Sailing with the Gang..DCL Magic, 2016 updated 6/21/2016 - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Nice photos from on board the Magic! Looks so familiar from my cruise last year. I am with you as I love the deck on 4.
Deck 4 is just so wonderful. I usually only get out there in the mornings or evenings. I really need to spend some more time there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Fun photos from around the ship, but I don't like the sound of your teaser!
Don't worry, it's good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Baloo
How did I miss this?!?! I am loving all the great pictures and yah to you for scoring not one, but TWO fabulous Dooney's! Got some serious purse envy happening here on my end.
Hope the show is as good as you hope!
That's ok. I am so behind on most everything these days.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
And back to the room…probably to shower and get ready for the night. Our stateroom host had left our beds/bunks made like this because we had egg crate cushions on them. He could have taken them off each day and put that back on but he asked Cass and she said it wouldn’t matter if he left them as is and it really didn’t. We were not in the room much this cruise. A longer one it might have made a difference but we were so busy most of the time it never bothered me.
I am always trying to get great shots of the lighthouse using my fancy camera….and now I am using my point and shoot and got some of the best I have ever taken.
I liked them so much that I picked one of those out and printed it and framed it for my bedroom.
Then the announcement was made. Because of the winds and waves we were going to head straight to Castaway Cay tonight and dock. Of course we won’t be able to get off the ship till the morning, but as wavy as it is, we probably won’t be able to dock tomorrow if we wait. HOW>>>COOL>>>>IS>>>>>THAT? I had wondered if we would be able to dock myself a few times knowing this had been a bit of a rougher sailing than normal. Seeing the waves come in at Atlantis also made me wonder earlier in the day. I am so glad they decided to go tonight so we could make it there. I know it happens every so often, but I felt special to be able to do this.
I headed back to the room and we could see the pilot boat out our window. I really tried to get a shot of the guy jumping from boat to boat, but I just couldn’t make that darn window move out further for me to see. LOL.
Cass and I found some seats closer to the front. Michelle was in the front row and we saw many of the others several rows back. We decided not to join them as we wanted to be closer….but not front row close!
The show was amazing!!!! They did it so well. I really want to see this one again.
Again, at the end of the show I took a couple bootleg photos with my phone.
More nice photos and so cool when heading out to sea or into port always! Love the lighthouse and how white it is (not sure how to describe the particular shade of white, which I love!
Great job with the borders and Flikr! I use Photobucket and is Flikr any better or easier to use for you if you have used PB as well?
__________________
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!
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.
More nice photos and so cool when heading out to sea or into port always! Love the lighthouse and how white it is (not sure how to describe the particular shade of white, which I love!
Great job with the borders and Flikr! I use Photobucket and is Flikr any better or easier to use for you if you have used PB as well?
Thanks!
I love Flickr! I do the borders in photoshop, but they do have options in Flickr too. I do have a photobucket account but I only keep it active since I have so many pictures on there from many years. About 3 or 4 years ago I made the switch to Flickr because pb is such a pain. It's a mess to work with, the pictures are so small and I had issues finding what I needed and 50% of the time it wouldn't work or load.
Now using Flickr, I can't imagine going back to PB. If I have to go there to grab an old picture it totally frustrates me. Each page takes forever to load too.
So yes I lover Flickr 100 times more than PB. I have more organization in it as well. For me, it works well.
It does take a little getting used to at first, but once you figure it all out it's a breeze.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, how neat is that - heading straight to Castaway Cay? I hope it didn't make for too choppy a sailing though....
We mixed and mingled and Cass found an edge seat and I sat next to her. I think Patty was across from us. I had missed it yesterday, but I think Patty had said something to Jason about loving fruit and cheese. Well he is just so awesome….he brought out a fruit and cheese plate for a starter for us.
And I love getting this drink here. It’s called a Princess Delight. It does not have alcohol and it is basically strawberry and mango and just heavenly. Several others saw it and ordered it as well.
The photographer was coming around and taking a picture of each girl individually. Seriously? I don’t want a picture of myself at a table. So when she arrived to us, I told Cass we were getting a “couples” picture….here is my bootleg copy of the happy couple!
I then suggested we should get a group picture. So we all rambled to one side of the table. It’s a nice shot, even if there is food in front of us. This one doesn’t have Charlotte in it..who was a friend along for the ride (or Michelle’s husband who had gotten sick and her son who would rather die than eat with all of us), but I think Brook bought a copy that does have Charlotte in it.
Tonight O’Gills had been turned into the Snugly Duckling for the Tangled night. I never made it in there but several of the others did and I think Cass took pictures too. They had some knights coming in searching for Flynn Ryder while we were eating.
We had several of us celebrating February b-days on this cruise. Mine is the 14th, just in case you want to send me a gift, Katie’s was happening while on the cruise and Wendy was about a week after we got home, so we had each night planned for one of us to celebrate. Tonight was my night and they brought me this.
It looks good, but the top is like a jelly. It was gross. The mousse type stuff in the middle was good so I had to work my way around the gross stuff to get to it. But I was really full anyways so a few bites is all I could handle.
Not long after dinner we were pulling into Castaway Cay and I went out to take some of the world’s worst pictures.
I think I headed to the club after that. I believe tonight they had an adult show with a comedian and it was pretty funny. He had puppets and I enjoyed him. At one point a lady got up to leave and the puppet called her out. She was wearing a striped shirt and he said something along the lines of “I found Waldo’s wife” and it was really funny….except she didn’t think so and she came back and was staring him down. She was a witch with a capital B. I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t just laugh it off. I later learn that this lady was drinking majorly…every single night here. She was with her husband and another couple (or 2) and they were all obnoxious and rude. I don’t mind people drinking or even getting a little drunk on vacation, but control yourself…this is Disney after all. I think we danced a little bit after the show, but I can’t remember anymore.
Brook switched places with me tonight and took the top and she was freaking out a bit. She said she was afraid of heights and it was freaking her out. I told her I would take it but she said no. I really didn’t mind, but unless I grabbed her and yanked her out she was staying up there. I believe Cass took the couch bed and I had the big bed for 1 night…and ironically, if I remember right, I had the worst of my 4 nights sleep in that bed….go figure. I think we talked a bit and then out I went. I think Brook read late into the night.
Dinner sounded like a lot of fun! It's too bad that the woman who had been drinking couldn't take a joke! It sounds like you had musical beds going on during this trip!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Love that they had knights in looking for Flynn at dinner!
It was really cute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a fun evening!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Dinner sounded like a lot of fun! It's too bad that the woman who had been drinking couldn't take a joke! It sounds like you had musical beds going on during this trip!
Her whole party was rude the whole trip. They drank a LOT every single night.
Another early morning for me. I believe I once again heard Cass get up and go out to take some sunrise pictures. I was right behind her. We were already docked at Castaway Cay so I wanted to take a look.
I think I may have found Cass, but I could be totally wrong on that.
Not the best sunrise shot, but it was pretty and probably the best of all our mornings.
I headed back to the room. Brook was going to run the Castaway Cay race…I think it’s a 5k, and Cass and I planned to get off early and enjoy the beach and swim. Well there was no way I was swimming with this weather. I knew the water would be cold and with it not actually warm on land either…nope not for me.
We got to talking to one of the lifeguards and this is when we found out there was going to be no swimming today. Everything in the water was canceled. We asked if it would open later and she said it was highly doubtful as the wind and waves were so strong that it actually knocked over some tower thing in the water and it was now on the beach and she pointed at it. She was so happy to see that we docked last night. She lives on the island…well all the life guards do and she says they have a rotation…I want to say it’s 6 weeks and after that you go on the ship for a week or 2 and then someone comes and replaces you. Today was her turn to go back on the ship and I guess she was ready for ship life for a while.
She was really nice to talk to and informative too.
Cass was pretty bummed about not being able to swim. I didn’t mind so much as it would have to be pretty warm for me to. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see how my camera worked underwater. I had bought it in July last year right before our Alaskan cruise and was really hoping to snorkel on this trip and give a try. No luck for that….guess I have to aim now for my Oct cruise on the Fantasy!
Now I know a lot of people love Serenity Bay and I only have visited it once, which was my last DCL cruise and I just took pictures…but I just don’t think it’s all that heavenly. I guess it’s just much smaller than I thought it would be. I was hoping maybe this time I would think differently.
The waves had washed the sand away from the base of the umbrellas and there were some CM’s trying to move them and the chairs back further…but they didn’t have a lot of space to move. A couple of times I thought they might take off in Mary Poppins style.
We browsed the shop and I think we each got a few things. Usually on CC I find 20 shirts I want and have to decide between all of them. This time I was not falling in love with much and the one top I really did like was a little more than I wanted to spend and it had longer sleeves. In the end I didn’t get it but I later found out Ellen did and then I regretted not getting it because it looked really nice on her.
After our purchases were made we decided to work our way back to the ship. We ran into Kelly at one time, Ellen at one time and I believe Mary Rose and Lisa. Besides Kelly who had just gotten done running, the rest were just arriving on the island. I think most of them were going to check out Serenity Bay but I am not sure if they settled there or not.
This is part of the broken tower thing the life guard had told us about. I just can’t remember what it was.
Your meal at Lumiere's looked quite good overall. Too bad for the heavy wind and surf on CC and couldn't enjoy it the way you wanted to.
__________________
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!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
What a shame you couldn't swim - the wind must've been really bad. The last time we got off at Castaway Cay in December 2012, we had a storm hit and the wind was terrible, but beforehand, it was pretty windy and, although they cancelled the water excursions, you could still swim.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
Looks so familiar from my cruise last year. I am with you as I love the deck on 4. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Love the lighthouse and how white it is (not sure how to describe the particular shade of white, which I love! 
PassPorter Guide Author
I hope it didn't make for too choppy a sailing though....
It sounds like you had musical beds going on during this trip!
The last time we got off at Castaway Cay in December 2012, we had a storm hit and the wind was terrible, but beforehand, it was pretty windy and, although they cancelled the water excursions, you could still swim.
Linear Mode
