Valentine's Day Celebrity Cruise PTR - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
The chocolate your sounds interesting - I was going to suggest if they have the Segway tour? My husband and I did that once in Nassau and had a lot of fun! And there is always señor frogs right at the port - great for people watching!
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
The chocolate your sounds interesting - I was going to suggest if they have the Segway tour? My husband and I did that once in Nassau and had a lot of fun! And there is always señor frogs right at the port - great for people watching!
Oh a Segway tour would be neat too! I figure we will probably stop at Senor Frogs on our way back to the ship if we want, depending on the quality/selection of our free drinks. We will have about 90 mins after our class before I'd like to be back to get back onto the ship and relax before dinner
Sounds like some good plans. I've never heard of a body composition test. Sounds interesting. Although if you have to get that tested AFTER the chocolate tour...
Agree with everyone else - those tours look just fine. Key West will be very easy on your own. There are the classic bars on Duval Streat, like Sloppy Joes. If you have time, walk over the the Harbor (not the docks where the cruise ships dock) and check out Schooners Wharf, another fun outside bar that usually has entertainment.
Oh wow, that chocolate tour sounds right up your alley - and mine! How cool that Cody was onboard for that!
I had my body composition tested on our second Disney cruise back in 2009 and thought the results were very interesting. I'd definitely be curious to see what has changed in my body since then.
Sounds like some good plans. I've never heard of a body composition test. Sounds interesting. Although if you have to get that tested AFTER the chocolate tour...
Haha right? Hopefully it will encourage me to behave up until then at least They always tell me I'm incredibly dehydrated, so I'm hoping that will be improved this time (although I've always drank a ton of water!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Agree with everyone else - those tours look just fine. Key West will be very easy on your own. There are the classic bars on Duval Streat, like Sloppy Joes. If you have time, walk over the the Harbor (not the docks where the cruise ships dock) and check out Schooners Wharf, another fun outside bar that usually has entertainment.
Thanks so much for the tip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disneybine
Oh wow, that chocolate tour sounds right up your alley - and mine! How cool that Cody was onboard for that!
I had my body composition tested on our second Disney cruise back in 2009 and thought the results were very interesting. I'd definitely be curious to see what has changed in my body since then.
It's so cute, he's actually excited for it It's now part of his Valentine's gift to me (because I got him something else too!) I think the other part might be flowers
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Great plans! Sounds like it will be a very nice time away!
It will be just the break we need from all this crazy cold!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Courtney892
Signing in! Your plans look great. I am a huge RCCL fan and someday very much want to try a Celebrity cruise. Looking forward to hearing how it goes
Thanks! I've never done RCCL but I've heard good things, and since they now own Celebrity I'm hoping all will be good!
This is really the part of the trip that threw us for a loop. Our flight out isn't until 6:50pm so we have time to kill! Cody is just fine spending the day at the airport, but I think that's a waste when we basically have another day of vacation! So after doing some research and asking my wonderful PPers we came up with a few options.
1. Rent a car and just do our own thing - this was a feasible option when we could get one for $50 for the day. Now they are up to close to $100 and that just doesn't seem good. We'd still have the cost of lunch and any activities (and potentially parking, and gas!) on top of this!
2. Pay the premium to stay on the ship through the afternoon, then head over to the airport like normal. Celebrity offers the option to stay on board for $59 a person and it includes lunch and a little bit of entertainment and access to the health club and a few other things. I'm fine with this option (because I think we will end up spending more than that wondering around town) but Cody thinks he'll be sick of the ship at this point, especially since you are confined to a few areas and it's limited to what you can do. If the forecast is miserable our last day, I might revisit this idea.
3. Stay on the ship as long as possible and just go to the airport and hang out there... nope immediately vetoed that one. This would be most cost effective, cab ride to airport and lunch at airport (maybe shopping at airport?) being the only expenses. But I don't recall this being a very big or exciting airport.
4. (this is the one that took a lot of research) Find the American desk and check in on the ship/at the Port a la Resort Airline Check In. There is potentially a $10 premium for this each, but worthwhile to not lug our crap around town. Then we pick an area of the city to explore and take a Taxi down. We grab lunch in the city and wander around if it's nice out, or maybe go to the movies or museum if it's rainy and blah. Then cab back to the airport. I'm estimating the cab rides at about $25-$30 each. This eliminates the cab ride from Port to Airport, which is about $17 apparently. So while this might be a little more pricey, it gives us a lot more freedom and we'll get to explore the city!
What would you do if you were us? We're trying to keep it cost effective but being in an airport for close to 8 hours does NOT appeal to me just one bit. Any other suggestions? Or of what part of town to go to to only need one taxi ride? We appreciate any advice
On another note - part of my Valentine's gift to Cody is now upgrading our free Classic Package to the Premium package! For $46 a person we now get beer, spirits, cocktails, and wine up to $13 a glass included with our cruise. When we realized our specialty restaurant had a signature cocktail at $12 and the wine options with dinner, while not bad, are a little limited, we thought we could easily splurge and really enjoy our cruise a bit more Also this package has anything over the price limits, you just pay the difference. The Classic Package you have to pay the full price for anything not included!
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.
Honestly? I think I'd stay on board the ship - that sounds like a neat option to me.
After writing this and seeing the numbers add up I went to take another look - and it says it's only on European cruises That seems silly, as people can have late flights ANYWHERE, but having that as an option unfortunately might be out of the picture We can still inquire once on board if we change our mind, it never hurts to ask!
We have been to Ft Lauderdale, and we went to the beach and there is a really neat place right on the main road that runs along the beach there - can't remember the name, but it is a plaza type place that houses several restaurants/bars, little shops, etc - it would be a great place to hang out, eat and have a drink while people watching......or watching the surf!
We have also rented a car (we took the shuttle from port to airport and rented car at airport) for the day and drove to the Everglades
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
We have been to Ft Lauderdale, and we went to the beach and there is a really neat place right on the main road that runs along the beach there - can't remember the name, but it is a plaza type place that houses several restaurants/bars, little shops, etc - it would be a great place to hang out, eat and have a drink while people watching......or watching the surf!
We have also rented a car (we took the shuttle from port to airport and rented car at airport) for the day and drove to the Everglades - and we had an evening flight also
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports