Better late than..later?Western Sept 05/09 **Completed 02/17** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mike returned from his pedicure to find me relaxing on the verandah. Mike reported that the staff at the spa( who all seem to be South African beauties) were excellent. Mike's feet aren't the nicest after several minor surgeries so he was thrilled that I'd arranged for a pedicure. He was also supplied with a list of products that "might" help smooth out the scars. I think the cheapest of the 3 products was $79. Mike was also told that there was a spa villa available tomorrow afternoon . He was telling me all this villa info that the beauties has bestowed upon him. When he finally stopped I smiled at him and said" Did they tell you the price is over $300 or are the offering up a discount since it's still available with less than 24 hours to go? " He had to admit that the price is a bit steep for us and NO discount was being offered. I seriously need to take this man to a DVC presentation because he'd be signing on the dotted line in no time
Rachel arrived and decided that she wanted to go to see Plamen for dinner instead of hitting the buffet line or getting room service. I agreed to accompany her but warned that I may have to leave in the middle to get ready for Palo. We went to Animator's Palate found our table with a milk waiting and just put a hand on the seats when a CM came out of no where and said we were in the wrong spot. I was confused but she insisted that we were in the wrong restaurant. You should be in the same restaurant as last night. so we turned around red faced and headed to Lumiere's. I was some what annoyed when Rachel decided she'd have chicken nuggets and fries. Ummm, those are pretty available up on deck 9. Undetered she looked at me and said " mom, I can't know what the restaurant will be offering until I look at the menu" Right. Chicken nuggets it is. It was a struggle to get Plamen NOT to bring me anything even though I explained I was eating at Palos in a half hour. I stayed with Rachel until she ordered dessert but had to leave to change for Palo.
We showed up a couple of minutes early. The head CM told us we would be with Laci again and asked another CM to lead us to our table. The head CM then looked up and said " I trust it's okay with you to have Laci again. I replied " He was superb at brunch and he's easy on the eyes" This earned a chuckle from both CMs. The head CM rolled his eyes and said "oh, he knows it too". CM ushering us to our seat implored us not to tell Laci what we said or she'd never hear the end of it !
We were seated in an awkward spot in the restaurant. Right beside a couple that we seated with a window view. I could have easily reached over and plucked something off of his plate. This made for an uncomfortable dinner because you could not help but overhear EVERYTHING. So we curbed our conversation since we knew we'd be overheard but the couple beside were not slowed down in the slightest. It was the strangest conversation . At first we thought they were on a first date. I noticed that there were singles meets in the Navigator and thought maybe they'd met that way. He was blathering on about how Walt Disney was a great business man. He would say " do you know about the land Walt acquired in Florida ?" And she would say " School Me" to every question he would ask. Later he was complaining that he'd known her for 4 years but didn't know where she lived. Then finally near the end of the meal they were talking about how they'd decided to come on the cruise as friends but had started fooling around the night before and just who's fault that was and what were they going to do about it. Mike and I tried to keep our own conversations going just to try and stop from overhearing but the guy rarely paused for breath we were out matched. This really did effect our dinner, I was just uncomfortable.
We decided to split a pasta of the day for an appetizer. I sadly didn't make notes on what we ate but if Mike was willing to split pasta it was tomato based sauce and likely had meat in it. I do remember that we both enjoyed it. I had the beef tenderloin with Palo Signature Barolo Red Wine Sauce it was very good but I found the beef I had at Animator's Palate the first night was better. Mike swears he had fish but a look at a posted menu didn't ring any bells for him. Possibly it was a special as well. For dessert we ordered the chocolate souffle with vanilla sauce and Chocolate Amaretto Indulgence. Both were excellent but we preferred the Amaretto one. Mike also enjoyed a couple of glasses of red wine possibly the Barolo which Laci recommended . Laci provided excellent service once again and we tipped him accordingly.
Overall we preferred Palo for brunch but would certainly try to get reservations for both dinner & brunch on future trips. Enjoyment of dinner was impaired by being seated so close to another couple which I still don't understand since there were many seats that remained empty throughout our service in closer to the kitchen.
After dinner we wondered the deck for a few minutes to unwind and have a conversation that was filled with comments like " Can you believe he said that ? , that was so strange and I thought he'd never shut up! " That out of our systems we returned to our stateroom to meet Rachel and head out to Twice Charmed. We all really enjoyed the show. The actor playing Franco was wonderful. I know this seems to be most people's least favourite but I think it was my favourite. I managed a few flash off shots of the curtain call.
Rachel headed back off the club after the show and Mike and I strolled deck 4 then headed to our verandah to read and have a glass of wine. There was some thunder and lightning off in the distance that was wonderful to watch. Can't beat the warm ocean breeze and that lovely swishing sound the boat makes as it passes through the water. So peaceful.
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so we turned around red faced and headed to Lumiere's. I was some what annoyed when Rachel decided she'd have chicken nuggets and fries. Ummm, those are pretty available up on deck 9. Undetered she looked at me and said " mom, I can't know what the restaurant will be offering until I look at the menu" Right. Chicken nuggets it is. It was a struggle to get Plamen NOT to bring me anything even though I explained I was eating at Palos in a half hour. I stayed with Rachel until she ordered dessert but had to leave to change for Palo.
So we curbed our conversation since we knew we'd be overheard but the couple beside were not slowed down in the slightest. It was the strangest conversation . At first we thought they were on a first date. I noticed that there were singles meets in the Navigator and thought maybe they'd met that way. He was blathering on about how Walt Disney was a great business man. He would say " do you know about the land Walt acquired in Florida ?" And she would say " School Me" to every question he would ask. Later he was complaining that he'd known her for 4 years but didn't know where she lived. Then finally near the end of the meal they were talking about how they'd decided to come on the cruise as friends but had started fooling around the night before and just who's fault that was and what were they going to do about it. 
Mike and I tried to keep our own conversations going just to try and stop from overhearing but the guy rarely paused for breath we were out matched. This really did effect our dinner, I was just uncomfortable.
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