Go on take the $ and Run 15th Anniversary Trip, Saratoga Springs & DCL Wonder May 15-21, 2009 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thanks so much for your encouragement everyone. Sorry it took so long for the next update.
Day 2 – Sunday, May 17, Disney Wonder
We woke up, packed, dropped our bags off with bell services and headed to Olivia's at Old Key West for breakfast. Back at Saratoga Springs we waited quite a while for the DCL transfer bus, which was running late.
I can't complain too much though. It was another beautiful day. The weather people had been predicting a storm every day, and so far they'd been wrong.
There were a few other people waiting for the bus as well. One volunteered to take a picture of us.
Finally we were on our way. I was so excited that the bus finally arrived that I forgot to take a picture of it.
We pulled up to the port terminal just before 2:00pm, checked in, boarded, and sprinted to Pluto's Dog house for the Fish Extender meet at 2:30. We met the group and the organizer gave us the list of room numbers.
Afterwards we went to the rooms to drop off our carry-ons before heading to Beach Blanket Bingo for a quick late lunch,
then it was back to the rooms to dress our door and prep for the Boat Drill.
Thankfully the drill didn't take too long and we were soon back in the cabin to rest for a bit before the Adventures Away Party at the Goofy Pool.
We had arranged a quickie Passporter meet at the party on deck 10, Port side. Unfortunately I was only ever able to find one of the families. So as an aside: Hey you other families out there, you know who you are, I still have the magnets I made for you. If you want them let me know!
We had early seating for dinner so after the party it was pretty much straight to dinner. We were anxious about who our table mates might be. We'd never before dined with strangers for several days in a row but figured it could be fun or it could be awkward, depending on the match up.
Tonight was the Parrot Cay rotation which is one of my favorite meals.
Our servers Banjo and this nice lady. It's been so long that I forgot her name.
We were led to a table for eight, where we met the two other couples who were to be our table mates: Mike & Irene, and Bonnie & Jim. Supposedly there were four couples assigned to the table, but one of the couples never showed all four nights (They must really like Pluto's or the buffet?) Turns out we were all celebrating our Anniversaries, 30 years for Mike & Irene, 25 for Bonnie and Jim, and 15 for us. We all wondered whether maybe the missing couple were celebrating their 20th Anniversary?! That would have fit nicely.
After dinner we went to Studio Sea for “Who Wants to be a Mousketeer?” Sadly, I didn't get chosen, but it was still fun to watch.
Next was the Golden Mickeys, my favorite of the evening shows. Theo missed it on the last cruise so this was his first time seeing it. Of course, the fact that its my favorite wasn't enough to keep me awake for the whole thing.
After the show we went to Wavebands for the adults-only evening entertainment. Tonight was “Match Your Mate.” Our table mates Bonnie and Jim were one of the three couples chosen to participate.
It was really fun, due in no small part to Pikey, the castmember who ran the Wavebands entertainment, who is a funny and talented MC.
I hope he's working on my next cruise.
Finally around midnight or so we dragged ourselves off to bed.
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I've been so darn busy that I've come to terms with the fact that I just don't have time to write up a detailed report of the last few days of the cruise. So rather than leaving all of you hanging I thought I'd at least put the remaining pictures up with a few comments here and there.
May 18, Nassau
From our stateroom porthole:
May 20 - Castaway Cay
The forecasted bad weather finally caught up to us. On Castaway Cay day! boo! hiss!
I got my poncho and braved a look around. Almost as soon as I got off the ship the pouring rain slowed down to a sprinkle. So I was able to get a lot of great pictures of an almost deserted Castaway Cay.
I was not going to be deprived of a FAB and a hammock at Serenity Bay!
Microseconds later the hammock uncermoniously dumped me and my FAB into the wet sand. I've never been very coordinated and using a hammock is harder than it looks!
I moved to a much safer beach lounger:
Then the sky started to get really dark
Then it started POURING!
I went back to the ship and had a nap. In the afternoon it stopped raining and the sun come out a little. Sadly, our parasailing was cancelled, so we rented bikes and toured the island.
Pirate night:
Requisite ridiculous pictures:
Karaoke night: Theo's a good singer but I don't know why they allowed me to get anywhere near a microphone!
May 20 - Last Day
Our anniversary celebration cake:
On the way back to the room to pack after the evening festivities in Wavebands.
This part I have to mention. We went to the DVC presentation and won the $500 shipboard credit doorprize. We've never been that lucky before!
Hopefully the start of a trend.
May 21 - Going home.
The DCL transfers to MCO
That's it for this trip. We're now counting down to Jan 2011 for Our Mexican Riviera Revisited Cruise.
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) Turns out we were all celebrating our Anniversaries, 30 years for Mike & Irene, 25 for Bonnie and Jim, and 15 for us. We all wondered whether maybe the missing couple were celebrating their 20th Anniversary?!
That would have fit nicely.
That would have made up for the bad weather, I think.....
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