DREAMing of a Disney spring break COMPLETED - Page 30 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just finished reading through your TR and it looks awesome so far. How did you decide which evening to book Remy for? I'm not going to say that I'm nervous because this is a vacation, but I have some concern that if we do get the reservation, that we may miss one restaurant entirely. I guess we can always try to eat lunch at whichever one we miss, but...
More luck than judgment - trust me! I didn't want to do the first night, as it seemed wrong to miss the first night dining with your dinner table, so I went for the second night for Remy and the third night for Palo. I had no idea what our dining rotation would be, but we lucked out and got Animator's Palette first. I also went for 7.30pm, as that was between the two main dining times. At the time we booked, we were on the late rotation, but were waitlisted for the early dinner, which we got. At least that way, I figured we could hopefully go and experience the restaurant we were supposed to be in that night.
Saturday 16 April – part two: this really is serenity...
We didn’t realise that we had to get off and wait for another tram to Serenity Bay. I don’t remember having to do that last time we were here. Soon we were pulling up there and there must’ve been about 10 other people here and that was it. It was deserted and lovely.
I made the mistake of trying to get into a hammock and found myself quickly lying on the beach, but on the second attempt, I was much more careful. However, I was rather unceremoniously dumped out of it when I tried to sit up, much to Mark’s amusement. I took my revenge by swinging him once he got in there.
We both walked down to the water and had a paddle. From what I could see, you had to go very far out before you could actually swim.
My footprints on Castaway Cay
We sat there for a while in the shade, enjoying the weather. Here, with the breeze, it was quite a nice temperature and not too hot. I got so comfortable that I even moved out into the sun for a few minutes, but that didn’t last long, not because it was hot, but because I felt something moving on my foot and looked down and saw a lot of ants crawling around. Knowing how I am with bites, I immediately got up and went and set on a lounger, keeping my feet well out of the way.
After that, I didn’t feel so comfortable any longer and the breeze died, so we decided to head back. We had probably had an hour there and that was plenty for us.
We didn’t have to wait long for a tram. Once we got to the next stop, we debated walking all the way back, but another tram turned up, so we jumped on that over to the family beach.
From there, we did walk back getting lots of photos on the way, as this is a good spot to see the Dream from.
We saw a Disney photographer and she told us that Captain Jack Sparrow would be out for photos in 15 minutes. We told her that was a shame, as we wanted a shot with the Dream behind us and she did that for us. The poor girl had a line behind us after we had finished, so I guess we weren’t the only ones who wanted that shot. Sadly, like all the other shots we had done on Castaway Cay, we didn’t like any of them, which was a shame.
We walked slowly back to the shop, getting lots more photos on the way, but my goodness, it was now absolutely unbearably hot out. I was so glad that we had come ashore so early today, as this weather doesn’t agree with either of us at all. : I was very glad to finally be back on board.
It was a mob scene getting back on the ship and we really were like salmon swimming the wrong way, as we reboarded again. It looked like we had timed it about right.
Next: will the line be short enough to ride the Aquaduck?
Lovely pics of the island and Serenity Bay. About an hour in that kind of heat is probably all I could take as well. Do you have a waterproof case for your camera?
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Sorry about the hammock (but wish you had a picture, or better yet, video, of Mark dumping out of it! ) and the ants! It did look spectacularly peaceful on the beach, though!
Lovely pics of the island and Serenity Bay. About an hour in that kind of heat is probably all I could take as well. Do you have a waterproof case for your camera?
I don't : I just made sure to keep it well and truly out of the water....
Love the shots of Castaway Cay, Serenity bay looks so peaceful and the water....what I would not give to wander in some beuatiful clear water. It's such a shame as we have the beach like 10 minutes from the house but it is just so...well New York ocean water, not very inviting even on a hot day, I will wade just to get wet but no swimming for me.
Think you early day at Castaway Cay was the perfect choice given the heat of the day, hope to hear that the Aquaduck became your afternoon adventure.
Beautiful pictures of Castaway Cay. The beach looks so peaceful and the water looks so inviting. I can walk to a beach from my house but hardly ever do. it's a beach on one of the Great Lakes and it's just not the same thing.
Liz
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I didn't want to do the first night, as it seemed wrong to miss the first night dining with your dinner table, so I went for the second night for Remy and the third night for Palo. I had no idea what our dining rotation would be, but we lucked out and got Animator's Palette first. I also went for 7.30pm, as that was between the two main dining times. At the time we booked, we were on the late rotation, but were waitlisted for the early dinner, which we got. At least that way, I figured we could hopefully go and experience the restaurant we were supposed to be in that night.
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Soon we were pulling up there and there must’ve been about 10 other people here and that was it. It was deserted and lovely. 
: I was very glad to finally be back on board. 
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