What is dis embarking (is that a word) like?? - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I know my Disney cruise says we disembark at 8am. What does that mean?
Do we all get off the ship at the same time? Do they retrieve your luggage and you pick it up at a terminal like an airport? Do all the restaurants close promptly at 8am? What should I expect?
The night before you'll pack everything except a carryon. You'll have to fill out a form claiming what you purchased while out of the country. Then in the morning you'll have an assigned breakfast time, in the restaurant you dined in the night before. From there you'll make your way to leave the ship, where you'll join the other people in retrieving your luggage (they will have tagged it with Goofy, Minnie, etc to make it easier to find - think of it as a Disney World parking lot for your luggage ). You, your family, and your luggage will join the line and wait to see a customs official. It's actually a very simple process, evn though it sounds complicated! After customs you'll head out the door to find your car in the lot, catch you shuttle, etc. have a great time!
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Looking forward to another Christmas with The Mouse!!
Also, not everyone from the entire ship gets off at the same time. It's a steady flow of people from when the ship is cleared to let people off until the make the final "everyone off!" announcement, so the lines usually aren't horrendous at customs. Most people eat at their assigned breakfast times and then get off, some people who have flights to catch get off right away, some people who want to sleep as long as possible wait until the very end.
In case you are disembarking from the NYC-based port, it was a little different from Port Canaveral. You ate during your assigned time and then went to one of the lounges to wait until they called your group -- based on the character tags in your stateroom. There was also an option if you had an early flight, etc. but that wasn't me this time.
Disney does crowd control really well I can tell you that we ate our farewell breakfast at 8AM, the people who ate at 6AM were already off the ship. I was off the ship and at Orlando airport by 10:30AM...not one complaint to be had!
In case you are disembarking from the NYC-based port, it was a little different from Port Canaveral. You ate during your assigned time and then went to one of the lounges to wait until they called your group -- based on the character tags in your stateroom. There was also an option if you had an early flight, etc. but that wasn't me this time.
Thanks for the NYC info. We don't catch our bus until 1 PM so we are not in a hurry to get off.
Disembarkation is the Disney way of saying, "get off the ship we have new people coming on". But in a very non-threatening, "magical" way!
Your breakfast time will be assigned based on your dining time, or you're welcome to hit the buffet at your leisure. They basically want everyone off asap though. You need to be out of your stateroom by 8am so don't plan on eating breakfast then going back into your room to pick up your luggage (if you're carrying it off yourself). They steam clean the carpets in the hallways in the morning of debarkation.
It's a very organized process and will all be explained to you in the debarkation letter that will be in your room at turn down the night before. There's also a channel on the stateroom TV dedicated to the debarkation talk. We avoid that channel, it's depressing...we never want to leave the ship!
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). You, your family, and your luggage will join the line and wait to see a customs official. It's actually a very simple process, evn though it sounds complicated! After customs you'll head out the door to find your car in the lot, catch you shuttle, etc. have a great time! 
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