A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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"Too cold to go outside"?? Like you said, did they not realize they were going to Alaska?? I'm glad YOU didn't think it was too cold to go outside so we could all see your beautiful photos!
Oh good grief That made me laugh, as it was so mild compared to our first Alaskan cruise in 2011. I dread to think how they'd have coped with that!
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I really liked the sunrise ones where the tops of the mountains were in the light and the rest was still in shade. Very pretty.
Thursday 3 September – part two: Minnie’s a secret Eeyore fan!
We headed down to the lobby just before 8:30am, and already found a long line for Mickey and Minnie, who were due to be out greeting people together. We got chatting to a lovely family from Toronto, who gave us quite a few tips for the trip we’ll hopefully be taking next fall to that part of the world.
As a result, the time passed pretty quickly, and soon we were seeing the two main mice. I have to say Minnie just looked adorable and also gave me a huge thumbs up when she spotted my Eeyore necklace and watch, so obviously she’s a secret fan of the donkey. I wish I could say the same about Mickey though. He was in his ridiculous fisherman’s outfit, which we’d seen last night. I wish he was dressed as an eskimo like Minnie, as that would look so cool.
The lobby was already decked out in Frozen décor for tonight’s party…
Once we’d seen Mickey and Minnie, we headed into Studio Sea to get some photos…
… and talking of photos, we also went to view ours so far in Shutters. Let’s just say there are quite a few now!
We then headed over to the Rainforest…
…. getting there a few minutes before my massage was due at 9:00am. I got the distinct impression they were pretty dead there, as Mark enquired about a shave, and was told he could have one straight away Ok, works for us, given I’m about to have a massage.
I had a couple of minutes on the hot stone chair in the Rainforest before Sheila from the Philippines came to get me. I have to say she was amazing. I’d booked the salon taster, and was going for the neck and shoulder massage, the forearms and hand massage, and the foot and ankle massage for $99. Are you seeing a pattern here? It’s supposed to be done sitting in the salon, but she asked me if I minded having a room. not at all, works for me, so we headed that way, and then she said to me that as I was having three massages, did I just want to go for a full body massage for the same price? I didn’t need to think twice about that one – I said immediately, and that’s what I got for the next hour.
It was so relaxing, and although the pressure was intense at times, it was so that I could stand it, and I knew I needed it, especially my calves, which really were painful, although I have no idea why. They normally get like that when I swim, but I haven’t been swimming in about a week now. Maybe that’s why.
At the end of it, all I can say is Sheila got a massive tip on top of the 15% autogratuity, as I know I should have paid more like $159 for this treatment, rather than the $99 I did pay. I can’t thank her enough for that.
Mark was done at the same time, so we both headed back to the Rainforest. The only downside of the treatment was that my hair was now covered in massage oil from the (admittedly very nice) scalp massage I’d had done. I wasn’t planning to wash my hair, given it was cold outside, and I knew how useless the hairdryers were on board, but now I had no choice. I didn’t have my usual shampoo and conditioner with me, so I just chanced it with the ones they had in the showers here.
Once I was done with hair washing, we sat in the not-so-mild steam room for as long as we could stand it. The aromatic steam room still wasn’t exactly feeling warm, so I guess there’s something really badly wrong with it.
Then we sat on the hot stone chairs for ages just reading. I headed off occasionally to the changing room to go and dry my hair a bit more, and I also spent probably about 15 minutes in the dry sauna. For most of the time, we were the only ones in the Rainforest, and that was such a lovely feeling. We were told that it would be deserted today, given it was a sea day, and they were spot on.
Eventually, we headed back to our room at around 11:15am, and just as Mark literally uttered the words “all the helicopters have gone”, one by one they all flew back in, oh and a small plane took off at the same time. It was like Piccadilly Circus in the air, and for those of you wondering that’s very much a British saying. Piccadilly Circus in London is renowned as being an exceptionally busy place for traffic.
We also saw the White Pass and Yukon Route steam train getting ready to go…
… and then watched it head out, which was pretty neat.
It was quite frightening in a way to see how busy this place is when there are four cruise ships in.
What a leisurely morning. So peaceful!
I'm sure the town is appreciative of the tourist dollars those ships bring in. Even if it means utter chaos for the entire day!
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Sorry that you were so disappointed in Parrot Cay and I hope the baby next to your room quieted down quickly for you to fall asleep at night! It's so great how much Disney decorates their ships for party nights! I loved the picture of you both with Mickey in his fisherman costume and Minnie in her Alaskan parka!!! That spa experience sounded wonderfully relaxing and what a great bargain to get the full body massage for $99.00! The port seemed extremely busy with the four cruise ships in at the same time but they must enjoy all the revenue that the tourists bring in! It's hard to imagine that anyone would not leave the ship when in port on an Alaskan cruise because it was too cold (don't most people expect the cold when booking that kind of a cruise?).
Too cold?! OK.......
Great morning on an empty ship! Although weird about not opening both sides of BBB for breakfast. And nice deal on the full body massage!
What a leisurely morning. So peaceful!
I'm sure the town is appreciative of the tourist dollars those ships bring in. Even if it means utter chaos for the entire day!
Sorry that you were so disappointed in Parrot Cay and I hope the baby next to your room quieted down quickly for you to fall asleep at night!
I'm not sure I can say with certainty that it ever quietened down the whole cruise, as I think we just became more and more oblivious to it.
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It's so great how much Disney decorates their ships for party nights! I loved the picture of you both with Mickey in his fisherman costume and Minnie in her Alaskan parka!!! That spa experience sounded wonderfully relaxing and what a great bargain to get the full body massage for $99.00!
This is why I never now book spa treatments in advance, as I know usually I can get a deal on board.
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The port seemed extremely busy with the four cruise ships in at the same time but they must enjoy all the revenue that the tourists bring in! It's hard to imagine that anyone would not leave the ship when in port on an Alaskan cruise because it was too cold (don't most people expect the cold when booking that kind of a cruise?).
It's just unbelievable, isn't it? You really couldn't make it up.
That was just so classic. Now if we were in the Caribbean and there was a real cold snap, I could understand it, but Alaska? And even better, it really wasn't that cold!
We were there in May - now *that* was cold! Brrrrr!!
I have only been on one cruise with Parrot Cay but I enjoyed it. I was not a really big fan of Carioca's though. I tired a few things and they were ok but nothing I would probably order again in the way of entres. We sail the Magic again next year so I hope to find something better to give a try this time.
I thought I was the only person who liked Parrot Cay! And Carioca's has mangos in 2/3 of it's dishes and I'm allergic. Great. Steak and potatoes that night...
Minnie and Mickey's outfits were cute, but you're right...his looked a little silly next to hers. It would have been nice if they were coordinated.
I would've much preferred that. I love it when they do coordinating outfits with the characters, like Chip and Dale in their in their formal outfits on formal night.
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What a relaxing morning you had! The massage sounded wonderful!
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I'm glad YOU didn't think it was too cold to go outside so we could all see your beautiful photos!
That made me laugh, as it was so mild compared to our first Alaskan cruise in 2011. I dread to think how they'd have coped with that! 
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I wish I could say the same about Mickey though. He was in his ridiculous fisherman’s outfit, which we’d seen last night. I wish he was dressed as an eskimo like Minnie, as that would look so cool. 
Ok, works for us, given I’m about to have a massage. 
immediately, and that’s what I got for the next hour. 
OK.......
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