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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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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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So I have to admit, this is by far the closest to a trip that I have ever started a PTR! We are now a mere 52 days away from our first cruise ever!!! We will be setting sail aboard the Magic out of Galveston for 7 glorious nights from December 1-8 and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!
Before I get to far in to the details, a bit of background story J DH and I were both stationed in North Dakota (or almost Canada as we used to call it) for 5 years. Due to the isolated nature of things along with long winters locked in doors, your neighbors and co-workers become family. As luck would have it, some of our Air Force family have been stationed down here in San Antonio the last 2 years with us. Both of our families have a son and daughter and the kiddos get along wonderfully J As soon as we heard Disney would be cruising out of Galveston (a mere 3 hours away) there was no way that we could resist the chance to cruise with Mickey!!!
So here they are in no particular order….your Magical Cast of Characters (and characters we are)
Me- Stacy…a kid in her early 30s who absolutely loves loves loves Disney J If I could move to Orlando now and work for them I would! I work as an event planner, so vacation planning in a type-A manner is right up my alley
DH-Adam…a guy who spends more time traveling for work than he spends at home, so our Disney trips are much needed vacation time for him…he wasn’t as big of a Disney fan at first but I am slowly converting him (case in point this weekend he was hanging around the house in a Micke t-shirt and Grumpy lounge pants)
DD (Dear Daughter or Dear Diva..you choose)- Kayla…A 16 yr old trapped in a 7 yr olds body. My little princess Diva loves all things Disney (especially Cinderella) and can be found most days with her nose buried in a book (current favorite is the Magic Treehouse series). Her reasoning for wanting to spend most days at sea in kids club is so mom and dad can have some alone time…yeah right..she just doesn’t want to hang out with us
DS- Carter…..my 5 (almost 6) year old version of Dennis the Menace…love that kid to death but man does he keep me on my toes (like the time he asked for swim goggles just in case his “experiment” blew up in his face) He loves Cars, and the Avengers and is super excited for Pirate night on the cruise
DF (Dear Friend) Gennie…just as much of a Disney fanatic and obsessive vacation planner as I am J Gennie just made her daughter a super cute Belle dress for the cruise and is working on their pirate costumes…I am so far behind her on that one….
DFH Mike…such a kid at heart and a fabulous cook! Mike can find fun in any situation and is going to be a blast to cruise with
DFS…Mikey (or his dad’s mini-me as we call him)…Mikey loves Disney and the movie Cars. He and Carter get along great and had a blast this weekend pretending to be pirates attacking the girls
DFD…Princess Lily….she is the type of girl who loves her dresses but wont think twice about rolling around in the mud in them. Lily loves the princesses but Ariel is by far her favorite J
So there you have the cast for our upcoming trip…more on the plans in a later post J
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PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
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I have to confess that I have never felt so unprepared for a vacation! I think part of it is due to this being my first cruise. I kinda just want to feel things out and not overplan for the week (GASP!! I know!!) I am the typical vacation over-planner who has spreadsheets etc for the entire trip. So far for the cruise I have a packing list started and a list of who will wear what on which day (much different than WDW where it’s the standard shorts and t-shirt all day every day).
This past weekend our friends came over for dinner and planning. We did manage to get Palo reservations made for night 3 of our cruise which makes the adults very happy J I am still unsure though if we will book any shore excursions. There are some that sound extremely cool, and I am positive my animal loving 7 year old would enjoy swimming with dolphins, but I am having a hard time swallowing the costs for each activity.
Since this will be our first time at each of these ports, there is a part of me that wants to just explore each location and enjoy the beach. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips? We have stops at Grand Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel.
I do have to say that one bonus to planning for this trip is that Christmas clothes are already in stores so it makes it easy to get the kids their outfits for the formal dinner…and they can serve double duty as Christmas outfits a few weeks later J
The plan for this week is to continue ironing out packing lists so that I can get a feel for what still needs to be purchased and get ahead of the game before Holiday season kicks in…..
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PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
I was very anxious before my first cruise and I packed way too much. Now for a warm-weather cruise I only pack shorts & t-shirts, bathing suits during the day and capris and tops for dinner plus one nicer outfit for formal night. I wear the same outfits for dinner a couple of nights because they're only worn for a couple of hours! I'm not a dress-up person, though, so I just dress up enough so that I don't look out of place and so that it feels like a special occasion. I've never been to the ports you're going to, so no advice on excursions! I do like just exploring the ports and spending more time on the ship. Glad you got Palo!
I remember feeling anxious before our first cruise as well. I think, so long as you've made any reservations you want, like Palo and shore excursions, that's honestly all you need to do before you sail.
I will say that we did the Stingray City excursion in Grand Cayman and LOVED it! I was like a 3-4 yrs old with squealing and giggling while standing there surrounded my the rays. THey feel so soft. Did not enjoy the turtle farm because it is just that - they are being raised for food. We have just gotten off the ship and walked around or taken a taxi to a beach on a couple of trips and that was nice. I would try to wear evening outfits more than once and maybe even make use of the laundry so that you do not overpack. My first two cruises I had clothes that I never wore.
