Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising LIVE TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 3/8 - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Cheryl, have you looked for chlorine resistant swimwear? That's what I try to get for my water aerobics classes in the pool. They last a lot longer. I get tankinis from swimsuitsforall.com. Not sure if you can order form them in the UK, though.
Hmmm.... I hadn't even thought of that. I'll have to look into it, although I have got a favourite tankini set that actually fits, so the prospect of trying to find something and then seeing if it fits doesn't appeal much. If only they did a chlorine resistant version of the one I use now, that would be perfect.
Ah, the plans are really falling into place for you!! I know you are getting so excited! I love seeing your trip getting closer as that means ours is as well, since we are right behind you.
I've been checking on the BOG breakfast, too. We don't have any planned for our May trip, but if we could get one here, I'd add it. Good catch on your lunch at Sea World.
Your trip is so close now!!! I really wish I was at Castaway Cay today. I went to lunch with my sister and she is debating a Disney cruise for the next year...mainly because she wants to go to CC. She said she wished she could just go there several times. She didn't even care about other ports. I understand that feeling too!
Of course then Claire and I both had a longing for a vacation and Claire might have even cried about want to go somewhere warm. If I wasn't an adult...I might have joined her in that cry!
You are so ready for your adventures!!. I am actually glad you are going to see that creepy movie ( who's name I won't even type again). I would love to hear your thoughts after you see it!
Your trip is so close now!!! I really wish I was at Castaway Cay today. I went to lunch with my sister and she is debating a Disney cruise for the next year...mainly because she wants to go to CC. She said she wished she could just go there several times. She didn't even care about other ports. I understand that feeling too!
Of course then Claire and I both had a longing for a vacation and Claire might have even cried about want to go somewhere warm. If I wasn't an adult...I might have joined her in that cry!
Even if you are an adult, you do know it's Ok to cry about Disney, right?
You are so ready for your adventures!!. I am actually glad you are going to see that creepy movie ( who's name I won't even type again). I would love to hear your thoughts after you see it!
I'll be sure to share my thoughts in the trip report.
Pre-trip report – part seventeen: a moment’s silence please…
Sunday 8 February:
I went down to the pool first thing, and as I sat in the steam room, I couldn’t help but think of all the wonderful amenities that the Rainforest area on the Dream has to offer. I often think about that when I’m in the steam room, probably because the only other steam rooms I’ve regularly been in are on the ships. I couldn’t help but smile to myself and think “I’ll be back there in just over a couple of weeks’ time!”
I made the mistake of checking the extended weather forecast, and sure it’s still a couple of weeks off, so it may all change (and I hope it does! ) but I do not like the look of the first couple of days now. Both days, the highs are only in the mid to high 60s, and the overnight lows are down to the low 40s and high 30s. Ouch! That’s colder than I’d envisaged… come on weather, change again and warm up a bit for me!
All the phone numbers for our friends are now loaded into the American cell phone. All I can say is thank goodness it’s a Samsung and I already had one, as that made life a lot easier. I got loads of different options when it first booted up, which I don’t remember my UK phone having, all about setting up accounts. I don’t think so while it’s in the UK… I guess that’ll be something I need to do when we get out to the States…
Today I finally got round to trying everything on for our vacation. Now, please tell me I’m not the only one who does this? I wanted to check that the summer stuff fitted, given that I probably haven’t worn it in five months. Ok, so I have lost weight since then, but you never know, and with all the swimming I’ve been doing in recent months, that can have an impact on your body. I certainly have swimmers’ arms anyway. Thankfully all the crops fitted fine, and I was able to narrow down my tops to a reasonable amount to take with me. I also found a few dresses that I was happy with, so I think I’m pretty much set.
Of course I still need to do the actual packing… and on that subject… earlier on today I thought we only had three suitcases in total, which was a bit of a shock, as I was convinced there was a fourth. Could I find it? Eventually, I did, tucked away at the back of a cupboard behind a huge bag. I genuinely never thought it could fit in there. Inside, there was another, so apparently now we have five. That should be plenty for us for a while, even if one gets damaged, so that’s good.
Monday 9 February
Can we all please observe a moment’s silence here? It’s RIP to my Disney sunglasses, which have seen me through about the last two or three years. I got them out of my pocket while walking back from the swimming pool at lunchtime, and when I pulled them out, they were minus one arm. It’s not a case of just putting them back together, as they don’t seem to have a screw, they were attached, so they’ve physically broken. Oh well, I guess better it happens just before we go back to Disney, as that’s where I always buy my sunglasses, and I do have a back-up pair.
I had to laugh when I read some of the comments on my trip report tonight, as I’d been talking about the difficulties I’d been having getting park hours out of the non-Disney parks. Well, as of today, I still can’t get anything out of them as far as show times go at the parks, and look how close we are now to our trip!
