Cruising the Caribbean TR... Finally! Nov. 6-13, 2015 updated 7/8/2016 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 the Caribbean TR... Finally! Nov. 6-13, 2015 updated 7/8/2016
Hello everyone!
For those that followed along with my PTR (Cruising the Caribbean PTR!! Nov. 6-13, 2015), you know that following this trip we got home and got very, very busy. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, restarting homeschooling after New Year's and then Pat getting a new job with a totally crazy, yet amazing schedule that he just started a few weeks ago, I have not had a lot of time on my hands. But, I really wanted to write a TR for this cruise. We had an amazing trip and I want to share it.
So, how about we begin, at the beginning.
To start out for those that may not have read the PTR, let me introduce our family.
Me - Stefani - I am probably the biggest Disney fanatic in the house, but I think Hunter is a close second. I do all of the trip planning (with a lot of input from the family, but not much help). I am a stay-at-home-homeschooling mom and Pat and I have been married for going on 19 years in July. We live in a tiny little town in rural NM and we now have 87 chickens, 7 alpacas, 6 ducks and 4 dogs.
Hubby - Pat - My hubby is the best! He is always hard at work whether at work or at home. As I mentioned in the PTR his job takes hime overseas a lot and he almost didn't make it home in time for this trip. His new job is amazing and he will be working 60 days overseas and 60 days home. When he is home he doesn't work anywhere except at home around the farm. He is currently overseas now and will be gone a bit longer this time. We are going to change our homeschooling schedule so that when he is home we are off school as well.
Daughter - Shana (15)- Shana is our sweet and snotty teenage daughter. She cycles between those two at the speed of light. Most of the cruise we had sweet Shana and left snotty at home. Shana's favorite thing to do is read, and read, and read. Oh and did I mention she likes to read? She also sings on the worship team at our church and she loves art as well.
Son - Hunter (12 during cruise, turned 13 in January)- Hunter loves video games, and video game, and... well you get the point. He also likes reading and writing, and has also made some comic books. During preparing for the cruise we had a lot of concern about Hunter going to Edge, because he is not always the best at checking in and following rules. You will see how this all worked out in the TR.
Here's a sneak peek photo of all of us from during the cruise!
To get started let me back track a little. Pat was overseas 30 days before this cruise with a scheduled return date of Nov. 3, 2015. This was a bit tight and there was a lot of concern about how we would get to Galveston in time. The company Pat was working for requires you to fly to your home airport. While this is normally not a problem for us, this time it was. I didn't want to have to pick him up in Albuquerque or Lubbock and then have to get to Galveston. We were really not sure how we were going to make all this work.
Well, the stars must have aligned and it worked almost perfect. Pat ended up flying into the country landing first in Houston on November 3rd. He was suppose to have a 5 hour layover and then fly to Lubbock, but after going through customs, he accidentally took his bags with him and got lost and ended up at a hotel that I had conveniently booked in Houston near the nature and science museum.
While he was flying home and checking into the hotel, I was busy packing us all up, and trying to make sure we were ready to leave early on November 3rd. Before heading to bed on the 2nd I did my nails.
Toes:
Fingers:
The kids and I loaded up in the van early on November 3rd and started driving to Houston. We decided to take a slight 10 minute detour and got through Austin to be able to stop at a In-n-Out Burger for lunch. We love this place and there isn't one anywhere we normally go so it is always a treat!
For the most part our drive was very uneventful, until we got into Houston at about 6pm! Yeah, that was poor planning on my part. Shana was helping me navigate, along with our two GPS's, but there was a ton of construction in Houston and at one point we had a split in the road and couldn't tell which direction we were suppose to be going. Siri was unclear and wasn't showing our exit for another mile and the car GPS was not taking the same route. So, we missed our turn. This really wasn't a big deal, and when we exited at the next exit the GPS rerouted and took us basically through downtown, which wasn't too bad except for the construction and heavy traffic.
I don't remember what time we finally arrived at the hotel, but I do remember we went around the hotel 3 times before we were able to find the parking garage and get into the building. This is not a location I would typically pick to stay at on vacation, but it was really close to our destination for the following day.
We finally arrived and everyone was happy to see Daddy and we went down to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant, which definitely wasn't the world's best food, but we were tired and just wanted something to eat. After a little catching up and Daddy handing out souvenirs from his trip we crashed.
Next Update: It's a School Day on Vacation!
__________________
Stefani
Last edited by duck addict; 07-11-2016 at 10:27 AM..
