Dreams do come true **Updated 7/24** THREAD 2 *COMPLETE* - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Okay, now I'm really caught up! to hear Mark is having a really rough time. You can certainly tell in the photos that his smile just isn't as animated as usual! I can't believe how much you're getting done on this excursion, that I can't imagine adding another destination to it! I'm not liking the sound of your next installment. I hope Mark & you hold up okay!!
Thank you for the info on the covered shoulders and knees rule. The only church I really want to go inside of is St. Peters in Rome, so I guess we will dress for the weather in the other ports.
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Wonderful photo report! Did you have a tour guide or did you wander on your own?
We had a tour guide for the whole time, but while we were in Pompeii, we were listening to her on headphones, so to a certain extent we could wander around a bit on our own, so long as we stayed in range.
All too soon, we had finished our visit. We both felt that we could easily have spent longer here, perhaps even a full day, but there were no tours that offered that as an option through Disney. Another option we would’ve gone for was to see both Pompeii and Herculaneum in the same day trip. Shame that wasn’t on offer – a missed opportunity.
Another missed opportunity was that we just didn’t have long enough in Pompeii. Since coming home, I’ve purchased a book about Naples and the Amalfi coast and, looking at the section on Pompeii, we only covered about a third of the whole area and unfortunately missed all the splendid private houses, a lot of which were recommended in my book. I think a re-visit to the Naples area to see those and Herculaneum, along with the rest of the Amalfi coast is called for!
We had a choice of an ice cream or hot drink to finish our tour at the exit – Mark had the hot drink and of course I went for the ice cream! – and then it was back on the bus.
We drove back to Naples, stopping at a cameo factory and this is one stop that we could’ve done without. It really held no interest for us and it was a fairly hard sell, with you shown a quick video about how the cameos are made and then you’re escorted through to the sales area. Not exactly subtle. I got a couple of photos of the guys making the cameos and then we made a hasty exit!
We were dropped back at the Disney Magic at about 6.10. Considering that we missed out Capri and it was meant to be a shorter tour, we certainly got our money’s worth with a good ten hour tour, but when Capri is added in, I have no idea how they’ll fit it all in. That’s going to need some work.
So how would we rate this tour? As it was our first guided tour through Disney, at first we weren’t sure, but having experienced a fair few after this, this probably was the worst tour we did – partially because of the awful experience on the jetfoil, but also because our guide Connie hurtled through some of the stops and nearly left some people behind. Although her English was excellent and I couldn’t’ really fault it, she just didn’t have the presence and charm of some of the other guides we encountered later on in the tour and she didn’t seem that interested in checking that everyone was happy. I would also have preferred less time in Sorrento and more time in Pompeii. I could easily have had another half hour or hour there. This probably scores a six out of ten from us and that’s because it included Pompeii, which was amazing.
When we got back to our room, there was a note apologising for the problems with the jetfoil and giving us a 20% onboard credit back on our account, which did help to make up for what we’d gone through this morning. I guess the message got back to Disney pretty quickly. Good piece of customer service on Disney’s part!
After last night’s rough night at sea, we decided to go and get food early just in case it was the same story tonight. The plan was that if it wasn’t too rough, we would then go and see the 9.00 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End, the first time it was being shown on board.
We headed up to Topsiders Buffet, where they were seating people, apparently because it was so busy with people who hadn’t made it back in time from their shore excursions for the 6.30 seating. Something to bear in mind then for Rome and Florence, as a lot of shore excursions there are all pretty long.
The food there was good. As well as salad, I had the cream butternut squash soup and maple glazed salmon, while Mark had the steak again. The thing that came out on his plate was huge! Where are they getting these things from?
As we went to set sail, Captain Tom came on the tannoy to tell us that it would be pretty rough again tonight. Oh goodie. It was then we decided that we wouldn’t be going to see Pirates tonight after all and would have an early night instead. Judging by how rough it got not long after we left Naples, I think we made the right decision.
The weather today was very rough on the water, windy and some showers in the afternoon. Today we walked 3.40 miles The best thing today was Pompeii. The worst thing today was the jetfoil ride. Today we tried the Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii tour And the result was we didn’t see Capri, Sorrento was beautiful, but we spent too long there and Pompeii was just breathtaking and hard to take in. The most magical moment today was (I know it sounds gruesome and it’s not quite magical, more amazing, but…) seeing the bodies at Pompeii.
All caught up now, Cheryl! Your photos of your shore excursion are so beautiful I want to cry - especially Pompeii - sounds like a really amazing place. I'm glad y'all were able to still have a good time that day, what with the rough seas and sorry weather and all.
If I have to sell one of my kidneys, I'm taking this cruise someday!
I can see why you wanted to stay longer at Pompeii from the pictures - - the history that you felt there must have been incredible!
Good for Disney for correcting the jetfoil "mistake" as best they could. Glad that you were able to have some dinner before heading out into the rough seas again.
Wednesday 30 May – part one: a very special welcome in Olbia
First off, a couple of observations and things I forgot from yesterday. When we got up yesterday, we had a Magical Memory certificate waiting for us from Megumi. She’s a Japanese Crew Member in Treasure Ketch, who I had got talking to about Japan and how I hope to go there in 2009 for our 10th wedding anniversary. I was so touched that she had taken the time to do that for us, it was a lovely touch and I feel bad that I forgot about that yesterday.
The other thing is that our housekeeper Darwin from India is just so attentive, he’s great. Every time we see him, he’s always full of conversation and ensures that everything is OK with the room. We really couldn’t fault him, in fact last night he told us that they were fixing the problem with our toilet. We had noticed that it wasn’t flushing immediately, but we figured that it was down to us being in port and that might have slowed the system down a bit. Apparently not, it was because someone had blocked it by putting heaven knows what down it. Anyway, it was fixed before we really knew it was a problem.
This morning, we headed for breakfast at Topsiders Buffet before heading out on our shore excursion on the panoramic tour of La Maddalena. This seemed much better organised than yesterday, but maybe that’s unfair, as I guess a lot of the delays yesterday were down to not knowing if we could go to Capri or not.
We headed off the ship and where we were greeted by a band, a lovely welcome. You got the impression that Olbia was really rolling out the red carpet for us and they did a good job of making us feel very special.
We headed straight on to our coach and I noticed immediately that our tour guide was called Maddalena, the same name as the island that we would be visiting today. How funny!
This ship was also in when we arrived
The coach ride over to Palou to catch the ferry to La Maddalena was very picturesque with some beautiful mountains on one side with lovely villages in front of them and the sea on the other side. At first, Mark thought that maybe we had the wrong side of the bus, but not a bit of it, as we had lots of great views towards the mountains and the villages. We passed through one of them, Canniglione, which is home to the former lead of Genesis, Peter Gabriel. His home wasn’t anything to look at and very different to places in Hollywood, where they have massive gates to their property. Nothing like that here for him and, from what our guide told us, he’s very friendly and is seen a lot in the local community.
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to hear Mark is having a really rough time. You can certainly tell in the photos that his smile just isn't as animated as usual! I can't believe how much you're getting done on this excursion, that I can't imagine adding another destination to it! I'm not liking the sound of your next installment. I hope Mark & you hold up okay!!
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– and then it was back on the bus. 
It was then we decided that we wouldn’t be going to see Pirates tonight after all and would have an early night instead. Judging by how rough it got not long after we left Naples, I think we made the right decision. 
And sorry for the rough seas coming ahead again 
Your photos of your shore excursion are so beautiful I want to cry - especially Pompeii - sounds like a really amazing place. 
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