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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We boarded the boat and returned to our room. My mother was already there. She had had a very nice day on the boat. She had explored some more and had sat out on the promenade deck and read her books. She was little disappointed that there was no library on board but she had brought her own reading material. My main plan this day was to get my daughter to take a nap so that she would be awake for dinner. We went up to get some more fresh fruit and ice cream from deck 9. Then we settled down to watch some Disney cartoons. My daughter fell asleep around 4pm. I then ordered the cheese and crackers plate from room service and watched Harry Potter. The cheese was wonderful, there was a big piece of a blue cheese and wheat crackers and some other cheeses. I ended up ordering this plate every other day we were on the boat.
My daughter slept very well, too well in fact It was time to get ready for the show and she was still sleeping. It was dress up night and I was hoping to get dressed before the show, but I just carried my daughter to the show and hoped she would wake up in time to see Hercules because she loves the movie. She woke up after about 5 minutes sitting in the auditorium. Hercules was great. The music and the actors were great. My daughter still talks about this show and how she wants to see it again. I hated to tell her that rumors are saying the show is going to be replaced .
After the show, we ran back to our room and changed clothes. We would be eating in Parrot Cay. The servers were good and the food was good. We didn't stay for dessert because we were too tired. Once again, they rushed our food for us and we were some of the first people to leave, but my daughter stayed awake for the entire meal We went back to our room and straight to sleep. Tomorrow was Castaway Cay and we were looking forward to it.
Day 3 Castaway Cay
We got up early, again. Once again we went up on deck 9 and waited for the food. Everything went smoothly at the beverage station today. We ate our delicious breakfast and then made it back to our room to prepare for castaway cay. We went down to deck 2 and waited in line for them to open the doors. The first family who was in line was taken out on the island first. About 5 minutes later they came back for the rest of us. We were among the first 10 people out on the island and were so glad we did it this way. We walked to the snorkel equipment rental place and grabbed our gear. We ended up not using our equipment at all, but at least we had it if we wanted. We grabbed a wagaon ta carry our gear and my daughter and found chairs in the front rownear the snorkeling area. We went in the water for just a brief period of time and spent the next hour to hour and a half playing in the sand. It was not crowded at all this early in the morning and the weather was wonderful. We made a big hole and added water to it and my daughter enjoyed sitting in the hole as I poured in the water. There were Disney Cruise photographers going up and down the beach and they took a picture of her. This was the only picture I bought from Shutters. My mother sat and read and did crosswork puzzles next to our sand playing. It was nice to have her along with us.
Around 10:50am we were hungry and went looking for some food. We found the ice cream machines and had the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was wonderful. We thought that the food started at 11:00am but it didn't start until 11:30am. There were potatoe chips out so we took a few bags and went looking at the shops. At 11:30am we were some of the first people to eat. The food was good, barbecue type food. We ate and then decided to go back to the boat. This was a good time to be on the boat. We went to the goofy pool and found that we almost had the entire pool to ourselves. We stayed for at least an hour and then headed back to the room.
We had the same plan for the afternoon as the day before. Get my daughter to take a nap to make the evening easier. We got our cheese platter and laid down. My daughter slept again and this time awoke in time to get dressed for the show and dinner. This night the show was the Golden Mickeys. It was fun too. My daughter announced she was hungry when we made it to the theatre. I ran up to deck 9 and brought her a hotdog to eat during the show. It is really very easy to go everywhere on the ship and I went and was back in about 5-10 minutes.
After the show, my mother said that she did not feel well. It was Pirate night and my mother decided to skip the meal. My daughter and I went up to Parrot Cay and the head server took our order himself. He seemed concerned about getting us our food as quickly as possible. All of the servers asked after my mother. We ate and left before any of the pirate festivities. We missed all of the party. We'll have to do the cruise again so we can experience the pirate stuff My mother was feeling better by the time we were back in the room and she was fine the next day as well.
