A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 59 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You made a great showing with finding four of the officers! Not such an easy task when they’ve changed clothes and you just have to go by faces!
How very pleasant to be sitting outside for lunch!
Oh cool, they changed clothes too! That was a really fun little adventure!
And I absolutely love the fact you could enjoy your lunch outside in the sunshine afterwards. Beautiful!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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The hide and seek was a lot of fun but seems more time should be allotted for this like 30 minutes. Nice way to spend lunch out on the deck and a lot warmer than you'd expect this time of year in Canada. Especially at sea!
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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!
Friday 14 September – part four: the whole thing has been adapted for me!
When we’d finished eating at Cabana’s, we made our way up to deck 10. It was beautiful up there, and best of all, we were alone!
Then we walked all along deck 10, marvelling at how beautiful the day was, how the sea was brilliant blue below us and how the kids’ and family pool were now open for the first time since we’d been at sea….
We walked up to the front of deck 10 to get some photos and it was a bit more blowy up there…
… then we headed back along the other side…
… and down to the spa. Mark had had a voucher offering $50 off a treatment for his birthday. He thought he’d put it towards a shave, but apparently he won’t be. It’s only valid for certain spa treatments (no salon ones). The woman spoke to the manager about it and she wasn’t budging. Mind you, you could see from the reception that it was busy in here, so I guess frankly she’s not that bothered, as they’re no doubt making lots of money this cruise…
We headed back to the room for a break before our mixology class and finished up watching Guardians of the Galaxy. It had developed a technical glitch about 15 minutes before the end and got stuck, which was a real pain. It wasn’t the first time it had happened. Let’s just say that the system still has some teething trouble… need I say Disney and tech in the same sentence? It’s an Ok system, but it’s not brilliant. It does at least play and pause, but forward and rewind are hit and miss. It takes you to the next point in the film, except you don’t know what the next point is until you press forward or rewind, if that makes sense? It’s a good start, but it could be better…
Once we were done with that, we had some time, so we started to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Well why not?
We headed down for our Mixology class just before 2:00pm and ended up sitting with two women that we half knew from the cognac class. They were on their third back to back cruise and have done a number of these drinks classes already. Let’s just say that they can easily answer any questions…
Denton from Jamaica was presenting it and, as soon as we arrived, we got a broad smile, having explained to him about my allergies a couple of days earlier. I think he was just relieved to see us there, given he’d adapted the whole class around me!
This is what greeted us when we sat down and I must admit my first thought was “oh great, mojitos”… I can’t stand that stuff. However, I was to be pleasantly surprised by it later in the session. However, we had a few drinks to go before we got to those…
Such a gorgeous day!
You know what, that's a brilliant idea. I think we'd better watch Guardians of the Galaxy movies too, at least before the next time we head to WDW (whenever that is!). Never seen them, and as you said, it might help with the story of the new ride at Epcot.
Mmmm, mixology!! I'm not a mojito fan either, so I'm really curious to see how this is good later on!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
It sounds like you had fun at the Captains Hide and Seek! How wonderful that the weather was so beautiful that it allowed you to enjoy your meal outside on the deck! You really did luck out with the weather on this trip. Looking forward to hearing about the mixology class.
You did great finding half of the officers! What a beautiful day to be at sea! Glad you could enjoy the sunshine. It looks like the mixology class is off to a great start!
Such a gorgeous day!
You know what, that's a brilliant idea. I think we'd better watch Guardians of the Galaxy movies too, at least before the next time we head to WDW (whenever that is!). Never seen them, and as you said, it might help with the story of the new ride at Epcot.
That was part of my thinking. I had no idea about Guardians of the Galaxy before I watched the movies. Now I can start to picture how they might do the ride...