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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Hey everyone, I'm new to the boards and new to cruising.
I have a million questions that people probably think are stupid and common knowledge, but I really just don't know!
1. Dining - It's all inclusive except for upgrades like Palo, or alcohol and specialty drinks like smoothies and stuff? Like, if I wanted to go and eat 12 cups of ice cream and 20 hot dogs and drink 100 cups of Coke then go to dinner that night I could? (But hopefully I won't... unless I'm allowed and then all bets are off)
2. Tipping - How does this work? Do I tip each person individually or fill out a form at the end of the week? I don't get it..... I think this is what I am most confused about.
3. Palo reservations. When can these be made? Do you choose which night to go or do they choose it for you? I'd rather not miss out on Lumiere's or Animators Palate.
4. Bounceback offers - What perks do these typically include? 10% off and a shipboard credit? I fully expect to come home addicted to Disney cruises - so I want to know what offers will most likely be offered on board so I can know ahead of time whether I want to or not.
Thanks again! I know this all sounds pretty stupid, but I just booked and am trying to get everything figured out
#1 - true, if you get the 100 cups of Coke from the deck 9 drink stand, and if you ever leave the bathroom.
2. You tip each person individually at the end of the cruise, you get envelopes in your room for your room attendent, server, drink server, and head waiter for your dining table. How much you tip them is up to you.
3. For a cruise rookie, you can make Palo's reservations 75 days out. But you don't know your dining reservation until you board the ship, so you can't plan out which night is which dining room. If you're doing a 3 or 4 day cruise you might miss one of the dining rooms. On the longer cruise, that shouldn't be a problem.
4. Bounceback offers - What perks do these typically include? 10% off and a shipboard credit? I fully expect to come home addicted to Disney cruises - so I want to know what offers will most likely be offered on board so I can know ahead of time whether I want to or not.
As of now, booking a cruise while onboard will get you half off the deposit (so the deposit would be 10% instead of 20% of the cruise fare), a 10% discount off of the cruise fare, and an onboard credit of $100 for a 3-6 night cruise and $200 for a 7 night or longer cruise. (The onboard credit is greater for people with 5 or more previous Disney cruises -- that is, Gold and Platinum Castaway Club members.)
Some additional information on tipping: DCL provides suggested minimums along with the tip envelopes, but what you tip each person is up to you. You can either place cash in the envelopes, or go to Guest Services and have the tip amounts (whatever amount you want) charged to your cabin account. If you charge to your account, you'll receive vouchers to place in the tip envelopes.
Have fun planning, and don't hesitate to ask any further questions that you have. We're a friendly group here and will not consider any question "stupid" -- if you're wondering about something, odds are other people are too.
Welcome to the boards! I could not have made it on my first cruise in 2007 with out this group of people. I bought a Passporter, registered with the boards and became obsessed with reading every bit of information I could in order to get prepared for our first cruise. Most nights I laughed until it hurt reading some of the trip reports. So many magical memories and wonderful stories. It sure made the time go by before we went on our trip. Not that I am a big drinker, but I do enjoy a blender drink or two, and with out the information on the boards, I would not have known that I could bring my own alcohol on board. So I did (and my magic bullet blender!) and I enjoyed a few each afternoon. Tipping was easy, I found the suggested tipping amounts somewhere on the boards and put that money aside before we even left Canada (obviously I needed to add a bit more once we were on board - especially for my stateroom fellow who would fill my ice bucket each afternoon around 1 so I could make my blender drinks!! and for my drink server at dinner who always kept the diet coke full in my glass and for my dining room server who brought a giant bowl of mac and cheese every night for my nephew and a Mickey bar for me (no matter what other dessert I ate!!!) . Actually, the list goes on and on for all the nice things they did for us, so be prepared to tip more than suggested (the service is way worth it!)
My favorite part is the planning - I hope you find some really useful information.\
I am an OCD planner and love every minute of planning for WDW, since this is so new I'm sure I'll be on here A LOT.
As far as taking your own alcohol on board, how does that work? I read that you can only take it in your carry on? I'm trying to figure out a way to get it down there since we are flying and are not renting a car
Can you ship things to your state room? We would always ship toiletries to ourselves at WDW and I'm wondering if you can do the same thing to the ship....
As for Palo, go ahead and pick a night and schedule it at the 75-day mark. Once you get your dining rotation (upon check-in), if it is not convenient, there will be representatives onboard who can take your request for a switch. It can't hurt to try. I did this last time and it worked out.
I'm pretty sure you can't ship things ahead of time to the ship.