Glad it all worked out for everyone to reconnect in Houston! Can't wait to hear more
It was a bit worrisome, but it worked out perfect. We had a back up planned if Pat didn't make it, but once we left for Galveston we had to hope everything worked out. Once he was on a plane to Houston I felt much better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start! Glad you're back and ready to write this TR! Looking forward to reading it.
I have been so busy I didn't even load pictures off my phone until last week. I'm just glad to finally have a little free time to spend writing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by manticorjenn
Great start. Can't wait to read the rest of your TR!
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.
Before I start today's update, I need to let you know... I did not take any notes, journal or in anyway write down what we did each day. So, I am using my pictures, navigators and my memory to backtrack through this trip. I'm pretty good at that, but I'm certain I am going to forget some things or mix up the order of some things, but I'm sure it will all come out okay.
Today's Update: It's a School Day on Vacation!
We woke up on the 4th around 8ish and we decided we would go find some breakfast. We saw on the maps app that there was a Chick-fil-A nearby so we headed out. Well, we never found it and I'm guessing it was inside one of the hospitals in the area. But we did run into a Burger King and we got some food and sat down to eat.
After breakfast we walked back to the hotel and inquired about the shuttle that could take us to the museum. At first the front desk told us the next shuttle that was available would be leaving at 1. It was only 11 at the time. We started talking about driving but then the manager came out. He had checked Pat in the day before and Pat is a platinum member with the hotel and he said to meet us outside. We went out and he drove up with one of the shuttle vans and loaded us up. There was a group of bodybuilders wanting to get in with us (there was a bodybuilder convention in the hotel) but he told them it was a private shuttle and their's would be along soon.
We were soon at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the kids were very excited. They love museums. I had purchased tickets through Groupon that included a planetarium show and both kids wanted a different show, so we decided to split up for the shows. We had a couple hours before the first show, so we headed off to explore.
I love adding museums to our vacation, because I count them as "field trips" for homeschooling. Nothing like school, on vacation.
Here are some pictures from the museum:
This was the coolest clock! It is in the main entry and the cricket "walks" along it making the little lights move. The outer ring is the seconds and the lights spin around it with each move. The second ring is the minutes, so the picture is showing 18 minutes after the hour. The third ring is the hour, and it is showing in between 12 and 1 and so it is 12:18. We stood and watched this for so long and it was amazingly fascinating. I wish I had a video because the picture just doesn't do it justice.
I am pretty sure I took this picture while Shana and I were waiting to see our planetarium show that started at 12:30. Shana is fascinated by Egyptian history and so the show we went to go see was Stars of the Pharaohs. It was actually quite interesting. After our show was over, Pat and Hunter went in to see Black Holes.
After the shows I think we got lunch at McDonalds, which was the only place to eat in the museum. Then we continued exploring.
I loved this next section with the sections of tress. I could not believe how beautiful some of this were and some were enormous!
Hunter really liked this periodic table, that actually had products and items showing the use of most of the elements.
This is Rhodochrosite, it is Colorado's state mineral. We are originally from Colorado and large amounts of Rhodochrosite were found at Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado.
I think the museum should have let me borrow this necklace for the cruise.
We spent a lot of time in the Hall of Ancient Egypt. It was one of the largest I have seen.
If you look at this ponchoit is actually made of feathers. It was absolutely beautiful, again pictures do not do it justice.
We left the museum at little before closing and called the hotel for the shuttle to come pick us up. While we were waiting we snapped a couple selfies.
After we arrived back at the hotel we decided we were hungry and we wanted some barbecue for dinner. We looked up a place that wasn't too far away (although it still took us about 40 minutes to get there with all the traffic). We ended up at Jackson Street BBQ. We had recommendations to eat at Gatlin's but it was not close enough for our tastes. We found out that Jackson Street is partnered in some way with Gatlin's. The food was amazingly good, and the staff was really nice. I think I was too hungry to think about taking any pictures.
After dinner we made the traffic contested trek back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
About This Page: 
She also sings on the worship team at our church and she loves art as well. 
He also likes reading and writing, and has also made some comic books. During preparing for the cruise we had a lot of concern about Hunter going to Edge, because he is not always the best at checking in and following rules. You will see how this all worked out in the TR. 
Shana was helping me navigate, along with our two GPS's, but there was a ton of construction in Houston and at one point we had a split in the road and couldn't tell which direction we were suppose to be going. Siri was unclear and wasn't showing our exit for another mile and the car GPS was not taking the same route. So, we missed our turn. This really wasn't a big deal, and when we exited at the next exit the GPS rerouted and took us basically through downtown, which wasn't too bad except for the construction and heavy traffic. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
Hybrid Mode
