Sailing with the Gang..DCL Magic, 2016 updated 6/21/2016 - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
For some reason I had wrote Feb. 9 as Sunday…No clue why and that is obviously not correct.
Today was a day at sea and I just love Sea days. I love doing different things on the ship that is offered….or not. Just doing my own thing is really relaxing. I don’t do well with relaxing on my own so this kind of forces me to take it slower.
I was up early as always and I am pretty sure Cass was too.
This store is now a Star Wars store…in the past this is where you bought alcohol and cigarettes. FYI, you can only now buy packs of cigarettes onboard and I think it’s at the bars if I remember right from what a CM told me. They no longer sell cartons. I know for some buying cheap cartons onboard was always a nice perk for cruising. Disney did away with it. I do know that when Skip bought one last cruise we were on as a family they had very limited selections and I don’t even think that his brand/style, which is a pretty popular one, was even available then.
It was time to head back to the room and get showered and all pretty! Well as pretty as I can do with what I have. LOL.
We were having brunch at Palo today. I LOVE their brunch. I found out later that Cass does not like the brunch and prefers dinner. I don’t care for dinner. How could my good friend go so wrong?
When planning this trip, we had a lot of Chiefs and not many Indians. Everyone had ideas and it became difficult at times to decide on some things. Almost all of us had cruised Disney before and all of us have our own likes, so it was tough at times to compromise and agree. When it came time to do online check in and reserve things like Palo it was also hard because some members were Platinum, some gold and some silver (and I think we had 2 newbies). We all aimed for a specific time frame for Palo and were hoping that they would seat us all together or at least near each other. We also inquired about getting the private room and I believe we could not even put a request in for that till 30 days prior. Katie was in charge of that and at the right date she sent in our request and we were granted it! Yay! So now we all had the same time (obviously) and the private room so we could be a little louder without disturbing others.
Cass and I arrived a little early and found out half of the girls were already seated. (I took a few quick shots on the way back to our room.)
Deb wasn’t feeling so well today so she skipped it and Charlotte joined us.
Our server was our Main dining room server, Jason’s roommate. I can’t remember his name now.
We were brought some complimentary drinks. Cass doesn’t drink so she passed hers onto Ellen.
And you must start out with a few chocolate covered strawberries too. (kind of like always starting your first meal at Cabanas with a chocolate chip cookie).
I also ordered the margarita (sp?) pizza and was offering to share it with others, but I think in the end everyone else had so much it wasn’t completely eaten.
I got the Chicken Parm with risotto! I LOVE this risotto. I could live on it! Seriously, it is just so awesome!!!! ( I think on our Oct cruise I am going to make a Palo reservation for Mom and I so we can have that dish again.)
I had been sitting where 2 tables connected and there was a bump/uneven ledge there…..and I set my diet coke down right on it at one point and it spilled all over. How embarrassing! Just like a dang kid, you can’t take me anywhere!
We cleaned it up and Cass noticed a spot that had been left in a very familiar shape.
Another great day and loved your photos of the After Hours area, but sorry you didn't take photos from inside Keys as U loved that place on my cruise.! Take a look at my ongoing TR and you'll understand! Just so relaxing there and quiet and why I avoided O'Gills'. I went there the first day and that was enough and didn't show me much as a typical bar. Nothing special! Too bad the day was a bit dreary being so overcast!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Oh that is so neat that you got the private room! On the inaugural Med cruise back in 2007, Deb Wills secured the room and although we only met up with her when we boarded, the sea was so rough that night that loads of people bailed, so she invited us. I was the only one well enough to go and I only made it through appetiser before I got sick as well, but it was a very neat experience to dine in there.
I love walking around the ship in the early AM hours before it gets crowded as I find it so relaxing. How wonderful that you got the private room for your brunch and the food looked so fabulous!!!
Another great day and loved your photos of the After Hours area, but sorry you didn't take photos from inside Keys as U loved that place on my cruise.! Take a look at my ongoing TR and you'll understand! Just so relaxing there and quiet and why I avoided O'Gills'. I went there the first day and that was enough and didn't show me much as a typical bar. Nothing special! Too bad the day was a bit dreary being so overcast!
Keys really isn't my style. Actually I don't do a lot of bars anymore...now that I am old. haha. Now with a group of friends where we want to talk, it would be fun, but for me to just hang there I don't think I would enjoy it so much.
I did get some pictures in there the first day when we all met before sail away. I do like the furniture in there.
I'll have to go look for your report. I have been slacking so much lately on message boards/forums. I do enjoy reading reports but I seem to have so little time anymore. Every time I think I am caught up, something else happens and I get further behind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
I love walking around the ship in the early AM hours before it gets crowded as I find it so relaxing. How wonderful that you got the private room for your brunch and the food looked so fabulous!!!
The morning is great. It always amazes me how many people don't take advantage of it. I like to get up early and take a nap during the day. But usually with cruising I don't have time...too much to do. But when I have sea days it makes it a little easier to sneak a nap in here or there.