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We woke up on the last day and began the day like the others. We went up and ate fruit from Goofy's Galley until the buffet opened. We ate the big wonderful breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet. My daughter and I had put on our bathing suits when we woke up. After breakfast we went straight over to Goofy's Pool. We were in the pool by 7:45am and had the entire pool to ourselves. Around 8:00am another family got in the pool with us. We still had plenty of room. We swam and watched the cartoons on the big screen above the pool. It was very nice and my daughter had a blast.
Around 8:45am there was a little bit of drama. A woman came to the side of the pool and began yelling something. I ignored her completely, but the other woman in the pool got out to talk to her. Evidently while we were in the pool for the past hour, all of the lounge chairs had been reserved by people putting their towels on the chairs and then leaving. The woman who was screaming at us, was accusing us of taking her stuff off of the chair and using it for ourselves. #1 both of our families were there before anyone else began saving chairs. #2 our families were actually using the pool instead of just saving chairs for later use. It ended up that the woman who was yelling had been looking on the wrong side of the pool and her things were still laying on the chairs on the correct side of the pool. I hope she was embarrassed for her behavior Either way, I am glad that we used the pool before it became so crowded. We had a good time and didn't have to worry about finding a chair. Later in the day I went up to deck 9 just to get a snack and it was a madhouse up there. They even had additional merchandise sellers set up that made it even more crowded.
I forget the exact order of events that we attended at our day at sea. We enjoyed all of the activities. I had never played a real Bingo game before and thought I would try it. I thought my daughter would enjoy it too. Unfortunately, she was bored. We didn't win anything but it was a bit of fun. It took place in one of the adult only bars, so I got to see a new part of the ship as well. I think after the bingo we went and took place in the potatoe car race. We were one of the last teams to show up and missed some of the instructions. I misunderstood completely and made the car too narrow for the tract. I think it was the only car to fall off the tract It was still a lot of fun, but I think my daughter was embarrassed for us. ,
My mother went to see "Underdog" at the theatre but my daughter and I had already seen it. Then we went to lunch at Tritons. Our wait staff were there and came over to talk to us. I actually liked the wait staff who served us better than our nighttime staff, but they are all good. The lunchtime staff just entertained my daughter more. The food was great and I ordered things off of the adult menu for my daughter. It was probably the most she had eaten at one of the sitdown meals. After lunch we went to play a trivia game. There were only 4 people there total and we were three of them I won the trivia game and we received some high school musical postcards that my daughter loved.
After the trivia, I did laundry and my mother and daughter relaxed in the room. I didn't have to wait at all for washers or dryers and it was early afternoon on an at sea day. I'm sure on the longer cruises there are more people doing laundry but I had no trouble at all. My daughter fell asleep while I was finishing the laundry, so I went up to do some souvenir shopping. I also bought the beach picture of my daughter from Shutters. There really weren't many people in line, I think they were all up on deck 9 I went back to the cabin and ordered the cheese and crackers plate again We just relaxed and explored the boat until the show.
The show was Disney Dreams and it was very good as well. My daughter loved all of the shows and still talks about them all. After the show we got dressed for dinner. We waited in the atrium for Triton's to open. All of the Christmas decorations were up and we enjoyed gazing at the beautiful Christmas tree. The food was great, as usual. Yet again, we were some of the first people to leave. We put our luggage out in the hallway and went to sleep.
Our bus for Disney was leaving too early in the morning for us to eat at the sitdown restaurant. We got up, ate at Beach Blanket Buffet as usual and then sat in the Promenade Lounge for a while untll it was time to get off the boat. We walked straight off of the boat, found our luggage immediately and within 5 minutes were through customs. We got on our bus to Disney and began the second part of our vacation.
We had a wonderful time and my daughter enjoyed the boat more than she enjoyed being at Disney. Two days ago, I made reservations for a Western Carribbean cruise for July 2009. I was hoping they would begin Alaskan cruises. As soon as they do, I'll be one of the first to sign up.
