W. Caribbean 6/13/09-6/20/09 on Magic **Completed** 6/27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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W. Caribbean 6/13/09-6/20/09 on Magic **Completed** 6/27
Pretrip
I try and write these TRs to basically reinforce all the great info you can get in Passporter. But I also like to try and help first timers and occasional Disney goers like ourselves. Its not that we don’t love all things Mouse, we just feel that all Mouse all the time just isn’t our thing. For those who do, more power to ya and thank you for sharing your experiences with us. This was our second DC, last time being a 4 day on the Wonder combined with 4 days at DWorld. Eight days was a little too much so we opted for a 7 day W. Caribbean on the Magic.
By way of introduction we had 4 Disney goers. Myself (good old dad), mom (always up for a great vacation), the boy(11 and still a closet Mickey fan) and the girl(8 and couldn’t wait to be in the Lab.)
I made reservations in Dec of ’08 and got a great deal on a category 6 room on deck 6 with a verandah. It was 6050 2 doors down from the stairs and “the Lab.” Couldn’t have been more pleased with the location. We were initially scheduled for the late seating but I was assured that we were wait listed for the main seating. For some reason unless you book directly through Disney it seems that this is a pretty standard issue. Within a few weeks as I continued to check on the DCL website it did in fact change over to a “main” or “early” seating.
The next issue was the kids clubs. For those of you who have never cruised or have only been on the Wonder, the ages of the clubs differ some on the Magic. I did not realize this until it was time to register online. Being a Castaway Club member does have its privileges and being able to register early is one for them. Take advantage of it. In other words after you get back from the first cruise DON’T throw away all the “stuff” you get from DCL. Keep it if you ever plan or think you might cruise with DCL again. The boy had just turned 11 and would have been still able to go to the Oceaneers Lab on the Wonder. But in filling the online registration out there was no where to register him only the girl. Say what? But as always the good folks here at Passporter let me know the scoop and so we had to prepare for Ocean Quest.
About registering online….do it. It will save you time and headaches later. Excursions, kids clubs, Palo…..do it early and online.
Then about three weeks before the cruise we get an email telling us we have been upgraded!! You must be joking right? Nope. We were now hobnobbing up on deck 8 in 8018. Right next to one suite and down the hall from the WD suite. Very cool. Did I mention register early?
I am not a big risk taker when it comes to vacation so I (we) decided to get to Orlando at least a day early. What to do with a Friday in Orlando in June? SeaWorld anyone? Pretty neat place. So we decided to go.
One last pretrip note. I am in the minority I know when it comes to transportation away from the airport. I am just not that good at waiting for people who aren’t ready to go the same time I am. If you are fine with that, use Disney’s transfer options and never load or unload those bags except in your room. We rented a car.
By the way, yes you are reading the day I posted this correct. I am writing this from my verandah overlooking the bluest water you will ever see!!
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