Our First Ever Real Vacation, Mexican Riviera Cruise June 1-8, 2008 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Hi Sue,
We were on that same cruise! I remember at the Away party someone on the starboard side with bubbles and thinking, 'that was a GREAT idea!'
After we boarded (in group 6), we changed clothes and swam in the Goofy pool for the better part of the afternoon. Not many people in the pool at all! The air was cool, but the water was nice!
Looking forward to your continuing saga!
I kind of like the effect that the night vision has in the photo with Minnie & the girls - if you hadn't said anything I just would have thought you were getting artsy with the photos!!
I like that angle! Maybe I'll turn them into Black and White or Sepia and no one will ever know!
Here are some additional things from day one that I forgot to put into the previous posts.
We had rooms 2107 & 2109, connecting Category 10 deluxe staterooms on Deck 2, aft/midship position. They turned out to be great rooms. They were really close to the aft elevators, and just a quick staircase up to Parrot Key, Lumiere's and the Atrium. They were under the promenade lounge which is not especially a late night hot spot, so they were fairly quiet too, except for the regular ship noises and the crying baby next door.
When we were unpacking the first afternoon I put up my first wave of door magnets. Some little decorative ones on the doors around the room and a bunch on the outside.
They sure made our door easy to find! Our door was one of only three or four doors decorated along our entire corridor. I don't know if that was different on other decks because I didn't explore the stateroom corridors on any other decks.
After reading some passporter threads about stolen magnets, I added our last name on each of the magnets. I don't know if that made a difference or not, but none were stolen.
I also employed the Passporter tip of bringing little suction cups hangers. These worked out very well for hanging our Passholder pouches.
Otherwise I know my kids would have lost them under beds, clothes, papers, etc. With these hooks, we didn't have to spend any time looking for them.
We had an excellent stateroom host, Benny from India. I don't think remembered to get a picture of him. Taking a suggestion from the Passporter Cruise Tips e-book, I put up bungee cords to keep the doors open. I wouldn't have needed them however because when we got back to the room that night, Benny had unhooked the bungees and put in door stops on both doors. In my estimation, the door stops worked better than the bungees and I suggest that those who get connecting staterooms either bring door stops instead of bungees or request them from your steward.
I hadn't told the kids about towel animals and they were thrilled to see them on the first night. Daphne had brought her stuffed bunny rabbit and Benny made a towel animal bunny that looked just like it and put them side by side. It was very cute! But I forgot to take a picture of it. I told you I'm bad about that sort of thing.
The towel animal in my room that night was an elephant. Again, no picture.
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.
Great start! Sounds like a wonderful vacation is underway! Can't wait to read more about it!
I've never experienced any stolen magnets from any of our cruises, hopefully that will continue this next cruise!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Sue,
We were on that same cruise! I remember at the Away party someone on the starboard side with bubbles and thinking, 'that was a GREAT idea!'
After we boarded (in group 6), we changed clothes and swam in the Goofy pool for the better part of the afternoon. Not many people in the pool at all! The air was cool, but the water was nice!
Looking forward to your continuing saga!
Too bad you weren't on the port side near us! Afterward I still had about 10 bottles left in my backpack!
I'm glad you guys had fun in the pool and it wasn't too crowded. We took the kids the next day and they had a lot of fun.
If you aren't writing your own report, feel free to chime in throughout this one. (You too Tracey!) I'm interested to hear about different angles of the same thing.
I spy HP and the Deathly Hallows on your table! Were you able to get through it on the trip and was it your first time through? (I've read it around 10 times since it came out - not including books on tape version).
Enjoying your report! It's the first I'll have read of a Mexican cruise....
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 were on the May 25th cruise and we had Ciao Romano as our head server! He was great and even when our youngest daughter put a whole thing of butter in her mouth, he caught it in a napkin right when she started spitting it out! Can you say cookie points?!? He was our best head server yet because he came to our table EVERY night unlike others, we will remember him, but can't really remember anybody else.
I'm glad to know you were able to keep your magnets. We were in 2541 (with all the pirate and Disney magnets) and daily would find them on either the 2539 door (I was told several times by other passengers that one of the children coming/going from that stateroom was seen messing with our magnets) or down the hall. I would dutifully retrieve them and move on, until Pirates Night (Thursday) when several were outright stolen sometime after the deck party. I gave up and took down the rest, which elicited comments from other cruisers as to how much they loved our door and missed the items. But I wanted to save what was left for scrapbooks.
I will be posting an extensive trip report along with the Navigators from our cruise as soon as I get them scanned and the pictures pulled from my SD cards.
We were on the May 25th cruise and we had Ciao Romano as our head server! He was our best head server yet because he came to our table EVERY night unlike others, we will remember him, but can't really remember anybody else.
I agree that he was a great head server. He came to our table every night as well and made himself visible, available, and approachable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrbelle
I'm glad to know you were able to keep your magnets. We were in 2541 (with all the pirate and Disney magnets) and daily would find them on either the 2539 door (I was told several times by other passengers that one of the children coming/going from that stateroom was seen messing with our magnets) or down the hall. I would dutifully retrieve them and move on, until Pirates Night (Thursday) when several were outright stolen sometime after the deck party. I gave up and took down the rest, which elicited comments from other cruisers as to how much they loved our door and missed the items. But I wanted to save what was left for scrapbooks.
I will be posting an extensive trip report along with the Navigators from our cruise as soon as I get them scanned and the pictures pulled from my SD cards.
That's terrible! And just one corridor away! I took a picture everyday right after I put them up just in case any were stolen and figured that if they were I would make new ones when I got home. As extra insurance I also put a tiny sticker on the back that said please return to room 2107. BTW - I can't wait to read your trip report!
Hi Sue and all you great Passporters out there!! We were on the same cruise and had the pleasure of meeting Sue and her family while onboard! I'm going to attempt to get a trip report out there, but should time get away from me, I will take you up on your offer to chime in on your report!! Thanks!!!
I'm really enjoying your report! Wow, the limosine ride must have been such a cool way to start an amazing trip! Love those pics!
And speaking of pics, I, too, kept forgetting to take photos and wish I had been more on the ball. I did manage to get oodles of photos of DD with all the characters, but that was a total set up for a photo op. And as Sue and I have realized, we never even got a photo of the two of us or of our families together...such a bummer!
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I told you I'm bad about that sort of thing.
]
I wondered if anyone would notice!
PassPorter Guide Author
Magnet thieves on board/trip report info coming
We were in 2541 (with all the pirate and Disney magnets) and daily would find them on either the 2539 door (I was told several times by other passengers that one of the children coming/going from that stateroom was seen messing with our magnets) or down the hall. I would dutifully retrieve them and move on, until Pirates Night (Thursday) when several were outright stolen sometime after the deck party. I gave up
and took down the rest, which elicited comments from other cruisers as to how much they loved our door and missed the items. 
But I wanted to save what was left for scrapbooks. 
Linear Mode
