Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I learned about the sports simulators while touring the Dream in Aug. of 2011. I think they are pretty popular.
Back to more putt putt.
A look off the back of the ship.
I Love this clock!
Foosball!
An artsy look at the Aquaduck!
I then headed back to the room to get ready for the day. Some of the family had started to stir. Dad was really enjoying the balcony as well. I think he really loved this trip. I know he did as he had friends ask if he would ever do it again and he said in a heartbeat!
I just love watching us pull into port.
There were birds all over the place, but they seemed to be attracted to one area of the ship. I am not sure if someone was eating over there or if someone had thrown food, but the birds were going crazy!
CRAZY BIRDS!!!!!
I must’ve popped into the room a minute as I have this picture next. I guess I wanted to be sure to get a picture of our room picture.
And while I was going picture crazy with us pulling into port, Geoff was as well down in their rooms.
We all got ourselves dressed and ready and were going to have breakfast at Enchanted Garden. No one had to be anywhere early. Pete, Vicki, and Jude originally had a port adventure for this morning, but after the hurricane came through, it had been canceled, so they changed their plans and booked the same one we were all going on, which wasn’t till this afternoon.
I’m sure in the midst of getting dressed and ready, we probably ventured down the hall to the others rooms to see if all was ready. Eventually we all did make it down to Enchanted Garden.
I took a couple of quick shots of the buffet as I walked by. This was my first time eating here for a meal other than dinner. I think other family members ate here a couple more times throughout the trip.
We got a table off to the side in an area all to ourselves. I guess they know we can be kind of loud.
This next picture cracks me up. Dad is putting his napkin on his head ….always the life of the party! And there isn’t even a grandchild near him to show it off to. Abby has such a cute little look on her face, Alexis is about to fall asleep, and Claire is grabbing the spoon, which for some reason she is mesmerized by.
Jude looks scared at my picture taking …and see, Claire has that spoon.
I am not sure if she is looking at herself or what? LOL
I am using flickr now, because photobucket changed and it's horrid! But I have been using flickr for most of the last several updates. Could you see all those pictures? Maybe something was going on for a bit yesterday?
No I haven't been able to see them for 2 or 3 posts - porbalby since you switched over. I usually check while I'm at work and it could be the firewall is blocking them. I had a problem when some people used Snapfish as well. I can see the photopass photos just fine. I'll have to see if I can get some setting on my PC corrected as I do enjoy looking at your photographs, otherwise I'll just had to read along.
No I haven't been able to see them for 2 or 3 posts - porbalby since you switched over. I usually check while I'm at work and it could be the firewall is blocking them. I had a problem when some people used Snapfish as well. I can see the photopass photos just fine. I'll have to see if I can get some setting on my PC corrected as I do enjoy looking at your photographs, otherwise I'll just had to read along.
Oh gosh. It's funny because on many of my devices I can no longer see the new photobucket pictures. I really do NOT like the new setup at all there and so many people are having issues and photobucket is not listening at all.
I am finding flickr pretty easy to use now and I don't know if I'll go back to photobucket now, even if they change it back to the old way. Flickr is cheaper too!
I do have some pictures that I edited a while ago on photobucket still though, so those I'll be posting as well, as long as I can still do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Getting caught up again! It's too easy to fall behind here. The breakfast photos are funny. There's so much going on with a group that size!
We did amazingly well for as big of a group that we had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great photos from breakfast! You captured a picture of my family's beloved Krispy Kremes.
I love the donuts! Thats my favorite breakfast food. So healthy too. NOT!
After we all got settled in at our table and made some drink orders, we headed up to get some plates of food.
A light fixture on the wall.
We had a nice breakfast and discussed the day’s plans. After breakfast, I was going to take Alexis and Claire to play the Detective Agency game. And then drop them off at the kids clubs for a while. I think Gail’s plan to was to take Abby there as well for a bit.
We headed to go get our card set up and ran into the Princess meet and greet and it was a bit crazy.
The girls got their instructions and learned how to play the game (though Claire has played this before).
While they were learning how to play, I peeked into the Podcast groups head quarters to see if anyone famous was in there. ……Ok, I really was looking for Richard Sherman, who was on our cruise, but I never did see him.
On to the fun!
The girls took turns at each picture to make it fair.
While playing, I spotted this Mickey and had some fun with him.
I can’t remember if we finished off the mission or not, but I know the plan was to take them to the kids club by a certain time, so I did. I am thinking we got close to done, and maybe someone else finished the mission with them at a later time.
Time to get washed up.
I said good bye and went off on my way.
After leaving the girls, I headed up to the top of the ship and relaxed and took in the view.
The lighthouse is one of those things that I tend to take a lot of pictures of.
I saw Gail and Rob come up …alone. It seemed so weird to see the 2 of them without a child. They were married for several years before Alexis arrived and it was the norm to see just the 2 of them back then. Now it seemed strange. I let them walk around together and have their romantic moment. (if that’s what it was ! LOL).
