Feature Article: The Disney Dream - My Experiences Onboard the Christening Cruise and Maiden Voyage - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Feature Article: The Disney Dream - My Experiences Onboard the Christening Cruise and Maiden Voyage
The Disney Dream - My Experiences Onboard the Christening Cruise and Maiden Voyage by Jennifer Marx
What's more exciting than a Disney cruise? Being one of the very first guests aboard a brand new Disney ship! And that's just what I have the privilege of doing when I sail aboard the Christening Cruise (January 19-21, 2001) and the Inaugural Maiden Voyage (January 26-30, 2011). I will be documenting my adventures through video, photos, and notes, all of which can be found in this article. So please sail along with me as I discover the Disney Dream! January 7, 2011 - I'm now less than two weeks away from seeing the Disney Dream in person, and I'm getting excited. I feel very lucky to be able to sail on both the christening cruise (first media cruise) AND the maiden voyage (first public cruise). I'm not aware of anyone else doing this! Also, I will be experiencing the ship in several different ways through these cruises -- as a mom, as a PassPorter author, and as a friend. I will have my 6-year-old son Alexander along for the christening cruise, so I'll be able to share his impressions (and my own thoughts about having him along). On the maiden voyage, I'll be sailing primarily for research, but I'll also be with friends, so I'll be able to speak from those points of view as well.I want to be sure to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with anyone interested.
Staterooms have already been assigned for my cruises. I'll be in stateroom 7022 (a deluxe oceanview with verandah) for the christening, and in stateroom 7512 (a family oceanview) for the maiden voyage. And I expect to be able to tour other stateroom categories as well!
Watch for more updates as I get closer and get aboard the Disney Dream. I will be uploading videos to YouTube, too! Be sure to subscribe to PassPorter's YouTube channel to see the latest.
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
SO EXCITED FOR YOU! I can't wait to hear all about the ship and your cruises. It may just push my husband and I over the edge to take the plunge ourselves and book a cruise on The Dream
Thank you so much for doing this! I'm so excited to hear all about it. We chose the Dream to be our very first cruise experience (June 2012) and we are so excited!
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