Forums Closed
|
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
|
|
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.
|
 |
|
04-19-2004, 03:19 PM
|
#61
|
PassPorter Message Board Manager
 PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 4, Grand Cayman!
Wow - Tara, your installments just get better and better! You are so right - every photo of you guys, you look so happy.  The sea is beautiful as well - I can just imagine the temperatures from the pictures.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to write this, as it's helping to put me in the mood for our Disney cruise in a couple of weeks time!  |
|
|
|
|
|
*
|
Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
|
|
04-19-2004, 07:04 PM
|
#62
|
|
Wannabe Snowbird
Join Date: May 2002
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 34,137
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 4, Grand Cayman!
Wow, 2-for-1 drinks? I'm there! Once again, it sounds like you had such a great day!
Those are such cool photos. DD was just standing over my shoulder reading and when she saw the parasailing photos, she asked me why don't we do something cool like that?!! (uh, cuz I'm a chicken and scared to death of heights!  ) |
|
|
|
|
04-19-2004, 08:21 PM
|
#63
|
Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 2,929
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 4, Grand Cayman!
Tara, my in DH's family (everyone but us  ) went on this same cruise at the end of February. They also did the tubing in Belize, and the sting rays. They absolutely loved the cruise. It sounds like you guys had a great time! |
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 08:51 AM
|
#64
|
Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Newtown Square, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 23,859
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day at Sea!!
Friday, April 9th-Costa Maya!!!
Good morning, you guys! I can't believe that I am up to my last excursion day!  Where the heck did this week go?!?! Anyway, we would wake up very early again today, as we were docking in beautiful Costa Maya at 7AM!! This was my absolute favorite port!! Don't get me wrong-I loved Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but Costa Maya is a fairly new cruise port and while still gorgeous in the way that only Caribbean destinations can be, it is rather unspoiled and a lot less built up!
We ate a quick breakfast and, again, we were docked today, so no tenders! When we were done eating, we just walked right off of the ship and down a pier and there we were! You walk right into a little village that is all outdoor markets and stands. After getting hokey pictures with some kind of a Mayan God , we took some of our own:
Mike, Chris, John and Katie!
A shot of the village
Chris and some 'cruise friends'
Mike in his Senor Frog hat!
I'll tell you guys about this one in a sec!
Okay. This wild parrot is the port mascot. He was found here as a baby, injured, and was nursed back to health. He is now four years old and absolutely loves people. There was no charge, which was refreshing, to hold him or take these pictures! Katie loves animals and stayed a bit to learn about caring for this beautiful bird, whose name escapes me just now ! I think these photos are very touching and my darling daughter looks very charming here, HOWEVER!, the next thing she tried to do was purchase a Corona!! They would have sold it to her too, except that Muffin came up behind her and said, " Katie! What are you doing?!?! " The boys, of course, fell out and wouldn't let her live it down for the rest of the day!!
It was time for our excursion, so we found our tour guide and got on a bus to go to the beach. I have heard many complaints about finding shore excursions on land, but I am telling you guys, we didn't have trouble once! The excursions all leave from somewhere on the dock and you just have to look for your guide. They all hold up signs that are very clearly marked and it honestly was no trouble at all!! Anyway, today we were doing something called the Boat Blast Adventure. It obviously involved boats of some kind and the description also said snorkeling and drinks. After our other snorkel adventure, we were a little skeptical about what exactly this meant. We arrived at the beach, where there was an open bar, lots of food, a wonderful shaded area with little tables and chairs, and a volleyball set up right on the beach!!  This, you guys, was my idea of a fun, totally Caribbean excursion!! We had about an hour to play volleyball and relax on the beach before our two man snorkel boats left for a reef. We had an absolute blast!!
Chris snacking anddrinking in the shaded area!
Katie-still mad about the Corona! 
Mike eating of course!
Chris on the beach.
My hunk o' man on the beach!!
This is a shot of the beautiful Caribbean Sea and the little watercraft that we take out to the barrier reef.
Now, it was time to go on our snorkeling adventure!! We walked over to a small guard shack on the beach and were given safety instructions on how to operate the speedboats. I went with Katie, which was a huge mistake!! She was a crazy boat driver and enjoyed chopping waves and making sharp turns!! I don't know how we made it out to the reef in one piece!! We did some awesome snorkeling and, unfortunately, my scanner is not working, so I can't show you the pictures. You will just have to trust me that I saw some of the most beautiful and brightly colored fish ever!! It was lots of fun and very peaceful and we stayed in the water for about 45 minutes. You guys, I would highly reccommend this excursion!!
Continued in next post!
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 09:09 AM
|
#65
|
Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Newtown Square, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 23,859
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 6, Costa Maya!!!
Here are some pictures from our adventure!
Don't EVER let this girl drive a boat for you!
This was way cool! We pulled our boats up onto a little dock and just jumped off to snorkel!
Mike and Muffin!
Me and Kate in the boat of doom!
We then went back to the beach and relaxed. There were busses leaving every hour to go back to the dock. I had to get my hair done again for our second formal night, so I went back before everyone else. They were just having too good of a time to leave!!
Mike relaxing in a beach hammock.
They all made it back in time for dinner, but we didn't make the kids go to the second formal night. This turned out to be their loss because we had lobster, shrimp and creme brulee!  I'm telling you guys, it was out of this world!! It was actually kind of romantic without them anyway and we ordered a bottle of wine with dinner. Afterwards, we went to the photo shop and picked out our pictures that we wanted from the week and then we went to the piano bar. Barry from Boston was the in house piano man and boy was he good!! He did lots of Elton John and Billy Joel and had the whole audience singing along and stamping their feet!! We decided to go for a walk on the deck after this and then we finally went to the disco and had an awesome time!! The disco is called The Vault and that is exactly what it looks like!! It is a HUGE vault, with seperate areas for dancing and sitting and it even has two floors! After this, we were once again, exhausted and headed straight to bed. We did, of course, hear the kids come in before falling really asleep!
