How The Western Caribbean Was Won! Completed 8/10/2016 - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It was a great dinner and hoping the rest of my dinners will be just as good for the remaining 6 nights! Having a great service team makes it that much better of a dining experience and is always key!
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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!
After a great dinner, I returned to my room for a bit to wash up and have everything ready for tomorrow as we will be making our first port stop in Key West, Florida around 12:30m, in which I have my first port adventure scheduled for 12:45 pm. I also looked over the Navigator for Monday, April 13th which was on my bed along with the nightly turn down service, which was done, sometime, while I was at dinner. I’m certain my porter, Edwin has my dinner schedule, so he knows when to do this. I received a couple of chocolates and a towel animal as well! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of this, but other nights I would. It was about 10 pm or so and I walked downstairs to the After Hours section of the Magic.
Deck 4 in the late evening. There were many lights in the distance and may have been Fort Lauderdale?
Love the carpeting on the ship
Peter Pan with a young admirer on deck 4!
After Hours section on the Magic
I arrived in the After Hours section and wanted to check out one of the bars/lounges here, that Cheryl had raved about in one of her TRs. This would be Keys. Upon entering it seemed very relaxing here with low lighting, comfortable a/c and very quiet with just a piano player in the rear of the lounge. The room had small tables along the left with comfy lounge chairs and large porthole windows to view the sea below. In the middle were larger tables and more comfy chairs for larger parties. When, I entered Keys I was greeted by a lovely hostess (forget her name at this point, but is from the UK). I took a seat on the left side near the piano player.
Inside Keys
The hostess came to my table and I ordered a glass of ice water and a Grand Marnier. These are quite enjoyable after dinner! The piano player was just returning after a break He’s Nick Messina and is quite a good player and singer as well. He talks to the audience often and always asks for requests. He plays mostly standards from Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Broadway and some pop songs.
Nick Messina playing at Keys
Bar at Keys
I enjoyed my time here for a while and Nick’s show. He was quite good. I don’t know how this place could be any more relaxing? The chairs are quite comfy and below the port windows, you could see the waves breaking against the Magic, even at night! At the end of Nick’s set, I talked with him for a bit as did a few other patrons here. There were probably about twenty people here tonight. Nick was very friendly and talked a lot about his different experiences on board the Magic and other cruise ships. Although, he mostly just performs on the Magic these days.
I left Keys just after midnight and decided to see Fathoms, which is a nightclub in After Hours. There were only a couple of people in here and just seemed like a typical nightclub and nothing special. This is used during the day for various ship events as are the other bars/lounges in After Hours.
Fathoms nightclub
Before heading back to my room, I went up to deck 9 to take a walk around and get something to drink from the beverage station outside of Cabana’s. It was generally pretty quiet up here with some people hanging out in Quiet Cove having drinks and just relaxing. There were also some CMs doing some work on the large video screen and testing the video for upcoming shows like Pirate’s Night, other shows and general video for the cruise.
I got back to my room on deck 7 at around 12:30 am and went out on my verandah for a bit to watch the ocean for a bit, before going to bed. Once again there were a lot of lights in the distance and we were possibly cruising by Miami.
NEXT: What An Amazing Sight and Experience!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 09-27-2015 at 06:53 PM..
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It was quite enjoyable to say the least! If you ever get the chance to cruise on the Magic, definitely go to Keys to wind down the evening! I would pretty much go here every night as I enjoyed it so much!
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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!
Glad you were able to enjoy some of the adult evening entertainment the shop has to offer
I think Keys is the best of the lot as the others are pretty much standard ones! It was a nice relaxing evening here!
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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!
just started reading your TR, sounds like a great trip. I also went on a Disney cruise with my daughter and loved it. We traveled other cruise lines as well (Norwegian in the Hawaiian islands, Princess in South Caribbeans and Carnival out of LA to Mexico.)
just started reading your TR, sounds like a great trip. I also went on a Disney cruise with my daughter and loved it. We traveled other cruise lines as well (Norwegian in the Hawaiian islands, Princess in South Caribbeans and Carnival out of LA to Mexico.)
Glad you are enjoying it so far! Plenty more ahead.
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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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Beautiful hotel and fantastic view and very nice dinner. I love salmon and this looked very nice.
The Hyatt Orlando was quite nice and I was pleased with it in every way from the room, tarmac view and good restaurants and service!
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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!
Yes it most certainly was! This would not be my last visit to Keys as I found it so relaxing!
Did you ever have the chance to visit Keys on your Magic cruise last year?
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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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Sounds like a good first day on the ship. Reading your TR brings me back memories of the cruises that I did, and specially the Disney one (I went on the Wonder).
We did not. We were usually ready for bed right after the show each night. I guess we're getting old.
That's too bad! Perhaps, on another Magic cruise in the future before dinner!
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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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Having a great service team makes it that much better of a dining experience and is always key! 
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I’m certain my porter, Edwin has my dinner schedule, so he knows when to do this. 
I received a couple of chocolates and a towel animal as well! 
The piano player was just returning after a break He’s Nick Messina and is quite a good player and singer as well.
He plays mostly standards from Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Broadway and some pop songs.
I don’t know how this place could be any more relaxing? 
The chairs are quite comfy and below the port windows, you could see the waves breaking against the Magic, even at night! 
At the end of Nick’s set, I talked with him for a bit as did a few other patrons here. There were probably about twenty people here tonight. Nick was very friendly and talked a lot about his different experiences on board the Magic and other cruise ships. 
Perhaps, on another Magic cruise in the future before dinner! 
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