Valentine's Day Celebrity Cruise TR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Really enjoying your TR, looking forward to hear about the rest of your trip
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Nassau is always so busy and I don't really know many people that care for it much....smart to return to ship for "free" lunch
Agreed, I'm not it's biggest fan
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, Nassau was busy! So cool to see the two Disney ships next to each other.
I almost ran off and tried to get on one
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Wow! That was a busy port today!! Free lunch sounds like a great plan!
It definitely was a good call for us. I can see if you love conch fritters or something like that that's definitely a Nassau thing... but I don't really eat fish!
Day 2 Continued: Lunch and pretending to be Disney!!
Getting back on the ship was just as easy as getting off and we decided to head up to the Aqua Spa Cafe, since we enjoyed the buffet yesterday but didn’t LOVE it. The one side of the Aqua Spa Cafe is included, then the other side is yogurt parfaits, smoothies, and juices. These are all an additional cost, but the juices and smoothies were included in our beverage package! This little hidden food area is at the one end of the Solarium pool, so perfect place to eat a peaceful afternoon lunch!
Aqua Spa Cafe
Options from the salad bar
Soup and fresh juice (I ordered “red” but they gave me “orange” )
Spiced mango
Tabuleh?
Cody’s seafood dishes
The Aquaspa Cafe only had lighter options, and vacation Maci loves desserts. So we headed into the buffet to cap off our meal
Yum yum all around! Once we were all full and relaxed, it was about time to head back off the ship for our 2pm Chocolate Tour and Class. It was about a 15 or so minute walk up to the Graycliff area of attractions which includes a historic hotel, restaurant, and cigar factory along with the chocolate shop and factory we were to experience. It was basically just two turns once you got into town, to the left and then right up the hill. There were some gorgeous buildings and I believe we walked past the Queen’s Staircase, but we were rushing a tiny bit so I didn’t stop for pics.
Where we entered...
This little guy was just hanging out outside!
We did arrive right on time after stopping for directions to the chocolate portion of this big attraction. We headed into the adorable chocolate shop and were asked if it would be okay if we were grouped into the Disney Tour Group who would be arriving in a few minutes. Sure no problem at all! I wore a hidden Mickey dress today anyway, it's like they WANTED me to be on that Disney cruise But hey, a girl can pretend, right?! We looked around inside the shop but since it was Valentine’s Day they were quite busy preparing boxes of chocolates for men coming in, so we opted to wait outside out of the way.
All dolled up for the holiday!
We found a nice little table to sit at and waited, entertaining ourselves by looking through some pictures from the trip so far because all we really had was my camera. Then we took some new pictures…
Getting bored with waiting and of my camera
Then we waited some more! This was where it started to get a little ridiculous, we went in to check on things thinking maybe we missed the group come in and they didn’t know we were waiting outside. We were assured they were on their way and it would just be a few more minutes. Someone working also mentioned that she had emailed me about the “new time”. First of all, I’m on a cruise I’m not checking my email. Second of all, I checked when I got home and had never received one.
I went in and checked maybe 3 or 4 times before the group FINALLY showed up. I saw them ringing up their group tickets and noticed the price the group was paying. In my frustrated state (I mean duh we would have come over later if someone had planned this better) I asked if I could have their group rate since I was being lumped in with them and had to wait so long for them to show up. The girl hesitated and said I had to ask the manager, who was right there as well. She agreed and I saved myself $40!
Aside from this not being my favorite group of people to be in close quarters with (one girl was just very rudely and loudly outspoken and didn’t know when it was appropriate to talk or not, kind of throwing off the groove of everything) but everyone was super nice and our tour guide/instructor, Kiki, was wonderfully bubbly and fun! It did make me question a bit if Disney Cruises really were for me... but then I remembered our lovely adult-only excursions I took with my mom and my faith was restored. Always a Disney girl at heart and I secretly enjoyed the little taste of Disney and pretending to be part of their group!
Putting on our chocolate-making attire!
Explaining the machines and the chocolate making process
We got to make a chocolate bar, chocolate covered marshmallow, strawberry and truffle, then just little chocolate blobs with the leftovers. We also had a thourough tour of the factory and explanation of the process, but really I was in it to make chocolate. I have a picture of our spoils at a later time, sorry I didn’t get it uploaded yet! Kiki then did a quiz and handed out her chocolates to those who got the answers right! The class was great fun and we walked out of there with a lovely box of SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. My regret from this trip? Not eating more of it! We took off our funny clothes and handed Kiki a tip before heading into the shop to purchase some "chocolate pasta" to be made one of these days!
We leisurely walked back to the ship but really didn’t stop much, as with the class starting so late we only had about an hour to get back and I don’t like to cut it too close. There was a bit of a line to check through security but they were allowing Disney Dream guests to the front, I guess their ship was pulling out first. I thought that was a nice touch and makes me worry a bit less about getting back to ships on time
That last picture was actually a retake, the one we took in the morning coming off the ship was no good, but I liked this one much better
I then headed to the buffet to get a little snack, as I really hadn’t had much for lunch. This is when I finally discovered the REST of the buffet and we liked it much more from this point, as they had some great (buffet) pizza and an Asain station along with some other good stuff, however it was between meals so only a few snacks were available, which was perfect for me!
Then we took it easy for a bit because we had an exciting night ahead!
The tour of the chocolate factory sounds like fun, except for waiting for the Disney group to arrive. I would have loved taking home a large box of chocolates.