Celebrating 75 in the Caribbean! PTR and TR! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Had to remove some pictures due to size issues! Oops!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, that atrium is really something! I am so with you about the casino. On our P&O cruise to the Norwegian fjords, we looked in it once and that was it, and if it's got smoking in there, no way would I be going in. I've never smoked in my life and can't stand rooms where people smoke...
It is a lovely atrium in the photo - I hope it looks half as sparkly in real life, lol!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
The ship looks nice and I can definitely see Meri loving that water slide!
I think she's going to have a blast on it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy
Great start! Oh, and I share your Mom's birth date of 11/9 but I turn 65 this year. Am hoping to be as active as your Mom when I'm her age in 10 years!
I bet you will! That's so cool that you share her bday! We'll toast you on board!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start Melanie!
Thanks!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start, Melanie! The ship looks beautiful.
Thanks! I'm looking forward to exploring it, and then relaxing on it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
The ship looks really nice. As long as it doesn't get too noisy the pool loungers look great for relaxing with a book, and I imagine Meri will have a couple-hundred rides down that slide. I don't like the kids' club having paid activities, either. Not a place to tack on extra fees. I can see some tantrums for younger children from that policy. As you said, no matter what, if it's clean and the pool is good and you have no chores and no job for a few days-- it'll pass for heaven right now!
Yes, the noise factor is definitely something... I'm hoping that because it's during school, it won't be too bad as far as a billion kids running around. Hopefully it will be mostly older cruisers.
You're spot on about the tantrums. I expect frustration from Meri to that end, so I think she and I will have a talk about it prior to boarding, so I can explain to her. I think the build-a-bear thing is $25. If she wants to do it, she might have to pay half with her spending money. We'll see. But that would be her only paid activity in the kids club. It's just annoying to have to navigate that, you know? Ah well. At least I did my homework and know about it in advance, so I'll be prepared.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy Great start! Oh, and I share your Mom's birth date of 11/9 but I turn 65 this year. Am hoping to be as active as your Mom when I'm her age in 10 years!
I bet you will! That's so cool that you share her bday! We'll toast you on board!
I'm kind of laughing because I went back to re-read my TR from the cruise 2 years ago when I stopped in Cozumel and took the Isla Pasion excursion... and one of the things I noted was how LOUD the Carnival ship was, and how we could hear all of their deck music from our balcony, loud and clear... and I noted that I'd avoid Carnival like the plague.
Whoops. Short memory! I'll let you know if I regret this, lol!
I'm kind of laughing because I went back to re-read my TR from the cruise 2 years ago when I stopped in Cozumel and took the Isla Pasion excursion... and one of the things I noted was how LOUD the Carnival ship was, and how we could hear all of their deck music from our balcony, loud and clear... and I noted that I'd avoid Carnival like the plague.
Whoops. Short memory! I'll let you know if I regret this, lol!
The trip sounds fun, and the ship looks good. I think it's a great idea to sample different cruise lines and different ships - I did laugh when you shared your note from 2 years ago, but hopefully you will have a quieter experience.
I always enjoy your TRs - you, your mom, and Meri make a great travel team.
Uh, oh! Maybe that was one of the newer, bigger ships and this smaller one will be quiet. Just trying to be optimistic!
I do think that was one of the much larger ships. I am truly not too worried about it. Even if the main pool deck is boisterous, I generally can tune it out with my iPod and a book (you'd be surprised the conditions under which I can nap or read), and there's a quieter back-deck where mom can park herself if need be.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh boy! Hopefully you won't regret it...
It would have to be REAAALLLLLY bad for me to regret it, honestly. *fingers crossed* LOL! Hopefully those aren't famous last words...
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
The trip sounds fun, and the ship looks good. I think it's a great idea to sample different cruise lines and different ships - I did laugh when you shared your note from 2 years ago, but hopefully you will have a quieter experience.
I always enjoy your TRs - you, your mom, and Meri make a great travel team.
Disney is definitely our favorite cruise line, but I do enjoy other cruise lines, and it's really difficult for me to have a bad cruise experience. Last year when my friend Toni and I did the MSC cruise, it was DEFINITELY less than stellar, and I'd probably never return to that line, but even so, I still enjoyed myself much of the time. Of course, it helped that I didn't pay for it. If I had, I might have been a little more irritable about it, lol.
Thanks, we do make a great travel team. We're just used to each other, and we tend to gravitate towards the same things... and when we don't, we have no problem splitting up. Some people travel together and want to be together all of the time. That's definitely not my thing, and it's not moms, either, so we work well together on trips.
16 days til the cruise, 15 til we leave! I have the suitcases out, but haven't really done much else. I know in my head what I'm packing, but it hasn't translated to the suitcase just yet. We've had so much going on that I haven't had time, and I've had a migraine for 12 days now (today is the first day I've had some relief) and so when I've had down time, all I want to do is lay down.
So, I'll tell you all a little about mom's birthday plans. She doesn't know about this part, which is fun... I purchased a "room decorating" package, with a few banners / streamers, and a plate of cookies. I have to look, but I am pretty sure I set that to be delivered on embarkation day, so we can enjoy the decorations for the entire trip. Then I ordered a 6" birthday cake to be delivered to the cabin on the morning of her birthday. I considered doing it for dinner, but decided it might be nice to snack on it all day, lol.
