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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I am usually obsessive with planning our vacations but I have let our cruise sneak up on me. Our window to book excursions will open in 6 days and I have not started planning! I NEED your HELP badly.
We are a family of 4 and not been to any of the stops except CC. It will be myself, DH, DD (3) and DS (8). We want to snorkel so I think I will need to book excursions on our own because of them don't let 3 years go. She may not actually snorkel but she can swim with us.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advise for these 3 places. I would like to do some beach time and some snorkeling time. I might be interested in some of the sub tours as well.
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We did these ports last year. In Key West, we did not do any scheduled excursions. We got off the ship, toured the aquarium (I would recommend it), walked the island, had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, toured the lighthouse, saw the southernmost point of the US, did some shopping, ate some ice cream and returned to the ship.
In Grand Cayman, we did the Rum Point beach adventure. It was a long travel time by bus and ferry, but soooooo worth it! The water is warm, crystal clear and calm, and you get lunch included in your package.
We never got off the ship in Grand Cayman because DH ended up with a stiff neck, so I can't help you on that one!
We enjoyed the Nautilus semi-submersible tour in Grand Cayman last year when DS was 8 and DD was almost 4. The boat is large enough for everyone to have a window seat with a good view. As I recall, the excursion didn't last that long, so you might have time for a beach trip as well. The sub tour took us past shipwrecks and lots of marine life. A diver from the boat went out with some food to attract even more fish. We liked the sights so much we purchased the DVD they were offering (which was a mix of stock footage and video taking that day, including while we were boarding the ship and while the videographer swam outside our windows).
In Key West, your son would probably like the Pirate Museum -- mine did.
We didn't do any excursions in Cozumel because we're not that into beaches and because DD was too young to appreciate the ruins. We walked around near the dock for a little while, but I was underwhelmed.
At Castaway Cay, DH and DS did the Stingray Adventure, which they heartily recommend. Your daughter would be too young, but as long as she's potty-trained, she can stay in the kids' programming area.
We didn't snorkel and any of the stops on our Western Caribbean cruise last December - but did do 2 beach adventures = 7 mile beach break in Grand Cayman (which was WONDERFUL!), = cozumel beach break in cozumel (not worth it at all - we even paid a cab driver to take us back early).
we did not like key west - ds was 7 and dd was f5 - and ds could read all the naughty shirt/undie slogans in the windows whilst we were walking to the "end of the US" - so we turned around halfway there and came back to the ship (great idea!)
in grand cayman - hubby went swimming with his goggles and thought he was going to swim to CUBA he was so far out!!!! :-) he had a great time!!!!
we did not like key west - ds was 7 and dd was f5 - and ds could read all the naughty shirt/undie slogans in the windows whilst we were walking to the "end of the US" - so we turned around halfway there and came back to the ship (great idea!)
If you think the ones in the window were naughty ... OTOH, that means he didn't notice what some of the people were/weren't wearing. I don't understand why cruise lines have fallen in love with KW. We've been going there since the late 80s and it is definitely an adult vacation area. Yeah, there are some "family" oriented things, like the aquarium and the pirate museum, but the whole aura around the island can be summed up by the old C&W song, whose title I can only partly quote. "Let's Get Drunk and ..."
We didn't snorkel and any of the stops on our Western Caribbean cruise last December - but did do 2 beach adventures = 7 mile beach break in Grand Cayman (which was WONDERFUL!), = cozumel beach break in cozumel (not worth it at all - we even paid a cab driver to take us back early).
we did not like key west - ds was 7 and dd was f5 - and ds could read all the naughty shirt/undie slogans in the windows whilst we were walking to the "end of the US" - so we turned around halfway there and came back to the ship (great idea!)
in grand cayman - hubby went swimming with his goggles and thought he was going to swim to CUBA he was so far out!!!! :-) he had a great time!!!!
Can you tell me more about the Cozumel Beach Break? I was actually leaning towards that one. HELP.
Can you tell me more about the Cozumel Beach Break? I was actually leaning towards that one. HELP.
We were shuttled to the Beach Break - which really wasn't that far away. It turned out to be a nice place......breezy shops (that you have to walk through to get to the beach - nice marketing tool!) and then a cafeteria style eating place and to the right is the beach.......we were "herded" to a roped off area that was jamm packed with chairs......but was really too small for the amount of people who were there. Once you got near the water, to the left was a jetty used for dropping off ferries I think - and I saw some jet skis pulling up there, but we were again, in a roped off area that was way too small. My daughter is 5 (she'll be 6 in August) and wasn't going to go in the water past her thighs.....and the floor of the sea was just entirely too rocky to just stand there wading in the water (unless you had beach shoes on - which we didn't). Hubby went further out in the water and it was crystal blue and he had a fine time diving to the bottow and coming back up......but I couldn't sit on the beach and watch the kids play in the surf (unlike Grand Caymand and Castaway Cay) because there were just SOOOOOO many people in such a small area.
So once they said that lunch was ready - we had our buffet, which was OK (nothing like what's on the ship!!!) and then went out front to get a cab to take us back to the port early (at our expense of course).
So, this upcoming cruise in December 2008, we happen to be going back to Cozumel again, and I will be using that day as a spa day/relaxing by the pool day!
If you think the ones in the window were naughty ... OTOH, that means he didn't notice what some of the people were/weren't wearing. I don't understand why cruise lines have fallen in love with KW. We've been going there since the late 80s and it is definitely an adult vacation area. Yeah, there are some "family" oriented things, like the aquarium and the pirate museum, but the whole aura around the island can be summed up by the old C&W song, whose title I can only partly quote. "Let's Get Drunk and ..."
i agree wholeheartedly....and a friend of mine who had been to Key West in the past, without kids - wondered why the Disney ships would go there since it is such an adult oriented "party".
We cruised in April - in Key West we walked Duval St, had Key Lime pie on a stick at the Blonde Giraffe and walked to the Southernmost point marker - then took a cab back to the ship - 3 hours total. In Grand Cayman we went on our own to Royal Palms. They were on the pier (I found out about this place through the boards here). It was perfect and half the price of the 7 mile beach excursion. It was a short cab ride away - they had chairs and umbrellas for rent. They had showers, bathrooms and a bar/grill. They had jet skis etc for rent as well. It was a great place to go. My DDs 15, 10 & 7 were able to snorkel here. I would definetely go here again. In Cozumel we did the Dolphinaris excursion and enjoyed it. Enjoy!
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