To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!! - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well... it was obviously the ABC books! You could have been learning to speak English without an accent, eh?!!
A very full first day. I can't wait to hear about day #2.
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Yeah, they found the bag.... hmmm... that bed above my head - they way my kids sleep.... they may end up on top of me!!! Your pics are so nice... Can't wait to read more.....
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I'm so glad that your bag was found. Kudos to Marcilano! I wonder why the Security office didn't contact you right away once they set it aside. That would have saved a lot of worry and time.
I think it all stemmed from the RCCL tag
we put on had come off at some point-
without it, there was no way to know whose it
was. I'm just ever grateful it was found!
Glad to hear the bag was found so soon! I already had a vision of you in my head, having to worry about your conference stuff for the entire cruise Glad to hear there was no notable motion of the ship. That's what I'd be most concerned about if I went on an Alaska cruise.
Kevan was up at 4:00 am and he said the sun had already risen. I got up for a drink at about 6:30 and it looked like 2:00 in the afternoon. Kevan was on the balcony just staring at the horizon. It was quiet and he agreed the sound of the ship cutting through the water making waves was a very pleasant sound. I didn't last out there long though because the temp had dipped alot and I was freezing. He was happy to be out there though.
I asked him if he could wait to eat until the boys and I got back up and he was okay with that- so back to bed I went. Aaron woke up about 7:00 and by default got me up as he was clanking his way down the ladder off the bunk. Kevan was in the shower- but Aaron and I both went outside- I could not get over how much the temp had dipped and the visibility was starting to be eh, not so great. All of that in just a few hours. There also was a bit of a chop to the water which created a little movement but nothing very significant.
Matt was up a few minutes later- so we all threw on jeans and hoodies and headed up to Windjammer. When we got there, I was shocked at how quiet it was- seems most of our fellow passengers enjoy sleeping in.
Breakfast offerings were the standard fare- but there were plenty of stations and food. The fruits were beautiful- and they had some lovely yogurt parfaits, fruit salads and similar kind of things on offer. The three of us loaded up and headed to a table.
Before we continue, if you would please take some time to familiarize yourself with this video clip:
The four of us absolutely love this commerical. We've joked about it on and off since it aired a few years ago. As we sat down to eat, there was a Japanese family right beside us. I looked at Aaron's plate and he had filled that thing with sausage. There must have been 5 or 6 links easily. Then I remember the commerical- but he stole my thunder-- as soon as I was about to say "SAUSAGE!"- he did it, loudly and in the exact voice of the dog in the commerical. Matthew spit out his orange juice and I nearly choked on pineapple. But it was worth it- of course, you can only imagine the looks we got from that family.
Dig In (For photo effect only, I promise he usually does not attack food this way)
I asked everyone to rate their first breakfast experience at Windjammer and it got the following reviews:
Kevan: 6 Maureen: 7 Aaron: 7 Matt: 8
It wasn't bad but it haute cuisine either. But come to think of it, most breakfast buffets I have ever been to are about that way. With the exception of breakfast lasagna at Crystal Palace. That's about the best. But I digress.
We headed back to the room as the boys wanted to take showers and I needed one as well. While we were waiting on each other, we just basically hung out and watched tv. No one was up for the balcony. I read in the Cruise Compass that there was a 50% off sale outside on Deck 11, so we decided to go check that out.
On our way up there, we got a quick picture of Matt and I with the Centrum in the back:
Up on Deck 11, it was downright miserable and the visibility of the horizon continued to decline. There were still plenty of people looking for a bargain. Kevan bought a hat and I got a cool Royal Caribbean Serenade shirt for the bargain price of $20 combined.
We hurried inside to warm up and headed to the shops once again- this time I took a few pictures.
The shops are on Deck 5 nearby the Latte-tudes coffee shop. There are several computer terminals as well - so I checked email. We brought the Cruise Compass with us and there really wasn't anything that interested any of us- so the boys decided to make themselves comfortable in the sitting area of Lattetudes and get out the iPods. Kevan and I were content to look out at, well fog. He asked if I was up for a real cup of java- and I was- so he got us some- Latte-tudes is one of the things not included, so the total for our coffees was $7.24.
Matt had made himself comfortable and I realized had brought Fumble. He reminded me it was probably time for another Fumble picture, so we took one of our little friend. Say hello to my little friend!
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Jeans and hoodie for a cruise? Sounds perfect to me.
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Hello, little friend! OK, this is where I'm not too sure about an Alaska cruise... I want to be comfortable sitting on the veranda. Sounds like you all managed to have fun though!
I swear it looks like our ship! And your menu was the same as ours, only thousands of miles away.
Did you find turkey sausage on your buffet? That was one of our favorites. It was an okay buffet, and towards the end of the cruise, we just kind of foraged through, not really sitting down for any length of time.
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Glad to hear there was no notable motion of the ship. That's what I'd be most concerned about if I went on an Alaska cruise.
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