From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 7/24 - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just found you over here. I think I would prefer the AP on this ship over the one with Crush on the Dream.
Always go with your gut when ordering your meal. That's what I did on Pirate Night, everything was from the appetizer menu. And our server didn't bat an eye. "Of course, Miss Raelynn."
Just found you over here. I think I would prefer the AP on this ship over the one with Crush on the Dream.
Oh really? I adore the show with Crush! If anything, I'd like them to add it into the Magic and the Wonder. Different strokes...
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Always go with your gut when ordering your meal. That's what I did on Pirate Night, everything was from the appetizer menu. And our server didn't bat an eye. "Of course, Miss Raelynn."
You know what? You are so right. There's no reason not to do that. I guess I just get tied to "you should order one from this part of the menu, one from this part and one from this part". Why should we? Thanks for that.
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The wood work on the new entry area is different. Not sure I like it - maybe because it's not very colorful?
Breakfast looks great.
Sorry the wind is keeping up!
Yeah we all know that soap and water is best for clean hands, but it takes longer! Makes it more understandable that cruise lines have sanitizer everywhere instead.
The breakfast spread looked delicious! Bummer on the weather report, but its Mother Nature. Whaddya gonna do?!?
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Yeah we all know that soap and water is best for clean hands, but it takes longer! Makes it more understandable that cruise lines have sanitizer everywhere instead.
The breakfast spread looked delicious! Bummer on the weather report, but its Mother Nature. Whaddya gonna do?!?
Well exactly... you just have to make the best of it, don't you? At home you'd probably curl up indoors, but that would be a waste of a vacation.
Oh, my, the hand washing stations! I can't imagine them being effective. I know I will skip them, whereas I always obliged with the hand sanitizer as I felt a little pressured to use it. There's no way I will stop and wait in line for the sink and I know DH won't either. I understand that it will be much more cost effective, but I think many, many people will skip it.
Oh, my, the hand washing stations! I can't imagine them being effective. I know I will skip them, whereas I always obliged with the hand sanitizer as I felt a little pressured to use it. There's no way I will stop and wait in line for the sink and I know DH won't either. I understand that it will be much more cost effective, but I think many, many people will skip it.
I'm with you. I can't see people stopping to use it and I can't see how the crew members can keep an eye on whether people do or not.
We walked through the Promenade Lounge, and this looks so much more stylish now after its refit. I love the fact that I keep coming across things that have been changed that I know nothing about. It’s a real treat to still have surprises waiting aboard for you, even in this day of constant Internet previews.
When I found out that they have a Godiva chocolate martini in here, that was me sold. We’ll have to come back here for a drink!
We headed towards the lobby atrium, and wow, what an amazing view it is. It was lovely to have it all to ourselves and get some wonderful views of it, and the superb new light fitting above.
From there, we took the elevator up to deck nine…
… and explored the Cove Café. Wow, this is smaller than I remember it. I suspect that’s because they took out a section for the concierge lounge, which is a shame, but I can understand that move. After all, if you’re going to pay for concierge, you do want something for your money…
We then headed upstairs to the equally small Outlook Café…
I can imagine both of these are going to be packed out during the colder cruises, such as the Alaskan ones.
We found out where the people appeared to be – trying to sunbathe around the adult pool, although how you sunbathe in that wind, I do not know!
We headed down to deck five, and the Buena Vista Theatre…
… and we heard screams, so we knew we had to be near this:
Honestly, as we walked past the Oceaneer’s Club, we also heard screams, which didn’t bode well. There was also a dad outside with his child, trying to encourage him to try the club. The poor kid didn’t want to. He kept saying that his sisters were in there, and he didn’t want to go in there with them, but the dad wasn’t having any of it. “You have to try it”. I hope it all worked Ok for the kid in the end…
We now got a very different perspective of the atrium from here…
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When it comes to Alaska cruises, I think making Cove & Outlook smaller is not good. Those spaces were packed out on most afternoons -especially on sea days.
Such beautiful photos! With literally no one else in them!
That's the beauty of staying on board on a port day and we found it emptier than usual, as there did seem to be a lot of first timers, who all got off at Nassau. You tend to find if there are regular cruisers, it's the stop they often don't bother with, so this was a very pleasant change.
When it comes to Alaska cruises, I think making Cove & Outlook smaller is not good. Those spaces were packed out on most afternoons -especially on sea days.
I couldn't agree more. I thought it was a very foolish move and I have no idea why Disney did it.
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And our server didn't bat an eye. "Of course, Miss Raelynn."
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There was also a dad outside with his child, trying to encourage him to try the club. The poor kid didn’t want to. He kept saying that his sisters were in there, and he didn’t want to go in there with them, but the dad wasn’t having any of it. “You have to try it”. I hope it all worked Ok for the kid in the end… 
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