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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Clarification
Okay from what I have read the following would be true right?
1. I am sailing in May 2012 on a five night cruise on the Magic and is the first time I have ever cruised and am already thinking about cruising again. If I book another cruise say a cruise sailing in September for instance and put down the deposit. When I am on-board I can go to the re-booking which in this case would be re-shopping desk and they could book a cruise for 10% off the cruise and currently "OBC of $100 for 6 nights or less and $200 for seven night cruises." If I like the deal I can have them cancel the reservation I had made on land I am "not" using a TA but would be booking online though Disney website and have the apply what I paid toward the cruise. And would only have to pay extra if the trip cost was more than what I booked online but I would only have to pay 10% of the difference of the total cost of the cruise if there is one. And if the cruise is less than I have to pay nothing addition than the deposit that transferred from my original reservation, right? I hope what I am trying to ask makes sense. For instance if the cruise was a hundred dollars more but get on-board credit of $200 it would be worth re-shopping the cruise and paying a small difference.
Am I correct in how this works?
2. I must be crazy for not even going on cruise yet and already thinking of booking another one. I do not know id I should might until I cruise in May or go ahead and book before May if me and hubby decide we want to go on another cruise. What do you think book before go or what until on ship.
3. Also I know that it say previous cruises get the offer for the OBC. Would it have already counted the cruise that I would currently be on as sailing once. In other words if I go to the re-booking desk would they then count me as a Castaway Cay remember even though that is my first cruise and would I be eligible for OBC and discount. And if so will your Castaway Cay member number be automatically linked to the new reservation.
4. Also is there a specific time you must go to the desk to get the special offers or can you go anytime. And what times is the desk open generally. Thanks for any help just trying to make sure I have a grasp on re-booking and re-shopping.
5. Also I am thinking of possibly booking another cruise. I will be on my first in May and I know your get perks for booking on-board. But I thought about booking online before the cruise and re-shop the cruise on-board. By question is that the dates I was looking at when I try and select a stateroom says GTY. Can a GTY room be canceled. If I find an offer on board that I like and that deposit applied to the new reservations and would I get all the perks that get for on-board booking. I thought GTY was non refundable but I also thought you had to pay in full at booking and when proceeding to the next step it has a deposit amount that is normal 20%.
1. Yes, you basically have it right. But when it all boils down, the question becomes, "Do I have to put down a whole new deposit, or can my old deposit be applied?" The worst thing that can happen is that they require a new deposit, and you have to wait about a week or two to get a refund of your original deposit. This is the way it would work if you had used a travel agent. You (and DCL) can't cancel the travel agent's booking, so you have to wait for the agent to cancel it - meantime, DCL would need a new deposit (but it'd be 10%, rather than 20%, so not nearly so painful). Out of courtesy to the agent, your new booking can be transferred to that agent so that he/she still gets a commission for his/her troubles.
Note that you don't have to put down the actual deposit on the onboard booking for between 1 and 7 days - 1 day if you're less than 75 days from the second cruise (90 days if it's a Concierge stateroom - categories R, S, T, and V), 3 days if it's a holiday season cruise, 7 for all others). That'll give you some breathing space to reassess your decision.
2. As long as you can afford to put down the deposit (and are not booking a Concierge category, where the deposit is non-refundable), then why not lock in the best deal possible on a possible second cruise. You'll have up to 75 days prior to the second cruise to cancel and get your full deposit back (again, if it's not Concierge). So, by all means, make a booking now - depending on the cruise, the increase in rates between now and May may still make it a better deal than what you can get onboard, and almost definitely better than what you'd pay if you waited until after the first cruise (when your DH knows whether he'd want to cruise again) to make the booking.
3. No OBC. Castaway Club membership depends on how many cruises you've completed. You're not a member until the end of that first cruise.
4. There are specific times when the desk is open for business - any time that it is you can sit down and make a booking with the onboard deal. If the CM is not on duty (or so busy you can't afford to wait), there's a "mail slot" where you can leave the agent a note so he/she knows you're interested in a booking.
5. Yes, you can cancel a GTY and re-book. The problem is, if the second cruise you want is offering GTYs now, it means rooms are already in short supply in the category you want. You may have to trade up your category in order to find a vacancy by the time May comes along.
There are some special offers that may require immediate payment in full and/or may involve a non-refundable deposit, but I'm not aware of a non-refundable fare unless you book very close to the date of the cruise. The normal penalties for canceling less than 75 days prior apply (90 days if the cruise begins or ends in a non-U.S. port). The closer to the cruise date you cancel, the higher the penalty. A "basic" GTY is just like any standard booking. All it means is that they can't promise you a specific stateroom within the class you've chosen. They guarantee you'll get a stateroom in that category, or better. Other times they may guarantee that you'll get an inside, outside, or verandah stateroom, without promising which category you'll get within that type. GTY always means there's a shortage of rooms, or that they're intentionally over-booking the category, knowing that there will almost always be some cancellations later. It's not an incentive offer as such - you get a break because it helps the cruise line if you're flexible about your room assignment and category. Again, a specific special offer may have other rules.
__________________
Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
The incentives are based on your status at time of cruise. So for example, if you are on cruise #4 and book 5 and 6 on board. When you book you will be given the silver incentives (1-5 cruises) but when you sail on number 6, you would receive the gold incentive as you would have completed 5 cruises at that point.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
