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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Who: Me (Tara O) - lover of all things Disney and cruising!! Also a person who really, really, really wanted to go on the Disney Fantasy instead of this cruise but simply cannot justify this big of a price difference. {{{{{{SIGH}}}}}}
Muffin- A very happy person right now because we are saving three thousand dollars by switching up our cruise.
What: A week on the Oasis of the Seas
When: March 4th-11th
Why: We love to travel!!
So what happened to my resolve to go on a Disney cruise???????
Well, it all started on Sunday when we had our family Christmas party.....
Sean and Jane mistakenly assumed that the cruise we were going on in April was a Royal Caribbean one and I can certainly understand that because normally they would be right. I thanked them for the generous gift and figured I would use it eventually and stuck it in my dresser drawer.
I will say here that Muffin did ask me, just once, if I just wanted to take a look at the cruises from RCCL just to check them out but when I said no way, he backed right off and did not bring it up again.
I honestly didn’t give it another thought until today when I received a random email from Royal Caribbean and thought ‘ok, I will just take a look’. Well, the first cruise I looked at was pretty comparable to the Fantasy cruise on April 7th and my jaw honestly dropped when I saw that it was ALOT cheaper!! In fact, I could get a suite on the Oasis of the Seas for less than I had paid for a guaranteed 5E stateroom on the Fantasy!!
This made me look at some other possibilities and each and every one including a cruise out of Barcelona on a very nice RCCL ship was less than half the price. I mulled this over briefly, still wanting desperately to make the Disney Cruise work and decided that, as much as we love Royal Caribbean, I honestly could not justify the price difference.
Knowing that we could still get a full refund, I bit back my pride and cancelled the Fantasy cruise. Then I went downstairs to talk to Muffin. I simply said that I would like to switch our cruise to RCCL. He even asked me if I was sure before we began looking at possibilities. I told him it was a done deal and all we had to do now was find a replacement cruise.
We did look at the Barcelona cruise, which we both would have loved to have done again but the dates didn’t work. We looked at the cruise for the Eastern Caribbean the same week and were about to book it when Muffin came up with a different idea.
He asked me if I would mind going in March instead of April. He said he had to go back to Hong Kong at the end of April and could still do the week of the 7th, but it would give him more breathing room if we went in March.
I saw no reason to turn that offer down, so we began looking in March. Since we would to change our flights anyway, we really didn’t care if we went out of Port Canaveral or Ft. Lauderdale so we looked at both ports.
We also decided to switch over to the Western Caribbean instead of the Eastern because although we love both, we hadn’t done the Western in a while. We did see that the Oasis of the Seas is now leaving from Port Canaveral and had a Western route on both the 4th and the 18th of March.
We decided to go for the 4th because we felt like the 18th was cutting it a little too close to Spring break. We know it won’t be as warm as going in April but we usually go in January anyway, so that really doesn’t bother us! :
I plugged in the dates and there were still some decent rooms available but what really intrigued me was the guarantee balconies. They were around 400 bucks cheaper than the ones we could pick ourselves and for the amount of time we spend out there, we decided the difference could be a couple of nice dinners and a fun excursion. So that’s what we booked. Mind you, there is chance we could wind up with an obstructed view but again, the Oasis is so beautiful and has so many gorgeous spots to watch docking and sailing away from that we simply don’t care if we have to look at a life boat or not from our balcony!
I need to back up for just a minute because even though I said the Oasis was beautiful, I will tell you we have not been on it yet! We have, however, been on both of her sister ships; the Allure and the Harmony and this is truly our favorite class of ship!
We love the way the ships are broken up into neighborhoods. There are 7 distinct areas of the ship to explore and the layout is phenomenal! They are:
The Royal Promenade
Central Park
The Boardwalk
Pools and Sports Zone
Vitality of the Seas Spa
Entertainment Place
Youth Zone
The Youth Zone is the only one we don’t frequent! The others are awesome!
Also, for those of you who have read my previous cruise reports, you know we adore the restaurants on board! Muffin said since I saved so much money by doing this, I could book anything I wanted to and he would not complain!
The ports we are visiting are Labadee, Falmouth and Cozumel. We are going to look at excursions tonight and also dining options. All in all, I am super happy with our decision to do this cruise! I am slightly sad about the Fantasy, but money is money and we already know we love Royal Caribbean!!
What a great switch you have made and sounds like an incredible cruise! Now that you saved so much money on the switch you can use these savings on great dinners, excursions and most importantly in the on board casino!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I wish I had your loveof a different cruiseline. We’ve never had a good experience venturing away from DCL. We sure could cruise more often if the prices are that significantly different! I keep hoping Disney will price adjust when the new ships come out, but I have a feeling that won’t be the case.
Congrats on the new cruise - also seems timing will be better for Muffin.
