Come sail away, Come sail away, Come sail away with me TR Completed 2/8/2012 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
So Josie and I take off to see Believe, along with Duffy Bear. We again, find one lonely seat and take it with Josie sitting on my lap and the show gets started. I have to pause here for a minute though……while we were getting back on the ship from CC I noticed 2 girls walking ahead of us in just their swimsuits. No bags, towels….nada. The one girl looked so small and I said to Arnaud that she must be a character like maybe Minnie or Mickey or something. He of course was all like whatever, but I knew with them carrying nothing with them they had to of been a CM or something. Well as it turns out, I was correct; she was the lead girl in the show. See that, I do know what I was talking about.
The show was great and I was really enjoying it ( despite all the rocking of the ship because now we were moving at full speed) But of course, Josie turns and said she is tired and wants to go up to bed.
We left the theatre and started to walk back to our room and the ship was so quite with nobody around. We happened to be walking past the gift shop when we spotted Oksana again. She bent down to remind Josie of just how special her Duffy is and to take extra care of him.
Once back in the room Arnaud told us that Tinker bell had dropped by to drop something off. Our pillowcases signed with everyone’s autographs!! They were adorable and I have them down in the kid’s playroom for them to snuggle and play with. I love them!!
Josie got settled into bed and I finished a little more packing and again “rearranging “of the bags. Once I got into bed I turned the TV on. Now I have noticed during the cruise that they will show whatever show is going on in the showroom on the TV’s. It’s not live, but a recorded version. So I started watching Believe somewhere after where we had left. I am a show person. I love live shows the most. I was a performer as my paying profession from the age of 19 up until I started having kids, so I watch every little detail and I was kind of bummed to have been leaving all these shows so early. Until they got to this one part of the show and I was crying like a baby. There is a special Disney song that Josie has me sing to her EVERY night before she goes to bed, and as to not spoil this for anyone who has never seen Believe before, I will skip what the song is. But, the father starts singing the song to his daughter and at this point I was happy I wasn’t in the theatre, but then sad too that Josie and I missed that moment together. Anyway, it was sweet and I do hope one day I can see the whole show.
I had to get to sleep at this point for tomorrow would be an early day of getting of the ship and over to the AKL!!!! I was really looking forward to this day too.
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.
THURSDAY OCT 20th,
We all wake up stupid early for our breakfast in Royal Palace, which I think may have been at 6:30am!! I dressed us all in bathing suits under our clothes because I wasn’t sure when our luggage would arrive at AKL and I wanted to head right to the pool once we got there. So down to breakfast we go and I have to say that this felt so rushed to me. I know this day must be hard for all CM, but it really was like “Get em in, move em out” so with food in our tummies we were off to leave the ship, just like that. Bye Disney Dream! You were lovely and I hope to see you again.
Now from reading lots of other TR’s I knew we would grab a porter as soon as we saw one. So we did, we found all our bags, went through customs, which was funny actually. We aren’t big souvenir shoppers, I have no idea why, but maybe a little something here or there, but never much. So when the guy asked us what we bought, we just said “this”. Duffy Bear. He laughs and was like, really, that’s it??? Yup, just this. The porter took us to all the shortest lines and right over to our correct bus, Arnaud tips him, we get on the bus and then we were off.
Pulling up to the AKL was so exciting, I could not wait to get inside. Once we did, I had to have a blinking episode though. I could not see a darn thing in there. It was so dark. Once my eyes got adjusted we found our way over to check in and that all went pretty smooth. He told us a room was ready and sent us on our way. Now I know I have read TR where most people talk about their room being all the way down the hall and the last door. I was starting to think that the further we started walking. Finally, about 4 doors from the last one of the hall, we find our room!!!
I wasn’t sure if I had my sea legs back or not, but walking that far and looking at the busy carpets, I was feeling a little off.
Once inside we do what……….run to see the view!! There wasn’t much going on there at the time, but it was so nice to be looking out into the savannah. We dropped our bags and went off to search for some food and the pool. Which by the way was on the complete opposite side of where we were…………………more walking!!
We finally found the Mara, with some stops along the way to check the place out. Grabbed some food and a table outside and had a nice little lunch.
We then made our way over to the pool and found some seats. Now at this point I told Arnaud to go off and ride the slide, ya know, to make up for the Aqua Duck fiasco. We made an over the top deal of this too.
Josie then went in with daddy while I took off for some FAB with a sleeping baby.
We spent quite a bit of time here and I texted some pics to Kelly and Dawn. The sun was out and it felt great, but Arnaud and Josie were getting chilly in the pool so after a while we started to head back to the room and do some more exploring.
Oh how I remember getting a pic of that lovely mango margarita! (And I finished a jumbo margarita from a local Mexican restaraunt a little bit ago!)
AKL can be quite dark, especially after coming in from the sun, but I hope you enjoyed it! Just seeing those bedspreads made me miss 'my other home'.
Wasn't Believe the greatest? I have a feeling I know what part reduced you to tears. Mostly because of the sobbing mess I was, sitting between my DH & DD! I cried just as hard the second time (which was only 3 days later!).
They do clear the ship pretty early and debarkation feels pretty rushed. You certainly had an easy time going through customs! I hope on your next cruise you get to see the live shows all the way through, but it's great that they show the taped versions on TV. The pool at AKL looked so nice!
