A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a rainy start!
So you got 5 scrubs with your pass? We were given scrubs to keep on the Fantasy, but this time we were told to select one scrub each time I checked in, and then bring the plastic case back when I turned in the bracelet. I also got a fresh loofah each time. So, that meant I got no scrub to bring home. Which was a shame, given how little we used the Rainforest. If I'd brought some home I would've felt like I got a little more money's worth.
Wow, how strange... and it had changed totally from the previous summer's cruise around the Med, where we could pick which ones we wanted to keep. This time we were told one of each, which was a pain, given I only really liked the lavender one.
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We were told the same thing about being Gold CC - that we'd have priority in any requests we made of our room steward.
Interesting, that was a perk I didn't realise you got....
I had to laugh at your comment about the room steward, and what would happen with your requests if you weren't a gold CC member. (And as a silver member, I'd be very interested in his response!)
I had to laugh at your comment about the room steward, and what would happen with your requests if you weren't a gold CC member. (And as a silver member, I'd be very interested in his response!)
The pictures of Vancouver from the ship are beautiful! I liked seeing the little seaplane marina. I never thought of that, but they have to have a place to dock, the same as boats!
Hopefully, the skies will continue to clear!
The pictures of Vancouver from the ship are beautiful! I liked seeing the little seaplane marina. I never thought of that, but they have to have a place to dock, the same as boats!
Hopefully, the skies will continue to clear!
Yay, all caught up. Do you happen to have a close-up pic of that beach bag you got as your Castaway Cay gift, by any chance? I absolutely agree, those yellow lanyards are u-gly!
Yay, all caught up. Do you happen to have a close-up pic of that beach bag you got as your Castaway Cay gift, by any chance? I absolutely agree, those yellow lanyards are u-gly!
Great pictures of the harbor from the ship. So much detail, all in those muted colors. Love it!
Glad to hear you were allowed to sit during the drill. Sorry the cooler temperatures weren't helping your CFS.
And I love the extended Cove Cafe. I can picture myself there, curled up with a dirty Chai and my knitting, relaxing for a few hours. If only I were there now!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Great pictures of the harbor from the ship. So much detail, all in those muted colors. Love it!
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Glad to hear you were allowed to sit during the drill. Sorry the cooler temperatures weren't helping your CFS.
It's extreme temperatures that don't help me - i.e. very hot, very cold or very damp and it was the dampness that affected me that day.
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And I love the extended Cove Cafe. I can picture myself there, curled up with a dirty Chai and my knitting, relaxing for a few hours. If only I were there now!
I bet there will be quite a few times during the winter months that I'll be thinking exactly the same.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
that really is a gray day, but who cares when you are starting off on a great cruise!
Exactly!
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And I already know you had pretty good weather the rest of the trip so departure port day can rain!
I have to be honest, at that point in the vacation, I was dreading getting more of the same for the rest of the week at sea, but you are right, we really did luck out with the weather on this cruise.
Monday 31 August – part seven: how are we going to get on with our table mates?
Now we were getting wonderful views of the Vancouver skyline with Stanley Park in front of it:
Soon we were coming up to the Lions Gate Bridge….
… and then we were passing underneath it.
Almost as soon as we passed under it, the weather changed totally, and there were just beautifully coloured skies in front of us. I hoped that was a good sign for the rest of our cruise.
We headed down to dinner just after 5:30pm…
I went to enquire at guest services about the chocolate and liquor tasting and the mixology class that we were interested in, but both were already sold out. Ok, so it wasn’t meant to be then.
We made our way into Triton’s for dinner…
I have to say I had a real feeling of anticipation and whether we’d get on with our table mates or not. I could already see as we approached the table that everyone else was already seated, which I didn’t think was a good sign. I hate being the last to anything, but actually it was fine. We were seated with two other couples, Tony and Norma from southern California who are in their 60s and are great-grandparents and Tom and Rhonda from upstate New York (they didn’t tell us the exact place they live, but apparently it gets more snow every year than anywhere else ) who are in their late 40s. They’ve obviously not been married all that long, as she has a daughter and he has two children. Mark took the mickey out of him for that, asking him whether or not they were aliens, as he didn’t say son or daughter. It turns out he had one of each.
I have to say we had an absolute blast with Tomand Rhonda, and gelled with them immediately. They were just so much fun, and it didn’t hurt that Tomand Mark actually work in the same sort of industry, so they were off and running. As for cruises, this was Tony and Norma’s second cruise, having taken one on the Wonder before to the Mexican Riviera, while Tomwas a newbie, and Rhonda had taken a couple before.
So, once we’d got to know our tablemates, it was time to meet the serving staff. The server was Parcha from Thailand, and he was very nice, nothing amazing, but pleasant enough. I have to say I was very relieved that details of my tree fruit allergy didn’t seem to have followed me over to the Wonder, as that proved to be a nightmare on the Dream, with me constantly being told what I could and couldn’t have, including items I’d had plenty of times before with no issue since developing my allergy, so at least I could pick and choose what I wanted, which is how I’d prefer to play it.
Now Allwyn from India was a different story. When he was introduced, he had such a wild grin on his face, I thought that we’d have an absolute blast with him. However, it didn’t turn out that way. The drinks order was very slow to come round. We ordered a four night premium package and got my favourite Riesling Spatlese, while Tom and Mark both ordered Stella Artois. There were jokes flying around that perhaps they’d gone to Belgium to get the beer, it took that long to come out. I don’t think we got our orders until the second course, and water refills were a bit slow and painful as well.
However, that wasn’t the weirdest thing. When the drinks did come out, Allwyn appeared to be shaking a lot, so much so that Rhonda and I honestly thought he was going to drop them on Tom. I swear I heard him say that he was sweating, but I may have misheard. I could only think that perhaps he’d just finished training and this was his first cruise, or that maybe he was ill, but the whole thing was just very odd. I put it down to perhaps first night nerves, but if there are any other issues again this cruise, I will definitely be saying something. After the appalling service on the Dream in February, I am definitely not going to stay silent if we have the same issues again.
Next: so how was the food at our first on board dinner
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Glad you are now underway but too bad the weather was not cooperating for you! 
) who are in their late 40s. They’ve obviously not been married all that long, as she has a daughter and he has two children. Mark took the mickey out of him for that, asking him whether or not they were aliens, as he didn’t say son or daughter. 
I swear I heard him say that he was sweating, but I may have misheard. I could only think that perhaps he’d just finished training and this was his first cruise, or that maybe he was ill, but the whole thing was just very odd. 
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