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As you know, we are very happy RCCL fans as well. I adore cruising with Disney, but the cost coupled with the limited itineraries means we venture out. We've never sailed on the super big ships on either line, but I suspect we will some day. Our favorite group is the Adventure Class. Anything smaller just doesn't give us the variety we want. One day we will go bigger. I can't wait to hear about your journey.
What an awesome deal, especially since you already know you love RCCL!
It really was a great deal and we simply couldn't turn it down!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by purplegal
What a great deal, I am sure you are going to enjoy booking the restaurants.
It was and I sure will!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
What a great switch you have made and sounds like an incredible cruise! Now that you saved so much money on the switch you can use these savings on great dinners, excursions and most importantly in the on board casino!
We will Dave!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
That is an amazing saving! I know Disney's a lot pricier than other cruise lines, but wow... it sounds like you've definitely made the right decision.
I sure feel like we have, Cheryl!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
I wish I had your loveof a different cruiseline. We’ve never had a good experience venturing away from DCL. We sure could cruise more often if the prices are that significantly different! I keep hoping Disney will price adjust when the new ships come out, but I have a feeling that won’t be the case.
Congrats on the new cruise - also seems timing will be better for Muffin.
Thanks, Colleen!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Sounds like you made a good decision, and the RCCL ships are certainly very nice!
I think so too, Pam and they sure are!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
As you know, we are very happy RCCL fans as well. I adore cruising with Disney, but the cost coupled with the limited itineraries means we venture out. We've never sailed on the super big ships on either line, but I suspect we will some day. Our favorite group is the Adventure Class. Anything smaller just doesn't give us the variety we want. One day we will go bigger. I can't wait to hear about your journey.
You definitely need to try the big girls!! They are unbelievable!!
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I had to go to the orthodontist at 5:45 PM to get fitted for my braces. He made some molds and told me they would be in in about three weeks and that they would call me when they arrived. I still can’t believe I am getting braces!!
Also, on my way to the orthodontist, Sean called me to tell me that he was emptying the dishwasher and a wine glass broke and cut his palm. He wanted me to tell him over the phone what he should do and tried his best to describe what sounded like a little cut. . I told him to clean it up and put some neosporin on it and a bandaid and that if it didn’t stop bleeding to go get it checked out.
Anyway! When I got home from my appointment, we ate dinner and then went on the RCCL website. We plugged in our reservation and, sure enough, we were able to book things!!
We were able to get early dining at 5:30 PM. We like this time because we like to go and see the shows after dinner. We also booked a 3 night dinner package. We will be going to two of our favorite restaurants and on new one with this package. On the second night of the cruise, the first restaurant is picked for you. You just plug in what time you would like your reservation. The other two, you choose when you board the ship.
I printed out a copy of our itinerary and started by choosing nightly entertainment. There were six different shows available but not all were available every night so we had to work out which ones we wanted to see when. The broadway show is Cats, which we are very excited about!! The show is offered on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 7 of the cruise. We picked Day 2 at 9 PM.
From there, we picked Oasis of Dreams at 7:30 PM, which is a water show, on Day 1. This is very laid back and shown in the aqua theater outside in the back of the ship. It is a dive show and it is amazing to watch what these talented performers can do on the back of a moving ship!!
For Day 3, we are in Labadee. We chose the Headliner showtime at 8:30 PM. I have no idea what this will be and it is usually hit or miss, but when it is a hit, it is very good. We figured it would be worth finding out. We can always leave if it doesn’t work for us.
Day 4, we are in Falmouth. We have two evening events scheduled! We booked the comedy show at 8:30 PM and then the Prohibition Party at 10:30 PM. We did the Prohibition Party on the Allure once and loved it!!! One of the clubs is turned into a speakeasy and you get dressed up 20’s style. There is jazz music and dancing and special drinks. It even includes a raid!! It is truly a hoot!!
On Day 5, we have a Wine Tasting class at 2:30 PM and then a 7:30 PM show called Come Fly with Me. This is a Cirque like show and we love Cirque!!
For Day 6, we are in Cozumel until 6 PM and we wanted to leave the evening open.
Day 7, we booked the Bottomless Galley brunch at 10:30 AM, which looks really cool and then an ice show called Frozen in Time at 3 PM.
I am so pleased that we were able to work everything we wanted to do in so smoothly!!
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I told him it was a done deal and all we had to do now was find a replacement cruise.
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I know Disney's a lot pricier than other cruise lines, but wow... it sounds like you've definitely made the right decision. 
I can't wait to hear about your journey.
They are unbelievable!! 
. I told him to clean it up and put some neosporin on it and a bandaid and that if it didn’t stop bleeding to go get it checked out. 
One of the clubs is turned into a speakeasy and you get dressed up 20’s style. There is jazz music and dancing and special drinks. It even includes a raid!! It is truly a hoot!!
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