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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Ok...all photos uploaded! It is time for the trip report to begin! But first...a few words of explanation...
I wrote most of this whilst actually sailing--I took a half hour or so each night to type up my thoughts and experiences from the day. Now I'm going through for editing purposes (I used to be an English teacher...) and adding parenthetical 'POST CRUISE NOTES'. These are all things added by me here, now--POST CRUISE.
And now, without any further ado, here's 'Gem NYC to Bermuda--Day by Day'!
Do you know what is a bad idea? A backless stool on a cruise ship. I’m sitting in my stateroom (I’d call it a ‘cabin’ or even a ‘compartment’, though it isn’t as suffocating as I thought it would be—likely because I’m in here alone!) typing this on my tiny netbook on my tiny desk whilst sitting on afore mentioned backless stool. I’m forced to counter balance the rocking of the ship by leaning slowly from side to side in the opposite direction. I’m not sure if the martini tasting I just attended is helping or hurting this mission. But I really want to write up a trip report for this cruise, and I know that if I don’t do it now, I may never do it—or, more likely, I’ll do it poorly. Details tend to get lost as time goes on. So I’m writing at least every 24 hours…though I’ve been on board for more than 24 hours at this point—so I guess I already broke my own rule!
Which brings me to…yesterday!
Embarkation was super-easy. I understand why people like cruising—you literally don’t have to think (which is ideal when on a vacation!) Going through the check in process was easier than boarding a plane, and then suddenly I was on this ship full of people waiting to entertain me, clean up after me, and feed me—oh, and help take my money. Though honestly, it’s pretty easy to NOT run up a huge bill on board. Everything I need—other than wine (which I have been paying for)—is included. If I feel like a plate of French fries and some chocolate mousse at 2:00 in the afternoon—they have that. And, oddly, those two things are very close to each other.
Despite what I’d read online, all of the staterooms were ready for ‘occupation’ as soon as we boarded—and we boarded promptly at the designated time (noon). So after checking out my stateroom-cabin-compartment and stashing my few carry on belongings, I threw my camera around my neck and headed out to check out the ship.
(POST CRUISE NOTE: I had an inside cabin, as this was a solo trip and I wasn't really planning on spending a lot of time in the room. I found that an inside cabin isn't really that much different from a cabin with a window--the only other kind of cabin I've experienced. Because I can't see my husband and I ever paying for a balcony room, I will likely stick with inside cabins in the future. The room was spotless, my room steward was fantastic, and I even got occasional towel animals! Oh--and the bathroom was more than adequate. I wasn't expecting a full-sized shower, but was pleasantly surprised!)
Like all of the other cruise ship passengers, I decided make christening the buffet my first order of business. Not because I’m a huge pig or someone who feels the need to ‘get the most for my money’ by eating a lot (because, to be fair, this cruise was so cheap I’d only need to enjoy 10 meals aboard to ‘earn’ ALL of my money back) but because, well, I was hungry. I skipped breakfast in fear of having an upset stomach on the bus (because who wants that?) but once safely onboard, I felt I could safely eat. My cabin--#10007--was on deck 10 almost all the way forward. Thus, I discovered that the quickest route to the food was to walk up two flights of stairs, ending at the fitness center and spa, and then turning around to walk through the pool deck to access The Garden Cafe. At this time of day, the pool deck was empty...
And quite pretty, if I do say so myself. And I do. But food was my mission, and after perusing the offerings, I discovered the Indian food on the Asian station at the buffet.
Oh yeah! I love Indian food, and was thrilled to find it as an option in the buffet. It wasn't the best Indian food I've ever had, but it was pretty darn good (though the rice left a lot to be desired--oh well!) It had actual spice, which I love and is often lacking in a buffet environment. Honestly, after only one trip to The Garden Café, I can’t understand how anyone wouldn’t find SOMETHING they liked to eat on this ship. There were many options. To be fair, some looked better than others (you couldn’t pay me to eat that pizza—if you even insist on calling it pizza) but there really was a good variety of good-looking food. (POST CRUISE NOTE: After seven days aboard the Gem, I still maintain that the buffet is more than sufficient for breakfast and lunch dining. And I’m a huge food snob.)
By the time I finished my giant plate of surprisingly good lentils and eggplant it was time for the ship tour. It sounded like a good idea—a way to familiarize yourself with the ship. It was, I suppose—but I could have done that on my own without having to follow a giant group of people around whilst trying to understand a crew member with a very thick accent (though he was very lovable and personable, so I can’t complain!) Additionally, we didn’t have time to go everywhere on board—but he did point to many things that I was then able to return to later on. Which is how I spent the rest of the early afternoon, before the mandatory safety drill. Here are some photos from my explorations...
The Great Outdoors...
The jogging track (that I did not utilize )
More of the pools...
My favorite outdoor part of the ship, the adults-only area. Deck 13 all the way forward...
My favorite indoor part of the ship (along with Spinnaker and the Star Bar)...Magnums. Because this is where the trivia is!
The mandatory safety drill was actually not bad, because my muster station was in the (really very pretty) theater. So all I really had to do was sit in a comfortable chair for about twenty minutes before watching a two minute presentation on how to wear a life jacket (which I kind of find silly—trust me, if the ship is going down, I’m absolutely going to figure out how to don a life vest!)
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