Four if by Land, Six if by Sea **Updated 2/23**COMPLETED - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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OMG Jill - that suite is simply unbelievable!!! I'm use to the standard cruise room that is so small that it's difficult for two people to move around in, so that just blew me away!!! Your girls must have been so excited when they saw where they would be staying. I can't wait to hear more. Thanks for sharing your pics.
WOW!!! That suite is amazing! Thanks for sharing the great pics with us....can't wait to hear about the rest of the ship & the many adventures to be had!
The suite looks amazing...I don't think I would ever want to leave the room. What a wonderful room to stay in on your cruise, so roomy, and that bathroom...
Can't wait to see where you adventures with Mary Devall and Maddie took you, hoping the nose bleed wasn't too bad.
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I don't think that suite is all that great. OK, so that's a big fat lie, but I wanted to say something different than everyone else. Actually, looking at those photos is making me ponder an upgrade for my cruise!
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WOW! What a wonderfull way to travel. Thank you Jill for sharing your pictures with all of us. I think most of us will dream of one day cruising in that beautiful suite. Hope the rest of the trip went well. Can't wait for the rest of the TR.
Thanks Jill !!!!!
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous!!! I wouldn't know where to spend more time, in that bathroom or the balcony!!! Now what's this about a bloody nose?
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That is an amazing room! How nice of your parents to let you and Thom have the master . . . . It's kind of a double edged sword though, such a nice room, but you don't want to be in it too much - you want to enjoy the ship!!
Great pictures! It is absolutely beautiful. When DD and I visited the one on the Magic, she had just turned 10. As we walked in, she said "Oh, we have a TV in our room too. But yours is a lot BIGGER!" Umm. That would be the understatement of the year.
The girls and I went right to the Oceaneer’s Club since it was open for “family time.” I followed the girls around for an hour while they played, climbed and slid down the slide. There were some rough little boys playing on the slide and Mary Devall soon learned to steer clear of them if she didn’t want one of them sliding down on top of her.
They loved for me to stand at the bottom of the slide and watch them come out, so that’s where I spent a majority of my time.
One of the funniest things that I heard all week was when a little boy of about 5 or 6 came out of the slide and announced in this very distressed voice “But I’m NEW here!” Apparently someone had shouted something down at him while he was sliding and that was his answer. Just the expression on his face and the tone of his voice was HEE-larioius!
When the girls and I got back to the room, everyone was stirring after their naps. Thom briefly suggested that he and my dad go to a bar to watch one of the playoff games but because the drill was coming up soon they decided to wait (and I may have given him “the” look since he had just been napping while I chased two energized little girls ).
About that time, the girls started chasing each other in the perfect circle that could be found in our stateroom from the living room to the media room to the master bedroom to the entry way and back to the living room. Then the inevitable happened . . . I was in the dining room when I heard Maddie scream so Thom already had her in the master bathroom by the time that I reached them. She had fallen and hit her nose on one of the chairs in the media room. He was holding a bloody tissue up to her nose and his shirt was covered in blood. Every time that she would calm down, she would look at his shirt and start again. Unfortunately, our luggage had not arrived yet so he was stuck with a bloody shirt for a little while.
Once Maddie had calmed down and her nose was looking much better , we busied ourselves trying to figure out which muster station to go to and putting on our life jackets. Then, of course, we had to take photos.
My mom insisted on taking one of our family and this is what we got! I'm not sure if this is saying anything about her relationship with Thom or not.
Thank goodness that Thom’s life jacket covered his bloody shirt otherwise I might have been arrested before we even left port for trying to throw him overboard (not that I would ever do that).
When it was finally time for us to go, we opened the door to find our luggage sitting right outside our door and we took a moment to literally throw it all in the room. Once we had taken care of that chore, it seemed to take FOR-EV-AH to get two youngsters and two oldsters down four flights of stairs. We ended up being the next to the last group out on deck 4, but it actually played in our favor since we were allowed to stand off to the side while the masses were all clumped together.
Maddie had to stand in the front of our line and she was a real trooper (especially for being a tired, injured trooper ). She stayed still and didn’t make a peep the entire time. After the announcements were finished, one of the CM’s even let us go early because of the girls. The drill was quick and painless.
Just as we were all about to head up four flights of stairs back to our stateroom, an officer of the ship was standing by the elevators and offered my parents one. As Thom and I headed up the stairs with the girls, we heard my mom say “Oh, can we use the elevator? I just had surgery.”
Once back in the room, we dropped our life jackets and then headed up one flight to the Sail Away party.
Mary Devall is pointing to the intercom above her and making the "yapping" motion with the other hand because every time that she stood in that one spot, an announcement always came over the intercom.
Mary Devall immediately jumped up on the dance floor where she stayed the entire time. My parents sat off to the side and Maddie couldn’t decide if she wanted to dance, be held by Thom or sit on my mom’s lap. She was one tired little girl and she was fighting it so hard.
While Mary Devall was boogeying the afternoon away and Maddie was safely ensconced in her dad’s arms, I ran to get a drink for myself from one of the many servers nearby. It was a FAB with pina colada swirled with berry (Pina Colava perhaps?). As soon as the CM rang up my first one, I decided to grab a FB for Maddie to help perk her up a little. They sell them as non-alcoholic, but then add rum directly from the bottle to the drink if you want it alcoholic. My question is: why did both of them cost $7.99 if one was alcoholic and the other one wasn’t? I didn’t ask at the time because I didn’t notice until later.
Maddie being Maddie immediately honed in on my drink and her eyes just lit up when I handed her one of her very own. She looked like a little party baby holding her frosty beverage in the plastic souvenir daiquiri glass.
Continued in next post . . . .
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Sometimes words aren't needed . . .
Last edited by Jillybean; 02-04-2009 at 11:30 AM..
When the characters came out, Maddie was just beside herself. She laughed, waved and pointed while her sister continued to dance, dance, dance. At one point, she asked her daddy to put her on his shoulders so I had to take a picture since I have a similar one of Thom and Mary Devall from our first Disney cruise 5 years ago (Mary Devall is in the second picture).
After the characters left, I asked Maddie if she wanted to go back to the room and she told me that she did.
This is her waving goodbye to the characters.
We grabbed my parents from the sideline and we all went back down one flight to deck 8. Several minutes later, Thom and Mary Devall showed up with the news that Mary Devall had gone up on stage with other children to sing along with a number from HSM. Thom took video of it and it was so cute watching her get her groove on.
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I can't wait to hear more. Thanks for sharing your pics.
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Pixie Dust
Actually, looking at those photos is making me ponder an upgrade for my cruise! 
How nice of your parents to let you and Thom have the master . . . . 
It's kind of a double edged sword though, such a nice room, but you don't want to be in it too much - you want to enjoy the ship!! 
Apparently someone had shouted something down at him while he was sliding and that was his answer. Just the expression on his face and the tone of his voice was HEE-larioius! 
He was holding a bloody tissue up to her nose and his shirt was covered in blood. Every time that she would calm down, she would look at his shirt and start 
again. Unfortunately, our luggage had not arrived yet so he was stuck with a bloody shirt for a little while.
As soon as the CM rang up my first one, I decided to grab a FB for Maddie to help perk her up a little. They sell them as non-alcoholic, but then add rum directly from the bottle to the drink if you want it alcoholic. My question is: why did both of them cost $7.99 if one was alcoholic and the other one wasn’t? 
I didn’t ask at the time because I didn’t notice until later.
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