Disney call and offer it? After readying this string I'm going to DCL to pay off my cruise and hope for an upgrade. If anyone has suggestions for increasing our chance I'd love to hear them. We are currently in two cat 11 but would love 10. (Couldn't afford the extra $1k for the connecting rooms so Mom & Dad are planning to split and each take half of the kiddos for sleeping at night.)
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There's not much you can do to increase your chances, other than booking a GTY stateroom in the beginning, or booking a Cat 12 (there are few Cat 12 rooms, so they're the most commonly upgraded).
There are two ways you can learn of an upgrade - you can compare the stateroom number on your cruise documents (or online at the DCL web site) to the number you originally booked. Or, if you used a travel agent, your agent will typically tell you.
Extra charge upgrade offers are indeed made in phone calls from Disney. In all the years we've been cruising, we've never received such a call. Until this year, such calls were nearly unheard of - it's clearly a reaction to the current economic conditions.
The only other opportunity to pay for an upgrade is to call DCL, or ask at the time you check in. The chances that they'd still have connecting staterooms, though, isn't very good. Note that not all Cat. 10 (or higher) staterooms connect, so a simple upgrade from 11 to 10 isn't likely to change your sleeping arrangements.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
There's not much you can do to increase your chances, other than booking a GTY stateroom in the beginning, or booking a Cat 12 (there are few Cat 12 rooms, so they're the most commonly upgraded).
There are two ways you can learn of an upgrade - you can compare the stateroom number on your cruise documents (or online at the DCL web site) to the number you originally booked. Or, if you used a travel agent, your agent will typically tell you.
Extra charge upgrade offers are indeed made in phone calls from Disney. In all the years we've been cruising, we've never received such a call. Until this year, such calls were nearly unheard of - it's clearly a reaction to the current economic conditions.
The only other opportunity to pay for an upgrade is to call DCL, or ask at the time you check in. The chances that they'd still have connecting staterooms, though, isn't very good. Note that not all Cat. 10 (or higher) staterooms connect, so a simple upgrade from 11 to 10 isn't likely to change your sleeping arrangements.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Can someone clue me in on the upgrades... how would you know if you recieved a free upgrade?
Basically you can look online on the DCL website and see if your room number has changed. If you are GTY check your room number against a deck plan to see what Cat it is. Or the other option is when you get to the port your room may change or you may be in a Cat you didn;t book
Quote:
And for the extra charge upgrade, does Disney call and offer it? After readying this string I'm going to DCL to pay off my cruise and hope for an upgrade. If anyone has suggestions for increasing our chance I'd love to hear them. We are currently in two cat 11 but would love 10. (Couldn't afford the extra $1k for the connecting rooms so Mom & Dad are planning to split and each take half of the kiddos for sleeping at night.)
Disney has recently been ringing people offering them upgrades for set prices but you can also ring them and ask how much an upgrade would be. And again you can ask at the port as well for these.
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