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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Wow, wow, and wow! That looks so cool! Sophia would be at that ice rink every day!
I thought of her when I saw it. There were lots of free-skate times. Occasionally there was a show, but typically it was open to anyone - and most people didn't use it (I know I didn't - had no desire to break an ankle at sea, and we all know that would have happened).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Wow! Ship looks fantastic! I can't wait to read all about your adventures!
I hope to update this afternoon... if I'm allowed any down time!
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.
We had the late dinner seating, at 8:30pm, so after we watched the sunset and relaxed, we ended up taking naps for a short while. Then we got up and showered and got ready for dinner.
I skyped with Meri at 7:45pm (eastern) and got the update on her doctors appointment (fluid in the ear, not quite a full-blown infection yet, antibiotics and ear-drops prescribed) and heard all about her dinner out with Grandma at Perkins!
At 8:15pm we took our pre-dinner photos (which turned into a routine for every meal) and headed down three decks to our dining room.
This sign made me laugh on the way down...
Toni and I had a rule that we could not use the elevators at ALL on the trip, except for if we were wearing heels (which was only at dinnertime). What we ended up doing was taking the elevator down, but walking back up since for me it's easier to go up stairs in heels than down.
We were on the main floor of the dining room - the Michelangelo dining room. We were quite surprised by the number of people dressed quite slouchily. Now, I know not everyone gets completely jazzed up, but my goodness... I was shocked by the number of people who were dressed down to the point of inappropriateness (in my humble little opinion). Ah well.
There were ten of us at our table. Three couples (Gregg & Lize, Brian & Jaime, Jon & Jen) and then myself and Toni, and her coworker Matt and his friend Warren. Toni and I sat at the end of the table, and we got an enormous laugh out of the fact that it turns out our big table was actually two round tables with a piece of plywood connecting them. So if you were in the middle three seats on either side, you were on plywood... and your place setting would bounce up and down if the person across from you leaned on the table. It was the cause of much amusement throughout the cruise as people jockeyed for position at the table to NOT get stuck in the middle (though at the same time, everyone wanted ONE turn with the plywood, to get the full experience). It was funny, but at the same time I kind of thought, "Seriously?!"
Here's a picture I took...
"The Classics" were offered every day, so you could always get them if you wanted.
Another odd thing that I'd never seen before was that there was a section of the menu where you could purchase "premium" dinners like filet or lobster for upwards of $25! I don't have a picture of that part of the menu, I don't think... but I was absolutely floored! I'd never seen that before and I'm not sure if it's the norm now or what. I do have to say, I found it completely tacky, personally.
Anyway, our server's name was Hilda, from the Phillipines, and she was very sweet. We have some amusing stories from later in the cruise, though... Her assistant was Robin, and I'm not sure where he was from. He never spoke except to ask what kind of bread we wanted or if we wanted cocktail sauce on our shrimp, etc... so we didn't really get to know him.
I began the first meal with two sourdough rolls. YUMMY!
My first appetizer was shrimp cocktail, and it was delicious! They brought around cocktail sauce, and it was just fabulous!
Then I got a lamb broth soup with root vegetables which was yummy as well.
And for my entree I got prime rib (medium well) with vegetables and a baked potato (with a tree coming out of it).
Then, even though we were stuffed, it was time for dessert!
I chose the creme brulee
and the blueberry-peach crumble with ice cream, which Toni and I shared
I also ordered a latte, which cost me 3.16.
We were stuffed at the end of the meal, but we wobbled our way back to our room, somewhere around 10:30pm. Then I uploaded photos to facebook, sent Meri an email (since I wouldn't be talking to her on Friday due to her schedule lacking time), climbed into bed, watched about 45 minutes of The Hunger Games on our tv, and fell asleep.
Up next: A very full and yet relaxing day at sea!!
You both look very nice all done-up for dinner! I noticed a big difference on my DCL cruise this past summer compared to the one in 2008 as far as dressing for dinner goes. This year people were in torn jeans, cut-offs, really shabby-looking t-shirts and flip-flops. I don't dress formally by any means, but, to me, that really isn't respectful of the occasion. I think it's part of the cruise experience to change for dinner.
Dressing for dinner was our whole issue at WDW last trip! People just don't care. We were in 2 TS restaurants like Citrico's and Narcoosee's and had people walking in wearing cammo shorts, baseball hats and flip flops! Chuck and I went back to our resort every day and had a swim and then got ready for dinner, usually wearing nice slacks and a blouse or polo. I think it shows disregard for not only other diners but the restaurant/management as well. It's just as bad as people wearing pj's to the store! I could get on an entire rant here. It's really inconsiderate.
I agree, people need to dress nicer to dinner. I thought you and Toni looked great and your shoes were super cute! I think it is a bit out of place to have extra fee dinners in the main dining room. Those should be saved for a signature restaurant or something. The ship looks huge and I really enjoyed looking at The Promenade.