A great ending to part #1!
I suppose on a crowded ship, reserving a chair with a towel and then leaving is the only way to assure that you will have a place to relax by the pool... but this goes against my silly sense of fair play, if you are not using the pool at the moment, you should have no expectation of a "reserved" place! This behavior would irritate me to no end, I guess I'd better learn to mellow out to the idea before we cruise next year.
This is akin to the people who put their bags in a Southwest Airlines boarding line to save a place, and then go off to sit down, or go to the store or whatever... just rubs me the wrong way (especially when you are not allowed to leave bags alone!).
Sorry for the rant, but I'm glad you didn't let it ruin your cruise.
On to part #2....
Other than the chair 'reservationists' it sounds like you had a nice time!! for sharing the sea portion of your trip with us! I have enjoyed reading it
We walked through the Mickey door and walked down the hallway. They took our picture before getting on board, but it wasn't a good picture. My daughter hid behind my leg. We didn't buy this picture later . We walked onto the boat and they announced our family. We were then herded towards Parrot Cay. We went that way and then went up the elevators near there up to Beach Blanket Buffet. The line was very short and the food was great. We went to the very back of the ship and sat at an outdoor table. I especially liked the cucumber salad and tomatoes. My daughter enjoyed the macaroni and cheese ( a theme to be revisited) and my mother enjoyed the desserts, she tried a bit of each dessert.
After eating we split up. My mother went to explore the ship. My daughter and I went to put on our bathing suits. We couldn't find a good place to put on our suits, we ended up using the bathroom at Beach Blanket Buffet. The stall was very small and there was a crowd in there. When we got out, there were no chairs by the pool to put our stuff. We ended up using a chair at a table to put our bags. My daughter loved the pool but didn't want to use the slide She swam in the Mickey pool until about 1:15pm. We then dried off and went to wait for our room to open. We were at an inside stateroom on deck 7. On my previous cruise, to Alaska, I had a room with a porthole. I didn't know what to expect for an inside stateroom.
At exactly 1:30pm the rope was removed and we could go to our room. We walked in and had some surprises waiting for us. On the bed was a large bucket with beach toys and snacks for my daughter. She was very excited. The bucket even had her name on it. I had a Disney Cruise Line bag on the bed. On the table was the Chocolate covered strawberry and petit four platter. They accidently gave us alcohol when we requested sparkling cider, but one quick phone call brought us our sparkling cider. The platter was nice, but I expected more strawberries, there were two milk chocolate covered strawberries and two white chocolate covered strawberries. None of the petit fours were chocolate. Overall, I was happy with our gifts and my daughter delved into the snacks right away.
I'll have to continue later
Hi, we were also on this cruise and had a wonderful time (our first cruise). Would love to hear more about your experience. We were on deck 6 with verandah. The stateroom was quite roomy and comfortable and the split bathroom is a super idea!
Well, I posted before I read the whole thread! Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We weren't aware that the ship was rocking that last night (good thing we missed it!). I am also hoping for Disney to do an Alaskan cruise one of these years - will be right behind you in booking it! Thanks for your trip report and bringing back some fond memories.
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to hear your mom wasn't feeling well.....glad she felt better the next day. Can't wait to read more
Sorry you missed the Pirate party 
It was still a lot of fun, but I think my daughter was embarrassed for us. , 
, but they are all good. The lunchtime staff just entertained my daughter more. The food was great and I ordered things off of the adult menu for my daughter. It was probably the most she had eaten at one of the sitdown meals. After lunch we went to play a trivia game. There were only 4 people there total and we were three of them
if you are not using the pool at the moment, you should have no expectation of a "reserved" place! 
This behavior would irritate me to no end, I guess I'd better learn to mellow out to the idea before we cruise next year. 
for sharing the sea portion of your trip with us! I have enjoyed reading it
Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We weren't aware that the ship was rocking that last night (good thing we missed it!
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