A DREAM is a wish your heart makes...Halloween on the High Seas edition - updated 09/14/2014 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Very nice stateroom! Love the magnets you made for the door!
Thanks Kathy!
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Originally Posted by honeybee723
It's weird with the shipping so big that we kept running into each other, and we were even right under the other one's nose and didn't even realize it. I still can't believe you were able to unpack AND decorate, all before we got to your stateroom.
What can I say? I'm efficient. And I wasn't totally unpacked - I just stored all the suitcases underneath the bed minutes before you got there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great swag from the DVC meeting!
It was! And then we got something each night too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
so far, so good. It is so exciting getting onto the ship and exploring.
It is - and overwhelming all at the same time.
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Originally Posted by JKnott17
Love your room! We were right on the other side of the ship from that room when we cruised in August, we had stateroom 9154
I thought it was a great location!
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Originally Posted by mcc0313
The stateroom looks great, love your door.....great decorations.
Thanks Meg!
Quote:
Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
It looks like a great stateroom! I loved the swag we got on our cruise too, DVC really knew how to treat us right with great surprises.
They sure do. I loved seeing what we would get each day.
Love your stateroom and your door decorations are fabulous! It was a mystery to me on my first cruise how they figured out I was DVC, but I was glad to get the fun gifts, so I was happy they snooped.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Just catching up again! LOVE the idea of the Favorite things on the Mickey Heads! I wish I was that organized, always have great plans, but never follow through! The pictures of your room and your door decorations are so neat!
Love your stateroom and your door decorations are fabulous! It was a mystery to me on my first cruise how they figured out I was DVC, but I was glad to get the fun gifts, so I was happy they snooped.
I'm with you on that Sharon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DilBrooksmom
Just catching up again! LOVE the idea of the Favorite things on the Mickey Heads! I wish I was that organized, always have great plans, but never follow through! The pictures of your room and your door decorations are so neat!
Thank you so much!
Well a belated Marry Christmas/Happy New Year everyone! I had intentions of doing some updates, but things got hectic so you got nothing. Hopefully I'll be back soon with an update!
Well a belated Marry Christmas/Happy New Year everyone! I had intentions of doing some updates, but things got hectic so you got nothing. Hopefully I'll be back soon with an update!
And the same to you! We're here whenever you're ready.
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So when I last left you we had just finished the muster drill and went back to the room to put some things away before Melissa and her family arrived for our own little sail away party. I had their gifts ready, strung up the Halloween lights, and had the poster I’d made ready to go. I asked Melissa via text to bring an extra glass or two for the bubbly I’d brought for us to toast leaving and she asked why I was texting her and not using the wave phone. I said I forgot your room #. Soon enough I remembered it, but those wave phones are still a bit of a pain. There was several times we’d try to let each other know where we were but we’d have the other phone. I guess you need to text both of them. Anyway our little group was soon all together and once the kids had their gifts they quickly set off playing with one another like they’d just seen each other yesterday and had known each other forever. Melissa had made them all streamers to wave and while they might not have lasted long in our room, the boys still have them and are on display in their room. They also got beach buckets with their names & a Mickey head on them, some toys for the water (little squirt gun & sword) and a light up Halloween toy. Melissa gave Mike a Vinylmation which turned out to be the mystery one for the pack – he was very excited about that. And She gave me a Mickey tote that came in handy on the trip and since then too plus a beautiful Mickey head necklace. Thanks again Melissa for the wonderful gifts! We all loved them!
The adults headed out to the balcony while the kids played on the boys’ tablets. Mike popped open the bubbly and that’s when Melissa mentioned Chad not being able to use the glass so I ran back in to get Chad’s gift – a Baltimore Ravens Tervis cup complete with lid & straw! I’m thinking he loved that cup because if we saw them, he had it. The kids came out for a bit to wave their streamers around when the music and horn played but otherwise stayed in playing. Us adults just chatted away. It was like old friends being together again after a while. We all felt so much at ease and I was happy we were experiencing our first cruise with them.
View looking towards back of the ship
We were amused by all the 'tailgaters'
bye bye land!
the awesome buckets Melissa gave the boys
contents of buckets
my tote bag
my Mickey head necklace
Soon Melissa and fam headed back to their cabin to unpack, etc. Mike & I sat on the balcony and just watched the sea go by. Man I could used to this life! It was so peaceful and relaxing. Before getting ready for the show and dinner I used the self timer to take a shot of all of us in our matching shirts (in case the boarding picture didn’t come out). After we were cleaned up and changed we explored the atrium for a bit before heading to The Walt Disney Theatre for the Golden Mickey’s. We went to the show every night and we really enjoyed all the shows – even the boys never complained. I’m not sure we’d have to see the same shows again but we enjoyed doing this as a family each night. And the 6:30pm show with the 8pm dinner worked out great for us. We always sat in the same spot (or close to it) each night too – left hand side, in the middle.
Love the gifts Melissa gave you guys! I have that same tote bag and have used it quite a bit. Love the matching shirts! I'm still working on my family to get them to agree on wearing matching shirts in June. I must say, I'm not winning.
Love your private sail-away party! Couldn't you just sit on that veranda forever looking at the sea and sky? Nothing like it! The sunset photos are beautiful. I'm glad the whole family enjoyed the shows. I liked them, too. On future cruises I'd only attend once in a while, but on the first cruise I really liked seeing them all. Looking forward to dinner!
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Great gifts!!!! How did she print on those buckets??? You 2 are for sure my super amazing crafty friends and I LOVE it!!!
Wonderful pics too.
I'm still so bummed I miss your sign and room........I was watching on my phone, ya know while was really "working",but who knew that webcam was gonna zoom in..................wahh wahhh................