A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 amazing differences in weather depending on which side of the ship you were looking! Sorry the gold/platinum reception was a disappointment. Every time you mention the stone chairs, I think Luke and I should try those next time we cruise.
I would - they're great.
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We got to meet Olaf at DCA earlier this month. I think it is neat that you met Anna and Elsa together, too.
We missed Olaf in Disneyland - it was just too darned hot when we heard he was out and about to stand in line and wait for him again.
Wednesday 2 September – part four: seeing “ice cubes”
I moved on to dessert at Palo, and sampled these little beauties, the lemon meringue verrine, the vanilla and raspberry panna cotta, the tiramisu, and the cappuccino crème pots. Of them, I felt the lemon meringue was the winner, which surprised me, given how much I love tiramisu, but it was a little rich for me. The crème pots had a weird consistency to them, although the flavour was wonderful, and the panna cotta didn’t have quite as much taste as I’d have liked. Despite that, I’m being picky, as I enjoyed all of them.
Here’s what Mark went for – some similarity to mine, although he told me that the clear winner on his plate was the chocolate pistachio item. I didn’t photograph its name tag, so I’m afraid I can’t be anymore accurate than that.
I was convinced I was through with eating, but I kept getting wafts of cinnamon from the warm sticky buns anytime anyone opened them up to get one, so in the end, I gave in and tried one, and I’m glad I did, as it was lovely, and a lot lighter than I expected.
Palo brunch:
Buffet 9½ 10
A la carte dish 1 9½ 8
A la carte dish 2 9½ 4
A la carte dish 3 9 N/A
Dessert 9 9½
Service 9 9
Atmosphere 10 9½
Average score: 8.88
It was about this time that we started to enter Tracy Arm Fjord, and saw some icebergs, although as Alex called them “ice cubes” and having seen how much bigger they are further along, I understand why he uses that term. They did seem very big, and Mark was convinced they were both anchored down to mark the entrance to the fjord, and I guess it’s possible.
We settled up the check, and headed out, asking on the way if we could get into another brunch on the other sea day on Sunday, but sadly we were told it was full. Apparently a lot of people had cancelled yesterday, because it was such a rough day at sea and they’d been rescheduled to either today or Sunday. We had a long chat with Marancello about how yesterday had not been in the slightest bit rough, compared to some of the cruises we’d been on before, and he told us an awful story about cruising to Antarctica. Yep, that’s something I’m not so keen on doing, now he’s told us about how they wrap you in a cocoon of a mattress and keep you in it day and night when you pass the roughest section, as the boat literally pitches from side to side! We did however book another dinner on our last night, so we at least have that to look forward to…
We made our way back to the room, and enjoyed the scenery from there for a while…
Mmmm, desserts.....
The pictures are just stunning. It's such a beautiful day! Ice cubes - ha!
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Whenever I read an Alaskan TR, I am so amazed by how stunning the scenery here is. I can't wait to sail there one day. Bummer that you keep missing the whales, but , Mark!
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Sorry the gold/platinum reception was a disappointment. Every time you mention the stone chairs, I think Luke and I should try those next time we cruise.
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I kept getting wafts of cinnamon from the warm sticky buns anytime anyone opened them up to get one, so in the end, I gave in and tried one, and I’m glad I did, as it was lovely, and a lot lighter than I expected. 
and they’d been rescheduled to either today or Sunday. We had a long chat with Marancello about how yesterday had not been in the slightest bit rough, compared to some of the cruises we’d been on before, and he told us an awful story about cruising to Antarctica. Yep, that’s something I’m not so keen on doing, now he’s told us about how they wrap you in a cocoon of a mattress and keep you in it day and night when you pass the roughest section, as the boat literally pitches from side to side! 
We did however book another dinner on our last night, so we at least have that to look forward to… 
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