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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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On our December 1 cruise, we were located directly above the Oceaneer's Lab. There was no stateroom report available for our room, but others surrounding it said it was quiet. The TA said it would be quiet above the Lab. Ha! We could hear the music pounding away and even when one of the Lab CM got on the microphone, we could hear everything he said. We tried to go to sleep early, with our dc, because we were worn out, but they kept up the noise until past 11pm. One night it was so bad, I almost called guest services! And forget trying to nap (with our toddler) in the middle of the day!!
We had to venture to the Deck 5 rooms to drop off something we'd borrowed from another passenger. We were impressed at how quiet the corridors were, much quieter than ours. We booked a cruise in 2009 with porthole rooms on Deck 5.
So my questions are - how is the noise, especially at night, in the rooms on the same floor as the Oceaneer Lab/Club? We won't share a wall with the clubs at all. I think that was problem with our Deck 6 room - our floor was their ceiling.
Second - how is the motion on the ship if you're forward vs mid? Our motion sick prone dd did well with children's Bonine when she got a headache/dizzy - worked right away. But still, she's been known to urp on airplanes and I hate to subject her to too much motion.
It's still early in the game and I'd like to make any room adjustments earlier rather than later.
Also, if you've read this far...we're currently scheduled for the "second" dining. Does that mean 5:45 (literally, the second seating) or the late seating in general?
I have traveled on DCL Aft so far. My next cruise is Mid Ship but we never felt overly prone to motion where we were Aft. Hopefully others who have cruised forward will give more advice.
Second Dining is the Later Dining which is 8, 8:15 or 8:30 depending on the rotation your assigned when you check in.
I preferred late dining because we could have a snack around 4pm from room service while getting ready for the evening, then go to the show early when we weren't exhausted. Then have a nice dinner. Then after dinner we would spend the evening either doing activities, by the pool or relaxing.
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I was on deck 5 in room 5008 last year. We did not notice any noise from the Oceaneer Lab.
If it is rough, the motion is definitely more noticeable forward than anywhere else on the ship. I use seabands and take meclazine (prescription bonine) myself. I find that if I start taking the bonine 24 hours before I board the ship and keep taking it until about the third night, I'm fine. I also find the sea bands help me.
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Motion (to me, anyway) is more noticable forward than midship. Midship is my preferred location for the convenient location - not too far from anything.
Late dining, as Amy said, is anytime after 8 pm. I have a younger son and at first, I wasn't thrilled with the later time but it actually worked out better. He could see the earlier show and then either join us for dinner or go to the Oceaneer's Club. Many times he chose the club which gave us a nice, quiet dinner. Giving him a snack around 4-5 pm kept the hunger at bay for the nights that he did come to dinner. This was much better than having him fall asleep during the second show!
Sorry you had trouble with the noise level. Those are generally cabins I try and keep guests away from for exactly that same reason.
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Lynn
Yes, I am a Disney Addict... and I'd rather be cruising!.
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Motion (to me, anyway) is more noticable forward than midship. Midship is my preferred location for the convenient location - not too far from anything.
Late dining, as Amy said, is anytime after 8 pm. I have a younger son and at first, I wasn't thrilled with the later time but it actually worked out better. He could see the earlier show and then either join us for dinner or go to the Oceaneer's Club. Many times he chose the club which gave us a nice, quiet dinner. Giving him a snack around 4-5 pm kept the hunger at bay for the nights that he did come to dinner. This was much better than having him fall asleep during the second show!
Sorry you had trouble with the noise level. Those are generally cabins I try and keep guests away from for exactly that same reason.
It's funny that you would steer away from the Deck 6 mid cabins, when they were recommended to us!
I'm a little worried about the motion forward. Still, Deck 5 seemed blissfully quiet. Most of the time we were fine with the motion, no matter where we were. If I could remember, I kept giving my dd Bonine round the clock because the children's version is not the 24 hour kind. She'd start getting a headache and feeling dizzy, then I'd realize that she was overdue for Bonine. I'd give her a dose and she'd be fine within an hour.
We're not going to be in our cabin much anyway, and mostly to sleep, so I guess we'll be mostly ok.
Not happy with the 2nd dinner thing. We booked 3 days after the 2009 dates were released, it's hard to believe that the early seating would be full. I'll have to pursue that. At this point, we need the earlier seating because our dc are used to being in bed by 9. After leaving the later show, our whole family was completely exhausted and we all turned in early!
We were on the Magic Dec. 8-15, and we had 30-foot seas one night thanks to a run-in with Tropical Storm Olga. That night, I had trouble with motion sickness when we were in the Walt Disney Theater (Deck 3 forward). Our stateroom was on Deck 7, just past the midship elevators, and I never had any trouble in our room or aft.
We rebooked and asked for a midship stateroom but were given a forward one -- we'll be switching that to midship for sure. I hadn't decided yet between Deck 6 or Deck 7, but your experience has convinced me to go for Deck 7.
In '07 we were on deck 6 mid ship and had no problems and I've rebooked the same for '09. We did the late dinner seating and it worked very well for us. As most folks have said, we grabbed something on deck around 4 before heading to our show which was plenty until dinner.
Lorri,
Make sure that DCL knows you want to be on waiting list for early seating. This worked for us. If this doesn't come through when docs are sent, try to get it changed after boarding -- you will find the time and location for dining changes in the Navigator.
Good luck finding peace and quiet and in getting your desired dining time!
Chris
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