From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 7/24 - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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However, we've had other American cruise directors before and really liked them. I guess I felt he was trying a bit too hard to ensure everyone had a good time?
To be fair, I think Brent is Australian. (Love his accent! )
Everything looks so delicious at Palo brunch! Makes my soup lunch look pretty unexciting.
Wednesday 8 March – part three: finding the Wonder’s “secret tunnel!”
When we came out of there, we headed down to the DVC booth, as we’d earlier tuned into the DVC channel, and heard them advertising that if you buy in, the one-bedroom villa comes with a whirlpool tub. Well, not based on our recent experience at the Beach Club Villas! That is not on, to be marketing something that isn’t right, and we wanted to pass that on them. We did, and they told us that they’re re-doing the advertising. That’s good to hear.
We bumped into Daryl and Barb, who were off to do some mixology, so I guess she’ll have had as much to drink as me by the time we get to dinner then.
We went and browsed the shops, just in case we’d missed anything the other night, but sadly we hadn’t, so with that, we returned to the room to watch another episode of the TV programmes we’d brought with them.
We headed back up to Palo just before 3:00pm for the Art of the Theme Show Tour. We’ve done this before on the Magic or the Wonder (or possibly both ) and the Dream, but I was hoping this one would cover more of what they did during dry dock. Sadly, it didn’t, and instead covered a lot of ground we’d already heard before, but we did pick up a couple of new things, so it wasn’t a complete waste.
We started our tour with Michael from the UK in Palo. At first I thought it was going to be quite a small group, as there were only about four or five others there when we arrived, but I think we ended up with more like 25-30 people. He talked about how Palo was inspired by Venice in Italy and how Palo means “pole” in Italian, i.e. the poles used by the gondoliers.
There was a neat story about these masks – apparently they were bought from a fifth generation family business in Venice.
We then made our way through the restaurant to see the private dining area, complete with a mosaic all relating to Palo’s Venetian roots.
I was once fortunate enough to be in the private dining room on the Magic, and I swear this one is smaller…
Michael told us it had been used this cruise, and apparently if you’re in a group of 10 or more, you pretty much automatically get this room for your group.
We then headed outside of Palo, to find that the only Disney element here is in the area outside the elevators, but I’m not going to give that away. You’ll have to take the tour to find out the details for yourself…
We then walked down to deck five, with Michael asking us to count the number of different carpets used on the way. Some people said three or four, whereas Mark said nine, and he was closest, as the answer was seven.
We then looked a bit more in depth at the carpets outside the elevators. Whereas on the other ships, you get different coloured ones depending whether you’re at the aft, midship or forward, here it’s much more subtle. They’re all the same colour, but it’s about the design in the middle of them. At the aft, it’s shells, at midship, they become shells, and at forward, it’s leaves.
We headed around the corner to talk about the Buena Vista Theatre, although I couldn’t resist a couple of shots through the porthole…
We did learn that Disney have shied away from putting drinks holders in the seats here, as it would upset the classic ambience, and also that it’s much better to watch movies here than in the Walt Disney Theatre, as it’s smaller, and therefore the visual quality is much improved.
From there, we headed around the corner and viewed the atrium. We learnt that the new chandelier is made of acrylics, designed to look like glass, which was obviously new information. Apparently Disney knew what they wanted, but the designers weren’t getting it, so one of the Imagineers tried it, and although he wasn’t very good, he was able to give them an idea of what they wanted. It represents the sun and a flower at the top of Ariel’s world.
Michael pointed out that the Little Mermaid is the theme running the whole way through the ship, and to date, it’s the only ship that has the theme of the same movie everywhere. It’s interesting, as it’s obviously not one of Disney’s most successful movies. He pointed out some of the detail in the carpet on deck three, which is designed to be at the bottom of the ocean…
He then showed us the “secret tunnel” that runs between the Oceaneer Club and the Oceaneer Lab. Apparently the counsellors spent a lot of their time going between the two with the kids, and Michael described it as being “more like a bus service than anything else”, so this addition was obviously made in response to crew feedback, which was good. We saw some kids using it while we were there, and they seemed to be having a ball.
Next: we’ve never been down this corridor this cruise
I'm not a fan of this new chandelier! Seems so uninspired compared with the old Chihuly ones. BTW, the Chihuly chandeliers on the ships were made of acrylic as well. Much too dangerous and heavy to use real glass.
Your brunch at Palo looked absolutely sumptuous! I would have wanted to taste test everything but unfortunately would have gotten full really quickly! Your ship tour sounded so interesting. I love learning new bits of information when we visit places, so I would have definitely enjoyed it! Hope you digested your brunch before returning to Palo for another feast at dinner!
Sounds like a great an interesting tour and a lot of cool facts!
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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!
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That is not on, to be marketing something that isn’t right, and we wanted to pass that on them. We did, and they told us that they’re re-doing the advertising. That’s good to hear. 
) and the Dream, but I was hoping this one would cover more of what they did during dry dock. Sadly, it didn’t, and instead covered a lot of ground we’d already heard before, but we did pick up a couple of new things, so it wasn’t a complete waste. 
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