You both look very nice all done-up for dinner! I noticed a big difference on my DCL cruise this past summer compared to the one in 2008 as far as dressing for dinner goes. This year people were in torn jeans, cut-offs, really shabby-looking t-shirts and flip-flops. I don't dress formally by any means, but, to me, that really isn't respectful of the occasion. I think it's part of the cruise experience to change for dinner.
And your food looked great!
Exactly! I'm not even talking jeans... but raggedy ones. Sweatpants in some cases! I guess I just feel like while you don't have to be in your cufflinks and pearls, you should at least wear NICE jeans if you're going to wear jeans... and a nice shirt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great dinner! Having cruised RCL before, very familiar with their extra charges! It looked delish though!
Oh yes they nickle and dime you like no other, I tell you what! It was sort of annoying, but it's the nature of the beast, I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
Dressing for dinner was our whole issue at WDW last trip! People just don't care. We were in 2 TS restaurants like Citrico's and Narcoosee's and had people walking in wearing cammo shorts, baseball hats and flip flops! Chuck and I went back to our resort every day and had a swim and then got ready for dinner, usually wearing nice slacks and a blouse or polo. I think it shows disregard for not only other diners but the restaurant/management as well. It's just as bad as people wearing pj's to the store! I could get on an entire rant here. It's really inconsiderate.
That's amazing about the higher-scale restaurants, isn't it? I had the same experience at Cali Grill. It amazes me. And honestly for these dinners on the cruises, you can't tell me they don't know the dress code - the descriptions are in our paperwork in a number of different places! Ah well, they didn't affect my dining experience, I was just shocked, is all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
You and Toni both looked very nice!! Your dinner looks yummy!!
Thank you! I'm hungry just thinking about it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
I agree, people need to dress nicer to dinner. I thought you and Toni looked great and your shoes were super cute! I think it is a bit out of place to have extra fee dinners in the main dining room. Those should be saved for a signature restaurant or something. The ship looks huge and I really enjoyed looking at The Promenade.
Thanks I love those shoes! I felt like it was definitely out of place to have extra-fee dinners in the main dining room. No one at our table ordered them but I was a little offended. If you want those, that's what the cover-charge restaurants are for. Just my opinion!
I loved the Promenade. It was so colorful and vibrant, and had some fun shops and snackeries!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Sorry, it's been a crazy time!!! But I have some free times, hopefully I can get this going!!
The phone rang at 8:30am with room service telling us that breakfast was on the way. I'm hungry as I'm typing this, so now I keep thinking about breakfast being delivered... so finally I had to get up after just that first sentence, and I ran to McDonald's to get a sausage egg mcmuffin. In the future, I think I'd better eat before typing up a TR!
Anyway... so we woke at 8:30am and had breakfast...
The eggs were fabulous... the hash browns were very very salty. The fresh fruit and pastries were also delicious! We sat on the couch and ate breakfast. It rained for a bit, so we spent time reading (in the room and on the balcony) and watched some of Hawaii 5-0.
Around 10:30am, we decided to head up to the deck for a while. We walked up to deck 11, and got comfortable in a swinging chair for a while, doing some more reading.
The foggy view from our swinging chair...
At 11:10 we decided to do a little shopping. We dropped our books in the room (Deck 6) and then went down to the Promenade (Deck 5) and did some browsing. I picked up a stuffed bear for Meri ($24.95), and a fancy silver purse ($10), and an ornament ($6), for me. At 11:55am (the receipt is handy!) we hit Starbucks and I got a tall latte ($2.75 - which is cheaper than my regular Starbucks at home, so that's something) and Toni got a Caramel Frap ($3.75). We used a coupon we had from our Gold Member Coupon Books we received when we arrived, and got .69 off! Of course, they add an automatic gratuity, so that was .98.
With coffee in hand, we brought our purchases back to the room, and then went upstairs to deck 12, right by the pool. Without even trying, we picked two open deck chairs right across from Toni's friends! Too funny! We people-watched, read, sunned, listened to our iPods, talked, and laughed...
Our view from our seats
That strip of land in the distance is Cuba. We were pretty sure we were circling it a few times, because it was always on our left side, and it was there for the entire day and some of the evening...
Getting some rays!
We listened to a steel drum band and watched a salsa lesson (which was HIGHLY entertaining), and just relaxed in the sun!
At 1:30pm, it was time for the Belly Flop Contest!
It was kind of hard to really see much, but we could see the splashes the guys made...
We grabbed a quick lunch from the deck (deck 11) at around 1:45pm and brought it back to our seats, and just relaxed some more in the sun. Finally at 2:40pm, we decided to head back to the room. We napped on and off, and read our books, and snacked a little, and just relaxed. It was so great to just do NOTHING! At 5:45pm, we got up and started the getting-ready process... showering, changing, etc... since we had a cocktail party to go to at 7pm.
