A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 5 September – part one: an indulgent early morning booking…
Today was the one day we had to be up early, and after being up late the night before too… great planning! Why? Well, that will become obvious shortly, as I think this may have been something I omitted to mention earlier in the trip report.
Anyway, the only thing open this early was Goofy’s Galley, so we headed up there, and it had a better selection than I was expecting.
As you can see, I didn’t do too badly…
The skies were distinctly darker today and it felt damp, with rain in the air, so eating out on deck nine just wasn’t an option. Instead, we headed back to our room for breakfast. The scenery outside was stunning…
Once we’d finished that, we didn’t have long, as we had a booking at 8:00am..... so we made our way over to the Vista Spa. Now a couple of days ago, we’d decided to book the couple’s choice spa villa treatment, which was a major indulgence, but something we’d both talked about doing, and liked the idea of. Let’s face it, you’re only 50 once, so why not?
We headed to the changing rooms, got changed, and were due to meet Sheila, who’d done my massage a couple of days ago, but I guess I must’ve been a bit quick for her, as she was nowhere to be seen. I headed into the Rainforest, as I thought maybe we’d agreed to meet there, but there was no sign of anyone in there, so I got a quick photo done…
… I came out, looked around again, and a minute later, found her. She took me through to the spa villa, and a moment later, Mark arrived as well. They went through what treatment we wanted. We hadn’t specified anything when we’d booked, and there did seem to be a bit of confusion over this, as we both knew what we wanted, the hot stones massage. Sheila did take me through something else, although I have no idea what it was called, but I told her I was good with hot stones.
Once we’d gone through that, we were taken through to the outer area, containing the Jacuzzi, and we were both given a foot and lower leg exfoliation, and we both commented how much better our feet and legs felt after that.
Once that was complete, Sheila and Neren, who’d be doing Mark’s treatment, left us alone, pulling down the blind, and no doubt getting the other room ready for our massages. We immediately headed into the hot tub, and it was a perfect temperature, nice and warm, as there was a bit of a breeze in there (one of the doors didn’t close 100% properly), but not too hot. It was just comfortable, and we soaked in there for a bit.
We had been warned that the Jacuzzi did have dips in it, and it certainly did. There was a section where water came in from a jet above, and trust me, you did drop down a fair bit in that. I was glad of the warning, shall we say?
Once the Jacuzzi shut off, we figured it wouldn’t be long before Sheila and Neren would be back, so we got off and dried off. Sure enough, not long afterwards, we got the knock on the door, and headed inside. Sheila and Neren headed outside to clear up, leaving us to get ready, which was a very nice way of doing things.
The massage was absolute heaven, although my legs and particularly my right knee are not in a good way, as that part of the massage wasn’t fun, it was pretty sore in places. 75 minutes later, we were both left to recuperate, and gingerly got to our feet.
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Why? Well, that will become obvious shortly, as I think this may have been something I omitted to mention earlier in the trip report. 
I headed into the Rainforest, as I thought maybe we’d agreed to meet there, but there was no sign of anyone in there, so I got a quick photo done… 
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