He got Alaska, I get Denmark - EBTA May 2015 - UPDATE 5/10/15 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Glad to hear your camera is fixed and on its way back to you.
We don't have a bank, we use a credit union and they do not handle foreign currency at all. Every bank we've checked with states we have to have an account, why I'm not really sure about but whatever. And none of the currency exchanges handle Icelandic. We've ordered our Danish and Norwegian currency.
Yea!! for the camera! Hope it arrives quickly and works beautifully with no more problems. Be the cautious person I am, I would probably pack a back up on the cruise.
I started laying out some things for the cruise today since I was home alone and wasn't in the mood to go out and do anything.
I grabbed the thickest, warmest long underwear I have and a pair of thick wool socks for our snorkeling excursion. I read a website for one of the vendors that do the snorkeling trips (I have no idea which one Disney is using) but they recommended bringing long underwear and wool socks since the water temperatures are between 35-38 F.... Tomorrow I will start actually making outfits for the evenings - I think that at sea days will be the easiest.... but not sure about the other days yet. I know we will do laundry at least once onboard (already have our purex laundry sheets and collapsable laundry basket).
I also need to figure out my two formal night outfits. I know one of them, a former co-worker friend of mine is a jewelry artist and she made me a new bracelet to go w my black formal dress... so one down... one to go.
I am also only taking 4 pairs of shoes - white sandals, black sandals, running shoes and flip flops. I will travel to and from the cruise in the running shoes. I also am planning on packing two swim suits and 3 sets of workout clothes. I want to try to get to some of the morning workout classes like yoga and Pilates while onboard. For Pirate night - I think we will do t-shirts and not too much more, since packing weight/space is limited. I wonder if they will call it Pirates in the Caribbean since we will be in the North Atlantic. And I wonder how cold it will be on deck when they do the fireworks.
I just changed our one way rental car from a large sedan to a SUV, since our next door neighbor, Kerry, will be cruising as well and instead of her renting a car, driving to MCO and taking the Disney shuttle - we can do the one way car rental to Cocoa Beach and split the cost. Less expensive for both of us, and right now, anything I can do to save a few $$ on this trip is a good idea.
I go to my hair stylist next Saturday for highlights. Originally, Miss Roxanne was supposed to give me a perm about a month ago, and highlights next week - but the day of my perm, she fell and broke her wrist. So I ended up having my hair permed and cut by someone else.... who cut it too short (and I hate it) - so I will be getting my highlights etc two weeks before we leave - which will let the colors settle a bit before we take photos. I just wish my hair wasn't so short. Learned my lesson not to let anyone but Roxy touch it.
I've been stocking up on e-books to read on my iPad during the cruise. I bought about 8 new books and I am not reading them until we board the ship. Instead, I've been checking books out from our library and using a completely different app to read those, while catching up on a couple of authors I haven't read in the last couple of years. I just hope 8 new books are enough. I may get a few more. If I am able to read uninterrupted, I've been known to read a book a day.....
OK - enough rambling for now. Tomorrow I will lay out some outfits, and take some photos of them to ensure I can get mix and match. I don't want to take anything I don't actually end up wearing.
Wow,you are organized, Terri! I completely understand about your hair. I have had that happen more than once. The good news is, it's hair and it will grow. You must be beyond excited!!. Everything is falling into place nicely and your trip will be here before you know it!!
Sounds like you made sure me serious progress! I've become quite the fan of taking photos of my outfits as I pack so I can remember what I have without digging through!
I know I'm taking 5 pair of shoes….sandals, flip flops, flats, running shoes and walking shoes. I have sturdy waterproof walking shoes for the tours, but I want my regular tennies for walking deck 4. Sandals and flats for dinners. Flip flops for pool and hot tub…and because I'm on a cruise and I don't want to wear shoes all the time! I'll probably travel in the running shoes because they are really comfortable for flying.
Good idea about the pictures…I will have to try that!
First - Stephanie - thank you for reminding me about waterproof shoes. I forgot to add my Vibram's to the suitcase to wear while kayaking. I refuse to be in wet running shoes (the worst).
Ok - secondly - our next door neighbor, Kerry, and I were talking about the cruise about 4 or 5 months ago. She travels for work, and Chris and I keep an eye on her doorstep for packages, etc - and then deliver them when she gets home. One night I went over to deliver some packages and was talking about the cruise. She said it sounded nice, and that she had done a Disney cruise before with her grandkids.
Jump forward to this week. Chris was talking to her and she mentioned she would be on the Magic with us (and joked that she wasn't stalking us...). Chris came home and mentioned it to me, and I remembered her saying it sounded nice. Kerry is a world traveler. She has been to 77 countries, and Antarctica (color me JEALOUS). She told Chris she hadn't been to Newfoundland yet, and the cruise will let her check that off the list. She is also a cancer survivor (twice, I think).
Chris and I got to talking, and thought we should invite her to join our table of 6 - since she is traveling solo. Its always nice to know someone at your table. So - after getting her confirmation number, we asked TAE to add her to our reservation with NanaTink & Hubs, my parents and Chris and I. As NanaTink said - "the more the merrier!!"
Also - last night I got to wondering how she was getting to the ship, since you can't leave your car parked at Port Canaveral for one way cruises. We called her and she said she was going to rent a car, drive to Orlando and then take the DCL shuttle. WOW - talk about pricey (rental car + Disney shuttle). So - first I told her to do a one way rental to Cocoa Beach, since many rental car companies have shuttles from their offices to the port. Then I said that she should ride with us - and she said ok, only if we let her pay for 1/2 the rental.
So - last night, I logged into Hertz, and modified the reservation from a full sized car - $130, to a SUV for $150. Split 2 ways is $75.00 - which is $50 less than my $130. Ok - that works for me!!! I hope she likes Cracker Barrel - since I was reminded we need to have our traditional pre-vacation breakfast stop on Friday morning.