A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 4/23 - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Is the adult area laid out on this ship any better than on the Dream? Thats the one big flaw on the Dream. We walked through it with kids on accident more than once.
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.
Is the adult area laid out on this ship any better than on the Dream? Thats the one big flaw on the Dream. We walked through it with kids on accident more than once.
The way it's laid out, it's really almost unavoidable to walk through there with kids (on the Fantasy as well as the Dream). Not a good design.
The way it's laid out, it's really almost unavoidable to walk through there with kids (on the Fantasy as well as the Dream). Not a good design.
That's true, but so long as you're walking along deck, you're more at the sides and I seem to remember quite a few notices, so you were aware it was the adult only area. I don't think wandering through with kids is a problem. It's if you stop there.
Can't wait to hear about dinner, since I know hey kicked it up a notch from the Dream, and we found that show unbelievably cool. Hard to imagine something beyond that one!
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More great pics!! Where did you get those great door magnets? My children want to decorate our door on our upcoming cruise and I don't know where to get them.
More great pics!! Where did you get those great door magnets? My children want to decorate our door on our upcoming cruise and I don't know where to get them.
I got them from our friend Barb (Grammy Grumpy on the boards) as I had no idea how to create them either. I don't know where I'd get magnetic bases over here. I gather they're quite widely available in the States, from comments people made, but I can't help I'm afraid. Maybe someone else can give you some advice...
Saturday 15 December – part seven: what a show and what a meal!
I will admit I was very nervous about our dining companions for this cruise, as it’s the first cruise since 2004 where we haven’t already known who we were dining with, and that was a complete disaster, with people who didn’t want to talk to us. I didn’t want to go through this again. However, we were fine, as we ended up seated with a young couple, Alex and Jessica. Now when I say they were young, I mean it. He was 20, and she’s 18, and they’ve been together for something like six years. They were very sweet, and very loved up. They come from Miami, and are students at the University of Central Florida. He was surprising her with this cruise, which was so sweet. We were at a table for six, but the other couple never showed up, so we’ll have to wait to meet them….
Ok, now let’s talk about our servers. Our server is Naya, who’s from Indonesia, and our assistant server is Goshen, from Trinidad and Tobago, and both seem to be excellent, the type of people you can build up a good rapport with, which is a good start.
Next the food… As we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I was starving, so I started with the smoked salmon tartare, which had capers, onions, and micro greens, topped with American black caviar, seasoned with Celtic salt, and Mark also had it. This was very nice and I couldn’t fault it.
Then I had the black truffle pasta purseittes, a pasta purse filled with truffle scented cheese and coated with a delicate champagne sauce, which was beautiful. It couldn’t have been better if they’d tried.
My next course (I did say I was hungry! ) was the creamy butternut squash soup garnished with chives and drizzled with sour cream, which was lovely, but a bit too rich for my tastes, so I didn’t manage that much of it.
For entrée, Mark had the lemon-thyme marinated all natural chicken breast, on top of sour cream mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, and green mustard jus.
I had the white shrimp pennette pasta, toasted with basil and Reggiano parmesan cheese sauce, and parmesan wafer, which was lovely, but again, I couldn’t finish it, as it was too rich.
I did like the way on the menu that lighter options and vegetarian choices are now highlighted separately. I think that’s a good addition.
Mark had the pineapple financier, an almond cake, served with marinated pineapple compote.
I went for the sweet temptations, which had samples of the pineapple financier, crunchy walnut cake, and the citrus lemon mousse. I’m glad I had it, as they were all very different. I think my favourite was the pineapple financier, but I enjoyed being able to sample both of them.
And as for the show – we all really enjoyed it. Crush was on top form, and I loved the way he interacted with the table next to us. He ended up calling up the son to pose with him, as his mum had a camera, and the son just looked like he wanted to die of embarrassment! It was classic…
Dinner had taken a fair time, so I literally had to leave Mark to pay for the bottle of Riesling Spatlese we’d bought and head off to the spa. I headed up to deck 11, and as I was in the elevator on my own, I could finally get a photo of the inside of one:
It was a bit of a shock to the system up there, as it was raining now. There was literally no-one up there, except for Cast Members, which was a bit surreal.
I made it to the spa just after 7:30pm, and as the changing rooms were empty, I got some photos of it:
I was greeted by Milly, who asked if I was Hazel. In the end, she figured out I was the person she was due to be seeing, as a) I was the only one there, and b) the girl who booked me in had noted down that perhaps she’d got my name wrong, but I was English!
She took me through to the treatment room, and for the next 90 minutes, I literally experienced bliss. This treatment includes a back, neck and shoulders massage, a foot massage, and a facial. It really is a completely inclusive experience, and definitely a great way to start the cruise. Mark was wonderful. I mentioned to her about my right foot, and how it had been hurting, pointing out where, and she spent extra time trying to deal with that issue. She got a very good tip for her work.
When she was done, she asked how I was doing with the movement of the ship. What movement of the ship? While you’re lying down, you don’t feel it at all, but when I got up, my goodness, I knew all about it. It certainly was moving, and I had even more respect for Milly. How the heck she worked during that, I do not know.
I checked out the Rainforest, but Mark was nowhere to be seen. The wind was whipping around outside, and you could hear it, which was a real downside to this place.
I headed back to the room, found him there and a new addition to the room…
….. and we headed to bed. It had been a great first day on board.
The weather today was hot and sunny and in the 80s. The best thing today was dinner at Animator’s Palate. The worst thing today was how exhausted we were first thing in the day. The funniest thing today was the show at dinner. Today we tried sailing on the Dream And the result was it’s a beautiful ship. The most magical moment today was seeing the lobby of the Dream for the first time.
Wow your dinner looked beautiful and to finish it off with time at the Spa sounds heaven. The ship looks beautiful too.
That is it I am sold, I will cruise someday! Disney should pay you commission.
Maybe you should have a look at some of the itineraries for the next couple of summers in the Med? We're on the second sailing out of Venice. Ok, none of them are cheap, but they are visiting amazing locations and the older ships are still well worth sailing on....
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.
OK, Dinner sounds amazing! I'm glad you were able to get along with your tablemates. Though we haven't been able to see them again, we still stay in touch with our tablemates from our 2008 cruise. The other couple we were seated with only showed up the first night.
The Spa looks and sounds wonderful, too, Hazel... I mean English Cheryl
Quote:
Mark was wonderful. I mentioned to her... ...
Now, did you mean "Milly from the ship" or "Mark from England"??? (I couldn't resist!)
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Maybe someone else can give you some advice...
However, we were fine, as we ended up seated with a young couple, Alex and Jessica. Now when I say they were young, I mean it. 
He was 20, and she’s 18, and they’ve been together for something like six years. 
They were very sweet, and very loved up. 
They come from Miami, and are students at the University of Central Florida. He was surprising her with this cruise, which was so sweet. We were at a table for six, but the other couple never showed up, so we’ll have to wait to meet them….
It was classic… 
She got a very good tip for her work. 
While you’re lying down, you don’t feel it at all, but when I got up, my goodness, I knew all about it. 
It certainly was moving, and I had even more respect for Milly. How the heck she worked during that, I do not know. 
We're on the second sailing out of Venice. Ok, none of them are cheap, but they are visiting amazing locations and the older ships are still well worth sailing on....
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