DREAMing of a Disney spring break COMPLETED - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 am a little late finding this part of your TR but want to be able to catch up later. So far so good. That ship looks amazing. Can't wait to hear all about your time on her!
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here:
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Love all your pictures! Hoping to one day take a Disney Cruise, really curious how they handle special needs kids and what the handicap staterooms are like. I will have check it out. Can't wait to read more.
I'm sure if it's anything like everything else Disney do, they'll be amazing on that front.
Wow! I don't know what else to say but wow! It's beautiful in a museum type of way and yet it looks so approachable and relaxing! It's absolutely wonderful how they've incorporated technology to make the ship/cruise even more interesting and entertaining!
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Friday 15 April – part four: Stitch, what are you doing?
We explored for a little while, before splitting up. Mark went back to the room, as he wasn’t feeling great, while I headed for Senses and went to enjoy the Rainforest for an hour and a half.
The changing area
It was so wonderful to just chill out and relax in there. I did just about everything – most of the showers, the saunas, the hot tub overlooking the ship next door and of course the hot stone chairs. I think I was on those about 40 minutes and I’m sure I fell asleep a couple of times as well.
Finally, I got up and got moving and had a shower and washed my hair, before heading back to the room.
By the time I got there, it was nearly 1.30pm and I was a bit disappointed to find that the Royal Palace stopped serving lunch then, as I fancied trying it for lunch. Oh well, what else to do except get stateroom dining? I got a four cheese pizza and Mark got a Caesar salad:
It was just what we needed to keep us going and gave us the strength to head out to explore the ship a bit more.
We started off with 687 on deck four. We’d been told to check out the restrooms by Evolution, as they’re amazing – and they are!
We had learnt on the tour this morning that this was the name given to the Dream when it was being constructed in Germany and, although it’s a sports bar, it’s got photos of that construction throughout it.
We went into the Skyline Lounge next and saw the Hong Kong skyline. However, all I’ll say is don’t look too closely at the boats on the water, as you might just notice that they don’t look that realistic... we suspect they were superimposed. Some bob up and down more than others...
We wandered around deck four....
Then we found ourselves by the art gallery. While there, we saw a couple of photographers and then found out why – the princesses were just coming out to do photos.
A deck higher however, we sighted Stitch and headed up there to see him. My goodness, we had some fun with him. Do not ask me what he was doing, but as you can see, he ended up on the floor and needed Mark’s help to get back up again!
The ship is just so amazing! How funny that Stitch ended up on the floor, very silly. The more you talk about the spa, the more I want to be there right now. LOL Sounds absolutely heavenly.