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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We headed down to the Main Dining Room a bit early for the Galley Tour, and we were glad we did! It was already filling up fast but we were put into the third tour group (you received a number as you walked into the area) Most of the tables by where you walked in were already taken, so we made our way to the other side of the area that was set up (to face the stairs instead of the tables) and got cozy. They were also handing out mimosas and OJ on the way in so I sipped on one of the cocktails while we waited.
The head of F&B came out and introduced his whole team and explained to us about how things work on the ships. There are of course numerous dining operations so there’s quite a large team, they get training materials from the CIA (I think it was, it might have been Le Cordon Bleu, but definitely a big name Culinary School) so that they can help people progress through stages. The color scarf they wear indicates how far through the training they have progressed, which was pretty cool to know! Once they got through the main spiel they started calling groups in for the tours one at a time in numerical order. For those waiting there was just a Q&A session so we don’t really know what kind of other cool information was revealed to those waiting once we left!
It was really neat to see the inner workings of the kitchens and they had some people demonstrating some prep work and they were all happy and cheerful to be there. After we were through the kitchens it was over! We headed to the “Port Shopping” demonstration in the theater that was about ½ over at this point, but the promise of free stuff and nothing else to do got us right on over there! It was kind of boring and dragged out, but we did walk away with coupons for a few things free and ideas of some free samples to check out during our time at Key West the following day!
Then we decided it was time to get some food for lunch! We decided we were NOT risking going into the Main Dining Room again and headed into the buffet area to eat at our own pace, plus we had now discovered the extra areas so we had more to choose from! We sat a a table with a surprise view too There were tiny little islands in the distance that the serving staff could identify, but I’d never heard of them before and of course have since forgotten what they were. But we were somewhere between Nassau and Key West
More yummy pizza
Our surprise view! Kind of scared me when I looked down!
fish & chips
Asian noodle station
View along the way
This time we opted to head back to our room for dessert, we had boxes of chocolate awaiting! The chocolate was SOOOO delicious and I can’t remember if I mentioned before but it was organic dark chocolate and mm you can just taste the difference when it’s something nice like that
The nice boxes we received
Chocolate bar
some of the dippers and clusters
I'm not sure if we did the chocolate immediately after lunch or after the Art Auction, but we definitely did get to enjoy some of it
So at some point before dinner we headed over to the Champagne Art Auction. I want to say it was at 1pm maybe? So it makes sense that we went straight from lunch and then headed for chocolate after We skipped the champagne and got cocktails from the bar instead as we wandered around and scoped out the art. No pictures from this though I found a "walk off" that I loved and snuck a prebid on there. The thing with these is you have to walk off the ship with them, and they are already framed, But honestly the prices were so low I decided I would make it work if I was able to get it. Cody loved a sculpture and sketch set but it was in the neighborhood of... TEN THOUSAND! Outside our price ranges for sure.
We settled into our seats with our bid cards and fresh drinks and let the fun begin! The drink I ordered this time I pretty much couldn't even stand a sip of so that was kind of lame But otherwise it was all fun! When my piece came up no one bid against me so I was able to get it! We saw lots of beautiful artwork go through including big names like Kinkade and Peter Max. At the end of the auction we set up an appointment to do the paperwork and pick it up and we were on our way!
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There were tiny little islands in the distance that the serving staff could identify, but I’d never heard of them before and of course have since forgotten what they were. But we were somewhere between Nassau and Key West 
We skipped the champagne and got cocktails from the bar instead as we wandered around and scoped out the art. No pictures from this though 
I found a "walk off" that I loved and snuck a prebid on there. The thing with these is you have to walk off the ship with them, and they are already framed, But honestly the prices were so low I decided I would make it work if I was able to get it. Cody loved a sculpture and sketch set but it was in the neighborhood of... TEN THOUSAND! Outside our price ranges for sure. 
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