Living the Dream and remembering the Bagman TRIP REPORT COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Boy that Halloween Party looks like fun. Our cruise in October out of NYC to Nova Scotia and PEI will have one, and we are to have a Marvel Day. I'm a fan of the movies but not obsessive. I am glad there are some things for the boys and young men who typically have to endure all the Princess things. Thanks for the updates it makes the waiting for our cruise a bit easier.
Oh wow, you'll have fun with the Halloween stuff. I really have no interest in the Marvel days at sea, but you are so right, at least it's not more princess stuff. With that and Star Wars, boys are finally getting more to enjoy!
Tuesday 27 September – part seven: watching the skyline rotate the whole way round!
I wanted to have a drink at the Skyline Lounge, as I really like it in here, but we never seem to get enough time on any cruise to spend time in here. I was going to put that right tonight!
When we arrived, it was the Paris skyline, which is the one we’re most familiar with out of the five, and I always struggle to work out how they put this together. They certainly didn’t do so from a certain vantage point, let’s put it that way.
We thought the bartender was a little odd, but it turned out Amir from India was in fact a bar server, and was minding the place while the bar tender took a break. I guess they weren’t expecting any customers at this time of the night, so we must’ve surprised him. I have to say he did very well with our drinks orders, and it was only later when we got chatting to him that we discovered he wasn’t the bartender. I wouldn’t have known, apart from the fact he did look more often at the menu than I’d expect.
I went for the pearl, made up of Absolut Mandarin, Absolut Kurant, sparkling wine, orange and pineapple juice, and pomegranate syrup, after asking for something on the sweeter side.
Mark went for the Paris 75, which had Grey Goose Citron vodka, peach schnapps, blue curacao, pineapple juice, sugared rim, and a souvenir glow cube.
I was hoping to see some new skylines, as we always seem to miss some. The next up was Hong Kong:
We asked our server to take some photos of us, and talk about going above and beyond! He took loads of us, without us asking, which was so sweet of him.
By the time we ordered our second, the bartender was back – Novi from Hungary. He was about to transfer over to the Fantasy. He told us at this time of the year, you could do that quite easily, as the ships aren’t that busy. That would certainly be my experience, as I don’t think the Dream was full on this sailing.
Our drinks did look a bit different to our first ones, but they were still very good.
By now, we were into the Chicago skyline, although Novi had to call up to get the music accompanying it piped in. He literally was speaking to the person, and a split second later, there was music! I did ask him if he’d been on the phone to Tinkerbell to get it done that quickly…
Soon the skyline was transforming once again into New York this time:
Then we were into Rio:
… and finally I managed to photograph the transformation back to Paris, and we were back at the beginning again.
By now, there was another couple in the lounge and we chatted to them. He was born in the UK, but his dad managed to get a job in the US while he was 19, so although he was classed as an adult in the UK, he was a minor in the US, so was able to easily get citizenship there.
That bar is so cool. Thanks for all the city pictures, it's just such a neat concept!
The drinks weren't too different... the first guy did a pretty good job!
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I love the concept of that lounge! Like you, though, we've never spent much time there, said efor popping in for a peek. I'm sure we'll have lot some of time on our next cruise for lounges - although no Skyline on the Magic.
You had the place to yourselves! Not sure why, but I sometimes hesitate to stay if no one else is there. I guess the staff would prefer to have something to do, though!
I love the concept of that lounge! Like you, though, we've never spent much time there, said efor popping in for a peek. I'm sure we'll have lot some of time on our next cruise for lounges - although no Skyline on the Magic.
No sadly, but Keys is a very cool place to spend time.
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You had the place to yourselves! Not sure why, but I sometimes hesitate to stay if no one else is there. I guess the staff would prefer to have something to do, though!
I'm sure they would. I think it was also something to do with the fact that we were there when most people would have been either at the show or the main dining seating. Because we were going to Palo, we weren't at either.
Great pictures from the party. Talk about perfect timing meeting up with Minnie on the deck. What a cool lounge, love all the pictures of the different skylines.
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A great time in the Skyline Lounge as I remember this place from one of your TRs! Your drinks look very good and I love how the various city skylines segue from one to the next!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!