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.
Well I finally caught up! Sounds like all in all you had a great time on the cruise and learned alot for next time. I do like how you spent some time in disney before and after so that you aren't rushing back home exhausted! We can't wait to go in the fall and definately have some more pool time!
__________________
Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
Oh how I remember getting a pic of that lovely mango margarita! (And I finished a jumbo margarita from a local Mexican restaraunt a little bit ago!)
AKL can be quite dark, especially after coming in from the sun, but I hope you enjoyed it! Just seeing those bedspreads made me miss 'my other home'.
Ahhh, Kelly, we need to have a margarita together one day
I did enjoy the AKL that's for sure, but the rooms......well I'll get to that in my final thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Wasn't Believe the greatest? I have a feeling I know what part reduced you to tears. Mostly because of the sobbing mess I was, sitting between my DH & DD! I cried just as hard the second time (which was only 3 days later!).
From what I did see of the show, it was very touching and I hope to see the whole thing soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
They do clear the ship pretty early and debarkation feels pretty rushed. You certainly had an easy time going through customs! I hope on your next cruise you get to see the live shows all the way through, but it's great that they show the taped versions on TV. The pool at AKL looked so nice!
Yeah, it was rushed, but not chaotic though.
I think that is very cool they show those shows on the TV's. Nice bonus!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Sorry to see the cruise come to an end, but at least you have more Disney time ahead of you!
Just a snip of Disney time, but enough to not make leaving the ship soo terrible
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sounds like a great last night on the ship, and a great first morning at AKL! Great pics!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
Sounds like a great day at AKL. I told you that place was DARK!!! Just be glad you weren't spending 7 days in there trying to apply your make-up.
I have mastered the art of applying the makeup just about anywhere........I'll make it work. Where there's a will.....right??
Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbr2015
Well I finally caught up! Sounds like all in all you had a great time on the cruise and learned alot for next time. I do like how you spent some time in disney before and after so that you aren't rushing back home exhausted! We can't wait to go in the fall and definately have some more pool time!
Yes, I did learn alot, but not so sure about the time before and after. I have some thoughts on that
After leaving the pool we decided to do a little more sightseeing around the resort and look for some animals. Staying here was a good choice, there really is so much to see and do and also thanks to my trusty PP friends, Oh Toodles (Kelly) had sent me an activity sheet in advance so I could figure out some things we might want to do. At the top of that list was checking out the story teller by the fire pit before dinner.
Speaking of dinner, we had an ADR for Sanaa but after the way Andre had been at dinner on the ship we thought maybe it would be best to skip the trek over to Kidani Village (boo) and see if Boma had any openings. They did, so we cancelled Sanaa (again, boo) and went to dinner early at Boma.
Another great decision!! This place was great!! We tried so many different things and everything was wonderful. Josie started to have a major meltdown at dinner because she spilled her water and that just sent her over the edge and it was hard to get her back. Then Mr. I want to grab anything and everything off the table, started his dinner routine too. I finally just grabbed a lemon and said, here kid, suck on this for a minute. Well as it turned out…………the kid loved it!!! I for sure was thinking this must be a bad, non-juicy lemon. So of course I tried it out…………NOPE! It was sour and juicy and now this kid wanted it more. This really was a great meal, with the food and atmosphere, but my kids were a bit of a hot mess. So we finished up and went to wonder around a bit more.
We didn’t get too far when I noticed Victoria Falls……………ahhh, mamma needs a BIG glass of red wine, and the shocking thing here was, my kids were calm and cool as can be. Devils!
We then made our way over to the fire pit and grabbed some rocking chairs. We waited around for a while with some other people too, but the storyteller never made it out. I have no idea what happened with that, but after a while we just looked around some more and then made it back to the room.
As we were getting the kids ready for bed I told Josie we had a surprise for her and to grab her Duffy. Arnaud gave her the Duffy book and she was in heaven. We read the book to the kids and then soon after they were both out like a light. That book is adorable and we read it often before bed time here at home now, along with the other one we have.
Arnaud wanted another gin gimlet at this point and I sure wouldn’t mind another glass of red, so I decided to go grab those and also head down to the Mara and grab some things for breakfast. DME was picking us up at 9ish and I didn’t want to deal with that in the AM. I also remembered I wanted to use our rewards dollars too. So I took off for the LONG walk to Mara, then to the gift shop and then to the bar. I told Arnaud I’d be back sometime before the DME came for us.
In the gift shop I picked up some fab five friends for Andre and these adorable AK binoculars for Josie and of course some Goofy gummy candy for my “big kid”. Got some treats for breakfast and most important, our cocktails.
Hiked alllllll the way back to the room and I was wiped out. Our trip was basically over by now as DME was coming early. So I cuddled in bed with my hubs and had a nice toast to our first vacation as a family of 4.
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.
That sounded like a great, relaxing way to end your vacation. Sorry the storyteller didn't show up though, I wonder what happened? Love the lemon picture, too funny that Andre actually liked it! My kiddos are wierd like that too, they love lemons They'd eat 'em like oranges if I let them, yuck!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
PassPorter Guide Author
Great pics! 
Teresa
They'd eat 'em like oranges if I let them, yuck!
Linear Mode