The private room was nice!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Brunch looks wonderful, how awesome to get a private dining room for the fun!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Oh that is so neat that you got the private room! On the inaugural Med cruise back in 2007, Deb Wills secured the room and although we only met up with her when we boarded, the sea was so rough that night that loads of people bailed, so she invited us. I was the only one well enough to go and I only made it through appetiser before I got sick as well, but it was a very neat experience to dine in there.
That must have been one rough cruise.
We had rough seas this night too and many people were not feeling good.
Since they had changed the Castaway Club bag to a more generic one last fall, I was a bit bummed that I would never get the “gold” bag. I was due to get one on my next cruise…though in reality this cruise I would have gotten one since both Brook and Cass are gold and they didn’t want the bag. Ellen has several gold bags and said she would bring one for me. Now that was months ago and I actually kind of forgot, but Ellen told me early on that she brought it.
After brunch I headed back to Ellen and Katie’s room to pick up the bag, plus Ellen had bought all the girls a Minnie tote bag from NYC. It was really cute. (And Claire has taken it from me already, so I guess she liked it too).
Ellen and Katie had a pretty normal room, very nice and towards the aft. They told me I had to come out on the balcony and look at their neighbors’ balcony, so I obliged.
Now before you go running out and saying you have to have this room, it is a handicapped accessible room. So I would not suggest anyone going for it…for 1 so that those who really need that room can get it…and 2, it will be a different room, so most likely not the split bathroom, probably no tub, etc.
I then went and joined some girls who were doing trivia in O’Gills. After that was over there were some animated classes starting. I decided I wanted to do that. Several of the girls were going to the matinee show. Cass messaged me that she was saving me a seat, but I let her know I was just going to skip that show today.
As we waited for the class to start they had the previous classes drawing up.
I always feel like such an artist when I do these classes. They take you through step by step and seriously…I have trouble even drawing a circle. That being said, the people next to me must have even less talent than me because one was pretty bad. LOL.
I decided to stay for the next class too, which was Goofy.
I stayed after for the next trivia class, but it was so hard that I bailed out really early.
I ran into Cass and Michelle as I was looking right outside D Lounge as they had some stuff set up for the DVC presentation. I saw Michelle go in and Cass was going to go do something else (perhaps swim?). They had this really neat picture of Walt and Lillian on a ship deck and I wanted it (and of course I now have no clue where I put it, but it’s around somewhere and I will frame it eventually and put it in my office) so I decided to go in and they gave me the picture and I sat through the presentation. I didn’t see Michelle when I walked in so I just sat by myself.
They of course tell you the value of DVC and they compared prices of the Poly from 1971 to today’s prices. Holy cow, can you imagine staying there for $29 a night?
Scott does the voice of the monorail at Disney World. I got a short video of him. It’s hard to tell in this short snippet, but I could hear it every so often.
Now I may be mixing days up, but I think I headed to the pool after this. If not, then I have no clue what I did. I know one afternoon Cass and I hit the pool, well I hit the hot tub and then took a nap on the lounger and Cass swam. (This could have been on our Castaway Cay day though…Getting old sucks when you can’t remember which day you did what).
Anyways I am pretending it was today, even if it wasn’t.
I enjoyed the hot tub for a bit and then laid on the lounger and just totally drifted off. It was nice to get a nap in. Cass did laps in the pool. When I woke up I saw several of the girls sitting at a table nearby. I think I woke to hearing my name…probably I was drooling or something and they had a good laugh.
We sat and talked for a while and it was so nice. This trip was just so much fun. It’s really nice to be just me sometimes and not worry about children or a husband.
After a bit it was time to get ready for the evening. Again, my memory is poor but at some point I had to pack. Yes it was it that sad time where you know the cruise is going to end.
Cass and I both were chatting and packing. I am going to say it again, but I LOVE my new luggage. I had packing cubes and I had a laundry bag I was throwing dirty laundry in. I just condensed all the clean clothes left and packed the dirty ones in the other cubes. This was so amazingly simple and easy and then I just chucked them in the suitcases. I can’t believe I have traveled all these years without packing cubes. I thought ziplock bags would be the same. They aren’t….at least for me. Of course now over a course of over a week I had bought things too, so I had to fit those into the case as well. I just packed as best I could and didn’t worry about weight too much at this point as I had a day at WDW yet and I would reorganize later.
The ship really started rocking now. I could feel it and I took a second bonine to help. After I had my bags pretty much packed I told Cass I was going to go out for a walk…or puke. I hadn’t decided yet for sure which it would be.
Walking around did help a bit, but I was still pretty queasy. I went back to the room and Cass was gone, but Brook was there working on her suitcase. I mentioned how rocky the ship was and she said she didn’t feel it. Seriously? You can’t feel it? Nope she said she was perfectly fine. Ok, maybe I’m a wimp then.
We headed to dinner and found Cass and sat down. Charlotte, Kelly and Ellen sat across from us. Charlotte was feeling awful too and Kelly was also feeling it.
I always feel Animator Palate is the worse place to be when you feel sea sick and of course I always seemed to be scheduled there on the roughest nights. I was getting pretty woozy as were others. Ellen saved the day! She said green apples help with sea sickness and she hollered to Jason to get us some. He was right on it and he must’ve known it helps too because he had bowls of them out to the tables FAST!
