A DREAM is a wish your heart makes – a First-time Cruise pre-trip report complete On the cruise ! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I'm enjoying reading your PTR & hearing about your family & the fun things you guys are doing since we live 45 min from each other. We'll be hitting up the new outlet mall this weekend! Great per cruise plans!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I didn't know you were getting to see Cam and Luke, that's exciting!!!
The plans sound good and chilling at AKL is exactly what we did after our Dream cruise. Never missed the park at all...........well OK, maybe, but not realy. Did you check on the storyteller times by the campfire? We tried to do that, but it must have been cancelled because a bunch of us were sitting around waiting for it and it never happened. The kids didn't mind because they were off looking at zebras
Wow! Only just caught up with this and it has been such fun reading it all. Your movie and dinner ideas are awesome! Our boys will be very similar ages when we cruise next December so I cannot wait to hear all about the cruise! Happy planning.
Jo
Welcome and thanks for reading!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Good luck shopping this weekend!!
Thanks! We got some good stuff - that'll I'll share later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneLittleSpark
Plans sound great!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mfirst
What great updates and plans so far! How did the book report go? Patrick just brought home his first night's worth of homework.
Here's a Kindle Fire tip you may already know - the plug to recharge? It's the same size as a standard Verizon cell phone (non-I phone). When we travel, I take my phone cord and our car charger for our phones so I can alternate between the Kindle and the phone. Also, if you leave the wi-fi setting off unless you're using it, it will make the batteries last longer - especially helpful on a long car trip
The book report went fine. This was a 'picture' book report so he had to draw a picture of the beginning, middle & end of a book. Next up is an opinion book report due the end of next month.
And I did know that about the Kindle as that's how Mike charges his phone - with his Kindle charger. We usually turn the wi-fi off when the boys play with it anyway - don't want them buying a car or something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
Your pre-cruise days sound fun - except driving down - yuck - too long.
I bought a Kindle in the spring and Evan loves it. I bought him kid size ear buds, best investment and a shock absorbing cover. It is soft foam that fits around the kindle, not a case but much more protective to drops . You can search on Amazon, both well worth it.
I'm taking Evan to Legoland on our next visit so you'll need to pass along any great tips. I'm afraid if we don't do it this trip he will outgrow it by our next visit. Evan got TOTALLY into Lego lasts year and since Dylan is a year younger than Evan - that sounds about right. I don't think they can really follow the instructions or have the dexterity to make them until they are about 5-6 years old. Let’s just say last year was a very "Lego" Christmas and Birthday.
How is Dylan doing in school so far?
Legos are getting pretty popular here too - Dad sure enjoys that.
Dylan loves school! It sure wears him out though - doesn't take long for him to fall asleep anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheyenne
I'm enjoying reading your PTR & hearing about your family & the fun things you guys are doing since we live 45 min from each other. We'll be hitting up the new outlet mall this weekend! Great per cruise plans!
The mall is really nice (well the one is; Taubmann apparently not so much) so I hope you enjoy it. We'll have to try to plan something to do together in our fine city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linnynad
I didn't know you were getting to see Cam and Luke, that's exciting!!!
The plans sound good and chilling at AKL is exactly what we did after our Dream cruise. Never missed the park at all...........well OK, maybe, but not realy. Did you check on the storyteller times by the campfire? We tried to do that, but it must have been cancelled because a bunch of us were sitting around waiting for it and it never happened. The kids didn't mind because they were off looking at zebras
I'm excited to see them again! I think hanging out will be fun. We'll be at Kidani, but if Jambo has something more interesting we'll take a stroll over there.
Finally caught up....I so love all your movie and dinners, they are just so cute and what a fun way to get excited for the trip. Love your before cruise plans...this year we had a late flight on our way home so our last day we did nothing but relax at the resort and Angel and my neice participated in a whole bunch of fun activities, they did cookie decorating, face painting, story-telling, then we all did the Culinary Tour, and all three girls did some animal thing, funny how the CM had a whole crowd when they started and slowly people started filing away, like they saw the animals and then they left - my girls, they were so facinated I think the CM ended up sitting and talking with them for almost 20 minutes after the scheduled time was over.
YEAH for BLT waitlist coming through. That will work out so perfectly with your MNSSHP - we did EMH the night we stayed there and we loved the ease of walking back to the resort.
Walk was not bad at all - don't remember maybe 5 - 10 minutes depending on how little the legs are that is doing the walking
Finally caught up....I so love all your movie and dinners, they are just so cute and what a fun way to get excited for the trip. Love your before cruise plans...this year we had a late flight on our way home so our last day we did nothing but relax at the resort and Angel and my neice participated in a whole bunch of fun activities, they did cookie decorating, face painting, story-telling, then we all did the Culinary Tour, and all three girls did some animal thing, funny how the CM had a whole crowd when they started and slowly people started filing away, like they saw the animals and then they left - my girls, they were so facinated I think the CM ended up sitting and talking with them for almost 20 minutes after the scheduled time was over.
YEAH for BLT waitlist coming through. That will work out so perfectly with your MNSSHP - we did EMH the night we stayed there and we loved the ease of walking back to the resort.
