A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 4/23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 21 December – part four: we learn the flaw of the massage cabanas…
We headed down to Serenity Bay, seeing the manager of Palo, Sheldon, their sommelier, and Florian the sommelier from Remy, which was a bit surreal , and Mark grabbed a sun lounger with shade above it. I joked that we’d be more likely to need it to protect us from rain than the sun – many a true word spoken in jest…
Once we’d put our stuff down, as it was deserted, we waded down to the water’s edge, and paddled in the Atlantic for a couple of minutes, but as always, it was freezing cold. We were amazed to see people snorkelling in it, and I also saw a woman wade out to her waist in it. thanks – that’s far too cold for me to do that.
As you can see from these photos I took when I got back to the sun lounger, the weather was certainly looking ominous… and it was pretty windy.
We saw there for a while, then a couple from Ohio turned up next to us, who were nice enough, except they smoked, something I really cannot stand. When he lit up a cigar, I went to the bar to get a drink. I got Mark a Sprite and grabbed an Island Navigator for myself, which consisted of Frangelico, Amaretto, Pina Colada and ice cream. Oh my goodness, it was so good! It was ironic that I knew just about everyone in the bar, as they were all from Palo or Remy…
I sat there for about 15 minutes, just watching the world go by…
.. and watching the waves crashing on the breakwater.
As you can see, the sky was still looking quite ominous at this point… I headed back to the sun lounger a few minutes before we had to go and get our massage, and wouldn’t you know it, the woman lit up a cigarette which hastened our departure back to the massage cabanas. There we were met by two women, who were finally able to do the couples’ massage.
We headed to the beach huts they use for these, and it looked amazing, and so peaceful when we walked in. How about this for a paradise scene?
Now please pay particular attention at this stage to the gap you can see in between the roof and the wall. This will become much more important as our story takes shape over the next few minutes.
We were left to get undressed, which was a slightly unnerving experience, as there are windows that are open either side of the cabana, and at the front, although in truth, I think someone would only see you from the front, and they’d need to know where to look, get in the right spot, and have binoculars, and I’m sure that the vast majority of people on Serenity Bay wouldn’t be interested in that type of hobby…
Our two girls came back in, and started their massages on our backs. I have to be honest, even though I knew it was a Swedish massage, it was a bit heavy, but nothing I couldn’t handle, when she asked me about the pressure.
About 10 or 15 minutes in, after lying there, enjoying the massage and hearing the waves crash on the shore outside, suddenly we heard another sound. It was like something beating on the tin roof and I asked “is that rain?” and they told us it was. Oh boy! It got heavier and heavier, and I was very glad we were inside, and not outside, as I could imagine everyone running for the bar. I started to feel some drizzle on my back, which wasn’t unpleasant, then it started to get a bit heavier, so they closed the windows up.
However, still the rain came… what the heck? That’s right – it was driving in through the gap between the wall and the roof, and it was now pretty much becoming torrential. The girls covered us up, but I could feel the rain pounding down on us. Neither of them had seen anything like it. I felt that it would probably go on for some time, and they agreed. They told us that we could reschedule for back on the ship.
I grabbed the blanket, and tried to move away from the opening, as pretty much the only dry part of the cabana was at the back, which is where the rain wasn’t reaching. Now if any of you have had a massage, you’ll know that at all times, they look to preserve your modesty, as they don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, and don’t want you expose anything you shouldn’t but to be honest, as it was two women, I was past caring. I just wanted to get into a dry spot. I grabbed my top and threw it on, along with my capri pants. It would only be later that I’d realise that they were on inside out such was my haste.
With us both now fully dressed, and at the back end of the cabana, pretty much shielded from the rain, at least we were in a better position. The girls kept ducking out to see what was happening, and what to do. I told them in no uncertain terms I was not leaving the cabana until I knew a tram was coming, and we’d just missed one. They told us to take the blankets that had been used to cover us, and the towels in there, and they took us down to their reception kiosk, throwing out the Cast Members who were sheltering there.
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, and Mark grabbed a sun lounger with shade above it. I joked that we’d be more likely to need it to protect us from rain than the sun – many a true word spoken in jest… 
We were amazed to see people snorkelling in it, and I also saw a woman wade out to her waist in it. 
thanks – that’s far too cold for me to do that. 
It was ironic that I knew just about everyone in the bar, as they were all from Palo or Remy… 
which hastened our departure back to the massage cabanas. There we were met by two women, who were finally able to do the couples’ massage. 
That’s right – it was driving in through the gap between the wall and the roof, and it was now pretty much becoming torrential. The girls covered us up, but I could feel the rain pounding down on us. Neither of them had seen anything like it. I felt that it would probably go on for some time, and they agreed. They told us that we could reschedule for back on the ship. 
such was my haste. 
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