Several of us nibbled on them and I did seem to feel a little better, not 100% but I now knew my dinner was going to stay with me at least.
Sorry about the sea sickness! The food looked good for dinner and the animation class sees like it was a lot of fun!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I'm so sorry that you were feeling sea sick! I had that for the first day and a half on my last cruise and it was the worst feeling ever. I'll have to remember that green apples help!!!
Sorry you started to feel a bit seasick, that's never fun!
No it is not!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh I am so sorry you were hit by seasickness, that is never fun.
I really hate that feeling
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Sorry about the sea sickness! The food looked good for dinner and the animation class sees like it was a lot of fun!
I do love those animation classes. Claire does too so I am sure we will be doing one in Oct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
I'm so sorry that you were feeling sea sick! I had that for the first day and a half on my last cruise and it was the worst feeling ever. I'll have to remember that green apples help!!!
It is the worst. There is just nothing you can do to make it stop. At least on land you can stop and go to a non moving area
It was now time for the show to start. I was glad I made it to the end….and honestly the ice-cream seemed to give me a new life. (Or maybe those apples were kicking in?)
And most of us raced to Fathoms for 80’s trivia. Yep, we are geeks and were all riled up for 80’s trivia!
We were messaging amongst outselves and several were bowing out due to feeling sick. I was most shocked to see Brook message that she was going to lay down as she was feeling awful. This was the girl who told me earlier she couldn’t feel the ship rocking AND was hooting and hollering not too long ago.
The trivia was fun and we were getting into it. It was Charlotte, Kelly, Cass and I and it was hard sitting 4 across to hear all of us and sadly I kept turning away from Cass shouting my answers to Kelly. I am grateful Cass is a good friend and didn’t hit me upside the head…well at least not too hard.
We did really well and there were only a few that we were stumped or made a stupid mistake on. I believe we were 2nd or 3rd in correct answers and sadly the drunk group with Mrs. Waldo was the team that won. That made losing all the worse.
After trivia I ran back to the room to set my bags out. Brook was lying dead on the bed. She said she was too sick to even get up and tug her bag out to be picked up. I asked if it was packed and she said yes, so I tugged it out for her too. I was really amazed at how sick she had gotten. She said she ate green apples when she felt it coming on, but it had gotten worse. Cass ran down to the dining room and got some ginger ale for her. With that all taken care of, I dashed back to Fathoms to join the gang in more fun.
I think there was another game of dancing. We had a good time. I believe we had to do moves to certain songs and they would be voted on. At one point they had a dirty dancing song and Kelly and I were shimmying up and down each other and bounced off each other’s chest and just started laughing. Matt had been watching and said..well that didn’t quite work out the way you planned, did it? It was too funny. Now we probably would have won except that some couple did the dirty dancing jump where Patrick Swayze gets her and holds her in the air. Seriously? This girl weight 80lbs soaking wet probably and the guy was super tall. I admit they deserved it, but man I went to a lot of trouble to perfect my dirty dancing moves!
At some point in time, Matt took Katie out on the dance floor to dance with her for her b-day. We all swooned! LOL.
Pam and Matt had a little relationship of joking back and forth all through the cruise. Pam wanted something he was giving away at a lot of the trivia games and I think he thought it was funny she was never winning it, but always super close. He gave her a little surprise that night and said good bye to her.
After the games the DJ came out and played some 80’s music. Love me some 80’s music. People trickled out but Kelly, Charlotte and I and a few others stayed. It was a lot of fun and we practically shut the place down. I had a second wind and the sea sickness was long gone, though it did feel like we were in smoother waters now too.
Sadly the night had to come to an end and I had to go to bed. Brook was in the top bunk when I got back. I was more than willing to take it again and I felt guilty that she went up there. I knew she hadn’t been feeling well, though she said after the ginger ale and the seas smoothing out she did end up feeling much better.
I got ready for bed and soon was out too.
I really liked the cruise portion of our trip the best. Being at Disney together had been fun, but with so many people and all with different likes it was hard to get us all together and do different things. With the cruise I just felt I had more time to mingle with different people and get to know those who I had never met before. We basically were all trapped on the ship, so we only had so many options. And no arguments about where to have dinner each night since that is set in stone (unless you do Palo of course).
The app with texting is super fabulous. It was nice to send and receive messages and know what others were doing and if you wanted to join you didn’t have to look all over the ship for the rest.
I will put this out there now before I forget. There are already plans for next year to do a trip to Disneyland. As much as I want to go, I promised my family that the next time we head that way, all of us will go. The week that has been picked will not work for us. I am already taking Claire out of school for a week in the fall so I am going to avoid taking her out much. I have something in mind for the weekend over president’s day and we’ll see if that pans out. She should only miss 1 ½ days if we do that.
I know I will be jealous seeing others post things on social media, but I know in my heart that it just isn’t going to be doable that week.
Looks like a fun night at dinner with the show at AP and over at Fathom's!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.