Happy 10 Years - The Anniversary of Our DREAM- updated 04/06/2014 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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How cute to be announced as you board the ship! Great pictures from the Kid Club, makes you want to be a kid all over again!! You guys are going to have an amazing time!!
Great pictures from the kids' clubs! I don't think I've ever seen a picture of the bathrooms before, and they are so cute!
I felt a little strange taking a picture of a bathroom, but those mirrors were just too cute to not do it! I did make sure that there were no other kids in there before snapping away
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Originally Posted by melduckie
Great update! Sounds like everyone is going to have a blast!!!
It certainly was a lot of fun!
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Originally Posted by DMA
How exciting to board and start exploring! The kid's club looks awesome!
Disney really thought of everything when making these kids clubs!
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Originally Posted by chezp
The kids' club does look amazing and you are spot on about the greeting when you board - I always find it very cool, but also quite overwhelming.
I love the photos you got with Donald.
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Smooth and busy start to your morning! Can't wait to see the stateroom
I'll be back soon with another update so you can see our room
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Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
Those bathrooms are adorable. It sounds like you are off to a great start already. I really wish I was a kid again every time I see pics of those clubs.
I loved everything about those bathrooms. The mix of colors, the cute Mickey shaped mirrors. They were just adorable.
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Glad the whole check-in process was so easy and fast. There's nothing like walking through those Mickey Ears onto the beautiful ship. The kids' clubs really look amazing.
It's hard to explain the feeling you get walking through the Mickey Ears, it's pure excitement!
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Originally Posted by stardust190
Glad the trip to port went well and boarding was nice and easy. I love all the pictures of the kids clubs. They looks so fun!
The girls had a lot of fun in the Kids club, they loved it!
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
I can almost feel your excitement when boarding the Dream. I'm looking forward to experiencing that some day.
The kids clubs look amazing! I bet the girls are going to have plenty of fun there.
I'm glad you can see how excited we were! I hope that you can get to do a cruise someday, it was one of the best times we've ever had
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Yahoo! You're onboard! Glad the kitchen is taking care of Miss Kaeli! How do they handle allergies in kids club? No food at all, right?
I knew that we would be taken care of with our allergies, it is Disney after all, but they exceeded my expectations! In the kids club, they do serve meals to kids who are in there at lunch or dinner so there is food in there at times. When you register them, you can select an option for them to not be served food or just avoid the kids clubs at meal times. They are very allergy aware, so even though we did not allow Kaeli to eat meals in there I did feel very comfortable with her being there. You'll see in a future update that they have cooking classes for the kids, which I totally thought Kaeli would have to avoid, but she was able to participate! They made cookies and cupcakes, and the chefs from the kitchen come up to help them with it. We spoke to one of the chefs beforehand and I was shocked when she told me that everything they use for that is nut free, since baked goods usually aren't. I can't even tell you how excited Kaeli was when she heard that!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
It's great to hear the kids buffet will always be safe, that's so smart on their part!
I knew that we would be taken care of with our allergies, it is Disney after all, but they exceeded my expectations! In the kids club, they do serve meals to kids who are in there at lunch or dinner so there is food in there at times. When you register them, you can select an option for them to not be served food or just avoid the kids clubs at meal times. They are very allergy aware, so even though we did not allow Kaeli to eat meals in there I did feel very comfortable with her being there. You'll see in a future update that they have cooking classes for the kids, which I totally thought Kaeli would have to avoid, but she was able to participate! They made cookies and cupcakes, and the chefs from the kitchen come up to help them with it. We spoke to one of the chefs beforehand and I was shocked when she told me that everything they use for that is nut free, since baked goods usually aren't. I can't even tell you how excited Kaeli was when she heard that!
That is great!!!! I always worry about the kids with allergies in there (and mine doesn't even have them ), and I figured Disney would fully take care of it and I am just happy to hear that it is taken just as seriously on a cruise!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Great start! I'm still finishing up your WDW report, but will be able to keep up with this one! Interested to get your comments how the kids liked the cruise after spending 9 days at WDW.
Great start! I'm still finishing up your WDW report, but will be able to keep up with this one! Interested to get your comments how the kids liked the cruise after spending 9 days at WDW.
Thanks, Sharon! Spoiler alert ... they LOVED the cruise
Sorry for being MIA, guys!! I thought life was supposed to calm down a bit after the Holidays, but things seemed to just pick up more around here instead. I've got another update ready to go, and hopefully I'll be able to get them out a little more quickly from now on. Forgive me if the cruise portion feels a bit jumbled, I'm writing my updates based on my photos and memories because I failed to take any notes while on the Dream
So, when we left off we were heading to our stateroom, number 9154, which was a Deluxe Family Oceanview room. It was easy enough to find , just two decks below Cabanas and right near the elevators. I was a little worried about hearing noise from people using the elevators and stairs nearby, but it never was a problem the entire trip. One of our bags had made it to our room already, but the other had not. I was a little nervous that it might have been lost, but our Stateroom Host let us know that it was common for bags to not arrive at the same time and not to worry, it should be arriving shortly. So, we explored our room for a bit and I unpacked the one bag that we did have.
I loved these pillows and the lamps on the sides of the beds!
Abby enjoying a little snack in the porthole
That little bench seat turned out to be a huge hit with the girls, they loved sitting in there any chance they got.
Our view while still in port
Our door magnets
We had some time before we had to be at the muster drill, so we changed into our bathing suits and cover ups and head off to explore the pool deck. At first it didn’t seem to be too crowded up there, but the pools themselves were pretty full. The girls wanted to do some swimming, but that didn’t last long with all of the kids just going crazy jumping and splashing all over the place. It was a little nerve wracking, there were lots of kids jumping in and I was just waiting for one of them to jump on top of another kid not paying attention in the water. Needless to say, we didn’t really use the pools much after that. : The line for the Mickey hand slide was pretty short though, so the girls spent a good amount of time just riding that while Chris and I watched.
I’m pretty sure we stopped for an ice cream treat at the soft serve window and then it was time to head down to the Muster drill. Our meeting location was outside, on Deck 4, near the District area. It was pretty hot out there, but I felt even worse for the CMs who were there and had to wear those huge life vests to demonstrate them for us, they must have been dying in them. There was, of course, one guy who was just complaining the whole time that he was hot and this was just a waste of his time, he just kept blabbering on and on. I just rolled my eyes at him and tried to ignore him, I mean we were all hot and really not wanting to be there, but this is something that’s done to keep us safe in an emergency so let’s just deal with it and give the CMs a little respect.
After the drill, we just took some time exploring the ship, walking through the District first. It was a ghost town in there!
After some exploring we made our way up towards deck 12 to get ready to sail away!
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), and I figured Disney would fully take care of it and I am just happy to hear that it is taken just as seriously on a cruise!!!
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
Holly: 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
, just two decks below Cabanas and right near the elevators. I was a little worried about hearing noise from people using the elevators and stairs nearby, but it never was a problem the entire trip. 
Needless to say, we didn’t really use the pools much after that. 
: The line for the Mickey hand slide was pretty short though, so the girls spent a good amount of time just riding that while Chris and I watched. 
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