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 09:18 AM
|
#66
|
PassPorter Message Board Manager
PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 6, Costa Maya!!!
I can't believe you're up to your last excursion day already - where did the time go? I love the photo of Katie just before your boat ride, boy does she still look mad about the Corona!  I think you were one brave woman to go out with her! |
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 09:28 AM
|
#67
|
|
Wannabe Snowbird
Join Date: May 2002
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 34,137
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 6, Costa Maya!!!
And it sounds like another great day! Katie's quite a handful, eh? A Corona!!! But I love the way she was looking at the parrot. And I'm glad this snorkeling excursion was much better than the stingray one. |
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 12:07 PM
|
#68
|
Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Newtown Square, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 23,859
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
Saturday April 10th, Our Last Day at Sea!!
 So, you guys!! This would be our last full day at Sea!! We spent breakfast reviewing our wonderful week and going over the highlights of our cruise!! Everyone voted to do this again next summer!! We are planning on taking Sean and my Dad as well! There were still plenty of goings on today and we were ready to tackle as much as we could!! We all went for a swim at the pool and then split up with the kids. John and I went to play Bingo, of course, and here is where I won my 600 bucks!! It was on the last game played and you had to have a full card to win!! Muffin was just two numbers away and then all of a sudden they called three of my numbers in a row!! I only needed one number to win!! The first number called after that was an O number, which I knew I didn't need! Then Hamisch said "N" and I just knew it would be my number!!! Sure enough, he called "N42"!! I jumped up and screamed BINGO and then realized that I was the only one!!  I didn't even have to share the 600 bucks with anyone!! Muffin and I both decided that this would go into my Disney fund and I just positively glowed for the rest of the day!!
After Bingo, we ate lunch in the dining room and then went a little last minute shopping. Everything was discounted, too! I picked up a few trinkets for various people and then we went to watch an ice carving demonstration. It was way cool!! Get it?!?! Then, guess what?!?! It was time for final bingo!!!! Some guy from Minnesota won 9,400 bucks-all by himself!! Holy cow!!
Dinner tonight was A feast of Nations theme. It was delicious and you got to try different dishes from all over the place! Dessert was some kind of gooey warm brownie thing and boy was it yummy!! Here are a few pics of the kids on our last dinner night:
You know who they are by now!
The kids, our waiter-DD2 and our bread girl-Jillian!
Katie, our barmaid-Shirley, and Mike!
Our Headwaiter, Roberto
The waiters and chefs, again, did an elaborate presentation!
All three decks of waiters!
I'm telling you guys, even the kids were kind of melancholy. They truly did not want to leave! After dinner, John and I went to the pool decl to take some last minute pics of the pool area:
John by the hot tub.
The indoor pool area.
Muffin again!
A late night shot of the outdoor pool.
We then went down to the Royal Promenade for some pics there:
The entrance.
The shopping area!
A final shot of Muffin in front of the Sports Bar!
We then went to the Farewell Variety Show and, needless to say, it was fabulous!! We went back to our stateroom to pack our stuff up and we all turned in around midnight tonight for our long day tomorrow.
It was Easter morning before we knew it and we got up for breakfast at 6AM and were in line to depart the ship by 8:30AM. This takes a while and we actually didn't get off of the ship until around 10:30AM. We went through immigration and customs without a hitch, went to lunch at TGI Friday's and were at the Miami airport by 2PM. Our flight left on time, with a brief stopover in Atlanta and we were home in our own beds by 10PM.
You guys, this was a vacation that I know the five of us will always treasure!! CRUISING IS FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 12:25 PM
|
#69
|
Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
Thanks for sharing your awesome cruise with us Tara! I loved all the pictures!! |
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 12:33 PM
|
#70
|
PassPorter Message Board Manager
PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 12:58 PM
|
#71
|
|
Wannabe Snowbird
Join Date: May 2002
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 34,137
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
Wow, that was such a good TR, Tara! Even I'm sad your cruise is over! I'm glad your whole family had such a great time, and it's so nice that you're already planning another one - with Sean & your Dad too this time.
I'm kind of wondering, will your kids be keeping in touch with the friends they made on the ship? I'll bet your 'Babe Magnet' got lots of email addresses!!! |
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 01:46 PM
|
#72
|
|
RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
Fantastic report Tara  So glad you all had a great time  Thanks for sharing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
*
|
Sponsored links
Check out the many e-books by PassPorter. The e-books are free to download if you have a PassPorter's Club pass.
|
|
04-20-2004, 06:44 PM
|
#73
|
Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 9,619
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day ayt Sea!!
Tara, Looks and sounds like you guys had a blast! The pictures were so great, thanks for sharing your trip! Sheila
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 07:04 PM
|
#74
|
Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: connecticut
Posts: 547
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day at Sea!!
Tara
Your trip report was incredible I almost feel as if i went with you! I've said it before and I'll say it again Thank you Tara for being so thoughtful in sharing your trip with us. I'm sure that I can speak for so many others when I say that I thoroughly enjpyed every bit of it. I'm even sad that you're home. Every day I looked forward to your report! Thanks again Tara for letting us all cruise with you and your family and we didn't cost a bit!
Have a good nite Tara
MaryJane
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2004, 07:07 PM
|
#75
|
Community Rank: Adventurer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: connecticut
Posts: 547
|
Re: Our Royal Vacation!!! Day 2, Our First Full Day at Sea!!
P.s. Katie
Could that have been Cola instead of Corona that you were over heard ordering?  |
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
