Four if by Land, Six if by Sea **Updated 2/23**COMPLETED - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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When Mary Devall discovered that I had taken Maddie swimming that morning while she was sleeping, she was adamant that Thom take her that afternoon. After sitting by the pool for a bit, I went back to the room to make sure that Thom was awake. He was, but he didn’t look in any hurry to go and retrieve Mary Devall. I offered to get her and found her in a boys vs. girls building contest. She was having a blast building a tower with foam rubber forms and insisted that we stay to see who had won. We collected her art work on the way out and then returned to the room.
After we returned to the room, Maddie began to wake up when Thom went into the bedroom to get his bathing suit. The food that my mom had ordered her from room service was cold by now, so I took her to get some pizza while Thom and Mary Devall went swimming.
Even though we were only one deck down from our destination, Maddie decided that she wanted to take the elevator. She must have had her character radar up because who did we see in the elevators when the doors opened, but Stitch and his character handler! She was so excited to have Stitch all to herself once again and he made the most of a one-floor elevator ride by playing with her! This was apparently a Stitch kind of cruise for Maddie.
She picked out a piece of cheese pizza and then we found a table with a good view of the big screen which was showing Toy Story. Maddie ate every last bite of her pizza before I suggested ice cream for her dessert. Of course, I had an ulterior motive since I wanted some too. We each got a little cup of ice cream and sat at a different table to finish it (we were making the rounds today ). Once again, I found myself tip toeing very carefully around Goofy’s Galley.
After Maddie’s second course, she decided that she was thirsty, so we got her some lemonade from the beverage station. We continued to wander around the deck and soon discovered some familiar people at one of the hot tubs. Mary Devall was still in the hot tub, but Thom was standing on the deck so we stopped and watched the end of Toy Story with him.
When the movie was over, Thom rounded up Mary Devall and we all went back to the room. This was what the concierge team left us this day - - an assortment of savory treats.
The girls had fun playing for a little while (mainly with the leftover room service food) before we got them ready to go back to the kids club. Maddie wasn’t entirely thrilled with the thought, but she was excited that Snow White was coming to see them.
While I took a shower, Thom took the girls to the club. When he returned, we took my dad with us to the concierge cocktail reception which was being held on the deck behind Beach Blanket Buffet. My mom decided to pass, so we were going to meet her later at Parrot Cay for dinner.
The funniest thing is when we took the aft stairs up one deck to deck 9 and heard children coming behind us. We were laughing and saying how funny it would be if that was Maddie’s group. When we got to deck 9, Thom looked down the stairwell and said “Maddie’s with them!” I swear that we must have looked like the Three Stooges trying to get out of the door and out of sight of Maddie.
When we walked around the side to the back deck, Thom noticed that the tables on that side were already set so we knew she would be eating on that end. Of course, we were the first people to arrive at the cocktail party, so we must have looked a little funny coming in and walking all the way to the opposite side of the ship. I had not had the pleasure of meeting Rufaro, the concierge manager, yet, so I was delighted when she greeted us. We explained to her that Maddie was going to be eating on one side of Beach Blanket Buffet, so she immediately suggested that we get a table more towards the middle.
Since we were first, we had our choice of tables so we picked one right at the railing for an unobstructed view of Atlantis. There was a drinks menu on the table, so when a server came by we were ready. I hadn’t had a sour apple martini yet, so it was an easy decision for me. My dad had a bit of a harder time deciding since he didn’t have his glasses again and had to depend on me to read the selections. He went with something with rum in it and had more than one, so he must have liked his choice!
My dad opted out of visiting the buffet, but Thom and I were the first ones up! I honestly remembered the coconut shrimp from the cocktail reception 3 years ago and prayed that they would have them again! Score one for me because they were there! I only selected a couple of the shrimp and a spring roll, so I did show some restraint. Thom, on the other hand, represented our family well.
We really enjoyed sitting there in such gorgeous surroundings sipping our drinks and chatting. Both Angeline and Rufaro visited us several times and they were such delights. Quite a number of other families did show up too, so we did have to share a little of the attention.
At one point, Thom and my dad visited the restroom and, when they returned, informed me that Mary Devall was now in Beach Blanket Buffet. Within minutes, Thom was receiving a page. My dad and I just assumed that it was Maddie, but Thom informed us that Mary Devall wanted to come with us once she saw them. One of the counselors informed her that they were going to watch High School Musical 3 after dinner, so that immediately made her change her mind.
After a few drinks, we decided that we should probably pull ourselves away and head down to Parrot Cay. We took the aft elevators (after looking like the Three Stooges again when we saw a little boy coming out of Beach Blanket Buffet with his parents and assumed that they were all coming out ) which deposited us right at Parrot Cay on deck 3.
Up next . . . our Pirate dinner . . . arrrrgggg!
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Sometimes words aren't needed . . .
Last edited by Jillybean; 02-13-2009 at 02:35 PM..
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Hiding from your own kids? Shame, shame. . . . (just kidding) Sounds like another great day. How lucky that on a ship as big as that, Maddie would keep running into Stitch!!
Whatever happens we must not let Melissa (mestitch) know that Maddie had PRIVATE time with Stitch as she will get MIGHTY JEALOUS as he is her favorite.
Great update!! Maddie sure is having luck with Stitch this trip!! I feel your pain about trying to stay out of sight!! Did that with Colin, and luckily he didn't see us!! More please!!
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See now with a teenager, I have to stay out of sight because Zack immediately thinks the coolness factor drops about fourteen levels if I'm sharing the same airspace with him. So cherish the days of having to avoid your children because if they see you, they want to be with you. It doesn't last forever! Can't wait for more, Jill!
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Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
All caught up again... great updates, Jill! What magical moments between Maddie and Stitch. I'm so glad you captured them on camera. The cocktails and food sound so awesome! (As usual, I find myself in the fridge after reading your TR!) Can't wait to hear about your Pirate dinner!
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We collected her art work on the way out and then returned to the room.
We each got a little cup of ice cream and sat at a different table to finish it (we were making the rounds today 
I swear that we must have looked like the Three Stooges trying to get out of the door and out of sight of Maddie. 
I had not had the pleasure of meeting Rufaro, the concierge manager, yet, so I was delighted when she greeted us. We explained to her that Maddie was going to be eating on one side of Beach Blanket Buffet, so she immediately suggested that we get a table more towards the middle. 
My dad had a bit of a harder time deciding since he didn’t have his glasses again and had to depend on me to read the selections. He went with something with rum in it and had more than one, so he must have liked his choice! 
I only selected a couple of the shrimp and a spring roll, so I did show some restraint. Thom, on the other hand, represented our family well. 
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