A Little Trans-Atlantic Magic - The (somewhat) LIVE TR! -updated 07/03/13 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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I am so glad you are having a good time. I understand how the days fly by and if you don't keep up with notes or an actual TR some things can be forgotten! Enjoy CC and get ready for all those marvelous sea days!
Hey all, how’s it going? Just a quick check in from the Mickey Pool! Meri is splashing around with a friend, and going down the slide over and over again! It’s our second day crossing the Atlantic, and today is sunny and windy. It’s going to be a high of 77, which will be nice. Tomorrow is set to be 72 I understand. Still pretty good, I say!
We’ve been alternately busy and restful, depending on the moment. Fortunately, Meri loves the kids clubs, so I’ve been able to get a break from her, and get some relaxation time in!
Since I’m sure you’re wondering my thoughts on Castaway, it was lovely! Honestly I didn’t do ¾ of the things there are to do there. We parked ourselves on the family beach and didn’t really get up often except to do the stingray excursion (which was really cool), eat lunch, and go in the water. The water temp was 72, so not particularly impressive, lol. Once you were in, it was fine, really, but getting in took some doing – at least for me! Mom and Meri seemed to have no troubles!
Looking back, I do wish we’d done more exploring of the island, but, we had a fun excursion, we enjoyed swimming together, we ate, and Meri enjoyed the kids club for a little over an hour while I slept in a hammock, exactly as I’d hoped!
Another cool thing that happened was that the Dream came past the island to do a little horn battle and wish us a safe crossing! They didn’t stop on the island, but apparently it was planned that they would come past and “see us off”. Pretty cool! Mom said, “We need to go on that one next.” Who am I to disagree?
Anyway, today is a real slug day. I’m dropping Meri at the kids club at 315 for an activity, and then heading off to find a quiet place to read and / or snooze!
OH and I forgot the biggest piece of news – Meri lost her tooth last night at dinner! It was already somewhat wiggly but we weren’t sure it would come out on the cruise. Then yesterday afternoon she gave Chip a kiss on the nose, and bonked her face, and the tooth became REALLY loose! It came out while she was eating her ice cream at dinner at Lumiere’s, and let me tell you, she milked that for all it was worth! Funny kid. She’s still showing / telling every adult (and kid) she comes across today.
Also, while I'm thinking of it - thank you guys so much for encouraging me to do the FE's! It has been the highlight of Meri's trip! If it were me by myself, I wouldn't do it, but Meri is LOVING it. Checking the FE is something she does at least 40 times a day, and she loves delivering the gifts as well! She's just having so much fun, it's hilarious!
Mom is having a good time, and she really enjoys our tablemates. She's also gotten into some great conversations with some of the staff here, and she's loving that. It's amazing because even though I know there are a LOT of people on board, the only time I see evidence of that is at dinner and at the shows. Right now at the Mickey pool, at 1130am, there's only four kids in the water and two about to go down the slide. At the Goofy pool the other day there were eight kids. It's just not crowded at all, anywhere!
Ok, off to get some more photos off of the camera and then read my book!
It's sounding just as you'd hoped and I'm so glad! Meri really sounds like she's having the time of her life. Cruising really is the perfect vacation for mixed generations-- you've all got things to do. I love that the ship doesn't feel crowded. There are so many activities and they're paced so well, that people are spread throughout the ship. It's so funny that people say they wouldn't want to sail DCL because there are so many kids on board, but in fact you never see most of them! I can just see Meri flying to the door of your stateroom to check the FE throughout the day! Can't wait to see photos of her lost-tooth smile!
Baltchop - I believe the cruise director is Darren something... I forget his last name... but I'll look it up!
Cheryl - I'm afraid Meri will either clam up completely or she won't shut up once! I have no doubt that you will hear about the tooth though! She gets really ramped up when talking about it! She's told every single person she encounters about it today. Maybe by the time we see you it won't be so exciting? LOL!
The seas are SO flat today, it is creepy. No whitecaps whatsoever. No waves, actually. It's really weird. I'm not complaining, of course, but it's kinda eerie...
So glad to hear from you! Especially given that it sounds like you're all having a great time! Kelsey lost a tooth on her first DCL cruise, and when we saw the Fairy Godmother at the Princess meet, and she saw Kelsey's missing tooth, she let her know that she (FG) and the Tooth Fairy had a chance to have tea the night before, and she thanked Kelsey for losing the tooth in order to have that happen. It was too cute!
Glad the seas are calm - hope it stays that way all the way across.
Sleeping in a hammock on CC sounds like a perfect day to me!
So glad the seas are smooth so far - that's what puts me off from ever doing a Transatlantic, as I know what happened on the first one back in 2007 and I couldn't cope with rough seas for that long and I just couldn't take the risk, as I am so not a good sailor.
Can't believe we'll see you in a fortnight's time!
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