Walk was not bad at all - don't remember maybe 5 - 10 minutes depending on how little the legs are that is doing the walking
Thanks Meg! Although I may admit that I'm looking forward to just going back to pizza or chicken nuggets on Friday nights.
Dylan's going to love watching the animals at AKL - he loves going to the zoo and will spend a good amount of time just watching them if you let him.
I'm thinking we may just rent a stroller at both Legoland and for MNSSHP - I don't see it fitting in the car. So either they'll have to walk or Mike & I will have to find the energy to carry them back.
Thursday was movie night as Fri-Sun was just too busy (I explain in a minute). The theme was Lion King and we had:
Ants on a Log, Chicken Legs, Potatoes with Afritude (from Boma), African Smoothies (from AKL club level lounge), Zebra Cakes
So the weekends are just getting busier & busier! Thank goodness this holiday weekend isn’t too bad. Here’s a taste of all that’s going on:
Wednesdays Lukas has soccer @ 6pm (starting this week)
Fridays Dylan has soccer practice @ 6pm (started last week), but could change days
9/7 – Dylan’s first soccer game
9/14 – Dylan has a game
9/15 – get together with friends & their families we haven’t seen in a few years (we all have multiple boys!)
9/21 – Lukas’ 3rd birthday; Dylan has a game in the am
9/22 – Dylan has a game at 1pm; nephew’s 1st birthday @ 3pm
9/28 – Dylan has a game in the am; Disney on ice @ night (Boys’ birthday celebration from us)
9/29 – Dylan has a game; FiL’s bday is today
10/5 – Dylan’s 6th birthday; going to Grant’s Farm for Dylan’s bday and to meet up with Melanie, her Mom & Meri while they’re in town
10/6 – Dylan has a game
10/7 – Junior Achievement starts for me
10/9 – we leave!
Above is pretty much all the weekend stuff. Monday – Friday is work which we don’t get home until after 5 now that I pick up the boys from 2 different places. Plus themed dinner & movie nights are supposed to happen somewhere too, but if soccer practice continues to be on Fridays I’m not sure when they’ll be put in. Enough of the pity party.
I did get some stuff done for the trip this weekend. I found the boys Jack Skellington shirts at the new Disney outlet. Yep went to the Grand Opening Saturday morning – got my free Mickey ears. J I had gotten Mike & I each a shirt a few weeks ago at the regular Disney store in the mall, but they didn’t have any kids, so I was happy to spot them as soon as I walked in the store. There’s a Vera Bradley store there too and the whole store was 50% off so I got a new purse (to use at Disney) and a little id wallet for the cruise. And of course I have to try them out and am currently using both. J My final purchase that day was new shoes for the boys at Adidas – got them both pairs for $32 together!
That night we visited with my family and I got crafty. I made a seatbelt pillow for Dylan. Now that he’s in a booster and just a regular seatbelt he’s constantly falling forward when he falls asleep. He’s seen the Pillow Pets on tv and I wasn’t about to buy one of those so after a few google searches I figured I could handle one. I had everything (Mom provided the Velcro) so I whipped one up while at their house and he used it that night & last.
Sunday I went through the travel box and organized all the contents – putting things aside and in bags for the boys for stuff to do in the car. I had a good size tub full of happy meal toys that were never opened so I divided those and put in cinch bags for a grab bag type thing when they get antsy in the car too. Then we went to Mike’s parents to swim since it’s gotten hot finally. After that I made us our shirts for the day we board the Dream.
I’m really tempted to get out the suitcases this weekend too. At least to start putting things in there that we’ll need but won’t need until we go.
Another great theme night dinner! You have a more-than-busy fall ahead. I can't believe Lukas starts soccer so young. That's going to be fun to watch! The pillow for Dylan in the car looks perfect. Juliana uses a booster but doesn't seem to fall forward when she sleeps. She's quite a bit taller than Dylan, so maybe that makes a difference. Love the shirts for boarding day. Can't wait to see the photos!
My daughter could have used that seatbelt pillow when she was younger. Love it and the Mickey/pirate themed shirts for boarding. You'll have a great boarding photo. Also love the Jack Skellington t-shirts especially the one made of little Jack heads.
Wow! you sure are busy but it'll make the time speed by which is great.
Busy, busy! Love the shirts for boarding! Nice job. I noticed you got the bags "for Disney and the cruise"... as long as it's for Disney or the cruise, it's a legitimate expense!
I love the Jack Skellington shirts!
I went back and showed Lauren all your themed dinners. She was so amazed at all the things you came up with. She thought your dinners were cool! She asked if we could do something like that for our trip in May, maybe after the first of the year.
Your weekends sound like my weekdays right now. Lauren is playing volleyball and have games twice a week and Maddie is playing softball and has games 3 days a week. Two days they are the same days and a little time difference, so I am running all over the place trying to make a little of both games. Whew, I have been tired the past week and a half. Then since I am a tax accountant, it is extension time, so I have to work Saturdays and possibly Sundays, so no rest for this lady!
At least you being busy will hopefully make the time fly by!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
. We'll be hitting up the new outlet mall this weekend! Great per cruise plans!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
PassPorter Guide Author
Love the shirts for boarding! 
Liz 
for 6 weeks!
Linear Mode
