Dreams do come true – our Med cruise! **Updated 6/30** THREAD 1 *COMPLETE* - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'm just catching up, and I have to say - WOW WOW WOW WOW. Your pictures are gorgeous! What a fabulous hotel, too. You have really done a lot in a short amount of time in Barcelona. I'm so impressed. Not a Mickey in sight yet (well, except in your dessert!), and I'm already bowled over by the magic.
Can't wait for more (especially since I know the Disney part starts soon)!
I can't believe you haven't even made it to the ship yet - lol.
I have a great picture of the three of us on the last night EXCEPT that your hair is covering half of Mark's face. The next one was good, just not as good. Send me a way to get it touch so I can share.
note to Mark - They sell "Shandy" in the grocery by my house. It lists lemonade as the ingredient but I am afraid it might be the wrong kind. If I get brave enough I might try it but I would be afraid that if it is wrong I couldn't get rid of the other 5 bottles.
When we came out of there, we carried on walking through the old town and down towards the Basilica de Santa Maria del Maria.
Palau del Lloctinent, recently refurbished
The church from a distance
I couldn’t resist taking a photo of these donkeys on a nearby building!
Then we headed up what Mark called “Museum Street” and he was right, it was home to Museu Picasso and Museu Textil.
We headed towards the parc de la Ciutadella. At this point, it was about 10.50 and I knew we would be cutting things perhaps a little close to get back to the hotel before 11.45, but I felt that I really wanted to see this and I knew that we would certainly be back in plenty of time to catch the buses, which weren’t due to start leaving until midday.
This place is lovely. It really reminded me of San Diego and Balbao Park, perhaps not surprising, given its Spanish influence.
We walked past the beautiful Museu de Geologica and down towards the zoo. When we got there, we headed back towards the hotel along the seafront and there was more great architecture to see here.
The cable car was finally running to Montjuic and one stop was outside our hotel, then of course we didn’t have time to go on it
We eventually made it back to the hotel by 11.45 and by now, the sun was really burning. I was very glad that for much of the walk back, we had been able to walk in the shade, otherwise I could easily have ended up a burnt mess.
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Chez, this Barcelona stop is really something! The churches (esp the Nativity scene) are breathtaking, and the red wine and pear Hidden Mickey dessert looks delicious and exotic---I'll have to look that up and have DH make it for me, I'm so intrigued! This is surely starting out as a trip of a lifetime, thanks for working the points and the books so that you could go and share it with us all.
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Saturday 27 May – part four: all I want is my Key To The World card!
When we got back to the hotel, the lobby was packed with people waiting for the buses to take us to the Disney Magic. We went up and picked up our hand luggage and then went down to get our Key to the World cards, but it was not to be. We were told that the cards weren’t there, which did annoy me, as that was part of the reason why we had gone for checking in her – to get the cards all sorted before we got to the port.
We went to sit down in the main lobby and eventually noticed that some people were getting on board one of the many coaches that were outside the hotel. No-one said anything, but we decided to go and investigate snagged our seats on the first bus to leave. The drive over there probably took about five minutes.
Our hotel and the cable car tower
Nearly there!
There was a great sense of anticipation, as we got closer to the Magic. It was all I could do not to break down in tears there and then. I really never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever see this beautiful boat in Europe or that we would be on it and now we almost were.
The scene that greeted us as we arrived
We went to go through security and we were told to show our Key To The World cards. Great, we don’t have ours, so what are we meant to do now? We eventually realised that we needed our cruise documentation and of course, they were in our hand luggage, safely stowed away, so I had to do some searching before I found that. We were quickly through security and fortunately they opened up another baggage screening machine just as we got there.
Then it was over to get our Key To The World cards. I’m glad they had at least one American Cast Member on duty, as the Spanish girl we spoke to really didn’t have good enough English to understand what we wanted. She kept asking for the document that we had handed in yesterday at the hotel. Finally, we were able to make ourselves understood and we got our Key To The World car. How good it felt to have those in our hands!
Next they take you through an area where you can book your shore excursions, spa treatments and kids’ clubs activities. As we’d done all that already, we carried on walking and had the obligatory photo before you board, this time in front of a map of Europe. I was very disappointed when the guy told me that he couldn’t a photo of us with our camera. Still, it doesn’t matter, as we eventually bought the photo anyway.
Then it was time to board the Magic. What a feeling and how great to see all the Disney touches everywhere with huge banners of France, Spain and Italy as we boarded. We were crammed, and I mean crammed, into the elevator and taken up to the floor. Finally we’re on board!
My first stop was the spa, so I could get my Tropical Rainforest for the duration of the cruise. It was $90, but then they had to add VAT and that brought it to $104. As a European, we can’t claim VAT (value added tax – a bit like sales tax in the US, but think a lot higher percentage! ) back either, which is a shame.
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I'm so impressed. Not a Mickey in sight yet (well, except in your dessert!), and I'm already bowled over by the magic. 
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Pixie Dust
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the pictures, Can't wait to hear what happens on the ship.
) back either, which is a shame. 
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