Originally I had planned to go to Atlantis to the aquarium on this day. But I changed my mind and decided that it could wait for another time. If Skip ever does sail with us, I would like to do it with him. Years ago (actually about 10), we sailed NCL and this was one of the things we did while in Nassau. He really enjoyed it and we have talked of doing it again in the future.
I decided to go scope out the area where we would be meeting for the excursion later on. I believe we were meeting in the District Lounge. I think I might’ve stopped and gotten an ice-cream cone on my way down too. It was time for a morning snack!
I toured the District a bit more and looked in on what I think is the prettiest of the places, Pink.
I headed back up top. I do believe I found Gail and Rob then and we chatted a bit.
Helloooooooo up there!
Another lighthouse shot.
At some point in time, I think Rob left us. I don’t remember why or where he went, but after a bit Gail and I decided to go pick up the girls and get them some lunch before we headed off to meet for our port Adventure.
We arrived at the kids club and asked for our girls and Rob showed up with them. He said he was able to sign out his 2, but they wouldn’t let him sign out Claire. I had never thought about giving Rob permission. I had Mom and Gail listed, but not Rob. Abby had a princess dress on and the cast member told her she had to go take it off and he went to help her and she pushed him. Ok, it’s not funny at all, but it was hysterical. She was NOT about to leave if she couldn’t take the dress with her. Rob wasn’t too happy and tried and she pushed him away too. She got a lecture and with some effort, the dress was taken off. In the meantime I had lifted my camera to take a picture, as it was so cute and funny and I got a lecture as well ….from one of the cast members. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of kids in the clubs. I was standing outside and our kids were still inside, even though right at the gate. I said it was my child and nieces and was still told no, it wasn’t allowed. Now I had done so earlier without a blink of an eye by any cast member and I had taken pictures inside the actual club on my last Dream cruise, so I don’t know if the rules have changed, or some CM’s are stricter with policies over others, but needless to say, I didn’t get a shot of Abby pouting. And the CM did get a big giant eye roll!
We got the girls a light lunch and really they weren’t too hungry, but we made them each take at least a bite of a few things. And cookies do count as part of lunch!
I got adventurous and tried sushi.
Let’s just say …yuck, gross, and never again! It was just nasty. I don’t know if you are supposed to eat the black thing around the edge, but I did, and blahhhhh! The rice was no better either. Dry and sticky and not tasty at all. Maybe this is not the best spot to try it, but it will be a long time before I decide to give it a try again.
This is the overhang at Cabanas. I thought it was cute.
A shot of the dessert choices.
When we finished up, we headed down towards the District Lounge and Claire and I made a pit stop in the fancy round bathrooms.
The family was all waiting and we went and checked in.
The girl in blue was some person who did arrangements for the excursions, or something like that. Today she was going to be joining us on ours.
We got a few instructions and then were led off the ship. Our excursion today was to the Ardastra Gardens and City Tour.
We had to walk down several flights of stairs to exit the ship and we all joked with Dad about it. He had been anti stairs this whole trip and of course we had to get a couple of digs about whether he was going to make it or not.
Once we exited the ship, we had to wait a few minutes before we proceeded on.
You know me ….I started taking pictures.
On my last trip to Nassau, I had lost my memory card sometime during the trip and the pictures on that card were mostly from this day. So I needed to make up for lost time now.
You could clearly see the damage that Sandy had done the week before. Many of the plants were brown and had a burned out look.
Taking care of the garbage problem. Amazing how much is dumped off after less than 24 hours of ship time.
As we were standing there, a girl walks by and says “Hello Jennifer” all excitedly. I looked and had absolutely no clue who she was and I looked puzzled and asked who she was. “It’s me, Rasheeta, one of your servers”! I said hello and really thought it was nice she recognized me, but I instantly felt bad too, as Gail and I had just recently been discussing her poor service. Like I said, she was REALLY nice, but just not a good server. I did notice if I asked for something, it got done, but if Gail asked, it seemed to get ignored. LOL
We were on the move now. Walking towards the area to find our busdrivers.
It was so sad to see the plant life so burned out.
Some of the family was a little slower.
We were directed to the buses. They had a couple of them waiting for us.
I think the whole family is doing a great job of group travel! I know if I were traveling with that many family or friends it would be tough to get everyone sitting down to breakfast or walking to a bus together.
I think the whole family is doing a great job of group travel! I know if I were traveling with that many family or friends it would be tough to get everyone sitting down to breakfast or walking to a bus together.
We did do a pretty good job. And if we didn't make it all together, we were pretty easy going on that too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Sorry you didn't like the sushi and, just to reassure you, you are supposed to eat the black bit round the outside.
Yes, I am glad I did try, but I now know Sushi is not my thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Too funny about the sushi! I haven't tried much sushi, but I do like the California rolls. That black stuff around the edge is seaweed!
I've been told that by a friend on another board. I guess I leave the seweed for body wraps and not to eat. LOL
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