I was sad to not be Skype-ing with Meri today, but she was a busy girl - school til 3pm, piano from 4-430 and then a church Christmas party at 6pm! Phew! We PROBABLY could have fit a Skype session in there, but it would have been rushed and stressful, so we just stuck to email for this day. I got online and sent Meri a couple of photos from the day, with descriptions and lots of hugs and kisses, and then we were off!
A note about this dress... this past summer, my bosses boss passed away far earlier than expected from a brain tumor. She was a clothes-horse, and loved loved loved fashion. I flew up for the funeral, and got to say goodbye to her. A few weeks after she passed, her family brought in almost her entire wardrobe, knowing that her work family would appreciate it the most of anyone who knew her. Since I don't work in-office, I asked my coworker, Mark (he's my work-husband, though I regularly ask for a divorce) to go get me some shirts or something, just so I had SOMETHING of Laurie's to remember her by. This dress is one of the things that he picked out for me. Really, it needs some awesome jewelry to go with it, but I didn't think of that when packing, so... it's plain, but still lovely. It was nice to have "her" with me on the cruise, especially for formal night. I know it's not a fancy dress, but you can never go wrong with a simple, classy black dress.
A cool shot of the kiddie splash area, all lit up at night
I took this in case anyone was interested...
We got up to Olive or Twist (get it?) and met up with her friends.
The cocktails were all paid for by her boss, which was very generous. I got some fruity something or another, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was, and I didn't write it down. I did, however, take a picture...
They also had some snacks, so we grabbed some delicious mozzarella and tomato, and some sushi (I ate the ebi - cooked shrimp on rice). I was kind of dreading the cocktail party because while I don't mind meeting new people in small groups, I feel very overwhelmed and shy in a very large group of people I don't know. However, we mostly kept to our small little group (though I was introduced to others) and had some great conversation, and it was very laid back. They did some awards for the year, and then before I knew it, we were off to dinner!
Aha, I did take a picture of the extra-cost meals! How about those prices?!
I ordered a sprite ($2.25 plus a .34 gratuity)
One of the guys in our group, Jon, loves scallops. Apparently whenever they're on the menu, we all have to order them and give them to him! LOL! Fine with me, because I don't care for them particularly... so I was glad to do my part!
My bisque, which as I recall was less than impressive...
I also got the shrimp cocktail again, but didn't see the need to take another photo... it looks the same as last night's, lol. And it was just as good!
My main course - the filet
This was good, no complaints! The prime rib was better, though, believe it or not!
After dinner, we all headed to the room to change, and then we went to the Sphinx lounge, to watch the Battle of the Sexes show. We were the first ones there, so we chose a little seating area with enough seats for everyone in our group... and then we saved seats... lol!
It turns out they ended up dividing the room in half, with men on one side and women on the other, so our seat-saving was pointless!
They started with a mini karaoke session, and then moved on to various other activities like mini relay races, and other silly things. Each "event" had a different group of volunteers, but some volunteers repeatedly came up, and they were pretty funny. There were two guys from Orlando that we referred to as the Boy Band guys throughout the rest of the trip. They looked like NSYNC or BSB wannabes, and strutted around a lot. It was funny. Then there was a guy that ended up being called "Mexico" for some reason. I think he said he was from Mexico (but he wasn't) and he was a real ham.
"Mexico" is in the white shirt...
The female emcee is all the way to the left, with the mohawk (she was quite interesting) and you can see the Boy Band guys in the black tshirt and red tshirt in the center of the photo.
This one was where they stuffed balloons into the shirts of a guy and a girl (guys worked with the guy, of course, and girls with the girl) and whomever had the most balloons in their shirt won. The girl won, lol. You can imagine the jokes that came out of that one, during the counting... with the girl saying, "Hm, is that a balloon?"
And last was a very questionable (lol) game of balloon popping in various positions which became more and more, er, questionable, as the game went on... you can get the idea here...
With the show done (and the girls as the champions), we headed up to the Schooner Bar for a little while, to listen to the piano player and sing along.
We sang along to Summer Lovin' and a few others that aren't coming to mind right now, and then we decided to hit the dance club, The Catacombs, for a little while, just to see what's what. It's really a beautiful club, and we had a great time. It was me, Toni, Matt and Warren. I got a fuzzy navel $6.25 plus a .94 cent gratuity) and Matt and I sat and watched the antics around us, while Toni and Warren hit the dance floor for a bit. Around 12:30am we decided to go see what was happening up on deck. Turns out nothing much was, but we did see that the rope was down on the tippy top deck which is only accessible to those with suites... so we four sneaked up there and hung out at the way top of the boat for about 45 minutes, talking and being silly and laughing.
You can barely make out Matt and Toni in the dark...
Couldn't help being a little silly
Finally at around 1:15am we headed back to our rooms to call it a night! We didn't have to get up particularly early for Cozumel, but I did have a 10am Skype date with Meri... so we put out our room service breakfast order with a delivery time of 9:30am, and went right to sleep!
About This Page: 
Melanie
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
It looked delish though! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Love the elevator sign! 
Linear Mode
