Our Valentine Cruise Pre Trip report - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great start! How disappointing to not be able to embark on your cruise when planned. I hope that Disney offered transportation to Epcot for those who didn't have their own cars with them.
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Well we check out of the hotel and head off to Epcot. By this time it is already after 10am and it is 50 or so miles from WDW so away we go. We always stay on property at WDW so it was strange driving to the parking lot at Epcot. We arrive catch a tram and head in to find out what we are supposed to do. So did everyone else who was supposed to be on the ship. This was our first of many long lines of the day. We had to go to a specific ticket booth to get our passes for Epcot and our giftcard for food. They gave us a 1 day park hopper and $15 per person on the gift card. I could tell while we were waiting in line that the park was busy. Let me back up a minute and tell you that it was not just the four of us on this trip, we were with a group of TA's and their families. We had 10 adults and 13 children. I was thakful I was not alone on this journey because my kids would have been miserable, but luckily they had new friends to hang with while we waited.
Our first mission of the day was to find food, but we thought hey lets try to get a fastpass for Soarin first, so I take our ticket and speed walk that way. I get into The Land and OMG was it packed. It was lunch time and I don't think you could have found a place to sit and eat if we had wanted to. Also the line at the FP machines was insane. I said let's not bother and we headed over to WS to see if we could score a place to eat. HAHAHA! "you don't have a reservation" Uh no we refugees from the Disney Magic. As we walked from place to place around WS we realized there was to be no table service to be had for lunch with the exception of Morroco. And with kids that was not going to happen. So we ended up at the American Adventure for lunch. While we were eating I called DCL again because they said they would have more info after 1pm. The message I heard was that the Disney Magic would not be sailing until Sun Feb 14th. ARGH!!!! Report to the Wonders of Life Pavillion at 2pm for more info. More info to come in the next installment. What would the info be? Keep reading and I will let you know. Thanks to all who are reading my TR. This is my first stab at it but with a crazy vacation like we had I definitely wanted to write about it. Stay tuned.
Whew! I'm trying to decide if the ticket and $15 dollars would be worth the crowd... maybe!?? Considering the circumstances of the ship, it sounds like a generous effort on Disney's part!
You certainly have my interest as to what happens next... and if you manage to get on Soarin', my fav!!
Sorry for the crowds. President's Day weekend really drew everyone in (my parents were down there for the month and said there was a big jump in crowds that weekend and the following week)! And sorry for the delay with the ship! Ugh!
So after we eat we head over to the Wonders of Life Pavillion. It is only about 2:15 and it was to open for us at 2:00. When we walk in there are people everywhere and we find out one person per stateroom needs to get in line and wait to see what will happen next. Well of cours being the Mom/TA/trip planner that was me. So we sent our husbands off with the children. Inside the building they had set up movies for the kids, characters were walking around free Mickey ice cream bars, popcorn drinks and such. Then I realize we are at the end of the line and we haven't even gotten to the cue yet. I am like OMG there are probably 500 people in front of us and the place had only been open for 15 minutes. Oh well I stay there and we chat among ourselves and the others in line with us. Most people had good attitudes but of course there were some that no matter what Disney did it was not going to be enough. My fellow travellers and I tried to get the men to take the kids out into Epcot and ride some stuff but the did not because the lines were so long for all of the attractions. So they waited and entertained the kids while we stood in line for over 2 hours, YES 2 HOURS! When we finally got to the front we were told what they were offering us. They put us up in a hotel for the night, $100 OBC per stateroom and $20 OBC per person in the stateroom plus a 20% refund on the cruise. At first they had our group split into different hotels but of course we protested a little and they waved a magic wand and put us all together in the same hotel. It was not a Disney hotel but it was really nice. I believe it was the Shingle Creek Resort, which was near Universal and Sea World. We had the one day hopper ticket and we planned to go to MK for the evening but do you think that happened. Stay tuned to find out.
Wow! That's a long line! Glad Disney put you and everyone else up for the night, but I find it very surprising that it wasn't at a Disney hotel. And I bet it was a nightmare for anyone that didn't have a vehicle! Hope you got to hop over to MK..
HURRY BACK WITH MORE!
It was a long line. I knew there were no Disney hotels available because I had tried to book clients a last minute trip that week and there was no availability. I was glad they were able to accomodate all of us.
Other than the hassle of the crowds and transportation issues, it sounds like Disney tried to make up for the lost day!
Hmmm... I'm thinkin' Wishes may have been just a wish...
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