We were inspired by Samantha Brown's Carnival cruise so away we go! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Aw man! I saw your FB post and wanted to come welcome you home before you got onto PP! Oh well! lol! Welcome back anyways! Can't wait to hear more! Sorry I couldn't get you an ADR for an earlier time!
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hahaha LOL wellll I did a lot of errands and cleaning today but tomorrow I will get this started And i cant wait to get it started cause i'm dying to relive it again
Okay, so I thought I had some free time and would get started since this part there are no pictures. At least that I can remember, I will double to check tomorrow to make sure though.
Thursday night March 25th:
Eric's parents arrived around 630pm. They were supposed to be here earlier than that but I think they were stuck in traffic in Asheville, Nc for a while. Nonetheless, they arrived around 630pm. Eric got home at 430pm and at 5pm we decided to head to Target to get some last minute items. We picked up a few things we realized we were missing which wasn't much but needed.
After, his parents got here we went straight to this Japanese resturant that has been a traditional place to eat before each cruise. We did the hibachi grill and it was a lot of food. After the meal was over, we decided that it was too much food to eat the night before a trip. There was so many leftovers and we couldn't take home anything I hate wasting food like that!
We were done eating around 8pm. We went straight home and finalized some packing. We placed all the insurace tags on the luggage along with the luggage tags for the cruise.
We were in bed by 10pm with a 5am wake up call.
Friday, March 26th
I immediately got up at 5am when my alarm went off and I was the first one to get up. I was also the first in bed at 10pm. I have no issues getting up early since I do that with my job. Once I got out of the shower and dressed I realized his parents were still not awake. They were supposed to get up at the same time???!!!
It was 520 and I asked Eric if we were supposed to wake them. He said we werent. Around 540am, Eric was getting out of the shower and I told him that there was no movement or lights upstairs and he needed to wake them up if we were leaving at 630.
He went upstairs and woke them up and supposedly his mother had told him the night before to get them up at 5am. I never heard that, Eric never heard that....sooooo thus we were late getting a start this morning.
Eric and I were ready by 615 ish with the car packed. But, they didn't get ready until 645. Finally, at 7am we were moving out and getting coffee at McDonald's and getting on the interstate.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day...seriously not a cloud in the sky! They have a temperature gage on their SUV and the further south we got the warmer it became. It was 60 when we left home in SC.
Around the outskirts of Columbia on the lower side, we stopped at a rest area to use the restroom.
We then stopped around 930 for breakfast right before Charleston,SC.
We stopped at a Mcdonalds and it was a madhouse!!! Its always like that I guess
We were making great time, stopping every hour or so at a rest area.
We soon made our way over the GA line and then into FL. At the FL rest area we stopped for a break.
We picked up brochures to help us find a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale since we did not yet have a hotel.
It was beautiful. It was nearing 80's and it was around 1pm.
Around 2pm we stopped just around Jacksonville for lunch. We ate at a Taco Bell there and were soon back on the road.
The trip was a breeze and maybe it was because I wasn't driving but I listened to Disney podcasts and watched a Disney show on my IPOD. Then, we mostly talked about what we wanted to do on the cruise. It felt like time flew by and before I knew it we were in Ft. Lauderdale.
It was around 645pm when we got there. We decided to get a hotel right past the port which happens to be where the airport is. We had seen some ads for hotels. We stopped at a few and it was hopeless. We were not getting a room for under 150 per person. That was a bit much so after a few hotels and getting more hungry, tired and frustrated we had seen an ad for Cambria suites. It was just two exits from the port and was brand new. We went over there and the rooms were 150 a night. They were all suites so the room was separated by a partition and slept four. We decided to take it since it was new and we were tired.
That hotel was SUPER DUPER nice! It was a wolfgang Puck hotel. It had a wonderful bar and food area and coffee bar.
The rooms were new and they rocked. They had the key like Psha used in Europe where the key turns the lights on in the room.
It was very contemporary and I'm not sure if we took pics or not because we were getting very tired.
We finally headed out for dinner at 745pm. We decided to eat at this seafood resturant attached to the Bass pro shop. I was skeptical but the place was packed. It was a huge resturant with an aquarium in the middle.
It was actually really great food and atomosphere.
I had grilled shrimp with a baked potato. We all really thought dinner was great.
We then walked around the store for a few minutes and then headed back to the room around 930pm.
We went to the bar for drinks and the bartender was AMAZING! She overpoured their drinks and had a great conversation with us!
I really enjoyed winding down that way and getting ready for our vacation.
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Mel getting the coveted LC ADR for Crissy!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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I hate wasting food like that! 
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