__________________
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow, for all you know, tomorrow, the dream that you wish will come true.
Alcohol is limited to what you can carry on - if they find it (or a case of soft drinks, for that matter) in your checked luggage, it'll be held for you until you return home. They don't want stateroom hosts/hostesses breaking their backs when they deliver luggage to your stateroom.
You also aren't allowed to bring a hard cooler on board (so no rolling cooler filled with beer). All carry-ons must fit through a normal airport scanner - so whatever you can fit in a wheeled carry-on is going to qualify. Be practical, since any bottle you open on board must be left behind when you return home - US Customs doesn't allow opened bottles back into the country. Also, since you don't get access to your stateroom until about 1:00pm-1:30pm on boarding day, you may have to tote around that hooch around the ship for an hour or more before you can stow it.
If you're flying in, whatever you can risk carrying in checked luggage on the plane will have to be transferred to carry-on before you give your luggage to the cruise line. That means that, if you're using DCL ground transport from the plane to the ship, you'll have to collect your luggage at the carousel, rather than tag it in advance so DCL collects it for you (nullifying one of the benefits of using DCL ground transport).
You can ship packages to yourself ahead of time. I don't have the address handy - you would ship it to DCL's Ship's Agent in Port Canaveral, and they'd get it onto the ship for you. However, you'll find that the cost of shipping heavy items like liquids (when even permitted by companies like UPS) is pretty high. Considering that beverage prices on board are quite moderate (even cheap by some standards), the combination of shipping costs and inconvenience would tip things in favor of not shipping your beverages as far as I'm concerned.
__________________
Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
This is helpful info. I had heard I could check a case of bottled water, but, from Dave's post, it sounds like this isn't true. Does anyone have any experience bringing bottled water onboard?
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
We brought bottled water with us. We had an unopened case, as we thought that was how they wanted it, but they balked at that. We ended up opening it and shoving the bottles in our carryons. It can't be with your checked bags, as Dave said. So if you have a couple people with carryons you can spread the water bottles out that way. They didn't seem to want us to bring the unopened case, maybe they thought we wouldn't be able to carry it around all afternoon?
This is helpful info. I had heard I could check a case of bottled water, but, from Dave's post, it sounds like this isn't true. Does anyone have any experience bringing bottled water onboard?
Theere was a time when you could check liquids, but they changed that policy about a year or two back.
__________________
Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
I think we'll probably just go ahead and buy drinks on board. I'm glad to hear they're not that expensive. We're not big drinkers anyway, maybe one or two fruity frozen drinks to get in the vacation spirit. It doesn't seem like all of the hoops we'll have to jump through will make it worth it for us, but if we were going to have a car it's a really nice perk that DCL lets you bring your own liquids.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Let's start the answers:
2. You tip each person individually at the end of the cruise, you get envelopes in your room for your room attendent, server, drink server, and head waiter for your dining table. How much you tip them is up to you.
I'm also a rookie and first time poster. My family of 4 is taking the Magic cruise on Feb 2011. My cruise invoice is suggesting $12/person per day as gratuity for a total of $336 for my whole family. I'm thinking of pre-paying it, is this a good idea. Is $336 enough/reasonable for the whole crew(servers,attendants etc) for the 7 day trip.
I always pre-pay gratuities. It is so convenient and one less thing to worry about saving for at the end of my cruise. If the crew members go above and beyond the call of duty, you have the opportunity to leave a bit extra if so desired.
Regarding laundry - I do not mind at all doing laudry while on vacation. It forces me to relax, read my book and enjoy the scenery! I use the Purell Sheets. They are sheets that have the detergent, softener and dryer sheet all in one. Just toss in the washer and it carrys over into the dryer - perfect (and no liquid!)
Another thing I knew about, but not many people do, is the Pressing service. I decided to splurge and have my clothes pressed by the crew. To my surprise, the cost was very affordable, and we even tossed in a few more items we weren't planning on. I hate to iron and this was a real treat. The clothes came back beautifully pressed and those items with no hanger were folded in a wonderful fabric lined basket. We felt like royalty!!!
About This Page: 
) 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
and for my dining room server who brought a giant bowl of mac and cheese every night for my nephew and a Mickey bar for me (no matter what other dessert I ate!!!) 
NYC-Canada Cruise Sept 2012
It doesn't seem like all of the hoops we'll have to jump through will make it worth it for us, but if we were going to have a car it's a really nice perk that DCL lets you bring your own liquids.
and 
to the Boards....
Linear Mode
