A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like there was definitely something going on and of course they have to downplay it if they can, to avoid a panic among the guests. Glad it didn't end up being anything too serious and it sounds like they took care of it pretty quickly.
I'm glad the head waiter stopped by to talk to you so you could give him feedback - the only way they are going to make things better is to listen to their guests.
Sounds like there was definitely something going on and of course they have to downplay it if they can, to avoid a panic among the guests. Glad it didn't end up being anything too serious and it sounds like they took care of it pretty quickly.
I was certainly panicked, even with them downplaying things...
Quote:
I'm glad the head waiter stopped by to talk to you so you could give him feedback - the only way they are going to make things better is to listen to their guests.
And that's one of the things we love about Disney - the fact they do listen to feedback and act on it.
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Glad you were able to get your tuna steak cooked the way you liked it. But you're right as the whole thing could have been avoided if the servers asked you in the first place. I like your idea of having a Frozen character meal on certain sailings. I'm sure they would sell out quickly. Sounds like you had an eventful night with all those alarms and announcements!
Beautiful photos leaving Vancouver and I am so glad the weather completely changed once the ship had sailed under Lion's Gate. Nice that you hit it off right away with your table mates. I do hope service from your dining staff is going to be better this cruise.
Glad you were able to get your tuna steak cooked the way you liked it. But you're right as the whole thing could have been avoided if the servers asked you in the first place. I like your idea of having a Frozen character meal on certain sailings. I'm sure they would sell out quickly. Sounds like you had an eventful night with all those alarms and announcements!
But just imagine how much money Disney could make on a Frozen meal!
Beautiful photos leaving Vancouver and I am so glad the weather completely changed once the ship had sailed under Lion's Gate. Nice that you hit it off right away with your table mates. I do hope service from your dining staff is going to be better this cruise.
Well, fortunately it was nowhere near as bad as on the Dream in February.
Wednesday 2 September – part one: I’m like Piglet!
We woke up about 5:30am, which I didn’t think was too bad, given the disruption last night, and the fact that the clocks had gone back an hour last night. Our clock in our room had already been done, I guess by our steward, but I ignored that last night when I said we went to bed at 9:00am, so actually we’d had something like nine and a half hours sleep, albeit a bit disrupted with the drama of last night’s events…
We were still rocking and rolling a bit first thing, although as we approached land, and started our cruise up the inside passage, it did get better. The scenery was once again stunning, and with the way the early morning sun was casting its light on the mountains, they looked like desserts, even though I knew they’d be filled with trees, and sure enough, a little later, you could see they were.
I went out on the veranda to get these shots…
… and the only word I can use for is bracing with a very strong wind! I was certainly awake after that.
We got ready, and headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast when it opened at 6:45am. I was pleasantly surprised by this place. Given the Wonder is now the last ship to have this still remaining, I was expecting it to be a very poor cousin to Cabana’s, but it was really nice. I thought it was more light and airy than I remembered, so maybe they’ve done some work to make it feel that way in the intervening four years since we were last on board.
I got some fruit, cheese and salmon…
… while Mark got some eggs and corned beef hash:
We were deliberately keeping our meal light, given we had Palo for brunch at 11:00am, and we needed to be hungry for that. It was interesting that here you can select your own food from the buffet, as that practice has been stamped out on both the Magic and the Dream, and crew members serve you, rather than letting you do it yourself, which is certainly a more hygienic way to do things.
After we’d finished eating, we went for a stroll on deck 10, but my goodness, it was a very quick one, because what you can’t tell from these photos is how strong the winds were. I was like Piglet, being blown around, and at one point I was struggling to hold the camera straight for any portrait shots.
I was very relieved to get back inside and head back to the room. We checked out what was happening in the world, getting the biggest Internet package we could, and then watching with alarm at how quickly it seemed to disappear. After checking emails, posting updates on the boards and Facebook, we appeared to have used something like 130mb…
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When we were on the Magic last summer, we served ourselves at Cabanas, except for a few special stations.
The sky looks beautiful and I love your shots of the morning skies and the light on the mountains.
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it was really nice. I thought it was more light and airy than I remembered, so maybe they’ve done some work to make it feel that way in the intervening four years since we were last on board. 
It was interesting that here you can select your own food from the buffet, as that practice has been stamped out on both the Magic and the Dream, and crew members serve you, rather than letting you do it yourself, which is certainly a more hygienic way to do things. 
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