A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More great pictures of the city from the ship--love the sky as you are heading out of the harbor--so pretty!
I hope your assistant server isn't ill or anything. Hopefully it's just a case of first night nerves, as others have said.
And yay for good tablemates, as it can be so *awkward* if you don't click with each other. Good tactic to go to Palo instead of the dining room, btw.
Hope you got a good nights sleep and I'm betting you were up for the sunrise!
More great pictures of the city from the ship--love the sky as you are heading out of the harbor--so pretty!
I hope your assistant server isn't ill or anything. Hopefully it's just a case of first night nerves, as others have said.
He did seem Ok after that. I must admit I was worried he was ill and that we wouldn't see him at all the next night.
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And yay for good tablemates, as it can be so *awkward* if you don't click with each other. Good tactic to go to Palo instead of the dining room, btw.
Hope you got a good nights sleep and I'm betting you were up for the sunrise!
Tuesday 1 September – part one: is that something new on our door?
It wasn’t the best night’s sleep, in between the kid next door having a screaming fit at around 10:00pm, the fog horn going off regularly in the middle of the night, and things getting a bit more choppy and the hangers in the wardrobe moving around. Having said that, we went to bed at 8:20pm, and didn’t really properly wake up until 4:30am. That’s a definite improvement.
Thankfully, the ship wasn’t moving anywhere near as badly as it had been during the night, which was something. I looked outside at a couple of points, and trust me, this is the real meaning of “pitch black”, with absolutely nothing to see outside. It was a very eerie feeling.
We got going, and I battled with Sky TV to try and set the remote record for a couple of things at home, and failed dismally, although I had more success with posting updates on Facebook and the boards, so at least that was something, although that was nearly all of our free 50mb that we got yesterday gone…
I headed up to deck nine just before 7:00am to get some hot water for our teabags, and the first thing I noticed was this on the door…
Notice anything?
Have another look and see if you can spot any difference…
Got it?
This had appeared overnight, and I suspected it was from a passenger, rather than Disney. It was such a sweet touch!
I got some photos on the way up to deck nine…
… and when I got there, I couldn’t believe how many people were already out and about up there, especially considering that there was nowhere to eat open yet. I don’t think Beach Blanket Buffet was due to open until 7:30am. Disney are missing a trick here!
Tea in hand, I wandered around deck ten to get some early morning photos…
I then headed back to the room to enjoy the tea, which was actually remarkably good, given it was in a plastic cup.
I took some photos of the view outside…
… and at one point we even had a rainbow.
However, that wasn’t necessarily good news, as it looked as if we were heading into the rain, and leaving the dry weather that had started the day behind.
Next: this isn’t the sort of character breakfast I’m used to
Love the door decorations! Perhaps more people were awake due to the time changes/jet lag as well? Yes, it'd be in Disney's best interest to have out some breakfast items a little earlier. Cool photos of the clouds, even if you're headed into more rain.
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Love the door decorations! Perhaps more people were awake due to the time changes/jet lag as well?
I hadn't thought of that - that's certainly possible, if a lot of people were perhaps travelling from the eastern coast. We also met quite a few Australians on board. I think it was the first cruise where we'd ever met an Australian.
I'm sure the jet lag had a lot to do with the number of people up in the morning. We never slept beyond 7:30 the entire time we were in Vancouver or Alaska. Well, at least DH and I didn't....the teens were another story!
Sorry about the rain the first day. At least I know the weather improves. You've got me really keen on taking an Alaskan cruise and you've barely gotten going! Looking forward to more!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Glad your first night's dinner was enjoyable and that you made some friendly table mates. However seems service is still not stellar and I hope this is not how it will be throughout the trip.
Love your early morning photos, hoping the rain you are heading into does not last too long.
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Sorry about the rough night's sleep. Nice pictures of the ship. It must seem so weird to be up that early and feel like you have the whole ship to yourself.
I'm sure the jet lag had a lot to do with the number of people up in the morning. We never slept beyond 7:30 the entire time we were in Vancouver or Alaska. Well, at least DH and I didn't....the teens were another story!
Sorry about the rain the first day. At least I know the weather improves. You've got me really keen on taking an Alaskan cruise and you've barely gotten going! Looking forward to more!
Well, hopefully we'll have you completely sold by the end of this trip report!
Glad your first night's dinner was enjoyable and that you made some friendly table mates. However seems service is still not stellar and I hope this is not how it will be throughout the trip.
I can't say it was ever stellar, but then again, I think I do have high expectations. I'd describe it as mostly fine.
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Love your early morning photos, hoping the rain you are heading into does not last too long.
Sorry about the rough night's sleep. Nice pictures of the ship. It must seem so weird to be up that early and feel like you have the whole ship to yourself.
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Looking forward to the first full day of the cruise!
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Have another look and see if you can spot any difference… 
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