Cruising the Norwegian fjords without Disney! COMPLETED - Page 45 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Once again, your meal at dinner looked delicious! Sorry you weren't feeling well due to the rocking of the ship, but at least you got some relief when you woke up.
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Sorry to hear the rocking of the ship made your dinner less than enjoyable. How SNEAKY about the cake, that would have really ticked me off - esp since I am not a coffee drinker in any form. That incident would have been included on my cruise evaluation.
Saturday 5 May – part two: food painting, New York icons, and female film stars
I headed down to do their Art of the Ship tour, which was really interesting. Even though I’d noticed a lot of the artwork we were shown, there was still a lot that I hadn’t noticed.
We started in the library with these statues, all individual and all depicting human activities...
.... then we moved into the atrium to admire the centrepiece, which is supposed to represent seaweed.
Our next stop was just by the elevators, where there’s a homage to the godmother of the ship, ballerina Darcy Bussell. I can’t believe I’d walked past this goodness knows how many times and not noticed this before.
From there, it was into Meridian restaurant, where all the artwork in here is made up completely of food. I’d noticed a couple of the pieces before, but not all of them, and they were just amazing.
Then it was up to deck seven and the photo gallery, where our guide explained that these images combine famous screen icons and animals. I’d seen them before, but not really taken in what they were.
We headed next for Manhattan, which we’d only briefly looked in before, so I hadn’t seen any of the artwork. These are all oil paintings of famous New York landmarks.
In this one, although no-one knows who the couple are, apparently they were on board the Azura a few months earlier. They knew that their images had been used in artwork aboard one of P&O’s ships, but had no idea which one. They took this very tour, and ended up face to face with this artwork of themselves. How freaky must that have been?
We next headed out to the aft staircase to look at the unique artwork here that I think I’ve photographed before and have certainly admired before.
It was at this point that I started to feel exhausted, having been standing up for an hour or so. They were heading to the front of the ship to see the theatre and I just gradually slowed my pace, dropping back from the group, and headed back to the cabin.
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Stunning artwork on the ship! I'm one of those weirdos you see walking the stairs and stopping on the landings to take pictures of the pictures. If I see art, I'm a happy camper!
Wonderful works of art! It's amazing how a little information and explanation can go a long way to adding to your enjoyment of art. I loved the art tour of the Magic and hope they have one of the Wonder on the Alaska cruise.
Very creative! I always enjoy seeing the "special touches" that are done to add to the guest's enjoyment. If you don't slow down and pay attention, you just end up taking it for granted. I love doing tours of places to see the thought behind how things were designed or built.
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Stunning artwork on the ship! I'm one of those weirdos you see walking the stairs and stopping on the landings to take pictures of the pictures. If I see art, I'm a happy camper!
Wonderful works of art! It's amazing how a little information and explanation can go a long way to adding to your enjoyment of art. I loved the art tour of the Magic and hope they have one of the Wonder on the Alaska cruise.
I genuinely don't remember seeing one during our Alaskan cruise. There was one we took on the Dream, which was excellent, but now I think about it, that's something we should've had on the Wonder. I'd definitely have taken it.
I never thought about looking into a tour of artwork on a ship, but my goodness, those are some incredible displays... very creative and different. I just love the food ones (of course). Very clever!
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But the tiramisu looks so good! 
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If I see art, I'm a happy camper!
Melanie
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