A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Tuesday 1 September – part two: this isn’t the sort of character breakfast I’m used to
A bit before we were due at our character breakfast, we headed down to the atrium…
…. and then made our way past Triton’s, and I was able to poke my camera through the door, and get a shot of the deserted restaurant, which was kind of neat.
We headed through Promenade Lounge, and again, as it was deserted, I took the opportunity to get some photos of it without anyone in it.
We made our way to the Parrot Cay area, and they had some amazing portraits there:
Now firstly, can anyone tell me where the Wonder is supposed to be in the first shot? I’m assuming it is somewhere she has already visited, but I came up blank. We loved the other portrait so much that I even asked if you could purchase a print of it on board, but sadly you can’t. If you could, I would’ve bought it immediately.
We made our way up to deck four, and as it was a few minutes before 8:00am, Animator’s Palate wasn’t open yet, so we headed into Shutters, which was shut and got some photos in there.
You can now check your photos digitally, which means you can view them even when they’re closed, which is a nice touch. We already have a fair few good ones from the first day, so you never know, we might end up buying a package. We’ll see how many we get during the remainder of this cruise, but at least now we know the prices. For the record, it’s $349.95 for all your photos, either digital or printed, and if you want both digital and printed, you’re looking at another $100, although why you’d go for that option is beyond me, because you could definitely get photos printed cheaper than that, unless you end up with literally hundreds. I’d go digital, as then you have so many options with those.
By the time we were done in there, Animator’s Palate was open for business, and we were taken in.
We were seated with a couple from Pittsburgh. We didn’t ask their names (I know, how rude, right? ) but we learnt a lot about them. They were DVC Members, and this was their fourth cruise, and their first to Alaska, but they’re definitely already hooked, as they’re booked on one of the Star Wars cruises on the Fantasy in January, and have already booked a placeholder cruise. I like their style!
I have to say the character breakfast was a bit of a disappointment, and I wouldn’t bother with it again. Sure, we had some fun with the napkins, although I left it to Mark to participate in this, and opted out myself.
It really looked like Mickey wanted you to go on a diet – look at the portions:
We both had fruit, while I had the Buccaneer’s bagel, smoked salmon on bagel with cream cheese, capers and onions. Now normally I would split the bagel and put smoked salmon on either side, but there was barely even enough smoked salmon to go round the bagel once, let alone twice, so I had to make it into a sandwich. Not what I expected at all!
Mark had eggs, hash browns, bacon and grilled tomatoes.
We had Pluto, Goofy, Minnie and Mickey as our characters, and my goodness, they all literally blasted through, stopping just long enough for the Crew Member with them to get a photo, and that was it. It felt quite rushed.
It also wasn’t very well timed, as we saw every single character before we got any food, and bearing in mind Mark and I had both ordered fresh fruit, I did feel this could have been brought out to us before the main plates. Instead, we had our items straight after the other, and we struggled to find space on the table for them. It was a shame, as I felt this could have been done so much better. I suspect it won’t be long for this world, given the Wonder is now the only ship which still does a character breakfast. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they’re getting rid of it.
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Sorry the character breakfast was a disappointment! We had done one on our first cruise as I believe they were testing it out back in 2006, and it was nothing like a character breakfast in the parks!
Do they no longer have assigned character breakfast times and days? I do remember you said something about getting tickets for it. I know in the past you were told the day of your breakfast and you had your serving team and table mates all there.
It's always a pleasure to get photos of empty areas of the ship.
What a bummer about the breakfast. That should be one of the highlights of a Disney cruise - the Disney characters! Such a shame they rushed through it all. And then small portions of food too. Sad.
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Do they no longer have assigned character breakfast times and days? I do remember you said something about getting tickets for it. I know in the past you were told the day of your breakfast and you had your serving team and table mates all there.
You don't automatically get assigned one - you have to sign up when you board. Which is NOT very well advertised, so I imagine quite a few families never even knew to do it.
I agree, Cheryl, it was quite a disappointment. The food was so minimal, and reminded me of the quality of the debarkation breakfasts (another meal I'm no fan of). And the characters were gone in the blink of an eye! The only good thing as far as I was concerned, was that I got a photo of my DD with Pluto.
Sorry the character breakfast was a disappointment! We had done one on our first cruise as I believe they were testing it out back in 2006, and it was nothing like a character breakfast in the parks!
We last did it on our last Alaskan cruise four years ago and we remember it being much better than this time.
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Do they no longer have assigned character breakfast times and days? I do remember you said something about getting tickets for it. I know in the past you were told the day of your breakfast and you had your serving team and table mates all there.
No, they have nothing like that any longer. It's there if you want to book it - and quite frankly, I think you have to know about it to book it. Sure, it's probably on your first day's Navigator (you know, I don't think I even noticed if it was on there or not), but I only knew from reading previous Navigators. In 2011, it was something, like you say, that everyone had assigned seating for. I guess they found lots of people not turning up.
It's always a pleasure to get photos of empty areas of the ship.
What a bummer about the breakfast. That should be one of the highlights of a Disney cruise - the Disney characters! Such a shame they rushed through it all. And then small portions of food too. Sad.
You don't automatically get assigned one - you have to sign up when you board. Which is NOT very well advertised, so I imagine quite a few families never even knew to do it.
I'd agree completely with you - I bet there were loads of people who never even realised it was an option, which is a real shame.
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I agree, Cheryl, it was quite a disappointment. The food was so minimal, and reminded me of the quality of the debarkation breakfasts (another meal I'm no fan of).
Oh gosh, neither are we!
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And the characters were gone in the blink of an eye! The only good thing as far as I was concerned, was that I got a photo of my DD with Pluto.
I was pleased we got to see the characters, but I don't know that I'd bother again....
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We loved the other portrait so much that I even asked if you could purchase a print of it on board, but sadly you can’t. 
If you could, I would’ve bought it immediately. 
and got some photos in there. 
) but we learnt a lot about them. They were DVC Members, and this was their fourth cruise, and their first to Alaska, but they’re definitely already hooked, as they’re booked on one of the Star Wars cruises on the Fantasy in January, and have already booked a placeholder cruise. I like their style! 
I was pleased we got to see the characters, but I don't know that I'd bother again....
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