/Cruising on a Dream Full of Frights and Friends: 10/12/13-10/19/13 TR completed 4/21/2014 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
/Cruising on a Dream Full of Frights and Friends: 10/12/13-10/19/13 TR completed 4/21/2014
Cruising on a Dream Full of Frights and Friends October 12th - October 19th
I guess with less than 3 weeks to go until we leave for this vacation, it’s about time that I got off my lazy behind, and started this PTR/TR. Actually I can’t really use laziness as an excuse for why I haven’t started this sooner. It’s more like the lack of my laziness that’s kept me away from this, which is one of the main reasons I need a vacation…badly!
The idea of this trip spontaneously entered my thoughts one day when I was feeling sort of “blah” with everything that was going on around me. My mother had come to me earlier that week and informed me that she had decided to book a cruise on the Oasis of the Seas for her and my dad, which got me to thinking that I could sure as heck use a cruise too. I started looking into some dates, and then it dawned on me that Kelly (OhToodles) was cruising in October on the Dream, and that maybe she wouldn’t mind if my little family tagged along with her.
I sent her a text asking her what she thought about my plans, and to my not-so-surprise, she was pretty excited about it. Then I approached my husband with the idea, and what I thought would be a difficult plan of attack, actually ended with a response of, “I think a cruise is a great idea”! So much for putting up a fight. So with fingers crossed, I called DCL to see if there was still availability for the same dates as Kelly’s, and miracle of miracles there was…so I booked it! This was supposed to be the year we were going to forgo any big vacations, and definitely not go on any trips that involved anything Disney related, but somehow there I was booking a Disney cruise that I never expected to go on. So before I go any further, for those of you that have never read one of my TRs before, the cast of characters remain the same, all except for one slight change…
Melissa (37 yrs.) – That’s me! Chad (36 yrs.) – My husband Hope (4 yrs.) – My sweet little girl
...That’s it! Where are my parents you ask? Well, this will be our first trip to Disney where we are traveling only as a family of three. Pretty exciting, huh?!?! Here are a few recent pictures that I took on our beach vacation to Ocean City, MD this summer.
Now for some of the important details, like the inspiration for the title of this TR. After booking this cruise, DCL decided to make the whole month of October a Halloween celebration on the high seas, and because we’re going to be enjoying all of it with some good pals, I figured experiencing a few frights with our friends sounded like a pretty fun time to me.
As for the dates, the cruise actually departs on Sunday, October 13th, but we will be traveling on the 12th, so I made that the official start of this trip, and after the cruise returns on Thursday, the 17th, we will be staying in Disney until the 19th. But because I’m starting this report so late, I don’t want to give you all the goods right away, so definitely stay tuned for more tidbits of information, including how we’re getting there (eek! ), what we’re doing after the cruise, and how we’re not telling Hope about any of this…yet.
__________________
Melissa
Last edited by duck addict; 04-21-2014 at 07:38 PM..
About This Page: 
Actually I can’t really use laziness as an excuse for why I haven’t started this sooner. It’s more like the lack of my laziness that’s kept me away from this, which is one of the main reasons I need a vacation…badly! 
with everything that was going on around me. My mother had come to me earlier that week and informed me that she had decided to book a cruise on the Oasis of the Seas for her and my dad, which got me to thinking that I could sure as heck use a cruise too. 
I started looking into some dates, and then it dawned on me that Kelly (OhToodles) was cruising in October on the Dream, 
and that maybe she wouldn’t mind if my little family tagged along with her. 
Then I approached my husband with the idea, and what I thought would be a difficult plan of attack, actually ended with a response of, “I think a cruise is a great idea”! 
So much for putting up a fight. 
So with fingers crossed, I called DCL to see if there was still availability for the same dates as Kelly’s, and miracle of miracles there was…so I booked it! 
This was supposed to be the year we were going to forgo any big vacations, and definitely not go on any trips that involved anything Disney related, but somehow there I was booking a Disney cruise that I never expected to go on. So before I go any further, for those of you that have never read one of my TRs before, the cast of characters remain the same, all except for one slight change…
Well, this will be our first trip to Disney where we are traveling only as a family of three. 
Pretty exciting, huh?!?! Here are a few recent pictures that I took on our beach vacation to Ocean City, MD this summer. 
celebration on the high seas, and because we’re going to be enjoying all of it with some good pals, I figured experiencing a few frights with our friends sounded like a pretty fun time to me. 
), what we’re doing after the cruise, and how we’re not telling Hope about any of this…yet. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Threaded Mode