When we did Meri's cake on the Dream, it was HUGE, and since we got it on the last night, we barely made a dent in it and then we had to disembark, and we weren't allowed to take it off with us. This time I've wised up. I'm bringing tupperware, lol. Shhhhh. Of course, this cake is only 6", so I'll be shocked if there's anything left to TAKE off. But if there is, by George I'll be ready to take it with me!!
We aren't getting her too many gifts - because hello, the cruise, excursions and pedicure are her gifts! But, what's a birthday without something to open, right? So I'm getting her a calendar (she knows about that, lol) and I'll probably get her a book, and then maybe something else... not sure what though. I'm not going to wrap the gifts until we get on board, because security will likely want to unwrap anything I wrap... so I'm bringing a gift bag and some tissue paper. Keeping it simple.
As I mentioned earlier, I booked mom for a pedicure at 330pm on her birthday, as well. So she'll be all set.
I've read a short review of the "redone" ship after it came out of dry dock. Sounds like all of the elevators are working now (a big issue over the summer, I read), and there's new carpet in the casino and other public areas, and there's new paint. The staterooms are all the same, and it's still the big box tv's and whatnot in there. There will be a longer dry-dock in time that will really upgrade the ship with upgraded cabins, a splash park area for the kids and a huge movie screen. I'm kind of surprised - I know this ship is older, but I sort of thought all "big" cruise line ships had movie screens at the pool and flat-screen tv's in the cabins.
Not a big deal by any stretch, but yikes it's time for this poor ship to be really upgraded, it sounds like. Regardless, as long as the service is good and the food is decent, I'll be thrilled. I'm not doing any internet packages whatsoever - I'm looking forward to completely unplugging. I'm bringing my laptop so I can load photos daily from my camera, and update my TR in my down time, but otherwise, I really want to just be off-grid. It will be so nice!
By the way, for those of you familiar with me, you know I have two jobs - an office manager in a sales office, and I also work at a BBQ restaurant. Well, in good news, I'm on my way out of the restaurant - instead, I'm shifting into doing admin work for the owner! I do payroll and scheduling and a few other things for him, and it's going really well. So I get to do that from home, and we've just hired a new shift leader - so once she's trained, I'll be completely out of the store, except when I'm needed to fill in for closers (or if I need extra cash for a trip, and want a few more hours, I can schedule myself a counter shift - ha). So that's a nice little change for me! I still have the two jobs, so my trips get funded, but now I'm just doing the second one at home in my spare time! Yay!
You have some great surprises for your mom!
Big box TV's! What? They still exist?
They sure do-- it's all I have!! A big, old, clunky set. I'm lucky it's not black and white only! I have a hard time splurging on anything but travel.
It is surprising, though, that they're not sprucing up the cabins right away. At least with the public areas getting a new paint job and carpeting everything will feel clean and nice. Love all the birthday things for Nadine. Your re-working of the restaurant job sounds perfect. It's always good to have a way to earn more by adding a shift here and there.
Did you say you've had a migraine for TWELVE days??? You poor thing-- that's a nightmare!
DD and I ate at your BBQ place yesterday. It was lunchtime, so I knew you wouldn't be around. I'm so happy that your job situation is improving. That's great news. Hope the migraine disappears soon.
You have some great surprises for your mom!
Big box TV's! What? They still exist?
LOL!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
They sure do-- it's all I have!! A big, old, clunky set. I'm lucky it's not black and white only! I have a hard time splurging on anything but travel.
It is surprising, though, that they're not sprucing up the cabins right away. At least with the public areas getting a new paint job and carpeting everything will feel clean and nice. Love all the birthday things for Nadine. Your re-working of the restaurant job sounds perfect. It's always good to have a way to earn more by adding a shift here and there.
Did you say you've had a migraine for TWELVE days??? You poor thing-- that's a nightmare!
We have big box tv's too - two of them! I'm like you, I always think about getting one, but then I think, "Or I could go on a little vacation!" LOL! The travel always wins!
And yes, twelve days! It's getting tiresome. It's not always a big booming headache, fortunately (or I'd have stabbed myself with an ice pick after 2-3 days of it) but it's always aching and it's starting to really make me grouchy. I got a 30 minute scalp massage last night with essential oils and that helped a great deal, but then today I went to the doctor about my shoulder (turns out it's separated, and I have a pinched nerve - go figure) and they had to give me a cortisone shot in the shoulder (which is very stressful, because they have to do it guided by ultrasound, so it's not a simple stick and done), and now, of course, my migraine is back!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness - how the heck are you still functioning? I so hope that's an end to it.
What wonderful presents you've got lined up for your mom - she's going to love them. Oh and congrats on the situation with the jobs as well!
I think she'll like the gifts - she wants a travel-themed calendar. Shouldn't be too difficult to find one of those, I'd say!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
DD and I ate at your BBQ place yesterday. It was lunchtime, so I knew you wouldn't be around. I'm so happy that your job situation is improving. That's great news. Hope the migraine disappears soon.
I hope it was good! If it was lunchtime, Lindsay was your server. She's great, so I'm relatively sure service was spot on (at least, it BETTER have been).
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Sounds like you've got a nice surprise in store for your mom! Hopefully the ship will be better this time and won't be able to hear the music!
About This Page: 
The ship looks beautiful. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I am so with you about the casino. On our P&O cruise to the Norwegian fjords, we looked in it once and that was it, and if it's got smoking in there, no way would I be going in. I've never smoked in my life and can't stand rooms where people smoke...
PassPorter Guide Author
Hopefully you won't regret it... 
What? They still exist? 
I so hope that's an end to it. 
Linear Mode
