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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I walked through Senses, peeking in here and there and taking pictures.
I am a licensed hair stylist….though I don’t practice anymore I keep up my license…as you never know…so I like to check out the salons.
I moved on to check out the different treatment rooms.
I love the way they decorate the tables during the open house.
Good to see the tub fixed. Last time the panels were coming off.
Getting artsy.
I really enjoyed taking pictures in here.
The spa leads into the gym. They were doing a demonstration in there and the CM looked at me and said I took a bad picture of her. LOL. I told her she looked fine.
I love looking at the treadmills…..I just ordered a new one for myself at home. My old one was dying fast and has been pretty worthless for the last 2 years so I haven’t used it much and my body shows it. Skip said I could get a new one for Christmas and I can’t wait till it comes.
My oldest daughter Paige says I am the only person she knows who owns a treadmill and actually uses it. But like I said, the last 2 years it’s been on its last leg, starting with a badly slipping belt…to basically the motor starting to burn out after a few minutes walking now. Let’s just say it’s a fire hazard now.
I also own a cheap exercise bike….which I do not use as much….and should.
Banana anyone?
Or perhaps and orange?
Back into the spa.
This is the women’s locker room and it did NOT get a refurb…I think it needed on…to get rid of the awful peach colors in there.
I believe this was a sauna.
The heated tile loungers that so many people love.
This is like a sauna type room too (I am not very spa savvy so I am sure I am not calling things by their proper names) and it’s hot.
ahhhh......as I sit here sipping a hot cocoa under my warm blankie - I really enjoyed those photos of the spa! What I wouldn't give to be resting in one of those tile loungers right now
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Great photos from around Senses. You can tell Claire that we have a treadmill that I use, although I haven't used it in a couple of months now, as I ended up with strains in both legs after overdoing it on there.
Rainforest, is that just the area with the sweat tanks? I also would love to be there right now, even though we are temperate and wet in the 50s here in Oregon.
I agree, Vibe looks nice. Looks like they provided some hang-out and chat space away from screens. I'm screen-sensitive, IE I don't think too much TV makes us happier people, so when I see the movie screens in the kids areas, I cringe a bit. I love that there is a hang-out space for teens to do what they are supposed to do, talk about how to do things better than us.
ahhhh......as I sit here sipping a hot cocoa under my warm blankie - I really enjoyed those photos of the spa! What I wouldn't give to be resting in one of those tile loungers right now
mmmm hot cocoa sounds really good right now!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great pictures of Senses and The Rainforest!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Now I want to go to the spa... looks so peaceful!
LOL. I am cold right now so it would be nice for me too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great photos from around Senses. You can tell Claire that we have a treadmill that I use, although I haven't used it in a couple of months now, as I ended up with strains in both legs after overdoing it on there.
good to know others use them too. I know a lot of people who have them and use them hang clothes on. My mom has one and mostly does that.
My MIL had one and really expensive one and did that too...but then she sold it. I told Skip then we should just get it because mine was so bad but he never asked her and she sold it because she needed money for something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KimmyAnn1147
Rainforest, is that just the area with the sweat tanks? I also would love to be there right now, even though we are temperate and wet in the 50s here in Oregon.
I agree, Vibe looks nice. Looks like they provided some hang-out and chat space away from screens. I'm screen-sensitive, IE I don't think too much TV makes us happier people, so when I see the movie screens in the kids areas, I cringe a bit. I love that there is a hang-out space for teens to do what they are supposed to do, talk about how to do things better than us.
I don't think for the most part kids watch much in the way of moves and such in the clubs. Claire did play a game that was on the screen with others but she was interacting...which made me happy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
The spa looks great! Can you just walk around on your own in there during the open house?
Yes you can. They do offer tours but I just say no thanks.
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Back out to take a few more shots before leaving Senses.
I love this next picture.
And back out on deck to check out some more of the ship.
This place changed names….and I can’t for the life of me remember off the top of my head what it was called before.
The Cabanas sign.
I then took a walk around deck 4, working off some of that lunch.
I then went and found my family and we got Claire dressed again. It was getting time to do the muster drill. Our station was in Animator’s Palete.
They had freshened up this place and it looked nice. I can’t wait to see the new show.
Skip is doing his creepy smile here. He thinks he is funny when he does this.
As we waited, Skip’s phone rang. I told him to just ignore it and call whoever it was later as you weren’t supposed to be talking on the phone during the drill…..did he listen? Nope! I did give him the evil eye and he didn’t talk for too long.
Once the drill was over we headed out with the crowds and tried to make our way up to the top decks so we could watch the sail away show.
Claire and I found a spot near a railing and Skip wandered off. He did that a lot! She was worried about him but I told her that he is a big boy and I couldn’t worry about where he was every single minute.
Andy came out and got the party started. Skip LOVED Andy. He hung on every word he said…and I think he had a guy crush on him. All through the cruise he would say…. ”Andy says this is fun to do”…or something along those lines. If Andy recommended it, Skip thought it should be done.
Andy was on the last cruise I took on the Magic too and he is pretty cool.
Let’s get this party started!!!!
Brent was our cruise director.
I had never had him, but he is always in the promotional videos for DCL so it was kind of neat to have him. I know some people really are particular about who the cruise director is…..me not so much. I really don’t care, though I tend to have liked some of them more than others. Brent was one of my favorites so far. Actually of the 4 DCL cruises I have taken, there was only one I didn’t care for and I can’t even remember his name now, but he was on our cruise on the Dream in Nov. 2012.
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