The "third times a charm" HCL cruise PTR - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We actually were here for a long time. We decided it was time to head back to the dock and see some more of the island....it was more of the same....but eric was driving now
There was a bit of cussing and OMG that truck almost felt like it hit me type of stuff *LOL*
We stopped at this point that we were told was the highest point on the island you could see the other side from there....so we took a pic....now a story behind this....if you will look there is a valley down in that pic...in the valley were many donkeys. "the valley of donkeys" as i now fondly refer to.....When we stopped there we didnt see alllll of them right away...we took this pic
They heard us talking i guess and one by one they looked at us...so much so that it freaked me out and i said we gotta go *LOL* it was actually hilarious and totally odd how they all looked in our direction!!!
We quickly walked to the other side of the road and took this pic
Now this is the life...this beach was amazing!!!
But, it was time for us to head back and eat some lunch and relax before it was time to board.
We quickly made our way back to the pier. I believe we had the car for about 3.5 hours total!
When we got back we decided it was lunch time and headed for Magaritaville.
We were soon seated and took some cool pics
We ordered some appetizers and i had a banana daquiri and we had just finished eating when a rainstorm came! Luckly we were under a roof! We had to wait it out for about 20mins.
We then headed to shop and then saw that the sun was going to come out and headed down to the free beach next to the ship!
the high was about 75 but when the sun came out it was 80 or more!! So, we found some chairs and laid out and there was hardly anyone around!
Eric and his uncle walked down the beach and we laid out here for about an hour.
It was nearing 230 and we knew it was going to be all aboard time!
We gathered our things and walked onto the pier taking pics along the way
Here is from the beach...you can see how clear the water was
another pic of mammoth crissy compared to eric
as you can see the sun was very bright at this point
We boarded the ship as the horn blew! We handed back our towels and headed to change clothes.
We then ran up to the top to take pics as we pulled away at 3pm on the dot!
We said our goodbyes to grand turk and said we'd be back someday
We watched all the islands of the Turks and Caicos fade into the distance....
We then made our way around the ship and ate some ice cream. We decided to look around the ship more and then headed to the room around 5pm. We were tired and we decided to nap a little and then get ready for dinner after. We got to moving around 630pm and got ready for dinner which didnt take long.
We soon all met in the hall around 730 and wandered around the ship....
We then ate dinner and here is a pic of us with the dining room sign
Here was eric's fav dessert, key lime pie
We then decided to head back to the room. Even though we felt better I decided to wind down and eric went with his parents to have a drink at one of the bars.
I settled down and he was soon back in the room not much more than an hour later.
We discussed our game plan for Tuesday, San Juan. We laid our our clothes and got our hiking stuff ready!
We headed to bed but not before eric wanted to take a pic of what he says his view was for the first day or so since he was sick
We laughed because we felt so much better and we were so excited to see San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I quickly ordered breakfast on the card and put it on the door and we were sleeping by 1130pm!
Up next: San Juan.....OMG i'm going to fall.....and singing in the rain *L* lots of fun to come!
Wow, you guys did a lot of exploring on Turks. And it must have been so sad to see all of that damage, but great to see them putting it all back together. That's got to be such a difficult thing to deal with living on an island.
And another beautiful dessert...I mean dress.... Looking forward to hearing about your hike.
WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!!!
Love your pictures and your commentary! I can't wait for more! Your beach pictures are making me super excited for the honeymoon!!! Ive been looking forward to hearing about your Puerto Rico excursion since you started so I know I am going to love the more that will come!
PS: I know how you feel with the mammoth shots-- I know you have seen these before but...
I got an awesome pic of Rob in MGM looking like he was on the street:
His picture of me makes me look both ginourmous AND not even like I am in Disney at all-lol:
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Sorry, but you said "should be in a commercial" So I borrowed your picture for a moment to see how it would look!
Loved all the pictures, especially the ones of the cliffs and lighthouse, kinda reminds me of our Maine vacation. Sitting on the rocks near the shore up there was verrrry relaxing. I also enjoyed the pictures of your ship in the background. Of all the pictures I took, I didn't get any good ones like that!
You look nice going to dinner again, and I like Eric's "Key Lime Pie"! That's still my favorite dessert since we are going to Key West again!
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Um, Kenny, that commercial is freaking hilarious!!!
Crissy, what a great update. You did so much, yet the day seemed very laid back and relaxing. You really make me LOL when I read your updates, especially the part about moving for the animals. The story about driving on the wrong side and fearing for your life reminded me of our honeymoon in Aruba . . . . . We rented a little electric car to explore the island. It only went about 40 mph and the guy specifically says don't get on the highway. So where does Danny turn onto???? Yep, with 60 mph trucks whizzing by us. Ugh. Can't wait for more!!
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ok I was LOLing at the animal crossing lol
again, great beautiful photos! even though you look like the attack of the 50 woman haha its great
how does he do that??
Great update! How wonderful that you got to explore the whole island!
How does he do that with your pictures? Does he squat down and take it looking up at you? Too funny!
And I love me some key lime pie!
I can't wait for our trip to the Dominican Republic, we will be on a mission trip, but we will spend one day at a beach resort! Your pictures make me so excited. Wait, that didn't sound right!
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Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
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.
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More please! 
. Looking forward to hearing about your hike.
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Can't wait for more!!
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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