So I have been slacking a bit on this PTR....DH and I just got back from 4 days of bourbon tasting and leaf viewing in Kentucky....you can't get much more relaxing than that!!! If any of you have not been to that part of the country in Fall, I highly recommend it! I feel so renewed after this past weekend. However, its back to the grind today which also means back to cruise planning!!! Hopefully I will have more for you all in the next day or so
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PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Great start!!! How exciting to be going on a Disney cruise!
While - we did not cruise with Disney - we did do a NCL cruise this past April that took us to Grand Cayman and Cozumel - so the excursions might be a bit different - but I have to say we really enjoyed the ones we chose:
Grand Cayman - we did one that took us to the Sea Turtle farm - ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!! We got to spend some time checking out AND holding baby sea turtles!!! Then it also brought us to a rum cake factory where you could sample/purchase rum cakes (they also had plenty of kid friendly snacks!) and we also stopped in Hell - it is a unique little place on the island - google it - it is small but really cool - it was a quick stop there - only need a few minutes! This two was only 3 hours I believe - and we took the first one - so we were back to the port early enough to explore/shop in town and we even went to 7 mile beach for about 1.5 hours!!! We even had time to visit Margaritaville - for hubby and I to enjoy a drink and they had a pool where MANY kids were having a great time!! We packed alot in there!!
Cozumel - we also did a tour here - that brought us to some Mayan Ruins on the island of Cozumel - now these are much smaller than the ones you hear about on the mainland - but we had never seen any ruins at all - so this was very cool for us - and my daughter got the biggest kick of all the iguanas roaming around! And then after that they brought us to a beach club place that had a full mexican buffet that was so yummy!!! It was literally on the beach where you could swim and they also had a pool for swimming! This was on the eastern side of the island, so you got to see alot of the country side! When we got back to the port, we had time to go to Carlos & Charlies for adult beverages for hubby & I and Em had a virgin pina colada! then we even had time for shopping!
We chose these tours because they were short in time, not too outrageous cost wise, and also allowed us time to explore around the port areas - so we felt as though we got alot of touring in without worrying about how to get there, what to do, etc.
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Whew it has been a busy last few days! We had girl scouts, karate and a Halloween party on Saturday, and unfortunately at 5yr old DS with food poisoning yesterday L Needless to say coffee is my constant companion this morning! We are just over 30 days left until the cruise (33 counting today to be exact). I have started using my office at home as the central collection point for all items that will need to be packed. Thankfully with the weather getting a bit chillier here in TX I am able to start gathering things like shorts and summer dresses without impacting what my kids wear day to day. We also got our cruise documents in the mail which made it even more exciting because that means we are close to setting sail!
I have nailed down 3 out of the 4 of our outfits for formal night. DD got a gorgeous red tulle dress from Target with silver glitter pouring down it like snow…it looks amazing on her J I also managed to find DS a super cute outfit that came with pants, dress shirt, tie and vest for only $20!! DH will wear one of his business suits…which just leaves me……
In other good news my friend and I have convinced both of our DH’s to wear pirate costumes with all of us for Pirate night!!!! I am super excited and so are the kiddos J
I still need to nail down which if any shore excursions we are going to book. Right now we are leaning towards the Mayan Ruins tour in Costa Maya….my kiddos love history and anything ancient so this sounds right up their alley.
Other than that, just working on packing lists and shopping lists…the next month is going to fly by with DS birthday and Thanksgiving, not to mention numerous other activities for my family (did I mention we don’t have a free weekend between now and January?!?!?!?) YIKES!
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Great start!!! How exciting to be going on a Disney cruise!
While - we did not cruise with Disney - we did do a NCL cruise this past April that took us to Grand Cayman and Cozumel - so the excursions might be a bit different - but I have to say we really enjoyed the ones we chose:
Grand Cayman - we did one that took us to the Sea Turtle farm - ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!! We got to spend some time checking out AND holding baby sea turtles!!! Then it also brought us to a rum cake factory where you could sample/purchase rum cakes (they also had plenty of kid friendly snacks!) and we also stopped in Hell - it is a unique little place on the island - google it - it is small but really cool - it was a quick stop there - only need a few minutes! This two was only 3 hours I believe - and we took the first one - so we were back to the port early enough to explore/shop in town and we even went to 7 mile beach for about 1.5 hours!!! We even had time to visit Margaritaville - for hubby and I to enjoy a drink and they had a pool where MANY kids were having a great time!! We packed alot in there!!
Cozumel - we also did a tour here - that brought us to some Mayan Ruins on the island of Cozumel - now these are much smaller than the ones you hear about on the mainland - but we had never seen any ruins at all - so this was very cool for us - and my daughter got the biggest kick of all the iguanas roaming around! And then after that they brought us to a beach club place that had a full mexican buffet that was so yummy!!! It was literally on the beach where you could swim and they also had a pool for swimming! This was on the eastern side of the island, so you got to see alot of the country side! When we got back to the port, we had time to go to Carlos & Charlies for adult beverages for hubby & I and Em had a virgin pina colada! then we even had time for shopping!
We chose these tours because they were short in time, not too outrageous cost wise, and also allowed us time to explore around the port areas - so we felt as though we got alot of touring in without worrying about how to get there, what to do, etc.
We have been looking at the turtle farm as well since DD is an absolute animal lover. Good to know that you enjoyed it so much!
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
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I think, so long as you've made any reservations you want, like Palo and shore excursions, that's honestly all you need to do before you sail.
Mary - not enough trips!
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