Out of interest, I had a quick look on the Disney Cruise Line website, just in case they were offering anything new. Well, while it doesn’t interest me, I don’t remember seeing golfing or sports simulators for half hour sessions on board the Dream before. It was also interesting to see what was and what wasn’t sold out. Obviously all the cabanas on Castaway Cay were gone, and a few other things, but Palo and Remy brunch are still available, as is dinner every night at both restaurants. I guess people will be spending their time in the spa on the at sea day, as a lot more spa treatments are sold out on that day, understandably so, than the other days. Interestingly, both Palo and Remy brunch are available on the day we’re in Nassau, and I thought it was only offered on at sea days.
As I was in a cruise mood, I had a look at some of the recent Navigators from the four night cruises, and we were both taken by the amount of various tastings there were for alcoholic beverages. I think we might be trying one or two of those out during our cruise…
Tuesday 10 February
This morning, we had an email from Disney Cruise Line, reminding us that our cruise was fast approaching. It also reminded us to bring our signed cruise documents with us. No worries! I’ll just check they’re in the holiday folder…
Oh Ok, so they’re not… I guess I completed online check-in on the laptop, and figured that I’d then print out the documents, but never got round to it, as online check-in is all done. A quick login later, and I had our documents in hand. We’ve now both signed them, so we’re ready to go!
Wednesday 11 February
It’s single digits time!
Some of the comments on my trip report have got me thinking about the Flower and Garden Festival, as I thought there was information missing, and sure enough, people have been commenting about how there are usually workshops etc. Of course – that’s what’s missing! Now I won’t say that we’d necessarily go to them, but it would be nice to know what they are, although the general consensus now seems to be they probably won’t be taking place, given how late in the day we are, and there are still no details.
In the evening, I had another look at the comments on the trip report, and realised there was one about Disney’s Memory Maker. Oh boy! I’d completely forgotten to pre-order that. Ooops! I think it’s about time I did that then. Thankfully, at least that was nice and simple through the Disney website, and a few minutes later, it was all done.
Thursday 12 February
I have to say here that I now feel as I’m planning for our return from this vacation, which is a bit depressing, frankly, but equally it needs doing.
Let me give you some examples – in a couple of days’ time, I’ll be able to book the online grocery order, which will be delivered to our home the day we get back, so I’m working on that, as I don’t want to be worrying about that while we’re gone. Then I’m also sorting out the bank accounts to ensure we’ve got enough to pay this month’s credit card when we get back, as that will be due about a week after we return. I’ve also found Mark’s parents’ 50th anniversary presents, as that’s less than a week after we get back. Phew! As if it wasn’t bad enough having to get all the planning done for while we’re away, now I need to deal with everything for when we get home. Having said that, hopefully that will mean a slightly more smoother transition back to “real life”.
Tonight, I was finally able to say “this time next week”! In fairness, it was just that we’d be driving up to the airport, but heck it’s still the start of the adventure!
Friday 13 February
Ok, so it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, but when I got home I gave Mark his Valentine’s Day present (and behave any of you thinking naughty thoughts! ) – a brand new camera. He’d mentioned a while ago that he wouldn’t have one for our upcoming trip, but as I’d been planning on getting him a new camera (thanks to an unexpected windfall ) I wasn’t too worried. I think it’s fair to say he was very surprised by his present, and couldn’t say enough. At least now he’ll have a camera again, and it’s small enough for him to carry it in his pocket, which I know is important to him. Also, this one has a three year warranty on it, which is worth having, given his last camera packed up when it was just over a year old – and of course, if you don’t take the extended warranty, the manufacturer’s warranty only lasts a year.
As we were watching the regional news tonight, they were talking about how windy it would be over the weekend. I thought I’d check out the forecast for Gatwick for next Friday, just to be on the safe side. I am very happy to report that it’s all good, and it won’t be windy when we fly.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Good catch on your lunch at Sea World. 
). I would love to hear your thoughts after you see it!
) but I do not like the look of the first couple of days now. Both days, the highs are only in the mid to high 60s, and the overnight lows are down to the low 40s and high 30s. Ouch! 
That’s colder than I’d envisaged… come on weather, change again and warm up a bit for me! 
I guess that’ll be something I need to do when we get out to the States… 
I wanted to check that the summer stuff fitted, given that I probably haven’t worn it in five months. Ok, so I have lost weight since then, but you never know, and with all the swimming I’ve been doing in recent months, that can have an impact on your body. I certainly have swimmers’ arms anyway. 
Inside, there was another, so apparently now we have five. That should be plenty for us for a while, even if one gets damaged, so that’s good. 
Oh Ok, so they’re not… I guess I completed online check-in on the laptop, and figured that I’d then print out the documents, but never got round to it, as online check-in is all done. A quick login later, and I had our documents in hand. We’ve now both signed them, so we’re ready to go! 
Now I won’t say that we’d necessarily go to them, but it would be nice to know what they are, although the general consensus now seems to be they probably won’t be taking place, given how late in the day we are, and there are still no details. 
I think it’s about time I did that then. 
enough. At least now he’ll have a camera again, and it’s small enough for him to carry it in his pocket, which I know is important to him. Also, this one has a three year warranty on it, which is worth having, given his last camera packed up when it was just over a year old – and of course, if you don’t take the extended warranty, the manufacturer’s warranty only lasts a year. 
Linear Mode
